#online spaces. so. idk real bummer there.

[rimouskis]

hey can we go back to when my relatives were too afraid to espouse their upsetting political opinions to me and the rest of our polite family. just asking

[female-buckets]

The new smutty fans that have discovered Diana and Stewie and BG and other vets in the league are so fucking weird and honestly feel like they keep ruining this space which has otherwise been really chill and I used to come here over like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter because it was more chill and calm and people actually talked about hoops. But I feel like so many of them were already weird about college players this way and now that they've finally made the leap over into the WNBA and now all that weirdness is all over the WNBA spaces doing all that with all the vets. Idk, I've been watching for 10 years but you seem like you've been following the league for many more years, has this stuff always existed or were people just better at hiding it? Like the fanfic was bad enough when it was these people writing self insert getting it from players but starting to add players' friends and teammates to the mix of their stuff is just genuinely disorienting and strange. And they'll whine like omg just block us but I shouldn't have to keep blocking people because this nonsense KEEPS popping up from other people even after you get rid of one. Like can we just be normal and enjoy the hoops. If you wanna think players are hot, okay, we're not all blind. But some of this now is deeply weird and I honestly miss the WNBA before all of these people showed up. It's very much giving WOSO fandom when they'd constantly write smut and started writing ship stuff too left and right and eventually players' friendships got ruined or strained because it took on such a life of its own with that fandom. As far as I've known the WNBA has been spared of that, it's a bummer to think that might not be true anymore.

I've been on this website a while and I never saw any WBB smut on tumblr before May 2024.

I'm very attracted to a lot of these players. And I'm not shy about that online or offline. I love being obsessed with players. To me, obsession means needing to know what these players are doing and saying. I love to know their opinions on things.

But the RPF hobby is different because it's about turning real people into completely different characters. And that just doesn't interest me because I only care what these players think, not what anonymous writers think.

The boom in fanfiction has not led to a boom in other types of WNBA fan content on tumblr. So tumblr smut hobbyists aren't really participating in the full WNBA fandom. They're only using WNBA veterans as props for their hobby.

Only a dozen blogs consistently post about games and interviews and fun moments from practices. And I remember all those blogs existing before May 2024. So the safe-for-work side of WBB tumblr hasn't grown much. If this side of tumblr grew just as much as the NSFW side, I'd have no complaints. But the uneven growth is weird. There's other ways to appreciate basketball besides masturbating but you wouldn't know that if you were only on tumblr 😂

[kayliemusing]

24

When’s the last time you ran? Most likely during gym at school. It’s been awhile haha. Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them? Yes, but they’re made that way. What are you dreading right now? Going to work on Sunday. But at least I have a couple days off. Do you celebrate 420? No - I hate weed culture.

Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep at night? Roughly yes.

If anyone came to your house on your “lazy day” what would ya’ll do? Eat and watch movies or youtube. Who last grabbed your ass? no one. Have you ever been on your school’s track team? no Do you own a pair of converse? I used to, but I don’t own any anymore. Do you eat raw cookie dough? I love raw cookie dough!! Have you ever kicked a vending machine? No Don’t you hate it when radios ruin good songs by playing them over and over? yeah :( Do you watch Trading Spaces? No How do you eat oreos? Yes, I just had some not even an hour ago lol Have you ever stayed online for a long time waiting for someone? No Are you cocky? I don’t think so Could you live without a computer? No Do you wear your shoes in the house? No Who or what sleeps with you? My pillows, blankets, and sometimes my cat(s) will come cuddle. At what age did you find out that Santa wasn’t real? I never really believed in Santa. My dad didn’t want me to believe in Santa because he remembered being devastated as a kid when he found out lol. Kind of a bummer. How many phones are in your house, that includes cell phones? 3 What do you do when you’re sad? Sigh and stare longingly out of windows, spiral a little bit, journal, and listen to sad music. Do you know anyone born in the year 1985? Probably, but I don’t know who lol Who would you call first if you won the lottery? My mom Last time you saw your best friend? A couple months ago when she visited for christmas, but I see her virtually through snapchat every day. Are you in high school? No What jewelry are you wearing? A necklace. Is anyone on your bad side now? Yes When did reality become tv? IDK What’s the first thing you do when you get online? Scroll for endless hours. When did Motley Crue become classic rock? I’ve never heard of Motley Crue oops! When did Ozzy become an actor? Not sure. Do you watch Grey’s Anatomy? no. How do you most people spell your name? Kaylee or Kaley Would you wear a boy/girlfriends clothes? Probably their sweater or hoodie. Where do you work? At Sephora in the mall - I hate it! Lol. To be fair, I used to love it, but lately, I’ve really lost respect for the company for a couple reasons. What are you doing tomorrow? Staying home. I got my haircut the other day so I think I’m going to play around with it. Is Justin Timberlake becoming the next Michael Jackson? Not even close Where do you draw the line? Wherever I see fit Favorite name for a girl? I really like the name Leila/Lila Favorite boy name? I like the name Ryder a lot Will you keep your last name when you get married? No, because my last name is too long and I don’t like it. I hope I don’t marry someone with an even longer name lol When was the last time you left your house? Today. I went for a walk this afternoon because it’s getting nice again! Do you return your cart? Yes if it’s not super cold out lol Do you have a dishwasher? Yes What noise do you hear? Traffic. Family talking. Would you survive in prison? No. I’d think myself to death and I’d cry if anyone yelled at me. Who is the youngest in the family? Me! Road trip! Who would most likely overpack? My mom or maybe me. Do you know anyone with the same name as you? Yes, a few people. What’s the last thing you purchased? I think it was lash glue. Do your siblings ever pay for stuff for you? Yes, my sister does a lot. We kind of both alternate. What brand are your pants right now? Old Navy What brand is your digital camera? I don’t have a camera Do you own expensive perfume/cologne? Technically I do, but they’re both rollerballs lol. I have Her by Burberry and Perfect by Marc Jacobs Do you watch movies with your parents? Sometimes. Ever been to Georgie (the state)? No What irritates you the most? People nit-picking me.  Are you taking college classes right now? No, I just figured out what I want to do so I haven’t started lol Do you like sushi? I like California rolls and shrimp. Do you get your hair cut every month? No, I’m really bad at keeping up with it lol. I should be going once a month but nobody’s perfect Do you go online everyday? Absolutely.

[thedreamwolf]

hi buddy, i'm going to drop in and add a few things if that's okay, let me know if you'd like me to take this down! anyway, you are 100% right. most of the games we loved as kids are either long gone because their companies decided they're not profitable enough, or they've been warped beyond recognition of what we knew. of these examples, club penguin falls under the first, and roblox has definitely become the second.

it's been interesting (read: bad) seeing how marketed games have been changing. it's no longer enough to have one solid membership fee that is all a kid needs to have fun -- most companies have realized that they can make way more money using microtransactions to let people get ahead in multiplayer settings, so the old games that didn't use them got dropped to make way for more profitable ones. (yes, club penguin and toontown online do still have existing fan-made networks if you know where to look, but they definitely aren't being advertised as kids spaces like they used to be. and more often than not it's nostalgic teens and adults hanging out there now with less focus on being child-centered and child-friendly.)

i used to think that requiring a pricey membership to get full use of a kids game sucked, but these new games for kids are far worse. they're full of extra tiny things to buy that add up so fast. kids get into the habit of paying for more and more bonuses without the reasoning to understand their spending habits, and then they don't understand why spending several hundred dollars on a gacha game might be a bad thing. at least with webkinz you got a cute stuffed animal out of your purchases.

roblox is a key example of a game that started out as a membership-based game and became a hellscape. People Make Games did a couple of great videos recently that talk about how the current roblox exists to profit off of young gamers. as whathozier mentions, it's massively underregulated for a game where so many kids (teens, preteens, and lots of much younger kids too) hang out. while it used to be that a membership could get you way ahead, the current system tries to funnel as much real money into individual games as possible. idk if "builder's club" even still exists. even with the dramatic lack of moderation for these games, the entire system is designed to exploit kids' judgement and labor. which is really a bummer since it was so fun when we gen-z were kids! go check out the videos if you're interested, they explain it way better than i did.

i'm wondering too if the widespread prevalence of singleplayer games and apps has had an effect on kids' gaming too. but also, it's so much easier for kids to get wrapped up in grown-up spaces and interests at a young age, with so much exposure to youtube and tiktok and instagram and other adult-led networks. grown up platforms are funny! they're exciting! they cater to the same interests that the kids are growing into! they provide cool (and sometimes not morally great) role models for the kids to emulate as they learn how to grow up!

this all leads to kids getting interested in our games and platforms instead of having safe ones that are made for and marketed towards and interesting for kids. kid social groups are not focused on kids games. which isn't necessarily a bad thing except that these older spaces are not designed for kids. they're not the primary audience. so yeah, like op said, there are definitely safety measures that these kids need that are not being met in adult-centered spaces.

what is the solution? i have no idea. most games and platforms have a minimum age requirement that kids already don't pay attention to. lowering that and putting safeguards in place for younger kids means that games have to follow lots more legal standards that they often aren't willing to deal with. when the age rule is broken, it's assumed that the kids' parents are curating their online experiences and keeping them safe, but even parents can't keep an eye on everything when a child has this much access to the world. and there's nowhere popular and safe for them to redirect their internet-curious kids to anymore.

so, yeah. if you, the person reading this, care for kids in any capacity, please keep an eye on them and what they're doing on the internet?? it's really concerning what content they're getting into, and the scary stuff is much easier to find these days. at the same time, kids access to the internet is not going to decrease or go away. give the kids space to be themselves and develop their interests. give them as much privacy as you can. just learn to recognize the signs of harm or danger and step in if necessary.

not to be like ‘kids these days’ but im sort of disturbed by how there doesnt seem to be a modern equivalent of like. Webkinz or Club Penguin or PetpetPark or anything like that. Something made specifically FOR kids that was primarily occupied only BY kids and was well structured and polished and moderated and looked after to make sure nothing Devious was happening. All kids seem to have at their disposal now is like. Tiktok which is NOT the place for 9 year olds to be screwing around after school. Even Roblox which is a kids game is kind of a lawless hellscape no man’s land where nobody can really keep track of whats going on and make sure everything’s ok. Kids are like logging on with their parents ipad to serve in the trenches of world war one.