#mailout

[mouser26]

Y'all!

60 dozen cookies breaded and bagged.

Since I have a few new recipients that I don't know personally decided to make a note to slap in the boxes and on the containers when I take them to work.

Ze cookie baking has commenced!

Yes that is the rare sight of my flour container completely empty, fully washed out and the 25lb bag I refilled it with.

And as always I feel that Cecil Gershwin Palmer would endorse my use of the night Vale community radio mug

[twistedsketchproductions]

Guess who's FINALLY in sh0p? Shes got glitter accents, the moon and stars glow and shes a gorgeous 2.5 inches. I'm finishing packing 0rders/mailouts today ♡ l1nk below ♡

https://twistedsketch.etsy.com/listing/1751716045

[buttercupfestival]

Tired: Buttercup Festival 3-291

Aug 26th 2024 The swamps are getting their first spritzes of autumn, the crane flies are flopping around, and one of the Patreon postcard slots has become available if you're interested on getting in on the August mailout. Not only do you get a handwritten color postcard in the mail each month, you also get access to dozens of bonus material posts, including the recent summer pen & ink sketchbook.

Also, in what has got to be some kind of "late to the party" world record, I have created a Facebook page for Buttercup Festival which you can follow to get the comic in your FB feed, algorithm willing. And there's something for Threads, too. Instagram remains the only social media app where I regularly post non-BF photos and so on, usually in the stories.

[fayrobertsuk]

On Online Accessibility

I painstakingly wrote this (or similar) out for a long, slightly ranty thread on BlueSky (which I had to restart several times as the app kept wiping it), so here it is in slightly expanded format with the points in the right order:

The Rant

I am literally BEGGING organisations, ESPECIALLY ones that are apparently supporting disabled people, to stop sending badly formatted, image-only mailouts.

This advice post is brought to you by a recent terrible email to a list of disabled people that was an Inaccessibility 101. (To their credit, they did respond fairly quickly with "Oh no! It was not supposed to do that!" and sent out a plain text one shortly afterwards. They didn't get all of the things below wrong, but this is a general "Here's how you can start to do better" list based on my - and others' - experience, including of personally getting it wrong.)

The List

If you feel that your formatting dream can only be fulfilled by a single large image, at least provide the means to access a plain text version of the relevant information. You've already had to type it, you can just copy-and-paste it elsewhere (alt-text or linked transcript, preferably both).

If you must use coloured text, please check that the contrast between it and the background is sufficient for people to access. You want to be able to ensure that they can read your message. There are plenty of sites that will check your Web Accessibility Standards, including this one, top of the Google search: https://accessibleweb.com/color-contrast-checker/

Unless accessibility standards have changed recently (and I'm happy to learn if they have), please avoid serifed fonts. Plain doesn't have to mean unpretty. Verdana and Tahoma are your friends, for example.

Plain backgrounds. But if you absolutely insist on having your text in front of an image, create a clear barrier between the words and the background (plain, thick outline or a box around the text like old-school subtitles). You want to minimise distractions.

Talking of which: paragraph formatting. Justified paragraphs will create distracting "rivers of white" that will make text processing difficult for e.g. folk with dyslexia or certain flavours of ADHD. Likewise, don't cram your lines too close together and distinguish clearly between paragraphs.

Don't make use of tiny images if people can't click through and see them in more clarity. And please try to describe your images, especially if they have relevant information in them. People who cannot process them will lose out, and you'll lose that connection. There are professionals who will describe for you (I'm one of them), or increasingly sophisticated apps.

Standard text emoji will be read aloud by screenreaders, so you don't need to supply descriptions for them, but do try to avoid long strings of them. Similarly, don't use a string of asterisks to divide sections. Imagine a robot voice saying asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk each time. No. Use a line divider or even just a single *.

Please don't highlight text using underlining (too distracting), especially for text mid-paragraph. Use bold instead. Similarly, use italics sparingly, and certainly not for full paragraphs of text. If you want to highlight using colour, see point 2. above re: checking contrast.

If your hashtags are several strung-together words, make the beginning of each new word a capital letter e.g. #BetterAccessibilityNow to help both the screenreaders and folk who find it difficult to parse text generally distinguish between the words.

Some more thoughts:

"Why should I bother with all this? Surely it's only a handful of people who can't access stuff like this!"

a) Ugh. Bad attitude, friend.

b) But let's talk numbers of people not getting your message. Recent worldwide estimates: 49.1 million blind people. 224.1 million with moderate and 33.6 million people with severe visual impairment. 300 million people with colourblindness. 780 million (10% of the population) people are believed to be dyslexic.

It just makes business sense to not miss out on reaching so many folk. Let alone learning how to exercise empathy and thereby how to communicate with people who literally don't see the world as you do. And I know there's a spoons cost to making stuff more accessible - trust me, I know! But more and more platforms make it incredibly easy to add alt-text to your images, but there are always ways around it if they don't, and practising makes things easier.

And, while we're at it: subtitle your videos and provide transcripts for longer ones. Again: if you've already written a script, what's stopping you pasting it into another place for people to access as a bare minimum? And there are loads of reasonably priced transcription services out there (or do what I do and edit the auto-transcription)!

Anything to add (or correct me on)? Let me know!

[mariacallous]

hi i'm sorry to ask you this, i know it's not really your job but i was hoping maybe you or your followers had some ideas. i want to get involved with local activism at the grassroots level. however i am autistic and, crucially, i look like it. people can tell there's something visibly "off" about me before i even speak. and when i say "off" i mean, i'm not just weird-looking or different, but that even though i am not intellectually disabled, i do kind of look like i am. i am also just not good at wording myself or explaining myself, especially around issues important to me. this is not just something that happens with magas or conservatives; even a lot of liberals/leftists who agree with me on 90% of issues often don't take me seriously or brush me aside when i try to make suggestions, and i worry about turning people off of causes important to me because i explain myself so badly or because i'm just an [r-slur] and can't know what i'm talking about. i am doing what i can to build better communication skills so i can talk to people about things better by watching and studying how people around me speak to each other, watching and studying how politicians speak to normal people on youtube/the news, taking public speaking classes at my local community college, and practicing talking to people in low-risk situations like small talk. but realistically i think building these kind of skills will probably take months or even years. i was wondering if there's any kind of role in outreach or grassroots-level activism for someone who is REALLY bad at communicating, to the point they can turn off people who already mostly agree with them? i feel isolated from a lot of other openly autistic people in my area because they're the kind of "bernie should have won and now since he didn't i'm not going to do anything" doomers i find annoying so i'd prefer suggestions that aren't autism-specific/ideas for ways to build communities with people who aren't necessarily autistic. who do i talk to and how do i go about finding them? are there any websites i can check for volunteer groups/opportunities? i do already donate to the aclu and planned parenthood each once a month so id prefer some non-donation ideas that would get me involved with real people near me. i'm not an introvert, i actually love talking to people, but i'm just not good at it. anyway i'm sorry this is so long. thank you for running a great blog.

I think, if you've got the skills for it, that a lot of the logistics and organizing of organizing and activism is always needing people. A lot of people don't want to do the quiet and sometimes "backroom" work involved, but it is so crucial and always appreciated. And you can interact with a lot of people, surprisingly. Things like handling data entry and creating reports, working to make lists of needed items and handling purchasing trips, creating maps and setting up teams for outreach. Sorting and prepping materials for mailout and handout. A lot of times these lead to bigger roles, and people appreciate it a lot. And it involves a lot of constant, sometimes low-level, communication and engagement but also helps establish connection and comfort.

I hope this was helpful, and I hope my mutuals and followers definitely add on to this, because I feel like it may not be that good of a response.

I will say that I definitely appreciate how much you want to be involved and active - we're going to need that a lot in the coming months and years.

[momolady]

Patreon annual memberships are now on sale! For all of January sign up to get access to my Patreon for a whole year! Be the first to read all stories, see news, wips, and updates plus polls, bimonthly mailouts, and so much more! This is gonna be the best year to join, I can promise you that!

Sign up here!

[charlott2n]

https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-black-trans-queer-youth-led-public-health

The Health Stellium (@HealthStellium on Instagram) is a Black, LGBTQ+, Gen Z, and late millennial led public health action group prioritizing the health of communities routinely excluded from health settings. They are currently doing a mask mailout for Black folks (must have at least ONE monoracial Black parent) nationwide.

.

[thebiscuiteternal]

Mama and I are finally gonna do our sweets-making this weekend. Since we're getting started so late, I have no idea whether or not we'll be making enough to give away after Christmas. If we do, there are a few of you I've already talked to, so you'll be first on the list, and if there are any still left after I've packed those boxes, I'll make an offering post for everyone like I used to do for Halloween mailouts. I feel that's the best way to be fair about this.

[captainhoers]

I realise this is my third thank post in the genre of "quick doodle of the gote being overworked and exhausted" which is maybe a symptom of a systemic issue anyway

January thank post is a little late because it slipped through the cracks while I was in the US for a couple of weeks after HarmonyCon doing the Vol 3 mailouts to the US! I will also say that the last couple of months have been a lot, with the Vol 3 printing and shipping, an animation project for Vanhoover Pony Expo, two panels for HarmonyCon, the bonus mini comic for patrons to make up for the missed postcards in 2023 - oh yeah and I've been doing a comic in between all this!

I think I need to just. Slow all this down a little bit? For March I'm going to be dialing back on these "extracurriculars" and re-establish my baseline. I'm also going to be giving myself room to like... completely mess up if it turns out I just really need the recharging time. If I put out like 12 pages of Stardust in March? Great! If I just end up putting 200 hours into Helldivers 2? That's also fine! The point is to have a few weeks of "normality" - no trips, no projects, no crunching. Y'know, that healthy work-life balance thing.

Anyway I'm going back to bed

[hongtonie]

i can’t find the post but for those of you who saw my post about some artinys recreating photocards and selling stickers for the pcrf a while back, they were able to donate almost $600 from the sales!!! op said the first round of mailouts will start this week and all preorders should be mailed out by the end of the month!

[zarinamuhammad]

was just checking elephant to see if the new column was up yet (it's not! tbc!) but found this wooooooo!!! throwback to that mailout ICA DAILY rom back in the pandemic, can't believe i got islam TV screenshots into that hahahaha

[dashofmonsters]

Going to give this another try

I have a Patreon but admittedly I've been very lazy with it due to ~Life~

But starting this month I'm going to post new stories on there while finishing up updates here on Tumblr.

Currently the two new stories that are going up will be Neon Palace and Bonds of Blood & Delight. These won't get posted on Tumblr till they reach at least part 3.

Stories that are currently circulating here on Tumblr will get updated here first though.

I'll also be getting back to a few old stories after some minor or heavy editing and those edits will be posted to Patreon first then Tumblr once they're complete.

Once I have a slightly better financial situation I might consider doing a quarterly mailout and opening up a shop though that's after I get a few things straightened out and have more art to offer of my monster boys.

If anyone has any suggestions of what you would like included in mailouts please let me know so I can discuss it with my partner.

I greatly appreciate every follow, every like and every reblog. Y'all are the best and I hope to keep writing for y'all for years to come~

[jgroffdaily]

Did he show any kind of support for Kamala Harris

That wasn’t the purpose of the event. At the last election he was involved in supporting Pennsylvania Democrats at a few events and at least one mailout or email campaign.

[momolady]

Something really cute, I didn’t realize my partner had signed up to my Patreon. So while I was prepping mailouts I saw his address pop up. Got to hand deliver him the rewards today lol.