#posting at the ideal time for the algorithm

[suburbanbonfire]

our lady of flame

[punkrinn]

I LOVE all the theories coming out for Mydei right now.

3.3 Spoilers ahead

So far I've seen:

He and the Chrysos Heirs are algorithms devised by the Scepter to consistently run and reset the cycle and keep the Lord Ravager trapped.

He is a "firewall" designed to stop/slow the corruption of the Black Tide.

He and the other Calamity Titans are bugs that were never meant to be in the system, and the Scepter responds to the bugs by factory resetting itself.

He is a virus created by an outside source to set the Lord Ravager (Phainon) free.

He is a creation of Phainon's own will and what Phainon perceives to be the ideal hero.

The last one kind of goes hand in hand with the theory that Bandage Seal copies Blade's mannerisms because of Dan Heng's influence. Like the Scepter can warp/create things into existence based on a person's thoughts. (It's not a Rinn post unless I mention DH at least one time).

Amphoreus being run by an ancient super computer leaves so many possibilities open. Share your thoughts in the comments or ask box! I'm curious what other lore hogs think.

Personally I think Mydei/the Strife titan is a "firewall," but I want soo badly for the virus theory to be true. Like "Don't worry, my Lord Ravager. We'll get you out with the power of hot gay tension." Happy Pride Month I guess lmao

[watchersleuth]

I didn't think I'd use this blog to make a post like this, but I'm seeing more and more comments and posts criticizing Watcher for their recent decision to layoff their production staff, and I want to try to explain some things. I also have experience working in film and television production so I hope that's helpful in this case.

For background, on March 17, 2025 people discovered via LinkedIn that Katie LeBlanc had ended her employment with Watcher. This, of course, caused some alarm.

I'm not in the habit of sharing things posted in the Wiscord, but Shane did let everyone know an important detail that I think is getting overlooked

I want to point out the part where he said that they were taking some "full-time positions and converting them to freelance"

Note: Almost every US television show that you watch from a major network runs on a freelance model

Yes, that one that you're thinking of right now. Also that one. Most exceptions to this would be a show like a news program or talk show that runs year-round and doesn't only film for a few months out of the year. When a crew member is freelance and one job ends, they use their networking connections to find another job. That's the way it's been done for over a hundred years in Hollywood.

This isn't ideal for everyone, for many reasons. And of course it would be preferable to live in a society where we valued creative work and people could get steady employment and benefits from being in this, or any artistic, field.

That's why Watcher hired folks on full-time as soon as they could. Remember in the 2022 Making Watcher when Steven talked about how they doubled their staff from 10 to 21 and how they were reinvesting into their own company? That was by design to try to give as many creative folks a shot at a regular full-time gig and I'm so proud of them for that!

Knowing this, I would bet that Watcher didn't WANT to convert anyone to freelance positions. People need to stop talking about the layoffs like this is something they wanted to do. They told us last year that they were launching the streamer to stay afloat, because YouTube isn't as beneficial as it used to be for creators.

Not to sound parasocial, but if you think that any of the Watcher Founders wanted to layoff the staff that they've worked with for years - people that have been with them since Worth It and Unsolved - then you don't know them at all.

Even if you think that they laid off everyone just for fun, consider that now when Watcher wants to film a new season of say Puppet History they will need to ask their previous staff if their schedule aligns with their filming time so they can be hired on to work the shoot. If not, they will have to advertise or go word of mouth, to find crew. That's more time and resources spent to staff a shoot than pulling from their regular crew.

TLDR; There's no controversy behind this news. This is normal for many media companies and is what Watcher had to do to remain in business.

It's not ideal, and I wish the streamer would have been so successful that they could've went the other direction like they planned all along - to bring on new hosts and make the diverse shows they've wanted to since 2019.

If you want to help Watcher:

-Subscribe to Watcher TV if you can. They've been running constant promo deals for the past year so if you do get an annual subscription make sure you use the discount code. The banner is always on top of the site.

-Subscribe to their main and podcast channels on YouTube

-Watch the videos as they get uploaded to YouTube, even if you're already a Watcher TV subscriber. Try to watch within the first day or two of uploading to push it up the algorithm. Make sure you "like" it and leave a positive/friendly/funny comment too! YT is looking for engagement and watch time, so the likes and comments help. And so does watching the video all the way through. (Bonus: Watcher has been using audience comments from videos on their social posts and it's fun to see what they choose!)

-If you're short on time or don't want to rewatch a video you already saw on the streamer you can always put it on a separate tab on your browser and mute it. Let the new videos or your favorite playlist stream in the background while you surf the web!

-Share their videos with friends, family, co-workers, etc. The more people that watch them the better! The Watcher channel is one of the more diverse that I've seen on YouTube so there's something for everyone.

-Make posts about what you enjoy about their shows and you'll find more friends that way.

Thanks for everyone who read this far. Comments are open if anyone wants to ask general production questions and I'll try to answer. Probably can't speak for Watcher specifically but maybe I'll know the answer from a Making Watcher video I can point you to.

And if you read all of this and still feel like you want to choose chaos (ie. harassing Watcher via their social media posts with accusations about the economy that they can't control) then I would urge you to direct that energy at your elected officials no matter what country you're in, find a fandom you enjoy engaging with instead, and maybe go touch some grass.

[taffywabbit]

"why not just make your own website?"

with the announcement of cohost's death and amidst all the other tumultuous shit currently going on with social media as a concept (i am AMAZED twitter has survived this long given the circumstances), one suggestion that i've been hearing a lot is "we should just go back to the good old days of personal websites. let's all just make neocities pages!!"

(this is gonna be a long one sorry)

and like. idk! it's certainly something i've considered, i think it would be a fun thing to have, but it also feels like the equivalent of "capitalism sucks so let's all just run off into the woods and live in a cabin outside of society" to me. like it would be nice, it would be fun, but it doesn't ultimately solve the actual problems that are present with the modern internet, it just evades them. more importantly in my case and many others, it does not really help people who rely on the modern internet and the connections they're able to make there for their income. sure i can make a website and host my art and blog posts there, but who's going to see it? i can't build a consistent audience and make a living off of random passersby who peek at my website once, say "huh, neat!" and MAYBE add it to an RSS feed or whatever if they really like it. there's minimal potential for meeting and impressing new people outside my existing circles if i don't ALSO still have some manner of social media platform to promote the website on.

a lot of the "solutions" i see people proposing for the slow, painful decline of social media as a user experience keep coming back to old-fashioned, more isolated/insular systems. we miss forums, we miss personal webpages, we miss newsletters, etc etc. but like... those things were ideal in the "old web" because the old web was more about sharing hobbies and interests with whoever happened to pass by and check them out, and even just USING the internet was a niche hobby in and of itself for a lot of people. if you wanna be kinda cynical about it (and not unjustifiably so), web 2.0 is much more blatantly business-oriented, and its algorithms and carefully crafted UX's are primarily meant to funnel you towards viewing ads and spending money on products. looking at it that way, it sure does suck and Everything Was Better Before! but the modern web is ALSO more powerful than anything before it for just like. connecting people. spreading information and news. showing your art/music/writing/thoughts/etc to strangers who never knew you existed an hour ago. putting the tools to reach out to someone and tell them you think they're cool right there on the same website where their art is hosted, just a comment or a message away.

if you're able to avoid patterns of engagement-bait and obsessing over follower counts as a measure of self-worth (a big "if", i realize, but i view it like installing an adblocker - it's just kind of a basic prerequisite for modern internet safety and survival), a lot of these systems can genuinely be really positive and life-changing in ways that were simply not possible 20 years ago! almost all of my current closest friends are people I met through sharing our art on platforms like Twitter who were complete strangers at the time. all of the art clients that regularly pay my bills and support my work came from places like that too! the "social" part of "social media" is really what makes it ultimately worth keeping around in any form, and makes the pursuit of a Good social media platform still valuable.

there's a lot to love about the old web - its aesthetics, simplicity and freedom for personal expression - but every time someone says "just delete your socials and make a personal website" i am forced to confront the fact that i could never do what i currently do or be the person i am on the old web. if i was stuck hanging out in my own little space and only ever interacting with people who openly and loudly share my interests, i couldn't support myself with art full-time, i probably would never have met the kind and quiet strangers who are now my best friends and have made me who i am, and i'd just generally get a lot less insight into the vast range of experiences and perspectives that exist outside of my own. my life would be on a fundamentally different trajectory in countless ways without the advent of web 2.0.

and that's not to say "well twitter and facebook and tumblr all suck but you kinda still have to hand it to them" cuz you don't, obviously. they're corporations, and their job is to take the personalities and thoughts and art of the people who use their products and try to scrunch it all into something uninform and marketable that generates profit and pleases their shareholders. but like, you CAN still make a good thing out of them! these websites are tools just as much as geocities or myspace or IRC used to be. and the one thing these newer tools are pretty much all REALLY good at is discoverability. if you're just a hobbyist at the things you wanna share on the internet, then you likely don't have a lot of use for those tools, and perhaps you WOULD genuinely be happier just keeping a personal blog site or hanging out in private groupchats or sticking to specialized federated Mastodon instances or whatever. it just isn't feasible for me, and there are a LOT of people in my same situation. my entire industry of online freelance artists barely existed 20 years ago, and the web culture of that era is largely incompatible with my continued survival in the mid-2020s. i would LOVE to run off and live in the woods in concept, but all my survival skills are adapted for city living and i would just eat the wrong berry and die out there. i want- i NEED people to try and improve the spaces we're in, and support better forms of social media (like what cohost was trying and largely succeeding to do!) instead of just complaining that it all sucks, everything was better when we were kids, and digging ourselves little holes to hide in. much like all the other problems and frustrations and systemic issues of the world we live in, the modern web isn't going to go away if you just ignore it, so we may as well try to make it better for everyone.

anyways tl;dr i probably WILL make a neocities at some point. it could be fun, even if it doesn't help my career stability or whatever. but i do also need ALL THE SOCIAL PLATFORMS I USE FOR MY JOB TO STOP EXPLODING PRETTY PLEASE, and failing that, some actual half-decent alternatives that aren't going to fizzle out in a month would also be great thanks ✌

[deoidesign]

I hate you social media. I hate you "content creation" I hate you algorithms I hate you ideal posting times I hate you posting 5 times a day I hate you unavoidable engagement statistics. I hate you art advice that's to simplify, consider how well it will sell, make it a product, get on trends, trends trends trends! I hate the advice to go viral!

I'm sick of the grind I'm sick of "content creation" I'm sick of side hustles and small business! I'm sick of being profitable!!! I just want to post my art and talk to people about art!!!!!!!!!!!

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I love watching youtube videos about tiktok and influencer drama, mainly because I'm completely disconnected from stuff like that (I have never watched an influencer video in my life) so it gives me the thrill of true crime without the tragedy exploitation aspect, but sometimes I also feel completely disconnected from the youtubers too?

Like every youtuber has to offer up a million disclaimers about how they aren't judging influencers or whatever and that's usually fine but like. I do feel that there ARE points where people need to be judged for the content they're sharing and promoting and profiting off of!

"I'm not judging tradwives or saying their content is bad—" I am!! I am absolutely judging tradwives! Extremely harshly! Because the entire "tradwife" movement is conservative propaganda based on misogynistic and patriarchal ideas about history with no basis in reality or in our modern world! And tradwife influencers explicitly target young women and especially teen girls and try to convince them to put their entire lives in the hands of their husbands, which is a horrific recipe for domestic abuse!

These women making hundreds of thousands of dollars off tiktok videos (and often coming from extremely wealthy families) are out here telling young girls that they don't need an education, that they don't need their own income, that if they're just pretty enough and obedient enough then they'll find a rich husband and never have to worry about anything ever and it's fucking scary! And I don't know why we are tolerating it!

We know what happens when people, especially women, give up complete control to their partners. We know what that leads to, resentment and extreme control and total lack of options when things go from totally fine to constant arguing to violence. These influencers, who ARE making extremely significant personal incomes from their jobs as influencers online, lie through their fucking teeth about how perfect it is that their husbands do everything for them and all they have to do is take care of the kids and home (with the help of nannies and housekeepers and personal chefs off-screen. . .) and about how they've escaped from capitalism, meanwhile the people actually in those situations who AREN'T making all that extra cash are either already in abusive relationships or they're in incredibly precarious positions where they could end up abused or thrown out with nothing in an instant.

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be a homemaker or stay-at-home parent. I don't think it's wrong to not want to go to college or have a 9-5.

But you NEED options. You need full access to your own money that can't be monitored or controlled by a partner. You need access to a vehicle. You need a life outside of your home and family, especially friends who are willing and able to help you if needed. You need the ability to survive on your own in some way. Because if and when things go wrong in the relationship, THOSE are the things that will save your life.

Also remember that again, these tradwives DO have jobs and their jobs involve selling a fake lifestyle and fake ideals. They are getting paid BIG TIME for the shit they peddle to you, whether that's through the millions of views they get (both from genuine fans and from haters, the algorithm doesn't know or care about the difference) or the many sponsorships they get, they have incomes that they are not disclosing. They have help that they are not disclosing. Many of them started out with extreme wealth but lie through their teeth and cosplay as fucking homesteading peasants. It's all a lie to sell shit to you. Don't buy it.

Disclaimer: Please do not nitpick this post, it's very late and I'm ranting and if this leaves my circle of followers I will regret it deeply. Be nice. Tradwives dni, you're all annoying.

[insert-something-funy-here]

MUEHEHEHE >:)

CHAT IT'S SILLIES TIME!!!!

For those who didn't see before I deleted it, sometime ago, I made a post about an idea for an AU I have where Biograft is sentient enough for Medkit leaving Blackrock to affect him (and on top of that, that's how he discovers his own sentience). I spent a couple hours writing cus I got inspired! Biograft doesn't yet realize he's sentient, so I think (if people like thus enough) I'll make a pt2 to this cus I have ideas for where this could go!! (Tbh, I'll probably do it regardless of if people like it or not, but still!!!)

Edit: Am in fact making this a series

This is the start || Part 2

An error. A simple miscalculation. Making breakfast for two, when there was only one here who could eat. Opening the door to an empty, and uncharacteristically clear room. No phighter for me to wake. Green flowers at the bedside now wilting from missing… from his absence. It was odd how he would “heal,” them every other morning. I don't have such an ability, being created for the opposite of healing. Most iterations of me anyway.

I should throw those away before they begin to rot. It’s been a week now. Or I could leave them. Perhaps after such long-term exposure to his crystal, they will last longer than regular flowers. That’s all this is, testing a hypothesis. I can leave them a little longer, just to see the results.

New connections have started forming in my programming. One of me was out collecting materials for Subspace, and I saw those flowers again. When I saw them, what came to mind wasn’t any data about it, not its place of origin, ideal habitat, or its potential uses, but the memory of seeing Medkit reverse the effects of time on the ones he kept. Yet another odd error.

I asked Subspace to help me troubleshoot these recent errors. We came to the same conclusion of there being something in my software. He checked, said that my algorithms had been evolving rapidly and creating a new type of data, which could have been overwhelming the system and causing these errors. But what caused that spike in complexity? The only thing to have changed recently outside of myself is that his presence is no longer here. Subspace hasn’t given me any new updates, and such drastic change has never happened without Subspace’s intervention before. There is no reason for me to have change unless my creator requests it or it is within his benefit for me to do so on my own time. This isn’t benefiting anyone, so why is it happening? And why didn’t Subspace fix me?

He said even though he himself had no idea of the catalyst of these changes, with refinement, they gave the opportunity to lead wonderful new breakthroughs. Yet I find myself still unable to understand, which only in turn creates further lack of understanding. How am I unable to see what it is my creator wants from me? Why don’t I understand the results he wishes for?

Why do I ask and hesitate now instead of proceeding onward as I always have?

What makes life?

The definition I was programmed with was, “the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.”

Am I alive?

I fit 2.5 of the important descriptors. I have the capacity for artificial change and growth (but it is not continual) and functional activity. I have the ability to die. To its simplest point, is living not just the absence of death?

Perhaps I mean to ask if I have sentience?

Is there a difference between chemical and code if they both have the potential to react irrationally to stimulus, be it internal or external?

Could this metal exterior be made metaphorical flesh?

One of me was out at the Crossroads today. I saw him, yet I did not attack. He is a wanted traitor, and I had the opportunity to pursue him, yet I didn’t. He saw me, and he didn’t run, even though he should have.

When I saw him, I thought of those flowers again. It’s been a month now. They’ve dried out but haven’t rotted yet. I should’ve thrown those away the same way I should’ve gone after him, without hesitation.

For some reason, part of me wanted to follow him, not to bring him back, but to see how he is now. Perhaps he would be able to explain why I’ve changed. What a strange hypothesis. Perhaps one worth further investigation.

It’s happened a few more times now. It’s been 4 months since his leave. Every time I see him, I act as though I haven't. I believe he’s caught on that I do it on purpose. I don’t know why I have this inability to approach him first. I think this “test” ends here. How unsatisfactory, with no results to show for it.

Is this cowardice? I think I better understand the concept outside of its definition now.

He stopped me as I went to leave this time. He pulled me aside into a nearby alley. Why? We stared at one another in an uncomfortable silence. Could silence be comfortable?

He asked me what I was doing. I asked him to clarify. He asked why I hadn’t been trying to go after him whenever Subspace wasn't around. I had no response. I moved on and told him something within me changed, but I couldn’t figure out what. He seemed confused but told me to continue. I told him about the errors, some of my questions, and about the flowers.

Something in the way he looked at me changed. He understood something about me that I did not. I couldn’t recognize what it was he held towards me with his gaze, but he stepped closer, and I let him

Innocent hands, covered in blood, not mine or its own, that wished to hold onto me. Sorrow grips us both.

I flew away to a false sky before my wings could be fully clipped, but left you, a fish in a bird cage. I can't take you to the water, but let me bring you drops of the sea.

“Even you need to rest and grieve… I missed you too.”

New ideas I had yet to understand.

I felt his arms wrap around me and an intense sensation rushed through me, it wore at me, as the waves do to a coastline, until I was left with nothing but the soothing sounds of the ocean.

[astrotruther]

The problem with manifestation tumblr

Spiritual bypassing wrapped in capitalism & consumerism

This will be my last post. It’s something I've been wanting to talk about for a while. I’m not deleting anything — I’m happy with the astrology I’ve shared and I hope it finds whoever needs it. → Masterlist

If you follow the spiritual side of tumblr, you’ve probably seen posts on dream reality, manifestation, being the It girl or that girl—most of them recycling the same ideas. On the surface, it all looks aesthetic & empowering—quotes in cool fonts, moody photos & affirmations. But the more you look at it, the more it starts to look like the same oppressive social standards—just cosplaying as enlightenment.

Let’s start with the obsession with looks. While beauty can be a ritual, a way to honor yourself, what I see in these posts is something else entirely. It’s not self-love—it’s a rebranded form of consumerism and comparison.

People are idealizing celebrities / models / influencers—who, by the way, have full-time stylists, makeup artists, personal trainers, access to cosmetic dermatologists, nutritionists, professional photographers, photoshop editors etc. Even they don’t look like their photos in real life. That “effortlessly perfect” look? It’s a job. It's production. Not be mean but the most mid-looking person can become a celebrity with the right amount of connections & money.

Speaking of money, there’s this hyper-fixation on being a millionaire, manifesting designer things etc. And I have to ask: When did manifesting become a competition to become the richest, most "luxury" version of yourself?

Manifestation is a spiritual process rooted in inner alignment and honest, embodied living. It’s not about pretending you’re rich while ignoring your emotional wounds. It’s not about bypassing reality or skipping the very human steps of growth, grief, healing, or patience. There’s an overemphasis on avoiding your current reality—which just feels like being told you’re not enough, but with moon emojis and affirmations slapped on top.

I have desires too. Sure, I’d love my hair to grow longer and fuller, but not once have I thought Blake Lively is better than me. (And I’m not even talking about recent controversies—I’m entirely opposing celebrity culture.) I don’t want these people anywhere near my spiritual work. Strip away the manufactured looks, and you’ll find so much ugliness: plagiarizing from smaller artists, scamming their own fans, and more. Their "bag" is often built on exploitation.

They’re the biggest propagators of consumer culture, so let’s treat them as such. Enjoy the product—watch their films, bop to their music—but don’t make their lives (which you know nothing about) your "dream reality".

I’m not trying to gatekeep spirituality. But when self-worth becomes based on how closely you resemble a Pinterest vision board, that’s not spirituality—that’s a coping mechanism. This discourse should be more nuanced, such as:

"You don’t need to be perfect to be powerful."

“There’s nothing wrong with refining your looks or taking care of yourself. Just don’t let consumerism convince you that beauty is one-size-fits-all. Your unique beauty doesn’t need to be informed by whatever celebrity the algorithm is currently hyping.”

"You’re still magnetic even when you’re soft, sad, or unseen."

🌻 What Might Help:

If you’ve been spiraling because you don’t look like the aesthetic girl in your feed, or you’re tired of pretending to feel "high-vibe" all the time—here’s something to remember:

Being true to yourself is more powerful than being glamorous.

Authenticity will always outlast aesthetic trends.

That’s where real magic lives—not in whether you’re "that girl", but whether you’re the realest version of you: messy, honest, alive.

[teru-byte-dev]

Introducing @teru-byte, the sockpuppet detector (among other things)

Something I've always hated about online forums is trolls repeatedly making new accounts to continue their mayhem with impunity.

They're everywhere. It does not matter if you're on Tumblr or Discord or Reddit or a dedicated forum, they will keep coming back well after they ought to be shooed off.

There are many different kinds of trolls. Some are just nuisances. Some spam. Some try to get a reaction. Some are much more crafty about trying to get a reaction. Some will do and say and send and post deplorable things.

Some enjoy their reputation as troublemakers. Some take refuge in anonymity. It is the latter type that @teru-byte was made to address.

Over some 3am brainstorming sessions and showers, my brain combined some disparate facts I knew to form an amazing discovery in language analysis. Sadly I cannot share the discovery publicly because it is what gives power to @teru-byte.

@teru-byte is a bot I have worked for a long time to bring to life, and it's finally ready. Given sufficient data, it can accurately determine the author of given writing. No, it does not use “AI.”

I waited until I was very confident in its ability before going public, because a single misfire could be ruinous. It still errs on the side of caution, by design. The false negative rate of approximately 50% is worth the near complete erasure of false positives.

Some might say this is “feeding the trolls.” If I believed it was, I would not be doing this. I counter that if a troll is hiding behind an array of alternate accounts, it is because they are terrified of reputation. Even a troll who does not immediately reveal themself in order to further their chaos will readily do so when they are found out, if they enjoy the spotlight. If they do not enjoy the spotlight, the prospect of reputation is horrifying.

In addition, knowing it's the same user can aid in learning other patterns, even more so on the administrator side of things. Extra punishment or deterrents are available when a user is provably evading bans or blocks.

I am debuting this project on Sysblr because I hardly know of a more ideal environment. There are dozens (not hundreds or a handful) of active users here who consistently keep coming back to write hundreds or thousands of words weekly, with easily accessible and very expansive account histories. And indeed, some trolls to catch.

Presently, @teru-byte has 1 publicly accessible command: revealing some statistics about a specified user, as proof of work in lieu of being able to publicly discuss the algorithm running the sockpuppet detection, for it is very easy to circumvent given knowledge of how it works.

I suspect these blogs will rarely be visibly active by next week. @teru-byte is designed more to strike like a bolt of lightning upon unsuspecting lowlifes.

The name is half pun and half a reference to the Death Note character Mikami Teru, who traded half his lifespan for the Shinigami Eyes which allow the user to see the true name of anyone they look at.

[ondeadpeasantgirls]

i just want to ask if you fully understand how matching into a residency works? bc I may be understanding your post about who fell into an ER residency incorrectly…

“Fell into” means lack of intentionality/planning in my post not something derogatory.

Sounds like you already know how it works but for anyone who doesn’t (and my own future reference); from my research, in the US med students apply for a specialty prior to what’s called Match Week. After interviews, submitting their resume, etc. their information is fed into an algorithm that’s designed to help determine who’s most likely to be successful in that chosen specialty. They're allowed to apply for multiple specialties (it seems to be encouraged). Additionally, there’s a thing called SOAP where students who don’t match before Monday of Match Week submit rapid fire applications and do interviews for different specialties/residency programs than the one they originally wanted. Ideally someone who ends up in SOAP will get matched by Friday of Match Week when residencies are announced. Per TikTok, the Emergency Medicine (and this source which states only ~ 2/3 of the spots were filled) is one of the least competitive specialties rn. It seems like residents can change specialties (and interns spend some time in specialties that they aren’t doing their residency in) and move between affiliated hospitals sometimes. Therefore it’s reasonable to think that someone on the Pitt crew picked ER as a back up plan or went through the SOAP process.

[roaldseth]

Need to just let some frustrations out with the “migration to Bluesky” because it’s been 3 days and I can’t dispel this by my usual means.

For the unaware, due to some TOS changes to Twitter, people really have finally started moving over to Bluesky in droves. There’s something like over 18m people now, which I am happy for, however that’s been putting a lot of positivity on my feed that… has rubbing against my grain if only because I’m a plane that got shot down and never came back to be counted amongst the statistics. Me—and probably tons of other small artists/accounts—are finding things just as equally as difficult, discouraging, and despairing as they always have been.

“Create what you like and your people will find you!” “It’s so refreshing to see that so many artists are getting love now because we don’t have to deal with shitty algorithm problems!”—they’re nice sentiments, but once again I’m forced to remember these kind of posts are not for me or regarding me, and they never will be. I’m an undesirable no one will ever care about and it does kinda feel like the “everyone deserves success, except you.”

People always say “create for yourself” but honestly it doesn’t matter if I do or don’t because the result is usually the same either way. “Create for yourself” also doesn’t consider that a point of why I create for myself is the slim hope of finding the people that supposedly will come.

And as someone who was the “weird kid” in school and found solace online because it was easier to make things smaller to then also be “rejected” by it, it really drives home that the problem is me and it always has been me and I really do wish that I was just a living vision of an average person. I certainly think things would be kinder.

It’s ironic too. There was one brief moment in time on Twitter where I felt like I was perhaps alright, had the most fun I’ve ever had, and it was when there was an algorithm and Likes showed up on timelines. But that’s no more anywhere. The rug was yanked out and I was left to go back to thinking “oh right,” and here we are. I worked from bad art to slightly less bad art, and now that I feel like I finally have something somewhat passable as presentable, it still doesn’t work.

And I know 10 years ago my art and writing was shit! I wouldn’t want to have followed me either and there were so many times I wanted to quit while being quite literally depressed! I still look back and think I should have, I should just stopped long ago because I will not be missed, but for some godforsaken reason I am still here and I hate it.

The one holdout that says it all worked out is that I do find people, they are the others like me who have dirt lawns and simply dream of having grass at all, and we find each other. And I know this is true, and honestly my ideal situation, but because it’s not the thing I think I want in my head, I reject it. But in the end I don’t know how to switch over to being okay with what is and not the vision of what I think will make me happy.

[nightwonder7]

hi!! this isnt a nortalice ask or anything related to idv (ok MAYBE just a little related to idv but not rlly that much!!!!). erm idk if u'd answer a question like this, but i want to shoot my shot bc i rlly like ur art and i look up to u as an artist!!! uhhh,,, i was wondering about how u grow as an artist on social media? especially on this platform bc i rlly do want to gain more traction as it is my goal to be a well-known artist!!! (twitter is ok, but i want to expand my horizons!!)

if ur not comfortable answer questions like these, feel free to disregard!!! sorry for bothering (>< ;

Aw thank you so much!! ;//A//;

And no bother at all! ^w^ Thank you for your question! Unfortunately, I don't really have any good answers for you. I feel like I just got lucky. I've been posting art here and on a few other platforms for quite some years now, and gone through a few fandoms during that period. Some did better than others, but it wasn't until I got into IDV that my art began to consistently get more traction than before. Not saying I'm a big artist by any means, mind you. It might have been a result of there being more people in the IDV fandom compared to other fandoms I'm in/have been in.

One thing I will say is that it's important that you make art of the things you like and are passionate about. It's better to attract people who are interested in the things you like making than to make things you don't really like if it means attracting a bigger crowd.

But if there is any types of tips I can think of that might help get your art noticed here, posting consistently comes to mind. Tumblr doesn't use algorithms like Instagram for example, so not posting consistently shouldn't penalize you here (correct me if I'm wrong). But having your art show up in the tags consistently will have people who frequent those tags notice. Use relevant tags and tag your posts properly, for that's how people discover new artists and people with common interests. Just don't fill the tags with content that has nothing to do with it. Certain times during the day are more ideal to post than others, but I'm really not sure when those are... You might want to experiment a bit. If you have a following on Twitter, you can always promote your Tumblr there so people over there can find you here as well.

Sorry I can't be of much more help ^^; I wish you luck on your endeavors! If anyone has any other tips, please leave them here in the notes for the anon to see!

[creamsicle-art]

Game Development in Raylib - Week 1

Recently I've been getting into retro game development. I don't mean pixel art and PSX style game development, those are nice but they don't quite scratch the itch. I'm talking about developing games with retro tools. Because of this, I decided to give Raylib a try.

For those of you who don't know, Raylib is a C framework targeted at game developers. Unlike Godot, which I used for my previous project Ravager, Raylib is not a game engine, it doesn't offer physics, scene management, or any kind of graphics more complicated than drawing textures to the screen. Almost everything that makes a game a game, is something you have to do yourself. This makes it ideal to scratch that "retro" itch I've been feeling, where everything has to be made on my own, and a finalized game is a fine tuned engine entirely of my own creation. Raylib offers bindings for almost any language you can think of, but I decided to use it's native C.

Setting the Scene

Since Raylib is so barebones, there's no concept of how the game should be built, so the first thing I had to do was define my engine architecture. For this initial outing, I decided to build a simple Scene+Actor system, wherein at any given time the game has one Scene loaded, which contains multiple Actors. I settled on this mainly because it was simple, and my experience with the C language was very limited.

Since Raylib didn't have any concept of a Scene, naturally it had no way to build them. While I could just hardcode all the entities and graphics in a scene, that would be unmanageable for even a basic game. Because of this I was forced to invent my own way to load scenes from asset files. This gave me the opportunity to do one of my favorite things in programming, defining my very own binary file type. I won't get into it too much right here and right now, but in this format, I can define a scene as a collection of entities, each of which can be passed their very own long string of bytes to decode into some initial data.

The main drawback of using binary files instead of a plaintext format is that I can't write the level files by hand. This meant that I had to write my own level editor to go along with my custom engine. Funnily enough, this brought me right back to Godot. The Godot engine offers some pretty powerful tools for writing binary files, and it's editor interface automatically offers everything I need in the way of building levels. It's sort of ironic that my quest to get away from modern engines lead me to building yet another tool in Godot, but it sure as hell beats building a level editor in C, so I don't really mind all that much.

Getting Physical

After getting scene management out of the way, I moved on to the physics system. My end goal here is making a simple platforming game, so I wanted a simple yet robust system that allows me to have dynamic-static physics that allows for smooth sliding along surfaces, and dynamic-dynamic collisions for things like hitboxes. For the sake of simplicity (which seems like it's going to become my catchphrase here) I decided to limit physics to axis aligned rectangles. Ultimately I settled on a system where entities can register a collision box with the physics system and assign it to some given layers (represented by bit flags). Then entities can use their collision box to query the physics system about either a static overlap, or the result of sweeping a box through space.

Raylib offers built in methods for testing rectangle overlap, so I didn't have to worry much about overlap queries, but the rectangle sweeping method is something a little more special. The full algorithm honestly deserves it's own post, but I'll give the basics here. The core of the algorithm is a function that determines where along a movement a given rectangle touches another rectangle, and that edges of the rectangles touched. It makes use of the separating axis theorem to determine when the shapes will start and stop intersecting along each collision axis. If the last intersection happens before any have ended, then the shapes do collide, the axis they collide on is that final axis, and the time of collision is the time of the final intersection. Looking back I could easily extend this algorithm to any arbitrary shape, but that's for next time I do this.

Going Forwards

My plan for this game is to build a minimal metroidvania style game. The target playtime is probably going to only be around 30-45 minutes. In the following week I plan on building out my Godot level editor, and working out a system for scene transitions and managing sound effects. I hope to by done by the end of November.

[nommi707]

Blog Post #2 - Week 3

What exactly is "cyberfeminism"? In Daniels' article, they define cyberfeminism as the relationship between gender and digital culture, showing how they can both impact each other positively and negatively. Originally, the "old" cyberfeminism was targeted towards advocating and supporting women in cyberspaces against the vision that women were corrupting spaces with male-dominated patriarchy as women attempted to advocate for their own choices. However, the meaning of cyberfeminism has since evolved and broadened its term, advocating for not only women but also those who face oppression in corrupt hierarchies. When we think of the word "feminism," it is often tied to the image of women empowering other women in fighting for what they think will benefit the role of females, but in reality, it's more tied to uplifting oppressed communities against higher powers who want to take these rights away; with cyberfeminism, it takes these same ideals but online as these issues are not just seen physically. Even though many topics are targeted toward women, it does not mean that the cause will only help those who identify as a woman, but it will help pave a path for those who may experience aggression against them no matter who they are.

Is there a difference between men and women's presence online? Much of society is actively integrating itself into the digital world, with recent statistics stating that 5.44 billion people in the world, or around two-thirds of the population, have some sort of internet access. Yet, it is seen that women are the "poorest" global citizens in the digital era, often disregarded for their presence online, and it has not shifted much as to how women are treated and seen in a while. Despite that, women have an ongoing increasing rate of participation online even more than men, but why is that? Daniels dives into this topic, pointing out that those who feel excluded from mainstream society try to include themselves online as there is less restriction and it allows them to "see themselves as protagonists of the revolution". This means that it allows not only women but all others who are victim of this "exilement" from society to feel safe online in expressing their own being without the restraint of the general public stopping them from actively participating. It does not mean that there are no restrictions, but it provides an additional platform and essentially a "safe space".

How safe is it to implement algorithms into our daily lives? With the use of technology, it's almost default that the use of algorithms is being seen. With social media, it is used to provide more information and posts about things that interest us while also providing similar content that could pique our attention. But what about in our daily lives outside of our screens? In Nicole Brown's video, she mentions the high use of algorithms within healthcare. The United States is very populated, so using these algorithms would help in efficiency as well as decision-making. However, Brown found an article from the Washington Post that dives into how that might not be the best decision. She finds that the algorithm program, Optum, uses future healthcare spending as a proxy for future disease, and since white people are seen more as having better access to healthcare, the program caters to them as they use more healthcare compared to any other groups and deems white individuals as "more ill". This poses a problem not only towards healthcare, but to the general public as well since it creates racially biased outcomes without using race. Although technology can have its benefits, the increased use in implementing it everywhere becomes a problem as issues like this can pop up, and there can be times where there might not actually be a solution, raising the question if we can truly allow this to keep happening. As a society, we keep relying on such technology that we often miss the flaws of it.

Do we shift the blame onto technology for shaping our perspectives or do we account for our own actions for the way that we as a society handle problems relating to racial biases? Brown raises the question that "If we as a society can not or will not address anti-blackness, how do we expect to create technology that will fix it?", posing it that it is more of our own actions that add on to the problem rather than technology itself. Her previous examples relate more to the black community, but it still paints the picture of what many oppressed groups have to go through in a society that prioritizes white individuals. Technology such as AI learns based on our own actions we make on the Internet, and uses what it learns to provide results back to us. In the end, technology like algorithms are just abtractions, or an extension of our society's values and beliefs on certain topics and people; if we continue to think the same way as we do without change, technology will only reflect back these narrow ideologies and put society in a continous loop until someone or something makes that change. The argument can also go the other way where technology does have some fault in shaping our ideals, mainly towards younger generations who are growing up in this era of modern technology. Since they grow up with the use of technology, it creates this integrated bias on such topics because they rely so much on technology as their source of information compared to those who did not grow up with technology and can be more wary about what they see online.

Daniels, J. (2009). Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment. WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly 37(1), 101-124.

Brown, N. (2020, September 18). Race and Technology [Video]. Youtube.

[vannie429]

I can’t tell you how freeing it is to disengage with things you don’t like.

And I wish we didn’t live in a culture where you can monetize engaging with things you dislike.

I’ve been anti live action Disney movie since maleficent came out because I knew it was going to be the start of a never ending cycle if it succeeded. I didn’t want to be a figure that encourages them to make more.

And so many people I know kept reliving the same cycle, posting in Facebook about how excited they were when Disney announced they were remaking *insert movie here* then posting their dream cast, followed by some arguments over how it ended up being cast. Then to finally see the movie and (surprise!) be disappointed.

Then they repeated it all over again, like gambling, hoping the next try would scratch that itch. Meanwhile their children are not only getting sorry excuses of movies to latch onto as “their generations ‘lion king’” or whatever…but they also lose so much media literacy in learning that these versions their seeing are the “real” ones, not learning to value artistic mediums and instead looking to their parents to learn that “real” is “better.”

But no, cuz fuckin Nostalgia Critic and that annoying red head and every subsequent YouTuber and tiktoker needs to make their bag which is videotaping themselves saying that the obviously bad movie turned out to be bad.

Idk if that last paragraph is just me telling on myself, showing my algorithm, but I need to complain about it. It annoys me when people say they’re film buffs and cry and whine, begging Hollywood to make better movies….and yet they directly support the system with their hate watching.

Same with the Oscar’s. I can’t tell you the last time I watched it, but once I was in college and understood movies a bit more, and saw just how little people cared about Animation as a medium. (Maybe it was Frozen that made me quit the Oscars and eventually all awards shows). It’s so obviously not about merit….its just an asshole licking competition so people can get a few laurels that will earn them more money and faux prestige. The academy is a business first and foremost and is more about projecting an idealization of Hollywood to the masses than it is about truly commending artistic achievement.

It should have been obvious with Greatest Showman and its vapid, nothing message about being true to yourself and your passion for exploiting disabled people. But it wasn’t and we ate it up.

But if this year’s butt-licking over Emelia Perez doesn’t just shine a spotlight for everyone over how BS the Oscar’s are….then there’s no hope that people will ever get out of the cave.

Sorry for this obnoxious rant but I just used to be so passionate about movies and media and I just hate the industry more and more each year….and at the end of the day movies and tv shows are PIVOTAL players in how we learn to understand media (esp since most people just done read anymore). And if you can’t learn to break down messages and themes of a movie… what technical tricks they may use to make it /seem/ like a “good” movie…..what hope do you have of sniffing out the bull shit in real public media. In the PR stunts of Trump and anyone else who is so efficient at weaponizing media to their advantage.

[thejhazfiles]

Student Diaries #1: The Constant Comparison Dilemma

Last week, I was exploring college campuses and weighing my options. However, whenever I open my for-you-page in Instagram, I always can’t help but feel down. Everyone is accomplishing amazing things while I still feel left behind. It’s like everyone knows what they’re doing but me. Every post and reel, the constant nagging thought of me being the only one struggling with their goals always consumes me. In the end, I fall to the doom-scroll and self-pity hole.

It’s a never-ending miserable cycle. You think you feel fine at first, but then you see a post of a loud influencer telling you to do this and that. They tell you to always be on the grind—to keep up the hustle culture or else you failed your ancestors. That isn’t to say loud posts are all you see in the media, but there are gentle ones too. However once you’re deep in that cycle, those very same gentle posts become a stab in the chest. What’s meant to be a comforting and encouraging hug, just suffocates you instead.

"I already rested and procrastinated multiple times, why should rest be productive for me? I don’t deserve that reward yet."

Yet that thought itself is a lie. Everyone deserves proper rest regardless. Your procrastination? It looks like rest but it’s just stagnation that turns into regret. Actual rest energizes you, procrastination demotivates you. It’s so easy to say "just keep up the momentum" and "be consistent" but it’s still so easy to fall back into it regardless. The more it repeats, the more it brings you down. It eventually forms the belief that you can’t be able to do it -- that maybe you aren’t meant for it. The thought of not living up to your ideal self and who you’re meant to become is enough to ruin a person.

I am someone who still struggles with it. I promised to post weekly when starting this account, and I didn’t live up to that. Right now, I’m second-guessing myself as I write this post. That this doesn’t deserve to be heard, that what I have to say isn’t insightful, and that I have no right to be here especially as I didn’t live up to what I expected for myself.

But then I read this substack article that said:

"Seneca said, "While we are postponing, lifespeeds by."

They understood that waiting too long was a form of self-abandonment.

You want to honor your potential?

Stop waiting for the stars to align.

They won't. Move anyway."

That passage of text alone got me to start moving and type this entry. To keep up that pace and become who you want to be, we have to forgive ourselves right now and accept who we are. We have to embrace all the flaws, failures, and the label of not being enough. If we want to move unto the new version of ourselves, we must forgive and accept the old. To forgive means to be present, instead of indulging in self-abandonment.

It all sounds so cliché and simple. Another case of easier to say than done, and I admit it really is. Forgiveness and acceptance take time. Practicing them in small moments is crucial, but it also makes them all the more difficult. Now I’m not saying all this to demotivate you and myself, I’m just stating the reality of how it is for me. I’m still learning to overcome this in a world that glorifies hustle culture.

Last week, I was traveling to see the campuses of colleges I could go to. It’s a bit terrifying but it’s exciting. But this experience also forced me to take time off of my phone, and boyy it felt so much better. I didn’t have to face another person loudly or gently sharing how to be better. I didn’t have to look at another post to compare myself to and think "I’m so left behind…"

Social media demands attention, and most of the time it forces your attention away from yourself. It forces you to look at others as it fuels its algorithm to keep you glued to the screen. This cycle? Keeps you stuck and it is not a pretty situation to be in.

So if ever you find yourself in this position, just as I was? Take a break from all social media. Lock it. Log off. If you want to? Delete it. Then explore. Do the things you love. Do the things you once hated but want to try again. Experience life. Love again even!

You don’t need to be perfect or accomplished to be loved and cared for. If you want to become the person you want, start giving yourself what you need right now. Otherwise, how else can you continue your journey and achieve your goals if you’re starved of your needs?

Don’t talk to yourself like you’re nothing. Talk to yourself like an encouraging friend and a gentle parent. Furthermore, let go of that idealised version you have of yourself. Even the most perfect version of us will have their bad days. If we want to become them, we must accept their most flawed being. When all is said and done, it’s your growth that matters most. Not others', just yours. So, I’m learning to grow—not for perfection, but for peace.

——

To those who stayed, thank you for reading! Once again, I greatly apologise for the inconsistent posts. However, I came up with this during all that time lost and I hope you gained something from it.

Lastly, shoutout to the substack post that helped me:

Give this a read as well. I swear, it’s worth your time as it was mine.

See you all next week! Hopefully...hehe