#might end up reblogging this to my art account b/c there's art of me in it but that's a strong might b/c oh boy

[spoonsandsporks]

HI <3 polite invitation to talk about your godtier and land thoughts for your characters if you want to!! i am sitting and listening intently :3 <3

Oh my god asfdgdgifgdb you don't know what you've done,,,,,

Long post incoming!!

So quick plug of an old blog that established a lot of my HS godtier opinions early on dahniwitchoflight so you can see a lot of where my context originates (esp. the godtier aspect masterpost) but with that out the way here we go

In terms of godtier opinions, I don't believe in gendered classes. I think that, socially, there may be a bias certain genders may have to certain classes (Muse and Lord, for example). But I don't believe that's an absolute. For one, there are more genders than the binary and people don't always identify as one forever. Secondly, I think to say that, for example, Lord is always aggressive and therefore only men can be Lords is uhhhhhhh,,, very stereotypical and simply doesn't encapsulate the range of human expression. Besides, isn't it more fun for the classes to be non-gendered using gendered human words? Who's to say the game mechanics of SBURB/sgrub are in english? There's gotta be some kind of translation errors or approximations going on in lore lmao

Related to this is that a godtier is meant to be a culmination of a character arc, the end reward of the 'ideal self' a character can be. This is not referring to 'ultimate' selves (i sincerely don't want to touch that concept at all) or even 'morally correct' selves - merely the best kind of self a character would want to be. The best you that you wanna be! Whether that means embracing your flaws or overcoming them, the godtier is the symbol of your growth as a person. Hence why to 'go godtier' you have to fuse your dreamself and awake self together, finally bringing together the two separate experiences you've lived as a player before this; your 'normal' life and your SBURB life. This also follows why death is a consistent theme and in fact needed for godtier ascension. You are killing or accepting the death of your former self in order to ascend into your new self, via combining everything you've learned into everything you'll be. It's supposed to be a positive, if traumatic, experience. Like changing and growing in life already is! Just faster lol

On a brief design point, I do think godtier outfits should also therefore change to fit the wearer and what they're comfortable with. I don't necessarily think that it should be like, witch skirt for girls but trousers for boys, I think that if a godtier outfit is your ideal self it should automatically change into whatever you'd be comfortable wearing. So if someone is a Witch, but doesn't mind wearing a skirt, then they'd ascend into the default Witch outfit. If they then wanted to change it they could through a thought. But if a Witch ascends and they hate skirts or maybe just cannot imagine wearing one then maybe it changes into shorts or something lol. I've actually done some alternate designs of godtiers along this line as it happens which you'll see in this post.

I also like the Aspect counterparts, that each one has an opposite, and while in canon that doesn't have much of an effect on the godtier design beyond the kids, I actually like the accessories and shoes on godtiers taking on the colours of their opposite Aspect. I like that it symbolises that even their opposite has an affect on the Aspect in question.

Now, this is all some lovely prose but what am I going on about? So, like all great and real scientists, I'll use myself as an example first.

...

Me - Sylph of Heart

So I've gone through many, many iterations of godtier introspection (started in Hope, have moved to Heart, Sylph has stayed pretty consistent but I still have doubts) and, of course, being a real life person this is the one that's evolved and changed the most as I have evolved and changed throughout my teens and adult life. But for the sake of analysis, I'll give my 'sona' or 'self-insert' the godtier to separate myself from the analysis and come at this more honestly.

Heart as an Aspect is all about Emotion and the Soul. As the opposite counterpart to the Aspect Mind (which is concerned with the brain, reason and, y'know, the mind lol), Heart players are more impulsive and driven by personal goals. It's all about the Inner Self, the Individual, what makes You Unique as opposed to everyone else in the world. It's Passion, it's Empathy, it's Understanding - about people, mostly. It's about Knowing Yourself and what you like or dislike. Your Heart, in a lot of ways, is the emotional centre and Heart players follow it to a T - and often to the detriment of everything else. It's not inaccurate to say Heart players come across as self-obsessed b/c they are concerned with discovering themselves and their own identity. None of these things come without drawbacks of course and none of this means Heart players don't care about others. They simply assume everyone else is just as obsessed with Finding themselves as they are. I mean, at their best, Heart players are compassionate, imaginative and a steady presence in life. But, uh, at their worst they can come across as dismissive, rigid or nosy lol Personally, as someone very driven by emotion and with a tendancy for introspection, to the point of contantly overthinking my feelings and second guessing my impulses, I feel comfortable in the Heart Aspect.

So Sylphs are talkers. Chatterboxes you could say. They're also one of two 'healer' classes and the active counterpart to Maid. Which yeah I'm aware I have a tendency to ramble. Sylphs are known to love talking about their interests to an audience, whether the audience is interested or not lmao. For a Sylph of Heart, that's mostly concentrated into the subject of Love and Relationships. Sylphs are also nosy little meddlers and so one interpretation of Heart could be a cupid-like matchmaker of sorts. I don't personally see that for myself but it's a valid interpretation.

Personally, I see myself as a person obsessed with Connection and the Relationships that make these connections stable. Friendship, romantic, QPR, you name it, I'm interested in the dynamics. In fiction and in fandom, this makes me a prolific shipper yes haha but most of all I love character interactions. I love filler episodes! And beach episodes! And regency romance! And slice of life isekai anime! B/c all those things prioritise character interaction and personal character arcs over plot or action or whatever haha. I love gentle drama and harmless gossip, I love watching two people get to know each other and be forever changed for having met one another and! I!! Love!!! My!!!! Friends!!!!!!!

Also the sylph outfit is cool af actually. In this image I've actually redesigned it to be a little more gender neutral hence the billowing trousers but I love the no sleeves and the curled shoes and the ribbon-y capelet thing lol. And the bangles!!

I have some ideas for godtier powers but they're not fleshed out yet, but for Sylph of Heart I imagine they'd have to power to 'heal the soul/heart' so to speak. To keep emotions steady in the heat of battle and to help heal mental or emotional wounds. They sound like a support class, like a buffer or healer.

Oh god this got long, I have some ideas for lands but I'll be honest it's almost entirely based on this post from dahni years ago (literally 10 years ago oh gods how long have I been here) b/c i really vibe with it so I have nothing new to really add lol. Maybe there'd be like pink lakes or maybe i'd have a coastal type planet with rough seas that symbolise riding the waves of emotion or something lmao

Hope you enjoyed this brief foray! I'll probably reblog this with a breakdown of the godtiers I've assigned to 4 of my dnd characters I did for fun so you can see my opinions on the Space, Time, Mind and Heart (again) aspects as well as the Maid, Page, Mage and Knight classes too. But for now I need to cook dinner lol

[drowningindango]

Asking you again (bc ily and or blog🙈💋👁👅👁), why/when do you start like madatobi (and the others ships you draw)? Do you initially had a "why ppl ship that shit?" phase (I had, but I changed👀)?

Oh, I can answer that one much quicker, actually! (still working on your other question)

I don't know how to properly describe it, but I'm very... mellow? Easy to excite? Jack of all trades, ship wise? I'm a huge multi shipper at heart, I see characters and I'm like "ooooooh, new toys! Let me find out all the different ways and combos to make you kiss!"

I know it's not like that for everyone, some other people have their OTPs and settle on certain headcanons for themselves. Some might only have a few, highly beloved ships. And some might hoard an infinite number of ships that keeps growing and deep down terrifies themself. :3 We all have our own ways to play with media.

In my case, as I said, I get easily excited. There are ships I don't even actively ship myself, but when I see nice art/fic of it I go "that's nice" and give it a like/reblog/comment anyway because I enjoyed it anyway. (or, sometimes, I passively ship the ships of friends, without shipping them myself, but I like to see them have fun!)

I went on a tangent here, anyway, back to MadaTobi.

I'm a bit fuzzy on how I came to like MadaTobi, actually. 😂 I definitely thought their interactions in canon were steaming with tension, so there's that, and I very quickly latched on to that sweet sweet hate-love relationship potential. :P (Definitely had no question why people would ship it, it's high quality enemy to lovers material 😏) There was probably the influence of some fanart and fanfic too? Who knows maybe I even stumbled into it while looking for madaobi art. xD All I know I quickly ended up binge reading a huge part of the fics that ao3 has to offer last year.

I think it would be a bit too lengthy to explain how I came to like ALL of my others ships, it's mostly me thinking one of these things:

"I like both character A & B, they're my favs... They should kiss."

"The aesthetic, background or personality of character A fits really well together with the one of B. It would be fun to explore that and see how A and B would interact!" (<- ObiMito started with me literally thinking "hey they're both spiral themed, let me figure out how to make them work")

"A lot of people ship A x B and C x D..... But what if I ship A with C... and B with D instead? 😳" (<- yes, seriously this is how hashiizu happened)

"These characters hate each other. They could never work in canon... Let's find reasons for them to love each other!" (it's a fun puzzle! A challenge for my little writer brain 😌❤️)

"Here are two sarcastic assholes... They are soulmates now."

So yeah, that summarizes a lot of my shipping motivation here.

I think it further illustrates very well how I came to like MadaTobi :'D

(at the end, I also want to add that a lot of my love for MadaObi (the one without the T :P) comes from the art made by the tumblr account akatsukiarts (truly iconic, I miss their art so much). One of my favourite takes on their characters.)

[floraone]

So, September is coming up, and with it smutember, and we’re doing it again! (At least I hope you’re with me, lol).

Just like last year, it runs alongside to the official daily word prompts on the official smutember blog: Smutember is an event that runs all throughout September for all fandoms. The following is meant as an addition, not a replacement. If you want to do daily prompts, please use the official words prompts (linked above). However, since daily prompts can be a bit intimidating (especially for a fandom corner that’s 25+ years old like ours and people in it have busy lives), as the resident smut advocate in our fandom, I again customized an alternative that can still incorporate the official themes.

Just like last year, down below you have a list of TROPE AND THEME PROMPTS. They’re a remix of sorts of last year’s tropes, with some you’ve seen before and some new ones, meant to spark a variety of ideas. The idea is that with these you can post once (or twice) per week instead of daily.

Be it for fanart or fanfic or any other sort of fanwork, tropes can be combined, (and they can be combined with the daily themes too), whatever floats your boat. Also, specifically: This event isn’t Usamamo-centric only. I will reblog any Sailor Moon content of any pairing as long as it follows the rules! (See below)

The aim of this event is to create sex-positive content together that celebrates a healthy depiction of consentual sexuality. Erotic fanfiction is a beautiful art, especially in a fandom of ours so largely cultivated by women and for women, as well as a strong inclusive focus on queer and gender-queer content and their creators!

What’s new: I’m taking a page out of the mini-bang’s impressive book, and when smutember is over, I will compile all entries that followed the rules into an online-only e-zine! This also means that art that may be too explicit for tumblr can still be included in the e-zine!

Here are the weekly trope challenges:

Reinvent a trope!

WEEK 1 (September 1st - 7th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Reunion Sex 🍋 Sex Fails 🍋 Second Chance Sex 🍋 You Talk In Your Sleep 🍋 Unresolved Sexual Tension 🍋 New Old Flame 🍋 Go Seduce My Archnemesis 🍋 Bedsharing 🍋 Sex with the Ex/Break-Up Sex 🍋 In Public 

WEEK 2 (September 8th - 14th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Make-Up Sex 🍋 Battle Couple 🍋 Mission Sex 🍋 Work-Out Sex 🍋 Accidental Pervert 🍋 Bathing/Shower 🍋 Pool/Onsen 🍋 Sexual Fantasies 🍋 Blind Date 🍋 Aroused By Your____ (pick a feature) 

WEEK 3 (September 15th - 21st): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Established Relationship 🍋 “Thank God We’re Alive” 🍋 Caught In The Act 🍋 First Times 🍋 Introduction By Hook-Up 🍋 Pining 🍋 Locked In Together In A Small Space/ Trapped Together 🍋 Huddling For Warmth 🍋 Socially Distanced Sex 🍋 Stupid Sexy Friend 🍋 Caught In The Rain 🍋 Living Food Platter/Eating Off You 🍋 Shunga

WEEK 4 (September 22nd - 30th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Mutual Masturbation 🍋 Awkward/Clumsy Sex 🍋 Oh Crap There’s Fanfic Of Us 🍋 Talking In Bed 🍋 Fidelity Test 🍋 Fake-NOT-Dating 🍋 Mindlink 🍋 Sex Games 🍋 Tinder 🍋 Blackout/Quarantine/Disaster Warning/Weathering The Storm

RULES

1. Rating: These fics don’t necessarily need to be M or, in the case of Ao3, E- rated. Obviously, they are very, very welcome to be explicit for this event, but you can also go T-rated and stay in lime or ‘blacked out’-territory if you’re uncomfortable with writing explicit scenes! Both is perfectly and absolutely welcome! This of course also goes for fanart - your fanart may depict sexy scenes, but does NOT have to be explicit! (It can, though! Be aware that for tumblr’s guidelines, when sharing your art first, you may have to clip your images as a sort of preview. The original can then be sent to me privately to include into the e-zine!) 2. Minimum Age of Characters: Since this is a community event, if you do go explicit M rated material: age them up where necessary! So that everyone can be comfortable writing and reading these, let them be 18 at the minimum if they’re going to openly and explicitly wohoo. (16-17 is the global average age of consent worldwide, and also the average age for first sex among girls in many western countries. However, since most fanfic readers are located in the US, where the age of consent is 18, we’re going with 18 so that everyone can be comfortable reading!) If you go for canon fics at a time they are below this age, where you do not want to age up (say you’re going for an episode fix!) please stay in T territory for this event. 3. Off limits: Depictions of sexual acts that contain harmful, violent and non-consenting behaviour with non-consenting individuals (or those that aren’t able to consent, for instance because of their age, or state of mind among else!). If it doesn’t fly by law or the ICD in real life, please refrain from depicting it in the context of this event. This means that dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged for the event, so that people can be safely consuming the content without being triggered. All content will be screened in this regard, and I may contact you regarding trigger warnings. This is not at all to censor content, or that this content is in any form less valid (as long as it is properly tagged and not including characters that aren’t of age), but simply to ensure a safe environment for everyone reading. 4. Tag your triggers. Except the aforementioned limitation of harmful content, nothing is off limits. Explore your kinks! But if you write something that might be offensive to your readers, please tag it. This is ALSO a good way for your readers to find exactly what they ARE looking for! On Ao3 this can be done directly on the fic tags, for FF fics and fic links you can do it here on Tumblr via the fic post tags or in ANs. This is in consideration of your readers. 5. You can obviously post art for this event too. All previous rules apply here, as well. Unfortunately, Tumblr is now against tasteful nudity. That doesn’t mean you can’t link to a deviant art or similar account though, should you want to. And, since this year will include an e-zine at the end of it, all art will still be included fully in it. Here too, please tag your triggers. If you still want to post art on Tumblr, choose a T rated image - clip them where needed, or keep them (semi-)clothed, show us a heated kiss, etc! (Obviously we would love ALL the art and the nude body is a beautiful, wonderful thing, but obviously Tumblr doesn’t agree with us anymore!) 6. Have fun! Celebrate sexuality in an open, sex-positive way with us, try to be unapologetic about your likes while you write this, and appreciate the beauty that comes in the form of content with a largely female-gazing creator-base and audience! Smut in fanfiction has been beautifully put as the subjectification of sexuality (as opposed to  objectification). So let’s celebrate this art form together! 7. Reviews: No one is forced to review. It can be uncomfortable to review a fic that contains sexual acts for any number of always valid reasons. Keep in mind, however, that much like a Burlesque dancer on stage, putting out sexual content can also be very intimidating to an author, and nothing is more discouraging than silence when baring yourself to an audience like this. That being said: Both Ao3 and FF have the option to review in anon mode. That means you have the option to remain anonymous while cheering the author on all the same. Just like the Burlesque dancer, your resident smut authors prefer to go on stage to loud cheering - it makes it all less awkward for them, and feels a little more like a big celebration!

If you’re unsure what sex positivity entails and want to read up, I wrote a post about it here.

This event is not supposed to cause harm. This means that I will screen all content before I reblog it here, and include it in the e-zine. So that everyone of age can feel safe reading the fanworks in the event, dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged and included in the e-zine, and accurate tagging and content warning will be watched. This does NOT MEAN that you cannot post this material: your own desire to write it and someone else’s desire to explicitly read this material are valid. I do not entitle myself to censor. It just means it will not be reblogged and shared through the event so that everyone may feel safe to read to the best of my ability. (But, of course, remember that I, too, might be biased, and not discover subtle forms of it, either. We’re all, in the end, a product of our upbringing and society, and I cannot be completely unbiased.)

During the event, I will be posting all Sailor Moon Smutember contributions in this format on my blog if you @ me to the post.

The official hashtag for the event is #smutember2020 hosted by the official smutember blog. Using it helps people find the content who search for it as well as those who wish to block it!

[itsmeizumine]

COMMS ARE OPEN!

[ID: a 6 panels presentation explaining how OP’s commissions are going to pan out. First panel has scripts divided in two columns. The first column says “Hello, fellows! It’s me, Izumine, and right now I’m taking digital art commissions! I really need to buy new PC and I would be extremely glad if you spread word of this commissions for me. Thank you so much!”. The second column says that payment is to happen via Nubank Pix system and OP’s other social medias’ handle; “itsmeizumine” on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. From the second panel onward, OP’s gonna showcase the types of commission they are willing to take.]

[ID: Second panel is titled “Silly Doodles”. There are three drawings on the panel, all of them very simple and cartoonish. The first drawing is of a kid reenacting “Will Smith Showing Off His Wife” meme, with a speech bubble that says “Bitch, I love and appreciate you” stylized to add comedic effect. The second is of someone grimacing, with “OUCH...” written behind them. The third drawing is of a surprised person, with a speech bubble that says “*GASP* what- NO WAY!!”. There’s a script at the bottom right that says “Silly doodles are fun to draw and use, specially as stickers! They are the quickest to make, and cost 5 USD*.”. The asteristiks are going to be addressed on the 6th panel.]

[ID: Third panel is titled “My Style” and has a column of script right under it that says “I don’t face much trouble with either headshots or full body, but I don’t dig rendering a lot, so my price table is this: a) SKETCH: 10 USD. b) FLAT COLORS: 15 USD**. c) RENDERED: 20 USD**.”. By the side of this column, there are three versions of the portrait of a boy, showing the different finalizations the price table announced going from the simplest (option a) to the most difficult (option c), left-right. At the bottom left of the panel, there’s a script in parentheses that says “This is good to make portraits of loved ones!”.]

[ID: Forth panel is titled “Mimicking”. Under the title, a column of script says “I can imitate your favorite show’ style on a drawing of your OC! I’m particularly good at: BNHA, SvtFoE, The Loud House and Adventure Time. But I can give a shot to any other ones!”. There are four drawings of original characters to the left of the column, each into the styles of the shows OP mentioned. A serious girl using Yuuei’s uniform and sneakers; a boy dressed as a prince from other dimension dancing with a girl in a poncho blouse and pleated skirt, both seemingly in love with each other; a kid wearing a vest, a long-sleeved blouse, pants and boots, expectantly looking to the forth wall; and a fire monk in their casual garb, content; respectfully. In the midst of the drawings there’s a box that says the price is 15 USD**.]

[ID: Fifth panel is titled “Landscapes”. There are two big drawings. The one at the left shows a empty main avenue prepared to start a community fair. The day is sunny and there are little flags and lace tinsels hanging from building to building as there are flower garlands and wreaths decorating the shopfronts. The floor is made up from packed dirt and cobblestone and there has a kiss booth and a roasted chicken stand at the edge of the street. The drawing on the right is the WIP of a staffroom from a mechanic workshop. There are two different levels at the same room. In the lowest there’s a small kitchenette with lights hanging from a support beam made out of steel and a sofa with a remote control atop of it. In the highest, the ground has the same metal texture of a bus’ floor; there’s a ladder, four tires piled together with plants around them and a shelving unit attached to the entryway. There’s a box that says the price for the art pieces is 25 USD**.]

[ID: Sixth panel is titled "Yes, can do/ No, can't do". The text that follows right after is divided in two columns, each column under one segment of the title. The column under the first segment lists Lettering, NSFW art (though, OP says it's debatable) and Mecha/Armor as things they can also do. The column under the last segment lists Gore (OP clarifying that they can work with blood, but nothing more explicit than that), Hate Material and Animals (and by extension, Furries) as things they can't do. Under these columns there's a box that explains the asterisks. It says "Single asterisk: In case USD is not your currency, we'll follow the procedure of converting the values using it as reference. Double asterisks: This is a minimum price. Might be upped depending on the complexity of your commission, but don't worry! We'll discuss it before settling on anything. And! We'll only start negotiations if you read and agree with my Terms of Service, so that's that as well.". This is all there is to the last panel, and with that the presentation ends.]

(TERMS OF SERVICE BELOW, READ IT ATTENTIVELY)

if DM me about any commission you're interested to do i'll assume you've read everything and are 100% okay with it, so don't even try if you're aren't. this is not up to debate.

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there's stuff worthy of taking notice before asking a commission from me:

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i need my commissioner to be somewhat available for communication. i'm gonna share my process with you and i need your feedback during it to go on. any sort of adjustment gotta happen there, as i'm not returning to the finished piece to retouch it on any way or form nor do i allow anyone to make any changes to my artwork.

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i'm not delivering the finished piece until you fully pay me. no debate on that. and i reserve the right to cancel and refund any commissions at any time for any reason.

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unless you oppose to it during the process, there's a chance that i might use the commissioned artwork on my social medias as a way to promote me and my services. if that bothers you or makes you uncomfortable, you gotta tell me.

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you retain all rights over the intellectual property of the commissioned piece and i assure you i won't make any claims over it, but the artwork is mine nonetheless. it's for personal use ONLY until stated otherwise, and you CANNOT profit from it or use it commercially unless we discuss it beforehand.

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i won't make you NSFW art if you're under age, for obvious reasons. any minors asking for commissions of any other kind need have permission from their legal guardian, unless they have their own bank account.

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if you want to eventually print the artwork, please state this before we get started on the commission. my default set-up is made for small files that are going to pixelate once you size them up to make, say, a poster. it's going to reflect badly on the end result of my work and i can make it right from the start if only you warn me first.

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and i won't lower the price of any commissions below where they are now. the prices are as accessible as they can be. i'll work hard on each and every piece ever commissioned and and i need money like any other person too, respect me and my work.

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i’d like thank anyone commissioning, reblogging or sharing the link of this post with possible future commissioners right now. hopefully i’ll be able to buy a new computer and make even better art to share with you guys soon!!

[thedreadvampy]

Ok please if you don’t mind saying - who is Stuart semple and what did he do? I’m so confused. Like I recognise the name and I think he might the an artist or something but I have no idea

He is indeed an artist! He’s a English multidisciplinary fine artist best known for his ongoing beef with English sculptor Anish Kapoor over the 2016 exclusive licensing on the process to make Vantablack colour coating, which meant Kapoor was the only artist allowed to use it. Then Stuart Semple made Pinkest Pink pigment and said it was available to everyone but Anish Kapoor, and there was a big blowup which there’s a lot of documentation of - it was very memed.

Since then, Semple has made a bunch more pigments, most of them with the available-to-everyone-but-Anish-Kapoor disclaimer, and the beef periodically flares up, although I will say as time goes on it seems to me to have got increasingly one-sided given that Kapoor has pretty much wandered off.

(I’ve used several of his colours, btw. Pinkest Pink is pretty good. Blackest Black, his attempt to make the blackest possible paint (as opposed to Vantablack which is a nanofibre coating) I was pretty disappointed in, I’ve honestly had better light capture from mid-range art shop paints. His other pigments vary in quality - some I really liked, some I was meh on, but I think Blackest Black is the only one I was actively unimpressed by)

Anyway. Where I come in is much less exciting. 

A few months ago I reblogged a post on Tumblr asking about Semple from a discourse tag (my reblog did not tag or @ anyone), and I made a glib comment where I said (very truthfully) that while I thought he was pretty decent at pigments, both his paintings and his online persona came across pretty adolescent to me.

so it turns out Stuart Semple is an inveterate name searcher (hi Stuart if you’re reading this!) 

(Side note: I actually should have guessed this from 2019 Twitter when he saw and commented on an untagged thread I wrote about him and Kapoor’s beef (which was because I’d seen an article in which Kapoor, a British-Asian man, said that the racist Prevent strategy was liable to drive young British-Asian men into the arms of terrorist groups by making it clear their country hates them reblogged on Semple’s account with a caption claiming Anish Kapoor was pro-terrorism, which, while tongue-in-cheek, isn’t a neutral statement for a white person to make about an Asian person and was a pretty phenomenally bad-faith reading of Kapoor’s actual words) and in my thread I pretty much said that when the story had broken, I, like everybody else, had found it very funny and been firmly on side with Semple’s bit, but I felt that a) after a couple of years it really wasn’t very relevant any more and it had started to feel less like Fighting The Power and more like bullying the amount of Semple’s web presence was devoted to talking about Anish Kapoor; b) that it was a shame that Anish Kapoor was increasingly only known as The Vantablack Guy given that I really like a lot of his work and c) that continuing to frame a Jewish person of colour as the Face of the Artistic Elite was a bit weird given how overwhelmingly white the high-end art world is. but I digress. Semple responded to that thread, I don’t really remember what he said, it wasn’t an acrimonious response but it was a bit Oh I Didn’t Do Anything To Tag You?)

so anyway he found my reblog and commented saying ehhh I don’t remember, something along the lines of not feeling like I was being very kind and that he was trying his best. also I think he said I had accused him of being racist? which again the actual Tumblr post literally just said I thought his art and persona came across as juvenile and I think in the tags? I mentioned that I thought it was time for him to step off the Kapoor beef. 

then he screencapped my post, including my profile picture and username, and posted it on all his socials with a kind of :( people are so mean on Tumblr :( caption and um

idk if you know this about Being A Public Persona With Tens Of Thousands of Followers but. if you post someone’s identity and say ‘I do not like what this person is doing’ it. can get messy fast.

uh I don’t follow Stuart Semple (see the original post I made) but he commented to make sure I knew he’d posted my post on Instagram and “all my followers like your wig :)” which. according to my partner who did go and look at the time, the Instagram comments were largely about how I was an ugly non-passing trans woman aka “man in a wig” which. throw the whole suitcase out. There were a good few days where I got a lot of angry anons, ranging from ‘stop bullying Stuart Semple!!!!!’ to ‘die in a ditch graphically’ to ‘how can you claim to have opinions on art when You Are On Tumblr’ (I have been a freelance illustrator for 7 years and I have a Masters in art and design) to ‘your art sucks and you’re fat and ugly’ and my personal favourite ‘how can u be cis and use she/her pronouns you dumb snowflake’

(within that furore was a whole branch where someone was like ‘sex worker huh bet you’re bad at it’ and I was like ‘yep! that’s why I don’t do it any more! it’s hard work and it involves a lot of self-promotion and customer skills which I don’t like and am not good at!’ and this was a Whole Thing where they kept trying to insult me (much like today’s anon) about my supposed failures as a Slut Who Is Bad At Sex and I kept going like ‘ok but here’s how that just. doesn’t make sense in reference to what sex work actually is so like, ok?’)

and Stuart Semple and I were also having a conversation which, depending on your perspective I would call his attitude either conciliatory or passive-aggressive, there was a lot of ‘me and my followers would never say rude things about you :) keep up the art kiddo :)’ and being charitable I would say he was trying to be nice while being angry, and to avoid escalating (but with the added context I got later about the wig comment, I think that interpretation of his behaviour maybe. has some cracks?) and ultimately he took down the posts, we had a brief conversation about keeping pet reptiles (apparently he has a lizard) and we left it on, if not good terms, at least peaceable ones. 

however I still periodically get messages about it from angry Semple stans. and I’m not sure the argument was resolved, in that I still very much think it’s fair to make criticism, including quite harsh criticism (which I’m not sure ‘adolescent’ is), on art which is put out for public display and enjoyment, and that it isn’t a personal attack to post a criticism of someone’s public-facing work and statements on social media unless you actively target it towards them (for example, @ ing them), and Semple still thinks there’s no difference between a random blog with under a thousand followers criticising a public figure’s work and a public figure with 100k followers on most platforms criticising that blog (out of context - he clipped out the post I was reblogging from and my explanatory tags, and looking at my blog you may notice that 90% of my nuance is in the tags) while giving his followers all the information to find said blog.

(also as multiple people have remarked. if you want to say it’s an unfair criticism to call your online presence immature, being a middle-aged artist who as far as I can tell has a net worth over a million who spends your time name searching yourself in order to get mad at untagged mild criticism from strangers on the internet and share it on all your socials for your followers to join you in Being Big Mad is uhhhhhhh. it uh. it’s not like. not super thin-skinned and immature)

(also also I just googled his net worth and unsurprisingly I can’t find a source on it I’d consider reliable, but I did find multiple articles about him getting in trouble for breach of contract and nonpayment for gallery employees, including two accusations of him writing a big defensive blog post then changing it after a few hours to a very short post saying I LOVE YOU so like idk how true that is but it does seem. consistent with the above interactions.)

[aeolian-mode]

public service announcement

Hey I recognize I did a bad job at making my preferences clear on my Tumblr blog as opposed to my Instagram or Twitter, so I’m not griping at you guys, but going forward please ask me permission before reposting my art or using my art as icons. I normally don’t mind, but with platforms like instagram and pinterest, it’s extremely difficult to link back to the source artist in a way that is visible (and easily clickable.) Most people are really lazy and enjoy consuming content without bothering to look up the person who MADE the content unless it’s like, presented directly in front of their face with flashing neon lights (aka clickable, underscored links, which pinterest and instagram hate for some abominable reason)  twitter and tumblr reblogs help artists a LOT, but instagram and pinterest reposts tend to do more harm than good. if you’d like to do more good than harm for us, keep reading. this is an issue for all artists, whether we’re trying to make a living off of our art or not. personally, i am a freelance artist and i take commissions and i sell my art on my etsy, so the more people who know I exist, the better off my career is- and every time my art is reposted without credit, it makes it harder for me to find clients. and even if you gave me credit (which i really appreciate!) 9 times out of 10 its either  A. unclickable B. hidden in the description where people have to hit <read more> and scroll C. “credit to artist” so please ask me permission! i’ll most likely say yes i just wanna be sure you are aware of how important it is to visibly credit artists- not just me. please do this for every artist who allows reposts, it’s so important and extremely helpful for us.

and if you run a repost account, great! there is a lot of viability in repost accounts helping artists find new audiences so long as you are respectful of an artist’s permissions, but it only works if you guys help us out and give back. if you run a repost account or are planning on reposting art, this is the best way to do it for us: 1. Tag the artist. On instagram, this involves tagging the artist on the photo slide itself, so it is easily clickable. 2. On Pinterest, when adding a pin, <add a destination link> and paste the exact permalink of the art. It would also help to make a comment on the pin linking to us as well. I see a lot of people sourcing things like a catch-all Tumblr tag or pseudo-galleries rather than the actual permalink source. Don’t do that. 2. Tag us / link us in the description on the first line so it doesn’t get hidden under readmore. This is applicable everywhere. 3. Extra credit: link to our patreon/kofi/etc. it will honestly, tremendously help us. 4. Never, ever crop out a signature. Sometimes Instagram will auto-format images if you forget to full-size them, or if you attempt to post drawings that don’t fit within Instagram’s allowed image sizes which might end up unintentionally cropping a signature. Catch it, delete it, contact the artist- don’t attempt to edit their art yourself to get it in an acceptable instagram resolution. 5. Check if an artist has an account at the place you’re reposting to. I’ve had people repost my Twitter art on Instagram without realizing I also had an Instagram account. I get that these things can fall through the cracks but it’s extremely important for our visibility that you try double-checking that stuff. Normally artists make it pretty obvious if we have accounts elsewhere, just check our bio.

thanks for reading!

[treehouseart]

Why Reblogging Is So Important to Artists | Why Being Nice Online is Important | Storytime

First of all, I wasn’t going to talk about this. Because I thought it wasn’t needed, because I thought there was enough information out there asking people NOT TO REPOST ART and if we do, at least give PROPER CREDIT.

But there isn’t. That’s alright. Let’s talk about it.

 Two days ago I was approached by the lovely @vaugleysassygrunt​ who told me someone was reposting my art. They said this person had been changing their url all day (and they’re still doing it) and sent me a hyperlink to the art they had posted. It was one of the comics from my on-going Sanders Sons series, a sequential comic I have been working on for almost a year. It was pretty dear to my heart (and the context was pretty important as well). 

My immediate thought was “Oooh boy, my first art thief, that’s so exciting”. All the big ones get those. Along I went to this person’s tumblr and was about to send them a message when I saw they had already addressed the issue by saying they found reblogging annoying and that’s why they preferred reposting. That they never claimed the art was theirs.

Of course my first thought was “if you don’t like reblogging what are you doing on tumblr?”. But we shouldn’t give in to our first thoughts. They’re often rash.

So I get into a conversation with said art thief and try another way. Because THERE IS another way. We can’t nunchuk our way to awareness. This is what I wrote:

Hi, friendo! I'm sorry people are giving you a hard time, but crediting art is very important for us artists :( It's how we make our carreers. I understand you don't enjoy reblogging, but it can help people find our art and find more of our work if they need to. I also am really embarrassed to have to ask, but could you please credit sandersssons-comic or sanderssons in the quadruplets AU? It's a series I spent a lot of time on and I would hate it if people only read a part of it. Thanks and have a good day :D

They repond right away. Telling me they accept my apology (?)

Also that they found the image on google images.

Also asking how much artists get.

FIRST LESSON TO TAKE FROM THIS: Google Images, such as Google itself, it’s an image SEARCHER. It COMPILES images from the whole internet. An image being on Google Images DOES NOT MEAN IT’S UP FOR GRABS. Google Images provides the proper source of the picture.

BESIDES, Google Images can be a great tool for finding the author of an artpiece. Just go to Google Reverse Image Search. You can do it from your phone and from your desktop. Just put the image on and Google finds the original source for you!

So I proceed to explain to this person that artists don’t make much. Most of us get money from comissions that depend on the complexity. Some get Ko-Fis and Patreons and online shops with stickers and key chains and some other goodies.

ALTHOUGH, FOR YOU I ALSO SAY: PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO THEIR ART EVEN IF THEY DON’T GET MONEY FOR IT. BECAUSE IT’S THEIR OWN AND THEY MADE IT. DON’T BE A DICK.

They say: 

I don’t mean to be rude but you could just get more money by being an art teacher or something that pays good minimum wage. 

And you can imagine this big red flag raising in my head. Disengage. Disengage. Disengage. But this was a HUMAN BEING. And a misinformed one. I had already made contact. Might as well. I explained that we DO NOT WANT other jobs. This is our jobs. This is our choice of carreer. And it’s not hard to respect.

Reminder, that should go without saying: YOU DO NOT HAVE A SAY ON PEOPLE’S LIFE CHOICES

Our friend says they don’t understand cause they’re in high school and they don’t draw a lot (as if art knowledge just comes by osmosis when you draw a lot)

I said it was totally cool not to understand. Because it is

SECOND LESSON: SOMETIMES PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THINGS. I came back to tumblr for the Thomas Sanders fandom. A fandom that thrives on kindness and caring and validation of different people  

They thanked me for being cool and explaining things and asked if we could be friends. I said that absolutely

(After our little talk, they started giving credit to the pictures they could find. Read as: the ones that had signatures on the image)

We talked yesterday a whole part of the day. We get acquainted. They’re finding themselves as non-binary, they’re in high school. Things like that. I tell them I’m 20 and in college for journalism

In this proccess I explained how comissions worked and, again, why reblogging and not reposting was important

So yesterday night I’m already in bed when they message me “Hi”

I responded I was tired and going to sleep. They said they were going to bed too. And that they hated when they were accused of something they didn’t do. Which was stealing art

And I said that, indeed, they weren’t STEALING art per say. But reposting was a dick move. They got PISSED. So I tried to find an analogy they would understand.

Ok, think of it like this

You've painted a tradicional piece in oil and put it in your gallery with other paintings

Someone can't come and take the painting off the wall and put it on their gallery

Even if they say it's yours... It doesn't bring more people to your gallery. It exposes your work... But that's mostly it. 

To which they replied:

The Mona Lisa got stolen once and people have made counterfeit paintings in the past 

Which, goes without saying DOESN’T MAKE IT OKAY. Just because someone already murdered another, it doesn’t mean we can go around on a killing spree.

Besides, tumblr has original content and tools to get replicated inside the website. And so I told them.

And then again:

Why are the majority of people here artists who clearly don’t realize they can get a part time job? 

And I told them, AGAIN, they do not want part time jobs. They want these jobs.

They said I lied then, when I said art didn’t pay well. And proceeded to say they didn’t understand why people want to be starving artists.

Also that tumblr didn’t have the kind of images they wanted. EVEN THOUGH THIS WHOLE THING WAS HAPPENING BECAUSE ARTISTS FROM TUMBLR WERE FINDING THEIR ARTWORKS REPOSTED ON THEIR ACCOUNT.

I was also making them upset.

I tried to explain further, but they blocked me.

Fortunately, I was able to send one last message and I think it’s the biggest message I want to pass here.

I'm sorry I'm upsetting you but I've been nothing but respectful

Be respectful. Even when you’re mad. Even when people are rude. Kill them with kindness. If they’re too immature to listen to you, that’s on them. Practice what our dear youtubers preach (Thomas Sanders, Jack, Mark). 

This person is still reposting, yes. They’re giving credit, but still reposting. It’s a start, I believe. It’s more than I would have gotten sending a hate ask. 

So now, princes, princesses and non-binary royalty, I give you the

TL;DR

Artists are ENTITLED TO THEIR ART. You. Are. Not. It doesn’t matter if it’s on tumblr, on google images or on the street. If there’s a signature or not. Getting money for it or not (also, since I’m here, don’t forget that art is not only visual arts, but also videos, music, podcasts and a bagillion other things. If it’s not yours, don’t post it)

You DO NOT get a say on how people should get their wage (just like you don’t get a say on how they dress, on where they go, or who they love)

When you REBLOG, you help the artist to get known. It costs nothing. When you REPOST, you’re a dick. You’re not helping anyone and you’re giving yourself more trouble than just clicking a simple button

It’s okay not to know everything, but listen when people talk respectfully

Don’t be hard on people when you can be nice. Aggravating people will only make enemies of people who can be friends

Be mature enough to accept sometimes you’re wrong

BONUS ROUND: I believed we were done, but I saw this post short after. I didn’t think it was relevant to include, but I feel like I must say something.

I’ve had it with everyone being nothing but mean and antagonizing me. I’m not the bad guy and I really want to kill myself or leave tumblr. I’m never accepted by anyone or anywhere. Hell its hard to tell my friends I’m into men and women or that I like certain things. I get rejected constantly so goodbye forever 

And later proceeded to post normally.

Please notice that your life BEING HARD does not make up for BEING A DICK and REFUSING TO BE EDUCATED. I will not refrain from telling you the truth R E S P E C T F U L L Y to protect your feelings just because you’re LGBTQ+ (specially because the you being B part was totally new information for me in this post/and I’m in the community too).

So since I’m giving moral lessons, do this for your friends. We should not stand for something we do not agree. Real friends will respect your side and reconsider. If a person hostilizes you for having a different opinion - or, in this case, being right - they’re not someone you want to have around.

PS.: I will not disclose this person’s identity because it’s irrelevant. I’m only posting this in hopes it can help someone else

PPS.: I ended up did reporting this person for giving my comic specifically the wrong credit

[painterlegendx]

What Will Girl Painting Nails Gif Be Like In The Next 6 Years? - Girl Painting Nails Gif

There's a antic active about about amusing media: Facebook is how you appetite bodies to see you, Twitter is how you see yourself; Tumblr is - "Hey look! Funny cat annual meme!"

I Found A Nail Polish That Doesn't Chip And I'm Obsessed With It - girl painting nails gif | girl painting nails gif If so David Karp has aloft a heck of a lot of money on the aback of funny cat pictures. The 26-year-old who invented Tumblr is currently afire through $125m of adventure basal in his adventure to accomplish Tumblr, at some point, accomplish money."It started appealing modestly," he says, "I had approved to set up blogs, I approved to tweet, acclimated Flickr and Delicious, I capital article that accustomed me to be added expressive, to present myself in a way I was appreciative of."So Karp, who had abandoned out of aerial academy and went beeline into the agenda media business in his teens, congenital Tumblr.If you are apprehensive what Tumblr is you are apparently a) over 24 b) not complex with Occupy Bank Street c) not a affiliate of the teenage-girl-nail-art subculture. And you acquire no abstraction what amusing curating is.Curating is the new boiler in the media: it akin formed its way into the contempo mission annual of BBC bang-up George Entwistle. So… curating is about amid creating and consuming: you cull calm being you like, photos, activated GIFs, YouTube videos, quotes. Much as avant-garde ball music is fabricated up of samples, and postmodern art fabricated up of "found" objects, re-assembled by the artist, Tumblr is about application the begin to say article different."Even if you're not the guy who gets in advanced of the camera and plays guitar," says Karp, "you can still accurate a point of view, be creative, through the being that you select.""At the bulk we acquire this association of millions of creators who accomplish the being - and about them this big web of tens of millions of curators, bodies who are slicing and dicing it into little channels, blogs abounding of the being they affliction acutely about. And they acquire this big admirers of 150 actor bodies who appearance up every ages who can acquisition the agreeable organised into channels that can be so nuanced, anxious and specific."

blackgificence filing nails gif | WiffleGif - girl painting nails gif | girl painting nails gif As millions of bodies allotment agnate content, what agenda theorists alarm "memes" are created. Common themes, images, sayings etc that ascertain the zeitgeist and proliferate, morph etc. Tumblr is an amazing able amplifier of memes: instead of posting, say, a funny cat annual to Facebook, I will reblog it from somebody abroad - accepting on the bandwagon, so to speak. But again my folio may accommodate two or three absolutely abstracted bandwagons. Apparently the best accepted meme basal on Tumblr in the accomplished year was the "We are the 99%" belief from Occupy Bank Street. If I attending at my own Tumblr annual - I've had one back an art activist alleged @spitzenprodukte told me doomily "Facebook is over" - it does not absolutely accommodate to the anti-narcissist antic I began with.So my meme conception tends to involve: Liza Minnelli (I know), ball numbers featuring Rita Hayworth (I said I know!). That's alongside Gettysburg the cine and abundant Northern Soul tracks, photos of Frida Kahlo, Manhattan in the 1950s and - big absurdity this - a GPOY.GPOY stands for "gratuitous photos of yourself" and is added or beneath binding on Facebook but acutely abhorrent on Tumblr. Other being I've acquaint includes graphs of Spanish debt; blogs the BBC arrangement was too, er, alternation to acquire on a Sunday morning.What has acquired Tumblr to booty off is the about adversity of accomplishing this akin of narcissism (or self-expression) akin on the uber-platform Facebook.Says Karp: "We're giving them accoutrement to accomplish actualize an character they can be absolutely appreciative of; you do it on a folio you can ascendancy completely. No two Tumblr blogs attending alike."

Nail polish GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY - girl painting nails gif | girl painting nails gif And the Tumblr demographic is apparent as politically significant. Admitting it has abandoned 150 actor users - compared with Facebook's one billion - there is a altered affecting intensity, and a cliquishness: actual few bodies acquisition their grannies and aunties, or old academy accompany in their Tumblr amusing network. It's added acceptable to be bodies who allotment the aforementioned obsessions.Tumblr, anecdotally, is in America at atomic not aloof absolutely adolescent but absolutely alive class: there's a lot of tattoos, piercings, bivouac lifestyles. There is a adverse bulk of self-disdain: it's attainable to arouse up a awning abounding of anorexic adolescent women, bodies adversity depression, clear images about boyish self-harm. And of advance pornography.But admitting the base - or is it aloof atrociously honest - ancillary of Tumblr, this analytical demographic ability has brought attack managers from both abandon of the US presidential chase assimilate the platform.I ask Karp what the agreeable acquaint on Tumblr is cogent us about the world:"Ten years ago there were maybe hundreds of bodies creating agenda content; I capital to be one of those abounding people, with an character and a presence. Today there are millions of bodies authoritative being and putting it into the world: that's become allotment of our character and it shouldn't be bound to bodies who adorned themselves writers, or who are decidedly amusing or talented: curation is a new, added attainable way to accurate yourself.""We acclimated to acquire a argument blurb on our networks, the Geocities - a bare slate you afraid together; again MySpace area you had added anatomy but you could still drudge it to pieces: it was ugly, but it was still actual personal, if a little janky looking. Again we got Facebook and we larboard all that behind, everybody had the aforementioned boilerplate page, in a big agenda of added people."Ultimately for Karp the claiming is to accomplish money. There are letters that investors are accepting afraid about the abridgement of a articular business model. He tells me his aboriginal aim is to accumulate the artefact simple: to acquiesce the amplitude itself to be a basal belvedere with third affair developers (my own Tumblr blog advanced end bulk me about £10 from a specialist designer, admitting best bodies opt for the chargeless customised version).

Painting nails GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY - girl painting nails gif | girl painting nails gif "Our archetypal is appealing simple: we acquire the absorption of an admirers of 150 actor bodies - we're affairs a little sliver of that absorption to marketers. How you do this in a zen-like interface, it requires an astronomic bulk of care. You don't appetite to bolt on a button to your Kindle to accomplish ads go abroad - so we acquire congenital announcement into the ancient features," Karp says.But he believes the drive is with the agreeable creators. The acute buzz is axis added of us into creators, akin if - as we array about the aforementioned accumulation contest application the best photo furnishings - a lot of our "creations" attending absolutely the same:"All of this being is gated on the hardware: Apple and Google are blame the accouterments so far, so quickly... and as the artistic application moves faster and faster the software is activity to explode: there is a accomplished ecosystem of artistic apps. So what I am best aflame about is what bodies are making."Tumblr is activity to face challenges over the use of added people's content, let abandoned censorship issues over the bulk of porn, self-harm etc that presents itself on the simplest of searches.But whatever happens commercially, Tumblr is yet addition harbinger in the wind of the amusing media revolution. MySpace went big, was bought by Rupert Murdoch and again declined. Facebook dead MySpace, went accessible at what looks like a massively over-valued price, and now faces big questions about how it will accomplish money activity forward. Tumblr - and its battling "curating" platforms - are one clue as to what might, one day, if this is akin thinkable, annihilate Facebook. Facebook, to me, is more like a ancestors active allowance at Christmas in the 1970s, with a lot of bodies I am declared to be affable and affable to.Ultimately we are all, inside, still teenagers in our bedrooms, and Tumblr is like a bedchamber bank area you can pin anything. And shut the aperture to accumulate your parents out.

Painting nails GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY - girl painting nails gif | girl painting nails gif Watch Paul Mason's abounding account with David Karp on Newsnight on Thursday 1 November 2012 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, again afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website. What Will Girl Painting Nails Gif Be Like In The Next 6 Years? - Girl Painting Nails Gif - girl painting nails gif | Pleasant for you to our weblog, within this time I am going to teach you regarding keyword. And from now on, this can be a first graphic:

Nails GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY - girl painting nails gif | girl painting nails gif Read the full article

[decoding1432]

The Art Behind Manipulating & Guarding a Fandom (p. I)

NOTES:

*I’ll be quoting a lot, esp the parts I consider more relevant, however if you want to study the whole thing [which I HIGHLY recommend] I’ll attached the link to each of the sources. It might seem like a lot of info but PLEASE do yourself a favour & check it ALL out.*

*I’ve divided the subject in FOUR PARTS bc since I need your total attention & I don’t want you to start sleeping halfway, I’ll be posting periodically, at least till you end processing the prior post*

*Most of the posts I direct you to, are SHORT & in my opinion not too dense to read. In fact, the great majority are Q&As. I'll identified every post with a letter, it means that throughout the various posts you’ll see them repeated, so no need to read one twice*

*If you’re starting to get tired or feeling swamped with the amount of info. Take a break, process it, go eat something & free your mind then come back. It’s highly relevant to read the whole & if you think it helps you to rest for a moment, I encourage you to do it*

*Everyone who has a 5H blog or related, READ & SPREAD THIS. At the end of the day we’re equal victims of this happening*

- decoding1432.

Ever felt like you get fishy anons? Ever questioned whether if your blog or Twitter acc is monitored? Ever doubt those “exposing accounts” claiming to be insiders? Ever mistrust a mutual or similar? Yeah, well all that encircles a phenomenon better known as:

Astroturfing

Before we jumped into the meaning & detailed explanation of it, allow me to tell you the story of how I found out this fascinating concept. I’ve been wanting to do a post about “bot accounts” & “fanbase manipulation” since I read this post about the way Sony deals with fandoms. If there’s someone out there who knows about this better than anyone else, is the directioners. I swear the amount of data they own regarding the industry is enough to fill 10 libraries (I went through hell to find everything lol)

I must say in advance that most of the information obtained in my research are posts from theirs– all credit to them for their masterposts– so I apologise if you get too tired of reading “Harry, Louis, Ziam, Modest & bla, bla, bla” but it is ultimately very worthy stuff & let’s not forget that band came out from the same womb (great thing fans over there are too woke & we can grab a lot from their knowledge, seriously I have insane respect for that fanbase). Anyway, like I was telling, I first heard the word “astroturfing” when I was talking to lawyerlarry:

I asked her with the purpose of being linked to a post relating “bot accounts” or alike but to my surprise I was lead to a much more complex principle. At first, I deadass thought my lack of vocabulary in English was the cause I hadn’t understood what lawyerlarry was trying to tell me. When you look it in the dictionary, you’ll probably get something like this:

Now, what does it really mean in the SM context?

(NOTE: I’ll leave several definitions so that you can get a clearer idea).

No.1 *link A*

“This sounds very much like, trolling, you say. It does, but whereas trolling is done by one or several individuals for mischief, astroturfing is an organised, professional form of trolling with an agenda, an objective, a set mode of operation and an end-goal. Think trolling on steroids.

It sounds very far-fetched and very conspiracy theory-ish, but it’s been used in a lot of forms, from maligning celebrities and high-profile people to companies using astroturfers to provide fake consumer reviews, boost their credibility (thank you for reblogging that article mirandaskye, btw!), or discredit their competition. Some even go on a nationalistic scale of seeding political dissent among political parties. Because of the anonymity that the internet can provide, astroturfing is mostly common online.

Astroturfers can take several forms:

Posts, comments, etc from fake social media identities

Fake consumer reviews or brand/product testimonials

Fake online organisations/watchdog communities”

No. 2 (summarised) *link B*

Means pretending to be a fan, when in reality the agenda and strategy are controlled by a non-fan or “tptb” organisation. (‘tptb= the powers that be’ for the 1D fam is what we refer here to men in suits).

“Astroturfing takes place all the time it happens all across the internet everyday. There are varying degrees in which it happens. There are corporate bought twitter followers (x) and paid for positive and negative yelp reviews (x). It goes on and on. It is just part of business. Unethical? Misleading? Yeah but they’ve been doing it since forever. Big multibillion dollars have been fined for engaging in astroturfing (x) yet they still engage in it. The financial benefits must outweigh the risk.”

No. 3 *link C* (more summarised)

No. 4 *link D* (even more summarised)

If you ask me, I would personally keep the first definition because certainly astroturfing encompasses more than just Tumblr. It extends to Twitter up to the political world. If you’ve gotten to this point thinking it’s a conspirative aspect, watch the following video, IT’S A MUST:

Since I’m such a nerd for TED Talks I enjoyed it besides  I’m so fascinated by this concept. But in all honesty, ten minutes of your life that won’t go to waste.. However if you decide to keep scrolling down at least I suggest you skip to minute 2:08- 2:48 & 8:56- till the end. For anyone who can’t play the video, I’ll remark the points:

Min 2:08- 2:48

“What is Astroturf? It’s a perversion of grassroots, as in fake grassroots. Astroturf is when political, corporate, or other special interest disguise themselves & publish blogs, start Facebook & Twitter accounts, publish ads, letter to the editor, or simply posts comments online to try to fool you into thinking an independent or grassroots movement (in our case fans) is speaking. The whole point of Astroturf is to try to get the impression there’s widespread support for or against an agenda when there’s not. Astroturf seeks to manipulate you into changing your opinion by making you feel as if you’re an outlier when you’re not.”

Min 8:56- till the end

“I have a few strategies that I can tell you about, to help you recognise signs of propaganda and astroturf. Once you start to know what to look for you’ll begin to recognise it everywhere.

First, hallmarks of astroturfing include use of inflammatory language such as crack, nutty, lies, paranoid, and conspiracy. Astroturfers often claim to debunk myths that aren’t myths at all. Use of the charged language tests well, people hear something’s a myth, maybe they find it on snopes, and they instantly declare themselves too smart to fall for it. But what if the whole notion of the myth is itself a myth and you and snopes fell for that?

Beware when interests attack an issue by controversialising or attacking the people, personalities, and organizations surrounding it rather than addressing the facts, that could be astroturf.

And most of all, astroturfers tend to reserve all of their public skepticism for those exposing wrongdoing rather than the wrongdoers. In other words instead of questioning authority, they question those who question authority.”

Why is this so incredibly familiar…?

[pocketmouse18]

Tumblr Tag Game!

Thank you for the tag @herosofmarvelanddc​ !!

1. Why did you choose your url?

It’s my username in most internet spaces and I like not having to keep up with different accounts/names haha :) The story behind PocketMouse is a little convoluted, so I won’t bore you with it in its entirety, but the nutshell version is that when I was younger I carried around stuffed animals in my pockets as a way of easing my many anxieties... I have other coping strategies now, but I still like to stick a little buddy in my front shirt pocket from time to time for fun (much to the amusement of my students!). The 18 is a remnant of needing a number to differentiate the accounts, but 18 is one of my favorites numbers for several reasons, including a) it ends in an 8, a number I’m fond of, b) it’s a multiple of 3, which I like very much, and c) there’s personal significance :)

2. Any side blogs?

Nope! That sounds too complicated for me lol

3. How long have you been on tumblr?

Not very long... less than a year, I think.

4. Do you have a queue tag?

Nope!

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I was posting stuff I was writing on FFN and Ao3 and more than one person asked me if I had a tumblr. Eventually I was persuaded to try it, and I’m happy I did!

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

It’s the same picture I use elsewhere :) I like things to be the same across platforms (if you couldn’t tell lol). It’s from a photo set I love of rats interacting with different objects like tiny musical instruments and tiny furniture, and the teddy bear one is my favorite :)

7. Why did you choose your header?

I’m gonna be honest, I had to look up what that was ._. I think mine is just the generic pattern that came preset, which perhaps I should look into changing...

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

I’m not sure... Upon looking back at my archive I think it’s actually the very first post I made, where I just kind of introduced myself haha. That one has 8 notes! The one I wrote about my students’ favorite heroes has 7 (although one of those notes is mine, since I reblogged it for a part 2) - so it’s a close second!

9. How many mutuals do you have?

Those are people who we both follow each other, right? (can you tell I don’t really know how to use this website yet lol). If that’s the case, then many! 25, if I counted right :) I don’t talk with all of them (mostly because I’m very, very shy, I’m so sorry) but they’re all great and I love getting to know them :)

10. How many followers do you have?

45! A number of those don’t seem to be real people, though, given the nature of their usernames and... nsfw content? Not that posting nsfw stuff is inherently bot-like, but like... they’re definitely bots lol

11. How many people do you follow?

41 awesome people :)

12. Have you ever made a shit post?

I don’t think so...

13. How often do you use tumblr a day?

Usually I get on once or twice after work and try to catch up on stuff (and more often on my days off!). I might go a day or two without checking if I’m particularly busy.

14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog?

Not to my knowledge! I certainly hope not, I wouldn’t want to upset someone else (but also I would hope someone would tell me if I upset them, so I could take steps not to do so again).

15. How do you feel about the ‘you need to reblog’ posts?

They’re kind of stressful :/ I won’t spend the rest of my day thinking about them, but I’ll feel kind of bad as I don’t follow their instructions...

16. Do you like tag games?

Yes, very much! I don’t always answer in a timely manner, but I get very excited to see I’ve been tagged :)

17. Do you like ask games?

Yes, same as above!

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

They all are, to me :) I think they’re all really cool and awesome, and the fact that they know other people and talk to them already makes them feel famous and connected from my perspective! Plus, they’re all very talented and make incredible art and gifs and write beautiful pieces, of which I am in awe :) I’m not exactly sure by what metrics someone might measure tumblr fame, so I can’t speak to *technical* fame, but I will say that I would consider several mutuals to be well recognized and well regarded in their particular fandoms/corners of the internet :)

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

I don’t think so :) Many of them I would always be happy to get to know better, though!

20. Tags! (no pressure obv)

Hopefully I’m not retagging anyone who’s already done this (if I am, or if you’d rather not join, just ignore me!) @thisisworsethanitlookslike @browneyedgenius @innertimetraveldetective @dragonslover98 @mtab2260 and anyone else who would like to join!

[taekwondorkjosh]

This is just something I put together because I’m freaking out and thought this might help me process things. do not reblog, please.

abuse, manipulation, mental and physical illness, and financial drama below

When I was really little, my mother and father had some money troubles. According to my father, my mom routinely went and spent his money on irrelevant stuff, instead of paying for groceries, bills, etc. I don't know how accurate that interpretation of what happened is, but its entirely possible that the Irrelevant stuff was stuff for the children, just not stuff we needed. Trips to amusement parks, toys, movies, new shoes when we had perfectly good shoes already, etc. I know this is likely the case because my mother told me stories of how HER mother would do that too. Instead of important stuff, she spent money on little stuff to make us happy in the moment.

This post isn't to debate whether or not that is an appropriate parenting tactic or life strategy. Its too establish that my mother has always had trouble managing her money responsibly. Eventually, it got so bad my father was on the verge of bankruptcy, so he divorced my mother and sued for custody. He lost, and for a few years my three older siblings and one younger sibling (the first three from a previous marriage and the younger sibling my full sibling) lived with my mom until her life came crashing down. She lost everything.

My dad got custody when I was in second grade. I finished second grade and then my dad bought a house, the house I live in to this day. My younger brother and I went to live with him, while the other three stayed with my mom and her previous husband (who had by now pulled his life together enough to help with his kids). I saw my mother every other weekend and on wednesdays for dinner.

Every few visits we went to my Aunt and Grandma's house instead of spending time with my mom doing fun stuff. My mother, myself, and my brother would clean my mother's sister's apartment, taking care of them as best we could. It wasn't particularly fun but we loved our family and helped with.... marginal complaining.

My aunt and I had a very powerful connection. We liked a lot of the same things, and she even got me into a lot of stuff that I still love today, primarily martial arts. When I was seven, my mother signed me up to attend tae kwon do at the school that my aunt was helping out at, and it was amazing. I don't remember much of my childhood, but I know I loved it, even if it was difficult towards the end. Black belt testing is tough hahahha.

After I got my black belt, I wanted to take a little break. I was ten years old and wanted to play around a bit, and my dad took this as an opportunity to get me to do other stuff. I didn't return to tae kwon do until high school, where my connection with my aunt grew much stronger.

I spent three to five hours, six days a week at that tae kwon do school with my aunt. Eighteen to thirty hours a week in her company. Some weekends I would go over to her house and hang out, spending the weekend with her.

I spent a fraction of that with my mother. Saturday afternoon to sunday night, thirty six hours, every two weeks. In a month, I'd spend between 72 and 120 hours with my aunt, and 72 with my mother, if I didn't spend a weekend with my aunt. I loved my aunt.

By the time I was in high school, though, my mother turned her life around. She found a steady job and a good apartment, and had divorced her third husband, an aggressive and dangerous man with some bipolar condition. I was little I don't remember, only that he would sometimes get very, very angry. The point is, that she was doing good.

The three of us started spending mroe time at my aunt/grandma's house. It was getting bad. Two older women with a SLEW of physical disorders and an army of cats, crammed into one thousand square feet? NOT good. It was a terrible mess, and we all came together to turn it around. My mom and my aunt got a joint bank account, so that my mother could help them manage their funds, and IMMEDIATELY she got them a new apartment, found homes for several of the cats, got them insured and healthier (my aunt got all new teeth!), and even managed to get my aunt several job offers.

An then, college. I spend a few years putzing around, and one day I catch my aunt going over bank statements at tae kwon do. She's confused by some of the expenditures on there. Alright, fair.

This starts a huge conflict. According to my aunt, my mother owes her thirty thousand dollars, spent on stuff that my aunt does not have or has no recollection of authorizing. This money was spent over the course of the last 10 months, from when the bank account was made to the 'present' day. 10 months, and my mother somehow stole 30k AND turned my aunt and grandma's lives around.

My mother's rebuttal: all but 2k of that 30k is accounted for. Presents for the nephews/grandchildren, authorized by my grandmother, new clothes for my aunt for a job interview, that's the new fridge, that's a one thousand dollar loan that my mother borrowed, with grandma's approval, and paid back three hours later (banks are weird like that), gas money for the trips over to their apartment to clean cat shit off the tile floors, lunch after cleaning their toilets, etc. It was all stuff like that, with a recurring theme: my aunt wasn't the one who said "Do it," grandma was. The 2k that was left was just stuff that my mom didn't have receipts for and couldn't remember, and my mom would have paid that back if my aunt asked for it.

But my aunt demanded the full 30k. She refused to accept "but grandma said so" because grandma didn't remember that. What my aunt also refused to accept was that grandma was going senile and had been for a few years. Maybe she forgot? HOW DARE YOU BLAH BLAH BLAH it was awful.

So my aunt brings my mother to civil court and charges her. Touts all this evidence and claims that she's an invalid and has lived in a fugue state for the last few years due to pain medication and, well, pain. She claims that my mother was taking advantage of her, stealing from her, risking her life by putting her in financial jeapordy.

This is garbage, because A) my aunt was working at tkd with me EVERY DAY FOR THIS PERIOD OF TIME, B) my aunt managed to pull off straight A's at LBCC while they got a certificate in something, and C) HER LIFE IS SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN IT WAS BEFORE!!!

My Aunt's annual income, including tae kwon do and Grandma's pension, was around 40k. HOW DID MY MOTHER STEAL ALMOST AN ENTIRE YEAR'S WORTH OF MONEY, AND STILL MANAGE TO GET YOU INTO A BETTER SITUATION? Its all a load of bs, its lies, its slander.

My mother loses the civil case. She has to pay back my aunt 15k. Alright. Fine. Its over with. Its far more than my mother should have to pay but its done.

My Aunt then charges CRIMINALLY, and brings the whole thing back. My mother is unequipped to handle this, we do the best we can, and manage to bring down the multiple felonies my aunt is trying to charge my mother with down to a misdemeanor theft charge. One thousand hours of community service and we're good to go.

Unfortunately, the misdemeanor theft doesn't exist, so my aunt's lawyers file the paperwork as a felony anyway. My mother now has a felony on her record, owes 15k dollars, and has to somehow do 1k hours of community service while working a full time job.

Now, by the time this all goes down my aunt has quit tae kwon do, she is no longer working there and hasn't been for some time. I see her occasionally, as I still have a relationship with this woman, until the criminal charges are brought up.

I immediately tell my aunt to back down. She refuses. I sever ties with her and we're done now. I focus on my relationship with my mother, trying to help her as best I can to deal with this mess.

My relationship with my aunt was severed five years ago. A few months later, the trial is over and my mother is struggling to deal with the repercussions of all of this. Its been half a decade, and we're finally turning shit around. My mother has almost paid off my aunt. She's back in school to get a bachelor's degree while working and bringing in six figures (when combined with her husband's income). We're doing wonderfully.

Then I get an email this morning from my aunt. She wants to let us know that my grandmother is sick in the head (senility alzheimers, idk), she likely does not have long left, and wants to see us before she forgets who her family is.

I do not know how to process this. This rambling post is my attempts to fully understand what has happened, and to give context to anyone who wants it. I don't know how to do this. I don't want to just leave my grandmother to die, broken and alone, but I also don't want a relationship with my aunt. My grandmother through my mother under the bus, supporting my aunt completely in all of this, and is just as much to blame as my aunt.

But.... still. I don't know what to do.