#maintaining engagement

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i vote that next year instead of reading Dracula we do a Jeeves & Wooster Book Club. those two never got the rabid tumblr shipping fandom they deserved (disqualified for the sheer technicality of being published a century too soon). we must correct this injustice

[lazylittledragon]

I saw on your IG you had some nasty comments about this but as a curvy girl, THANK YOU for the way you draw Karlach and Shadowheart's bodies!! They're both so soft looking :')

YOU'RE SO WELCOME LET THEM BE SQUISHY

[rustchild]

one of the wild things about people’s stubborn insistence on misunderstanding The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is that the narrator anticipates an audience that won’t engage with the text, just in the opposite direction. Throughout the story are little asides asking what the reader is willing to believe in. Can you believe in a utopia? What if I told you this? What about this? Can you believe in the festivals? The towers by the sea? Can we believe that they have no king? Can we believe that they are joyful? Does your utopia have technology, luxury, sex, temples, drugs? The story is consulting you as it’s being told, framed as a dialogue. It literally asks you directly: do you only believe joy is possible with suffering? And, implicitly, why?

the question isn’t just “what would you personally do about the kid.” It isn’t just an intricate trolley problem. It’s an interrogation of the limits of imagination. How do we make suffering compulsory? Why? What futures (or pasts) are we capable of imagining? How do we rationalize suffering as necessary? And so on. In all of the conversations I’ve seen or had about this story, no one has mentioned the fact that it’s actively breaking the fourth wall. The narrator is building a world in front of your eyes and challenging you to participate. “I would free the kid” and then what? What does the Omelas you’ve constructed look like, and why? And what does that say about the worlds you’re building in real life?

[johnconstantinesdick]

So close to writing one of those “betting on wrightworth” fics where the twist is that Klapollo are krisnix truthers

Just like. Apollo references Phoenix’s bad taste in men at some bar association event only for everyone around him to immediately get on his case for insulting Edgeworth.

Athena’s like “don’t be rude Apollo, Mr. Edgeworth could hear!!”

Apollo: why does it matter if Edgeworth hears. I’m sure he knows all about Mr. Wright’s horrible romantic decisions :\

Kay steps in and is like woah buddy Mr. Edgeworth may be a stick in the mud but Mr. Wright couldn’t do better than him!!

Apollo is like. Yeah. Because Edgeworth is a catch?? I don’t know what you’re trying to say.

Klavier butts in and asks if Kay seriously thinks Wright would date their boss?? Like huh??

Klavier and Apollo are now being treated to the most incredulous looks known to man.

Apollo (now convinced that people are trying to fuck w him): Mr. Wright would never make a good romantic choice in his life. Don’t try to pull one over on me. I was there for the divorce.

Kay: they got DIVORCED????

Sebastian: they got MARRIED??????

Klavier’s like [fake German voice] nein Herr Forehead I know for a fact it wasn’t a divorce. Because I had to dispose of the unused engagement ring.

Apollo is like finally some gossip that makes fucking sense while everyone else is like you think PHOENIX WRIGHT was fucking your BROTHER???

[statementlou]

https://www.tumblr.com/louisupdates/754934426217152513/goodbye-faith-in-the-future-world-tour-272024?source=share

did he or did he not lose fans then?

I will answer this because this anon actually brings a concrete question to the table rather than just "hurhur but you're a larrie??" (tell me you can't actually refute any of our points…). Anyway this post shows the decrease in Louis instagram followers between the screenshots taken directly after the release of Faith in the Future in Nov '22, when he changed his bio to promote that album and the tour tickets, and now, when he changed it again to mention the current release. But I'm putting that response under a cut because I'm tired of the actual POINT of all this nonsense getting lost in a sea of made up things people insist are important:

There is no rational argument you can make to say that Louis has less fans now than he did 2, 4, or 6 years ago. You don't need a spreadsheet of details you need to USE YOUR EYES! He has gone from filling theaters to filling arenas and stadiums. His second album made a higher chart position than his first album. His festival has doubled in size EVERY year of its existence. And for that matter: his insta post engagement numbers remain about the same (despite the fact that older posts should have way MORE likes due to having been there longer, even aside from follower counts.) SO WHO FUCKING CARES ABOUT HIS INSTA FOLLOWER NUMBER???? Serious question: what does the word "fans" mean if these things aren't what matters? ALL of this quibbling about what he should do to make things better and people can't even see that THINGS AREN'T BAD.

Anyway to address the specific question- (con't......)

NO- HE DID NOT LOSE FANS. HE LOST SOME INSTA FOLLOWERS. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. As I said above, literally what does it mean to lose fans if that number change coincides with him having higher sales, more audience members, and higher engagement than ever before? Whatever he lost ISN'T FANS. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant factor was something like a bot purge, but also yes: I'm sure a lot of casuals followed him around the time of his big album release and later unfollowed him. That's extremely normal because that's how casual engagement works, and why the definition of fan really matters. Louis and his team understand this and have referenced it repeatedly, talking about how lucky he is to have *us* specifically, to have the kind of dedicated fanbase he has, to have the KIND of fans he does who will allow him to do what HE wants. @dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram named the issue of depth vs breadth with regard to fans a long time ago, and pointed out why having DEPTH is so much more important. It's like this- artists who are on top 40 radio have more numbers on things like insta follows, and for a time on sales and tickets. But those aren't FANS- they're people with a casual interest. And as soon as that person isn't being forced in their ears 10x a day, those people lose interest and stop supporting them, stop buying stuff and unfollow, and those artists end up doing the 'opener on the jingle ball' circuit rather than their own tours. One Direction as a whole, and Louis maybe most of all or near to at this point, have something MUCH MORE VALUABLE than that- DEPTH FANS. Louis has fans who will support him even if he takes years to release music, or stops parading around with a pretend girlfriend to stay in the headlines at least once a month, or completely changes his image and genre, and that is UNHEARD OF. It's ASTONISHING and worth SO MUCH MORE. And they get that! THAT is why he always bragging about us, why industry people he works with are always so agog about us, why he will do anything for US- not for randos. He is also growing his breadth- and it's OBVIOUSLY WORKING whatever his follower counts are, but that is always going to be secondary to doing things for THE FANDOM because that is his sustainable business model. That is what keeps him onstage and reaching number one. And not coincidentally, the things they do are also working to grow that- much more valuable- commodity. So the fact that that's exactly what these chuckleheads complain about- that he does things that are just fandom facing or serving rather than everything being aimed at recruiting casual fans- does nothing but betray how completely they, unlike Louis and his team, misunderstand the actual drivers of his (actual, existing, happening) success. Luckily for Louis, he and his team rely on their own data harvesting (they do a LOT of it) and growth metrics (they're off the charts) rather than the smug assumptions of random (mostly quite new to this) fans and the few bitter people leading the complaining about everything Louis does.

[xbomboi]

hello Ever After High tumblr community, i humbly request your attention briefly.

so basically, i have a lot of Ever After High ideas clogging my head, ranging from misc. concepts, to plans for entire storylines/arcs. (this includes world building regarding both what we’ve already seen and what we haven’t yet seen, character arcs and development, fairytales and fairytale characters we have yet to actually meet onscreen, etc.)

i doubt anyone cares that much, but i have this vision for how the rest of the Ever After High story (in the tv continuity) would go. i have tentative plans to write this continuation using the 4 episode per story arc format that eah later switched to, while staying in line with the tone and writing style of the specials/webisodes so that it feels like it could naturally work as an official, canon continuation of the series, all while still telling a compelling narrative.

currently i have a rough outline for the first four-episode story arc that i’ve come up with (though i still have a few things i wanna workshop with it) written out. (side note: i typically write the finished draft of stuff in screenplay format, so the rough outline is written with eventually being transferred into that format in mind.)

i just wanted to post this to see if there’s any actual, palpable interest in this at all. and because my friends think i’m insane for keeping my work to myself & the select few people i’ve chosen to show it to as opposed to publicly sharing it because they at least think it’s good enough to be shown off.

so, yeah, just putting this out there incase there are people who wanna know more. i’d be willing to share the aforementioned rough outline i’ve written.

tldr; i want to write—and finish—the story of Ever After High.

[meimyr-dawn]

Haven’t really been engaging with that much Genshin stuff because I’m so bummed about natlan…..

Like it all sucks, but speaking about something I have personal connection to:

I want to like Mualani (the white-hair, shark girl)….her name is from on a real Hawaiian chieftess, it’s also very close to my IRL name (Meilani)….also I freaking love sharks.

I want to be excited at cultural representation. But as an (admittedly white passing) mixed-Hawaiian myself—I’m just sad—not even at my palest in the midst of winter am I that pale. It feels like a betrayal to reference different cultures but not earnestly portray the people within.

Anyway, no hate to anyone who does like her, but please keep an open heart for your POC genshin friends or content creators who are sad and angry.

[youngpettyqueen]

Janeway gently tilting B'Elanna's chin up to look her in the eye, and quietly going "now I know something's wrong" because B'Elanna didnt react to being taken off her project... excuse me I need to be in my feelings

[theborzoiarebackintown]

We started agility class today!! She seemed to have a good time and was a very good baby dog for me in a new and weird setting.

[wellnoe]

criticisms of cape comics fall back on ideas of 'bad characterization' so often, either implicitly or explicitly delineating eras of 'legitimate' characterization from eras of 'illegitimate' characterization. and while i think that can have merit in some extremely specific cases i think a lot of the time its not a very specific or even like. personally helpful critique.

which is not me saying that like. you can't dislike characterization. you absolutely can and i do sometimes but i am starting to think that the more valuable critiques are about what is accomplished by shifts in characterization, what these changes can communicate or what themes or messages they serve, rather than if the characterization can be traced back to some comic. bc if a character has been around for a couple of decades and is at all prominent it probably can! even if its a comic you (read: i) would rather not address when talking about the character's continuity.

[seventeenlovesthree]

Sometimes, it feels like the perfect timing, right? Happy PRIDE. 🧡💜

[fisheito]

hiya l'il-- medium?...large?? Assorted Sizes-Guy

oh thanks! i could always use more spices-

. what am i supposed to do with this.

[writing-for-life]

I was spam-liked by a certain someone last night and freaked out a bit (he reblogged some of my art-posts before and totally destroyed my notes with it, but metas feel so much more personal because they’re my thoughts that I sometimes truly agonise over, and it often feels a bit vulnerable).

I tried to tell myself it was just the infamous “Gaiman-slip-of-the-finger”, but since it happened thrice, I just had to go to bed because my heart couldn’t take it anymore 🤣

This morning, I woke up to over 400 new notes on those metas, and even while I’m writing this, they come in thick and fast. That hardly ever happens to me because metas mostly based on the comics usually only get engagement over time and never that extreme in the space of a few hours (my blog, while not tiny, is fairly small in the grand scheme of things and doesn’t get the engagement that shipper blogs get, for obvious reasons). I’ve got a lot of new followers since last night (I’m so glad you’re here, I’ll say hello to you separately). I even got a notification that one of my metas has been queued for a Blaze by someone??? Thank you whoever you are, and that you’re willing to spend money on my ramblings (people do that? I’m amazed). Are people checking NG’s likes? Is there some secret NG algorithm? Who knows…

All of that’s to say: I’m a bit overwhelmed because it makes me a tad self-conscious. And considering the often unhinged other posts you get from me, I just feel like: 😬😳

But there’s also the part of me that feels fairly strongly about those metas, since all three of them talk about hope and graceful endings in Sandman-canon in a roundabout way. And that is so important to me, you can’t even imagine how important, because the subtlety, subtext, nuance and yes, hope in this beautiful work so often get lost and dismissed.

So while these likes definitely don’t mean he shares my views, they still make me so happy. And a bit overwhelmed: If you’re waiting for answers to comments and reblogs, give me some time because my notes are a mess and I need to find the red thread again…

[nbmudkip]

rehyperfixating on a children’s game that came out in 2015, is one of the least popular entries in its series, and has minimal content, the vast majority of which i’ve seen before. the series has been dead for nearly 10 years, nothing has happened recently that would warrant anyone’s returning interest in it, very few of my friends give a shit about this specific game, and those few who played and liked it in the past have no reason to give a shit about it at all right now. i have been coasting through on a playthrough i’ve been doing with a friend who’d never seen the game before and who was kind enough to let me show it to them, but we just beat the game, and after we play the epilogue we will have nothing left to do, and on top of that they really have just been humoring me as they have their own very strong current hyperfixation they would much rather be thinking about. also i am depressed enough right now that literally nothing else except for waiting to play this game with them and playing this game with them and watching them enjoy it at least a little has been able to briefly quiet the constant cacophony in my head screaming how much of a worthless, lazy, constantly-failing miserable excuse for a living person i am and how much better everything would be, especially for myself, if i stopped existing lately. would anyone like to volunteer to 🔨💥⚒️Kill Me With Hammers🔨💥⚒️ because i would really like for someone to 🔨💥⚒️Kill Me With Hammers🔨💥⚒️ right now

[deepseasmetro]

just now realizing i lost a mutual over that stupid ass m****d*** post like lmfao come on be so real right now...

[yridenergyridenergy]