#online public forums

[nationallawreview]

Social Media’s Legal Dilemma: Curated Harmful Content

Walking the Line Between Immunity and Liability: How Social Media Platforms May Be Liable for Harmful Content Specifically Curated for Users As proliferation of harmful content online has increasingly become easier and more accessible through social media, review websites and other online public forums, businesses and politicians have pushed to reform and limit the sweeping protections afforded…

[valtsv]

had the thought "what if i made a secret sideblog for venting things i don't feel comfortable posting on main and made all the posts unrebloggable for extra security" then realized i was just reinventing journaling but worse. anyway i'm going to go write in my journal now.

[cescalr]

Oooh, definitely glee for the fandom asks! <3

Always with the hornets' nests with these ones, I see! Though i don't think there's a fandom out there that isn't in some way a hornets' nest once it gets large enough... hm. Alright. I'm just gonna be as honest as i can be about this, and tag accordingly.

Glee:

my favourite female character: augh. argh. ouph. so difficult. so hard. Since I'm working off of half-remembered show and half recently-rewatched show... its a tossup. Mercedes, Santana, Quinn. Probably Mercedes. She did nothing wrong ever in her entire life <3 well okay maybe except that one time she smashed kurt's car windows (but it was a banger song, though). Can't say Santana because of the Biphobia TM and other things like excessive use of bigotry-based insults, and Quinn. Oh god girl. Cheating is not cool! Funnily enough! So I find them really interesting but 'favourite' is hard to say. Mercedes. Mercedes for sure <3

my favourite male character: Blaine sam blaine sam blaine sam yes. I am imitating ripping petals off of flowers and coming to a conclusion based on which is the last name i said. So I guess that means Sam! But really this is a tie.

my favourite book/season/etc: Mannnnn idk. I don't like shows for seasons as-a-whole. Also i could not tell you what happened in any given season if you held a gun to my head. I'm not good at that. The only shows i know 'seasons' of are Buffy and Teen Wolf because i've watched them like 100000000000 times (exaggeration) for various reasons (mostly fanfiction research).

my favourite episode (if its a tv show): I can tell you my LEAST favourite episode (blame it on the alcohol, thank you Kurt king of biphobia! this is a persona foible it's not the worst episode in the show. by far. by far. it's kind of an average one. I'm just angry at it.) BUT er. Favourite? Idk. Genuinely some of the earlier Kurt-centric stuff was really well done (his convo with Burt... <3) and the Quinn giving birth accompanied by bohemian rhapsody was obviously iconic, but if I'll be honest I couldn't name any episodes of this show (other than That One previously stated, anyway). And yeah most of the time they were named after song titles and No i don't remember those song titles either. I'm just so bad at this. My memory is that of a goldfish's being haphazardly bounced around on a sieve.

my favourite cast member: it would be really funny if I said Demi Lovato [she counts!] but the truth is N/A: i don't know these people !!! They are strangers!! (i don't. follow celebrities. at all. I couldn't even name most of them. They're just people doing a job and their lives are irrelevant to me beyond their ability to perform that job well. I do not need to know where they live and what coffee they drink. Stalker shit tbh. I'm kind of a very private person myself, so rpf-adjacent stuff just... creeps me out. I've never watched a single cast interview in my lifetime and I'm not about to start!)

my favourite ship: Difficult to say! Grave and obvious lie. Blam. It's blam. Quintana is a close runner up though Santana really needs to stop dating people who cheat on the regular (I'll accept Quinn has grown enough not to do this by the time a Quintana coupling would be viable - and satisfying in terms of character arcs - narratively speaking).

a character I’d die defending: Blaine Anderson did something wrong for sure but like Kurt did it first so shrugs. Cancels out. Bad for each other! Case closed!

a character I just can’t sympathize with: genuinely don't remember if I had one of those the first time around because I was like 10 and just didn't pay attention if I didn't care, but Terri and her racist self take that 'prize' this time, alongside the obvious predator in the room [original choir teacher. Sandy? I forget his name immediately after hearing it. He doesn't deserve to be remembered]. Also JBI is just.... a yikes character all around. I mean, he's a blatant stereotype for one, in a the people who wrote this person don't like jews kind of way. Unfortunately common stereotype too, for the era, so not only is he that, he's also lazy. Just a one-note pervert who's the butt of various antisemitic 'jokes' you've heard from era-peer shows a million times over, tired and awful and a sour reminder of bigotry that continues to this day. Really regrettable character who's lack of redeeming qualities was probably purposeful. (I know Rachel and tina are also jewish, but this comes up very rarely and mostly only when santana needs to say something kind of fucked up, as is her modus operandi, for 'comic relief'. Tina's jewish-ness wasn't even canon for several seasons, because she didn't have a surname or a family or anything resembling complex character depth for several seasons. The one time I really remember Rachel's religion being important was when she was pressuring Kurt into believing in some kind of god, which??? don't do that. Bad example. Trying to guilt trip a friend into faith sucks. I take back what i said earlier Mercedes did that too. Boo. Girls try again that was a bad showing all around. Though i have no idea why Kurt went the acupuncture route as his 'secular' option but i think that has to do a lot with the writers doing literally no research ever once in their lives (you can tell they don't by the way they write the football segments of the show, which make no sense according to football fans who watch Glee, of which there are numerous because real life isn't like fiction where you can only like music or sports. Most of the kids in my school year were doing the most of everything ever if they were the 'popular' ones - we do that differently; popularity isn't really based on who know know; for some bizzare reason literally everyone knew who I was? Even people I'd never spoken to?? - but more about like... how much you can do, I guess. Overachievers, but I'm not saying that negatively; these people were generally - generally - very nice, and surprisingly chill for people who had no spare time whatsoever. I'm not entirely sure when they slept; A* across the board, at least one sport, at least one instrument, several extracurriculars, parties every weekend, dozens of friends and an s.o. . Eh? Way too much going on. Scary lifestyle! Impressive burnout rate, probably. Er. Tangent! Back to the scheduled programming).) There's uhhhh there's a lot of bad characters on the show, but i'd say Sandy and Terri and her equally but more loudly racist sister are truly completely irredeemable ones. Like they're not interesting or anything, they're just there to be narrative annoyances (which, in the case of Sandy specifically, is insane. Arrest that man!!! He has actively sexually assaulted minors!!!).

a character I grew to love: difficult to say because I tend to just make an opinion and stick to it. Also i don't remember who i liked at first and who i didn't, this show came out when i was eight. I didn't watch it until I was a little older than that, of course, but I frankly have spotty memory until my late teens, so! I'm not sure!! Quinn, probably. Pink-hair-era Quinn helped me understand her more, and seeing the moments of kindness hidden behind practical cruelty, when you understand her family and situation, makes things make a lot more sense. It takes a lot to get me to sympathise with a cheater, but I can see where Quinn was getting all turned around in her head about life because of her upbringing and socialisation, not to mention the profoundly negative impact cheerios had on her mentally and that the school's culture in general was not exactly a breeding ground for empathy and optimism.

my anti otp: can you tell (klaine). I don't dislike Kurt!!! Please let him have a fun chillaxed boyfriend in new york with his vogue friends. But also please stop attempting to control other people's diets thank you!! Thank you!! I'm of mixed feelings. Blaine and Kurt both did at least one bad, relationship-ending thing, and proved over and over again that they just weren't on the same wavelength in regards to life goals and ways of living it. They can't even share the same living space, which is kind of required for a functional marriage. I don't know, it just seems like they settled for their first proper, serious boyfriend even if that's not really the best match, and I... wish they'd just got to see more of life first, you know? They got married at like 20! Or something! I'm 23, I cannot imagine getting married at 20. That's a baby. Let them live first!

(same for Santana and Brittney, imo. I also don't really like them together because Santana and Brittney have very different ideas regarding monogamy, which is just never going to go down well in the long run. If your girl cheats on you like twenty times and tells you to your face its not cheating in her view of things, but you think it is, break up with her because you'll just make each other miserable. Brittney sort of seems incapable of feeling guilt but if she were, this kind of moral pressure would be Not Good, and obviously Santana isn't comfortable with the idea and doesn't have to be!! Just move on!!! Find other people!!!! Don't marry your first girlfriend if you've broken up like ten times this is simple!!!! Please!!!! But Klaine wins out over Brittana because - in my opinion, glee fandom please do not persecute me, I am known for this specific thing - I see... interactions that verge on abusive between Klaine that I don't see in Brittana. So. Oof? Ex; use of public perception to disguise attack; deliberately hurting Blaine in a stage-combat fencing match (you are not meant to make actual contact in these) and thus using Blaine's own dislike of making his difficulties common knowledge against him in order to 'punish' him. This is no good! Don't do this!!.[Also just to err vaguepost about a comment.... that is. not. what i would call passive aggressive. Physically attacking someone with a sword - no matter the type of sword, fencing foils hurt just as much, they're just not stab-you sharp... er, these days - is just straight-up aggressive.]).

Note that negative things stick in the mind better than positive ones; on a rewatch I may well alter my opinion!

But also I'm really, really stubborn. So it's not likely. Klaine.

[chaoticamelay]

people should block people more often!! idk why we make blocking into some kind of horrible action reserved only for horrible people. the block button is there for a reason. i block bigots obviously but i also block people who annoy me for reasons great or small, people who simply post stuff i don't want to see on my dash, and sometimes just because i'm hangry or in a lot of pain and their url is a bad colour combo or scratches a bad brain itch.

i run my life like a crotchety old woman who doesn't like being perceived irl and by G-d i will do it online too!! stop subjecting yourself to stuff on the internet that you wouldn't put up with offline. you don't always need to get along or agree on everything to be in community or build coalitions but curating your online experience lets you have more energy for doing what you love and sustaining the meaningful work in your community

[zo1nkss]

referencing my last tags but actually I'm gonna say it, if you weren't around when people got regularly called slurs and sent death threats for having gay ships you literally do not get to judge what the worst fandom ever is, thanks :)

[ragsy]

The peace of anonymity vs the joy of being known

[manyblinkinglights]

all the disposable public dive bars in vrchat have fucking BOUNCERS now, ppl with earnest piping little voices asking you to confirm your AGE?! before greenlisting you by username to let you use a door prefab to get in. what has the proliferation of api and moderation tools mcfricking wrought

[icthyarch]

mutuals carry on an important traditional internet relationship dynamic of People You Don't Know a Damn Thing about

yea u share the same forum space and each get to customize your experiences and u still share things! just for sake of sharing

[newkiqx]

It really does not show that? It only shows the comparative rise of first meeting online.

The survey adds to 100%, which means when one category goes up, another must go down.

Furthermore, online has not been split into categories, while offline has. Which could mean nothing, but intentionally or not, has the effect of inflating the grouped category (online) while deflating the split categories (offline). Visually you end up with a 10 to 1 ratio, when in reality it should have shown a 60/40 split at 2020. If you want to plot data unstacked, at least make sure the level of detail of the answers is the same. The way it's done here, to me, comes across as misleading.

I also want to point out the last data point is 2020, a year famously plagued by restrictions on social events

And lastly, as the description also acknowledges, this data only represents the first step in dating

tl;dr this graph does not have much relevant information on the state of society other than 'first meeting online is more common now'

[spilling-blood]

for the anon confession game i have this fantasy that you go on vacation and talk about it on your blog and you share that you are traveling near me and i catch this before you delete it and then i magically become way more brave and ask you to meet up with me then we hang out and i maybe kidnap you but only if you want to and only temporary i can't afford to support an entire kidnapping victim long term even in my fantasies and it seems rude to make you get a job in my country somehow sorry

Economy so bad it is knee capping would be kidnapper's consensual kidnapping fantasies damn.

Anon confession ask game

[e77y]

[alibrandi]

i cant believe people go on reddit and get feedback for their writing, i'd rather die

[scarefox]

Reminder to google your own name once in a while to make sure none of your private information are public.

Google is legally forced to remove your info from the search page if you tell them to (there are forms)

[pissvortex]

we have come to a point where i think we need to acknowledge that social media moderation as a concept is completely broken - rules are created by well meaning people for good reasons, but because of the infeasibility of human moderators actually giving each of these cases due diligence and making a decision that is widely agreed with, it’s largely just automated. it comes down to whoever hits the report button more and when. with social media as a whole being fractured into all of these individual corporate entities with no cohesive unifying operating procedures, there is probably no good solution to this other than moving away from social media platforms and focusing on smaller self-contained / community run online groups.

we’re probably already seeing this happening with the massive popularity of discord communities while social media companies flounder and shrivel up around us. as a matter of fact we have already seen this happen for most of the internet’s existence - they were called “Forums”. it’s pretty obvious that social media was only really good at facilitating the creation of these pockets of community anyways, but the nature of social media as a “platform” that must be as profitable as possible only ever forced these social clusters together in a way that drove engagement via arguments.

as hard as it is to imagine for people who grew up in a world where the default state of being online was competing for massive attention in full view of the entire public on these massive platforms, it’s probably going to be looked back on as a short-lived and failed experiment.

[ghost-in-a-cup]

hey guys, maybe before you pirate LEARN SOME ETIQUETTE

why are these important? well, if you openly share the sites, they wil get shut down. corporations are willing to copyright strike anything. you are only going to make accessing these resources harder.

remember: LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

if you want to share resources, don't post them on public forums like tumblr, twitter,instagram or any popular site. remember how zlibrary shut down? yall want that to happen to more sites? do you?

also like if they get shut down, people who can't access these otherwise because they don't have the means for it or its banned in their country are losing access.

Don't post links online. Only share in private conversations.

try and avoid linking the sites directly. a workaround is sharing the downloaded files via other file hosting sites similar to google drive and drop box

DON'T SHARE ON PUBLIC FORUMS. EVER. PLEASE

Use a VPN. i personally like proton vpn, it is a freemium model but the free version works fine.

These are just the basics, there are others but please keep these in mind.

[hiitsm]

Beneath the Spotlight

You try to navigate the challenges of being in a private relationship with Alexia Putellas while facing invasive scrutiny from fans.

Angst, Hurt, Comfort

-

Dating Alexia Putellas was never going to be easy, but you didn’t expect it to feel like this.

In the beginning, it was a quiet, private love. Something just between the two of you, away from the public eye. Alexia’s world was already so exposed, every move she made scrutinized by millions of fans and the media. You were determined to keep what you had safe, to protect the fragile, beautiful thing you had built together from the harshness of the outside world.

At first, it worked. You kept a low profile, attending her matches when you could, but always blending into the background, just another face in the crowd. No public displays, no social media posts. It was just you and Alexia, sharing stolen moments of peace in a life otherwise defined by chaos and noise.

You vividly remember those stolen moments. The nights you spent celebrating her victories in the quiet of your shared space, away from the buzz of the stadium. You’d sit together with her family, sharing laughter and stories over home-cooked meals. The pride in her eyes when you’d cheer her on, the way she would snuggle into you after a game, savoring the simple comfort of being with you, were all part of the intimate support you offered.

But the more you fell for her, the harder it became to stay hidden. You wanted to be there for her, to support her at her games, to celebrate her victories and console her after defeats. And it wasn’t just about her. Your relationship was something you were proud of, something you wanted to share with the world. But every time you thought about making it public, you were reminded of what that would mean. The scrutiny, the opinions of strangers, the pressure to be perfect in a way that no one ever truly could be.

You were there with her family for some of her biggest matches, your heart swelling with pride every time she took to the pitch. You watched her in awe, this incredible woman who had captured your heart, as she led her team with the same determination and passion that she put into everything. But you were careful, always careful. You sat in the stands, far enough away from the other WAGs to avoid drawing attention, never lingering after games, slipping out before the crowd could catch sight of you.

But despite your best efforts, people began to notice. You were spotted at too many games, your face caught in the background of too many photos. The rumors started slowly, with fans speculating about who you might be, trying to piece together the puzzle that was your relationship with Alexia.

It started as innocent curiosity, but soon it turned into something more intense, more invasive. Fans began scouring social media, looking for any clues about your identity. They examined every photo, every post, trying to figure out who you were. You had always been careful with your online presence, but it wasn’t enough. They found you.

One day, you logged into your social media accounts to find hundreds of new notifications. Your private world had been cracked open, your name and face plastered across fan pages and discussion forums. They had pieced it all together. Your appearances at matches, your connection to Alexia. They knew who you were now, and they weren’t shy about sharing their opinions.

At first, the comments were mostly harmless. Fans gushing over how lucky Alexia was, how happy they were that she had found someone. But as more people became aware of you, the tone shifted. They started asking why you weren’t at every match, why you weren’t more visible on Alexia’s social media. Why weren’t you as dedicated as the other WAGs? Why didn’t you post about her victories, her achievements? Why weren’t you supporting her the way they thought you should?

You tried to ignore it. After all, what did these people know about your life, your relationship? But the comments kept coming, growing more pointed, more accusatory. "She’s not a real fan." "She doesn’t care about Alexia." "Why isn’t she at the games? Does she even love her?"

You had your own life, your own career, something you were deeply passionate about. It was one of the things that had drawn Alexia to you in the first place. Your independence, your ambition. She loved that you had your own goals, your own dreams, that you weren’t just riding on her coattails. You remembered the intimate moments you shared, like the time Alexia had whispered to you how amazing she found you, both in your quiet support and in the more passionate moments you shared behind closed doors.

Your independence, once a source of pride, was now being used against you. Each time you missed a match due to work commitments, the voices in your head grew louder, accusing you of failing Alexia. You remembered the quiet night at home when Alexia had pulled you close, her appreciation for your dedication and support evident in her every touch and word.

The harassment became relentless. Strangers flooded your social media accounts with messages questioning your dedication to Alexia, your love for her. They dissected your life, your every move, making you feel like you were under a microscope. You found yourself dreading the notifications on your phone, each one a reminder that you were failing in the eyes of people who didn’t even know you.

You began to pull back, retreating into yourself. The joy you once felt in your work started to dim, overshadowed by the guilt that you weren’t doing enough, that you weren’t enough. Every time you missed a match because of a work commitment, the knot in your stomach tightened, the voices in your head growing louder, telling you that you were letting Alexia down.

But you didn’t tell her. You couldn’t. Alexia had her own pressures to deal with, the weight of her team’s expectations, the demands of her career. The last thing you wanted was to burden her with your insecurities, to add to her stress. So you kept it to yourself, putting on a brave face whenever she was around, pretending that everything was fine.

The distance between you grew, not physically but emotionally. Alexia noticed, of course. She noticed how you hesitated before answering her questions, how your smiles didn’t quite reach your eyes anymore. She saw the way you seemed to shrink into yourself, how you avoided talking about your day, how you seemed to flinch whenever her phone buzzed with notifications.

Alexia turned to you, her expression soft with concern. "Is everything okay, mi amor?" she asked gently, her voice laced with worry. Her hand reached out to touch yours, her fingers brushing against yours in a reassuring gesture. You felt the weight of her concern, but your mind was miles away, overwhelmed by the pressure and negativity that had been festering online.

“Yeah, just tired,” you replied, forcing a smile that felt more like a mask than a true reflection of how you felt. Alexia's eyes searched yours, her concern deepening. She had always been able to read you like an open book, and the worry in her gaze spoke volumes.

“You’ve been saying that a lot lately,” she said softly, her thumb gently caressing your knuckles. “Are you sure there’s nothing else going on? It’s not just work, is it?”

The memory of holding Alexia’s hand during a media scrum, offering her quiet strength, flashed through your mind. You wanted to share your pain, to let her in, but fear of adding to her burdens kept you silent. Her touch was a comfort, but the weight of your own struggles felt heavy.

You wanted to tell her, to let it all out and let her comfort you, but the fear of being a burden kept your mouth shut. "I’m fine, Ale," you insisted, leaning into her touch. "Just a lot on my mind with work."

She didn’t push you, but you could tell she wasn’t convinced. And that only made you feel worse because you hated keeping things from her. You hated the way this was affecting your relationship, the way it was making you pull away from the person you loved most in the world.

You started coming home later and later, using work as an excuse to avoid confronting the growing chasm between you and Alexia. She would be waiting for you, her eyes searching yours for the connection that was slipping away. But no matter how much you wanted to reach out, to bridge that gap, you couldn’t find the words. The guilt was too overwhelming, the fear of disappointing her too paralyzing.

The final straw came one afternoon after a particularly grueling day at work. You had just finished a major project, one that had taken weeks of late nights and early mornings to complete. You should have felt proud, but all you felt was emptiness. The satisfaction that usually came with accomplishing something big was nowhere to be found, replaced by a gnawing sense of inadequacy.

On the way home, you stopped by a coffee shop for a quick pick-me-up. You were waiting in line when you overheard a group of people at a nearby table, talking about the latest football match. At first, you didn’t pay much attention, but then you heard Alexia’s name.

"I don’t know how she does it," one of them was saying. "She’s got so much going on, and her girlfriend’s hardly ever around."

"Yeah, I saw on Instagram that she wasn’t even at the last match," another person chimed in. "I don’t get it. If I were dating someone like Alexia, I’d be at every single game, no matter what."

"Maybe she’s just not that into her," someone else suggested, and that was the final straw.

The words felt like a knife twisting in your chest. You could hardly breathe as you heard the cruel speculation. Without even grabbing your coffee, you stumbled out of the shop, your hands trembling uncontrollably. The hurt and frustration you’d been trying so hard to contain broke free, leaving you feeling as if the ground had been pulled from beneath you.

The tears started to fall as you made your way home, each step feeling heavier than the last. The weight of the online harassment, the accusations, and the misunderstandings crashed over you like a relentless tide. By the time you reached your apartment, you were a raw, shaking mess. The sobs that escaped you were more than just tears, they were a release of all the pain and guilt that had been building up inside.

You didn’t even make it to the bedroom. You collapsed onto the living room floor, your body heaving with the force of your sobs. Every ounce of your despair, every fragment of fear and guilt, poured out in a cascade of emotion. The room felt small and oppressive, the silence only magnifying the depth of your anguish.

Alexia came home to find you there, and her heart shattered at the sight. She had been looking forward to a quiet evening with you, but now, seeing you so broken, all her worries crystallized into an urgent need to comfort you. Without a moment’s hesitation, she dropped to her knees beside you, her face etched with concern and heartache.

"Mi amor, what happened?" Her voice was a trembling whisper, her hands reaching out to cradle your face gently. “Tell me what’s wrong. I’m here, and I want to help.”

You tried to speak, but all that came out were choked sobs. Alexia’s arms wrapped around you, pulling you close, her warmth a balm against the cold, overwhelming grief. She rocked you softly, her breath hitching as she held you, her love and sorrow palpable in every touch.

“Please,” she murmured, her voice breaking, “I need to know what’s hurting you. I can’t stand seeing you like this. Let me in, mi vida.”

In the cocoon of her embrace, you felt the walls you had built around your pain start to crumble. The comfort of her presence, the sincerity in her voice, made the flood of tears even harder to contain. You clung to her, the rawness of your feelings spilling out uncontrollably. Through your sobs, you managed to whisper, “They think I don’t care. They think I’m not supportive... and I don’t know how to make it stop.”

Alexia’s eyes filled with tears of her own, her love and empathy evident as she held you tighter. “You’re more than enough, mi amor,” she said softly, her voice filled with fierce tenderness. “What they say doesn’t matter. What matters is us. I see all that you do for me, all the love and support you give. Don’t let them make you doubt yourself. I’m here with you, always.”

Her words, so full of love and reassurance, began to heal the wounds that had felt so deep. Alexia stayed with you, her embrace a constant reminder that you weren’t alone. In that moment, surrounded by her unconditional support, the pain began to ease, replaced by a fragile but hopeful sense of connection.

As the tears subsided, Alexia gently stroked your hair, whispering comforting words and holding you close. You knew that together, despite the outside noise and pressure, you could face anything. Her presence was a testament to the strength of your bond, a reminder that no matter how harsh the world could be, your love for each other was a sanctuary from the storm.

-

Note: I wrote this piece as a reminder that we often don't see the full picture of someone’s life. It's important to remember that kindness and understanding can make a world of difference. Let’s strive to support and uplift one another, rather than judging from the outside.

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