#promised to not post images without alt descriptions

[capseisen]

A "selfie card" + three full-body illustrations. Shaw [they/no pronouns], Aiden [he/it], De'ran [they/them], and Karl [no pronouns]. ,,March 2023

[iela-0989]

Zutara Big Bang 2024

Broken Promises

@zkbigbang

(Image Description in Alt Text)

(Click on the Title to read the Fic, thank you🥰)

Another illustration for another project in Zutara Big Bang 2024 event that I participated🥰 I almost forgot to post this🥹

A bunch of thanks to my team members for the support and feedback🥹❤️ Couldn't have done it without you guys~ It's pretty challenging at first, since I'm not good at drawing epic scene~ But you guys guide me through it~ Thank you so much🥰🥰🥰

And to all the Mods, for organizing this meaningful & wonderful event, with your blood, sweat and tears, I can't thank you enough🥹❤️❤️ You guys are amazing!

Make sure to check out one of our legendary and talented Artists in this fandom @mayskalih , who happened to be my Artist partner for this project, for their amazing art🥰🥰🥰

[catinheadlights]

PSA: The pet game Sylestia uses AI generated "art".

Sylestia has been using AI generated assets for a long while now, and I decided to write this up because I'm not sure how well known this is among the remaining playerbase (not that I think many of them are gonna read this but I guess it's here now if they care to). Krinadon (site owner/admin) has explicitly said this in a mass PM before, screenshot and examples below context.

Context: This was a mass PM from late 2022 sent to a large section of the playerbase with a long list of allegations against different users. Some of the claims were blatantly petty and others were seemingly serious but in reality extremely shaky. Some players receiving the PM had no involvement in any of the perceived antagonism, and not everyone receiving it was in some kind of clique like the wording in the Glaselk section would suggest. Krin was largely complaining that people were criticizing him and Faiona (other owner/admin) in a private discord server, of which a handful of people sent him screenshots. For transparency, I committed two apparent crimes: one was assuming the AI assets were made by people, and in a private discord server, criticizing the decision to update them over focusing on more important parts of the site. The second was complaining about the shitty stereotypical "Pow Wow Costume" (since renamed but otherwise unaltered) and associated clothing items in its set, as well as the name of the "Wild Wendigo Morkko" theme. As far as Krin complaining that people think he was giving Glas special treatment... well, if you know, you know. No clue if they even play anymore, but you all know that harassment is bad already, so don't do that. I didn't edit that section out of the screenshot because idk if that'd be seen as suspicious or something.

[Image ID: A screenshot of a private message from Krinadon on Sylestia titled "Official Player Conduct Warning (1 of 2)". The last section of the message says the following: Experience Orb and Magical Pie Art: No, no artist time was spent nor wasted on these assets. No, we did not divert any site resources to the specific creation of these assets. We were learning and testing with artwork created by AI and these were our initial test projects. The end results actually ended up being pretty decent, so we decided to use them. No, we are not going to replace any artists with AI artwork. However, we most definitely are looking to supplement where we can so that our artists can continue working full time on more important projects. I think that we are aware of how to properly budget our time and resources. We have been doing this for a decade now. And yes, our artists are aware that we are using AI artwork. /.End ID]

Now, I think the first thing I should point out is that the artists knowing the site uses AI doesn't necessarily mean that they like the decision. I don't know the artists personally, but I do know that at least one of them has, unsurprisingly, posted about not liking AI art.

Secondly, it wouldn't be fine even if the site artists loved AI, because as it is, it's unethical to use regardless. The training data is artwork scraped from the internet without consent from the creators. No amount of promising that you won't replace human artists will erase that. Informing the site artists that you're using AI won't erase that.

Here are the confirmed AI official assets (descriptions in alt text):

(The orb pic is comically large because they kept it at >500x500 for a while and I saved it)

Additionally, there are background items that are almost definitely AI generated:

Some have glaring issues while others may be less obvious, but when comparing them to the art styles in other items, the difference is apparent, and is not explained by having multiple artists and the seeming lack of a style guide.

There were also several coloring contests with obviously AI generated lineart:

And also official threads where players were to design pets based off of AI generated images. These ones were from the faelora design raffle during the 2023 spring festival:

If you're not convinced they're AI, the images on the thread were hosted by Sylestia's server's and reverse image searching didn't turn up any matches. They would never commission these, and they didn't just take them from another site. They were generated for the raffle.

Do not support this site. The are so, so many games made by people that actually respect artists.

[asterlizard]

2024

These last few weeks of the year have been a bit of a roller coaster for me. At least I was able to finish the year on a more positive note, probably because I accomplished some final tasks before the year ended (why is it that winter seems to be the most satisfyingly productive time of year for me?)

Despite feeling busy and preoccupied, I feel like I didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked this year. It felt like most of my time was spent getting into a perpetual cycle of chores and cleanup with no set plan, with some work on personal projects.

That being said, I looked back and was able to find some things I did accomplish:

Getting another chapter of Kaleidoscope Children finished

Started finding some events to attend so I'm not just stuck at home all the time

Watching the Paralympics properly for the first time (once again, I recommend watching it just to give it more attention!)

More zines: -My Hero Babysitters -Successor: A DadMight Anthology (BNHA) -Tales of the Four Nations Volume 3 (ATLA) -On the Prowl: MSBY4 (Haikyuu!)

And now my resolutions:

Image Descriptions: I will continue to make this my top resolution until I have most (if not all) of them done. Despite not getting around to them this year, I finally decided I will use Alt Text (at least for newer posts, unfortunately it seems like I can't update older posts to add Alt Text so I'll probably just do Image IDs in those descriptions for now)

Stories: Hopefully I can churn out chapters a little more quickly this year after last year's major creative block. I've already started drafting the next couple of chapters of Kaleidoscope Children, and I'm preparing to write the beginning of my second story. I don't have an estimate for further news on the latter, but I hope I can announce something about it later in the new year.

Communication: I really really really want to push myself to make an iota of progress in this direction. I often find excuses to keep my thoughts to myself, but then it hurts me in the long run and I deprive myself the opportunity to make new friends. I want to try to make an effort to be a little more outspoken.

Productivity: I want to get back on track with the tasks I want to get done, and try and minimize postponements. I'll start by making schedules for each month, but without overloading myself. I think it worked at the start of last year before I got sidetracked big time with chores.

Occupation?: Job hunting continued to be disappointing, but I'm reassured by the fact that I'm not the only one who is having issues. Over this past year I've heard more and more people who are struggling with finding or keeping a job (people I know, people I follow, people with a rich resume, people with little to no experience) and more and more I'm getting the advice that education or constant applications will go nowhere, and that volunteering and finding connections is more promising. I've changed my strategy towards this direction, and can only hope that I'll have a little better luck. But first, I need to figure out what I actually want to do for a vocation. With all the application rejections I had to deal with for two years, I spent the past year kinda floating aimlessly, questioning to myself what it is I actually want to do. In the new year, I want to try and sit down with myself and ask myself what it is I would be interested in that feels worthwhile to me or something along those lines. That way I have a plan to focus on instead of puttering vaguely between multiple interests but not sticking to a gameplan. I think part of my ongoing stress is the pressure to find a job, but not having any idea where to start.

Relax! Despite the hurdles, I think I did a little better at this than last year. I just need to not overload myself with a lot of plans, nor stress myself with lofty expectations. Things will come with time, though they will also come easier with some added strategy besides simply waiting for it (something about catching fish better with a bait than with an empty lure...?)

And just like before, I'm going to finish this post with a link to some positive news this year (a different source this time!): [link]

Next year will be uncertain. But no matter what happens, there will always be people who will work hard to protect what's good in the world. Even when times get tough, it won't mean people have stopped striving towards this. I will continue to draw and create things that hopefully make some sort of positive difference to the world, however little that contribution may be, for as long as I can. Whatever happens, we're in this together.

Please take care of yourself. Take a break from the news once in a while. Find activities and communities that bring you joy. Watch videos of puppies (or whatever animals give you comfort). Take time away from social media if you need to. Do whatever it takes to make the foreseeable future a little less awful.

I wish all the best for you 💕

[violet-prism-creatively]

I couldn't let Zukka Week pass without writing or drawing anything for it! ...except I kind of did, because I'm two days late with this. Oops. But A:TLA got me back into fandom a year ago, so it was important for me to do something.

For @zukkaweek day 7: Engagement/Proposal (Image description in alt text; fic below the cut)

And a little fic to go with it:

Sokka planned to propose on the anniversary of their escape from Boiling Rock. That had been the day he'd first seen Zuko for who he was, strong and smart and brave to a fault, willing to risk everything just to help Sokka do the impossible.

They both knew a proposal was coming soon. They had thoroughly discussed the political aspect of it-- Sokka would step down from his post as official Southern Water Tribe Ambassador due to the conflict of interest, but remain an advisor doing roughly the same job. Same-sex marriage had been legalized in the Fire Nation years ago. And of course they'd discussed the personal side too, how they were both nervous yet excited to solidify their relationship with a special bond. How they wanted each other in their lives forever and wanted to share that promise with the world.

Sokka had been reading up on Fire Nation engagement rituals (he'd spotted Zuko researching Water Tribe ones too), and he had the perfect plan. He was the plan guy, after all!

Zuko would probably propose on the anniversary of the war's end. It was the perfect time for a big announcement about uniting the nations, and all their friends would be there to celebrate with them. But Zuko deserved to be the one proposed to. Zuko had spent his whole life having to ask for affection and trust; Sokka wanted to offer all his love and let Zuko decide to accept it. So Sokka would propose first, on the anniversary of their escape from Boiling Rock.

After their dinner in a romantically lantern-lit garden, Sokka was planning to pop the question. But they were in the middle of a debate on the legality of appointing a turtleduck as Zuko's advisor. Out of nowhere, Zuko said, "Hey, there's something I want to ask you."

In Sokka's defense, he thought this was still about the turtleducks. "Shoot."

The blush on Zuko's cheeks was visible even in the dim lantern-light. "I can't think of the right way to say this-- I mean, I've been thinking about it for a long time, but words are--" He took a deep breath and kneeled down. "Sokka, will you marry me?"

"Noooo..." Sokka groaned, realizing that his perfect plan had failed. Then the expression on Zuko's face hit him and he quickly corrected, "Yes! Yes, yes, yes! But I was planning to ask first!"

Zuko laughed, and then Sokka was laughing, leaning a hand on Zuko's shoulder to support himself. "I was literally about to propose tonight," Sokka told him between giggles. "I can't believe you beat me to it."

"As Uncle says, the bird that rises early gets the... tea leaf or something. I don't know, it sounds better when he says it."

Sokka took Zuko's hand in the one of his that wasn't resting on Zuko's shoulder. "Well, you've got me." He smiled. "And do I have you?"

The question wasn't anything like the speech Sokka had prepared. But that didn't make Zuko's answer any less perfect.

[macrotiis]

- 29 y/o aries ♈️

- gender-neutral testosterone beast, I'm trans 💉(2016) & post-op (2023) TME & perisex.

- xe/xem/xyrs, he/him or she/her.

- @rainbowmancer-gwen is my fox gf 💙

- Aus/NZ Pakeha (white)

- 18 +, no minors pls, this is not a NSFW heavy blog tho.

- #noid is for images without descriptions or functional alt text.

No DNI, I just block. I usually block bigots, rude ppl, pointless discourse, harry potter fans, proshippers (some "antis" too, idk this whole thing is dumb to me), & sometimes ppl who just annoy me. I'm here for a good time, I'm not here to argue & I don't appriciate ppl trying to start shit. (Letting me know of I'm rbing someone shitty is appriciated.)

Please HARD BLOCK me if you don't want me to follow you. I'll assume tumblr is fucking up & re-follow if I'm softblocked coz that happens a lot, please just properly block me.

I'm Blitz, I'm a commie anarchist furry from down-under & my tagging system is a mess. (More info under the cut)

I love animals, hairless cats & australian wildlife are my faves. Blue & purple are my fave colors. I like loud electronic & alt music; Punk, Metal, Nu-Metal, New-Wave, Ska, Drum n Bass, Industrial, Breakcore, ect.

I draw a lot, it's like my number 1 thing, art blog is @staticblitz.

I'm not a huge fandom person, but I have a Crash Bandicoot blog @n-trance, Crash Bandicoot is my number 2 thing.

I love science fiction, fantasy & horror, stuff like; Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Star Trek, Invader Zim, Doctor Who, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Dorohedoro, Berserk, Digimon Furries & table top role-playing games.

I'm a weird kind of aroace bisexual queer, I'm a transsexual in the sense that I'm trans, I take hormones (testosterone) & am post-op (hysterectomy); I believe being trans is different for everyone & hate truscum/transmeds. I also don't like transandrophobia/transmisandry truthers, listen to trans women & learn about transmisogyny without getting defensive. I promise you, there is space for us in the framework of discussions about transmisogyny already. PLEASE don't take posts I make about *MY* experiences as someone transmasc adjacent & get mad thinking I'm generalizing the whole trans man/transmasc community. I am one guy (system) & cannot speak for the entire community & I don't try to!

I am kink & sex positive, I sometimes do sexwork & I talk about it sometimes. That said I do have boundaries & I do think you ought to be responsible for what you post & where (ie; tag that shit & keep it away from kids). I cant prevent it, but would prefer DDLG or ABDL blogs not follow or interact with me (it's fine if you use a non-kink related blog instead. I don't judge you, I just have trauma surrounding this). Thanks 💖

Proshippers are weird, not keen on antis either but equating finding your pedo/incest fanfic a bit gross to police violence is actually nonsensical, end of discussion.

I think Marxism is pretty pog, I'm by no means an expert but I am very politically active where I live. I grew up poor with my 2 siblings & my single disabled mum, we are ex-Jehovahs Witnesses (yes thats important). This has shaped a lot of my world view, I align myself with the marginalised & working class people of the world. I am heavily critical of capitalism, liberalism, nationalism & imperialism. If you have a problem with commies or anarchists, you probably won't like me. I hate fascists & I hate cops. I love my community tho & working together with anyone who wants to work toward a better world.

I am moderately able-bodied, but have mental disabilities. I don't wanna share all but I have autism, C-PTSD & chronic fatigue among many other things. I am a system, I hate syscourse, endo systems are welcome here, ableists demanding medical history are not.

I will tag for any trigger if you ask me, I already tag a large amount of things for both categorization & moderation.

Do not send me donation posts, thanks.

This is my fursona, draw xem if you want I would love that :3

[robouiop]

Blog Info:

Howdy, I'm Uiop! I use He/Him and Ey/Em pronouns. I mainly reblog stuff here, and it's usually political posts, random funnies, and some fandom things. I try to keep my blog accessible, so almost every post has image descriptions.

I also have an art blog, at @robouiop-art. Work In progress and I can't promise every post will have image descriptions, sorry.

Tags I use:

#not described: when I reblog something without a description

#described: for when I personally add a description

#id in alt text: image description in alt text, rarely used

#nsft: things that are not safe for viewing in public, like naked figures or raunchy memes. no real 18+ content here

#shit i say: posts made by me

#long post: posts that are very long

#unreality: posts that are focusing on a fake reality or could be triggering

#religion tw: posts mentioning religion

Thanks for reading :-) smile

[serene-massacre]

Comms: Open!

Hello! This post will just basically be the nitty gritty of all my commission information!

If you happen to be interested in my commissions feel free to continue on below! You’ll find my terms of service as well as pricing! -^^-

Comm examples post:

Commission ToS:

Payment and refunds:

* Payment is expected within 24 hours after verification of commission sketch

* ALL payments USD

* Payment will be taken through PayPal and Cash-app ONLY

* Non-payment within 24 hours will result in the commission being cancelled. Progress up to this point, if any, will be deleted.

* Refunds are available but vary depending on how much work is done

* Sketch: 90%

* Line: 50%

* Line and Flat Color: 15%

* Shading/More : 0%

General terms:

* When commissioning me please do so in a kind and professional manner.

* Please provide clear reference images, I do not accept text messages as reference no matter how detailed your texts may be.

* Please follow any and all rules or directions within my TOS policy.

* If I have accepted payment for a commission but find I cannot finish it for some reason i will either ask if you want me to draw another character of yours, or give you full refund.

* I have the right to increase the price if your character has a highly detailed design or if you want a very detailed illustration.

* My art is constantly evolving and improving which means there will be some small changes from time to time in my work (anatomy, coloring, lineart etc) please keep that in mind!

* By commissioning me, you automatically agree to my Terms of Service and is expected and obligated to follow them. You are also automatically promising that you wont request any paypal chargebacks.

Copyright / Usage terms:

As the Artist, I am allowed to:

* Promote myself with the artwork on any other places or websites.

* Post/display the artwork anywhere i want (on my Commissions page or Discord for example) but i will always give you proper credit as the owner of the character.

* Publish works with it.

As the commissioner, you’re allowed to:

* Re-upload the image with proper credits given to myself in the form of a link, user, or discord.

* Claim the right of your characters depicted in the commission[s] but NOT the art work

As the commissioner, you are NOT allowed to:

* Reproduce/using the artwork commercially (meaning making money of it in any way)

* Remove my watermark/signature.

* Edit/change the artwork without my permission.

Finally: BY ORDERING ANY SUGGESTIVE/18+ ART YOU ARE AGREEING THAT YOU ARE 18 OR OLDER.

[Now that that has all been addressed be can finally get into the good stuff!!]

Illustrations:

Headshot/ icon:

- Sketches: $2-5

- Lines: $5-8

- Color: 8-10

- Color with Shading: $10

- Matching icons: 25 [Fully rendered always]

Half body:

- Sketches: $7-10

- Lines: $15

- Color: $20

- Color with Shading: $30

- Additional Character: $10

Full body:

- Sketches: $15-20

- Lines: $30

- Color: $40

- Color with Shading: $60

- Additional Character: $10

Backgrounds:

- Included with commissions just up to you if you’d like it or not

- Please refrain from asking for complicated backgrounds

Turnaround time: 1-3 weeks

Emotes/Badges:

- $5 per emote

- $35 for 10 pack

- 50 for 20 pack

- Color with Shading: $60

- Please have the emotes you want picked out before you contact me

Turnaround time: 2-6 weeks

Reference sheets:

- Front view: $60

- +Detail Shot: $15

- +1 Prop/Pet: $15-20

- +Back view: $20

- +Alt Costume: $30

- Backgrounds are Included with commissions just up to you if you’d like it or not

- Please refrain from asking for complicated backgrounds

Turnaround time: 2-6 weeks

Tattoos:

In the case that any of the work i provided is wanted to be used for a tattoo a $15 fee will be added to the final total.

To place an order, please fill free to send me a message through discord or use my commission email muttvibescomms@gmail.com with a clear description of what you're looking for. If you have any reference images or specific requests, please include those as well.

I'm happy to work with you to create a piece that you'll love. I also offer discounts for customers who order multiple pieces. This discount can be anywhere between 10-20% depending on the commission.

Thank you for considering me for your art needs! Looking forward to working with you!

Best for:

* Undertale/skeletons

* Reference sheets/character sheets (see for price)

* Character design (bring your Oc or other characters to life!)

Will draw:

* OCs

* FCs

* Cannon Characters

* Ships

* SelfShips

* Light NSFW/suggestive themes

* Mild violence

* Angst

* LGBT+

* Icons

Not great but will try:

* Banners

* Furries

* Scalie

* Chibi icons

*semi realism

Absolutely not:

* Realism (for now)

* Overly complicated characters/designs

* Overly complicated backgrounds

* Heavy NSFW

* Heavy gore

* Mechas or Gundams

* Lolis or other child like characters in sexual or suggestive themes

Comm examples post:

If there is anything that I haven’t listed here feel free to shoot me a message about if I’ll be able to draw it or not

[ottopilot-wrote-this]

The Elephant in the Room

There is no way to sugarcoat this, because a lot of people have a visceral reaction to it: I'm working on a mixed-media project, and it is going to involve AI.

There are many complaints people have about AI, and I'm going to address some of them. If you want to stop reading now, I won't hold it against you, but I'd a) appreciate if you hear me out, and more importantly, b) implore you to give the new stuff a try before deciding it's not for you:

I think complaints about models being trained, without consent, in violation of copyright law, on people's photos, art, and words by for-profit companies are valid. I don't know how much of that, over the course of billions of data points in a training set, means I am "stealing" when I make a photo of a curvy gender-swapped Ronald McDonald. Granted, I'm not a lawyer, but that to me is parody and fair use.

Regarding copyright and whether generative AI is theft, lots of things on the Internet play loose with intellectual property rights. Memes? Reaction GIFs? Fan fiction? Songs in the background of your video? All legal gray areas. (If the rightsholders for Supernatural filed enough DMCA charges, they could take Tumblr down overnight.) My point is not to derisively say you are a hypocrite; I like these things too. It's that I don't see generative AI as being markedly different.

Environmental impact is important to me in real life. There are some alarmist numbers about power consumption and carbon impacts. I read (ok, skimmed) one of the studies and they used an 80 GB VRAM A100 SXM4, which is a 400W card and a tremendous amount of overkill for Stable Diffusion. I can do 4 draft images in about 15 seconds and 1 "finished" image in 30 on an RTX 3060. But I'm also not cranking those out without stoppping like a robot. It's much more reasonable to compare it with other leisure activities like PC gaming (its the same hardware), a PS5, or watching an HDTV. 1000 images (which for me, is A LOT - 3 or 4 hours) might use 0.05 kWh which puts me in line with watching a TV sitcom on my 50" 4k LED TV (which uses 87W in normal conditions).

People are overwhelmed because there is so much AI "art", and a lot of it is shitty. And I get ya. Many people are only using what they know and what they can find, which are online generators, and a lot of them suck. I don't want to sound like an ass, but I did spend a lot of time learning Stable Diffusion prompting and training, so I think my stuff will look better than people expect. (Or at least consistent, which is what I was aiming for.) What I hate though is people who post generated AI images and don't label them. So you get from me a promise to at least try to label all my images in tags, in the description, and in the alt description as AI (soft promise here because ADHD). Then you can block those tags to your hearts content.

I was already thinking about trying to use an AI writing tool, then I saw today that people are losing their shit about NaNoWriMo. So I am putting my thoughts about that in another post.

There you have it. Thanks if you made it this far. The goal here is not to convince you am I not just some AI techbro (I'm not) and that AI is not NFTs 2.0, but to give this project that I have worked (and am working!) so hard on a puncher's chance.

[seriously-mike]

The Perks of Being Open-Source

As promised, here's something about the plug-ins for Stable Diffusion, the only AI image generator that's open-source, and makes for a great testbed for related research because of that.

The outcome of this research are various plug-ins and modifications that allow Stable Diffusion to do a lot of interesting things. And the authors? Hooboy, you would be surprised. It turns out that very serious companies, ones you would suspect of cooking their own tech of this kind on the side even if they haven't announced it publicly, build interesting things and share it for free.

Let's start with Semantic Segmentation. If an AI image generator makes images based on text input, Semantic Segmentation scans images, identifies elements and assigns text descriptions to them. A lot of serious companies have released open-source code of their implementation: you have Nvidia, Google, Meta and even Alibaba building that stuff. It might sound kinda underwhelming if fairly useful for helping visually impaired people (for example, Facebook uses it to generate alt texts for images posts automatically), but here's the kicker: Semantic Segmentation may be used in Stable Diffusion to automatically generate masks based on text description. Want to find a hand and redraw it to be more anatomically correct? Easy. How about changing the hair color without monkeying with it in Photoshop? Also easy. So easy that some basement-dwelling chud can script it to find the clothes on a woman and draw a nude body in their place (and did, and got himself in trouble when another teenage chud uploaded photos of girls from his class to the app).

Semantic Segmentation is the core of the popular Stable Diffusion extension called aDetailer: as I mentioned before, Semantic Segmentation can recognize what a hand is, even if it's distorted, and point the generator to inpaint a better version in its place. Same goes for the faces. And that's the two things aDetailer is built to fix.

Another thing are ControlNets: plugins that allow you to nudge the generation process a particular way, be it recreating the pose of a character down to hands and fingers (or just the face orientation and expression), following the outline of a sketch and filling in the details, even maintain perspective using depth maps. And then, based on that tech, you have PhotoMaker, created by Tencent's Applied Research Center, and its improved version, IP Adapter. The capabilities are impressive, particularly if you remember that a slightly outdated gaming PC can run Stable Diffusion at a decent pace with no need for an internet access, even with the plugins.

Also, with OpenAI's video generator Sora looming on the horizon, you should know that the first AI-generated (or at least redrawn) videos were created in Stable Diffusion as well. I don't intend to go down this rabbit hole for practical reasons (I have no need for using it for that particular purpose and my video card is a bit outdated), but it was on the sweaty basement-dwelling nerds to figure out how to fine-tune the whole thing to be consistent across a whole fuckton of frames, and they did it, the crazy sonsabitches.

So laugh all you want at the ornery, wobbly Stable Diffusion producing rounded, fractal blorps and fucky hands. Even basic capabilities like inpainting and outpainting still make Midjourney jealous, and if you look at the plugins, you can imagine a good few use cases you could never wring out of the competing algorithms - and run them on your own PC for free instead of relying on centralized black boxes with a monthly fee.

[keplercryptids]

stumbled across this today and i have no desire to call out the blogger by name or anything but. this is still important. screenshot and ID below.

[image description: screenshot of bulleted text that reads: stop adding unnecessary captions to my posts. no one likes it when strangers reblog posts with an added caption of zero value or substance to someone's else's post. before you make an addition to a post you reblog, please heavilly consider whether or not your addition could, instead, simply remain in the tags, or whether it even needs to be said at all. this also applies to adding image descriptions to posts that already have an id included in the alt text. despite ever so bravely refraining from adding your completely unnecessary 2 cents to someone else's post, i promise you'll live. End ID.]

let me say this loud for the people in the back.

alt text descriptions alone are not accessible.

some people need and use image descriptions, but not screen readers. this includes but is not limited to people with visual processing disorders, people with epilepsy, people with any issue compounded with being Deaf or hard of hearing. IDs also benefit poor or rural folks with bad internet connections. none of these people are necessarily given access to an image via alt text alone.

the alt text character limit on tumblr is around 200. that straight up isn't enough for every image. if, as an artist, you are only describing your art in 200 characters or less, well. you're probably doing a disservice to your art and you're definitely doing a disservice to disabled people who rely on IDs to experience your art.

this specific artist also doesn't write "ID in alt text" in the caption, they only tag posts that way. which means without referring to the original post, there's no way for people who aren't using screen readers / checking every image on a pc to know that it's accessible.

as an artist, you should take it as a compliment that someone took the time to describe your art so that people can experience it who wouldn't otherwise be able to. you should be happy if others add details to that description, details that stood out to them, that they found meaningful. all of us, as image describers and people who care about accessibility, should be open to corrections and additions to our IDs. the point should always be to make the image as accessible as possible. ego shouldn't factor into that.

expanded IDs (which, if you're only using alt text, are NEEDED) or even fully redundant IDs so that more people can access the image - these things are not comparable to inane, irrelevant commentary added to a post. it's quite frankly an ableist thing to say so.

but just in case this was too much text, I'll say it again.

tl;dr. alt text descriptions alone are not accessible. IDs written in the caption space of a post = best practice.

[accessibleaesthetics]

I have a lot of resources and references on my blog alongside the aesthetics. But I wanted to highlight a few resources in particular here for those who don't feel like going through my tags.

For the Casual Blogger or Generally Curious:

Why Write Image Descriptions?

How Screen Readers Read Content

How to censor words without messing it up for screen readers

Accessible Revamps (blog theme)

Accessible (3.0) (blog theme)

Accessibility-Related Google Chrome Extensions

How to make the colors on your mobile theme accessible

For Image, Video, and Audio Describers/Transcribers:

I see an image and want to describe it: a step by step guide

All About Image Descriptions (with lots of examples!)

People's Accessibility Discord Server Info Post

How to write an image description

Writing Alt Text

text alternatives are about the purpose of the image, not about every little detail

Guidelines for Creating Image Descriptions

Cooper Hewitt Guidelines for Image Description

Free Online OCR Website

OCR Space

a11ies.info

For Developers and Content Creators:

WebAIM

Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility

How to Make Your Art Accessible

How to Make Your Stimboards Accessible

Making Your Games Accessible

Tips on making comics accessible

HTML Accessibility

Color Contrast Tools

How to Write Alt Text for Digital Comics

Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice

Accessibility Options for Online Businesses

For Writers:

Making Your Blog More Accessible For Your Readers

Sensitivity Readers (blog)

Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters

Comprehensive guide to writing deaf characters

Tips on hearing aids and writing them

What is Legal Blindness?

Personal Accounts from Legally Blind People

Writing characters with one eye

Writing Blind Characters

Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character

A Characterisation/Writing Guide - Autism and ADHD

BPD videos

Disability in fanfiction: a few thoughts

Writing a disabled character who is frustrated with their limitations

Free resources for various sign languages

For Roleplayers:

Trimming Posts with XKit Rewritten

Writing Blind/Visually Impaired Characters in TTRPGs

Running RPGs with the Deaf and Hard-of Hearing

[bogkeep]

hiya! hey! welcome to my bog! my name is

Theodore Haiz Heartsword-Thyme

but you can just call me Haiz, really! i'm the bogkeep around here, so let me know if you need anything!

🍄 twitter | bluesky

🍄 toyhou.se (overview of my OCs)

🍄 Ao3

🍄 Ko-fi (tip jar)

🍄 linktree

🍄pronoun cards: EN | NO

🍄 reblog sideblog @longlostpath

About Me And This Blog Under The Cut:

🌿 BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING ELSE WHAT ARE YOUR PRONOUNS??????

in english i mainly use they/them and he/him, lately with a preference for They!

i'm also vibing with ey/em/eir, it/its, and No Pronouns

my preferred norwegian pronouns are dem, han, and nøkk/nøkken/nøkkens

when it comes to gendered terms i prefer gender neutral + gently masculine terms, or terms used in a gender neutral manner. i don't like to be strongly gendered in either direction, and i don't want to think about my own gender more than neccessary!

the best way to describe my gender identity is Taurus II by Mike Oldfield hope this helps

🌿 WHAT THE HECK IS A BOGKEEP

it's like a barkeep but for bogs! this particular bogkeep seems to be a mix of nøkken, huldra, vodník, and possibly a changeling. maybe a cat? i wouldn't worry about it

🌿 WHO'S THE BOGKEEP?

hi i'm haiz nice to meet you. you can also call me theo or teddy or dori if you'd like <3

i'm in my age 25+ era!

i'm norwegian and czech and currently live in, uhhhhh sweden?????

i've been many things, such as an art history student, a children's book illustrator, a volunteer for queer organizations, a hotel receptionist, And Many More. right now i am a watchmaker student. i hope to be even more things in the future!

i love to DRAW and sometimes WRITE and i have a lot of FEELINGS ABOUT THINGS

🌿 WHAT'S THIS BLOG FOR?

this is my personal blog where i post my art! i also post Thoughts and Feelings when the urge strikes me. you can't really get one without the other sorry

i post both Original Work and Fanart. the fandoms i dabble in tend to be a little obscure, but if you're reading this, chances are you've found me through one of them. thank you for enjoying my work <3

i also post photos sometimes

i've had this blog since 2011/2012! it's a bit of an archive. i don't mind if you root around in the old stuff, just keep in mind that it's old!

sometimes i reblog unicorns as they are a Personal Motif of mine, but pretty much all other reblogs go to my sideblog, @longlostpath

i have two other sideblogs - one for funky fashion and the intricacies of having a body @ishallwearcosmos

and a sky blog @whentheskydoesthething

🌿 WHAT ARE THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS?

this is my personal space and i decide what goes on here.

i block the following: people who engage in bad faith, people who disrespect my humanity or that of my peers, people acting awful or annoying on my posts.

i have no wish to publicly participate in the Discourses. do not mistake this for neutrality or a lack of principles - i feel very strongly about inclusion, compassion, boundaries, personal growth, the vast diversity of human experiences, and the inherent messiness of being a person. i enjoy good faith discussions, but i prefer to have them in private.

anonymous asks are turned off. if you send an ask you don't want me to publish, just let me know!

i do my best to tag common triggers but i cannot promise 100% consistency.

likewise, i do my best to write image descriptions for the art i post, but due to personal inacessibilities it's a little sporadic. i write them in the alt text when i do.

🌿 CAN I USE YOUR ART FOR -

headers/icons/digital decoration?

- yes! just please credit me somewhere. anything that's just fun personal use and not in any way profiting off of my work is a-ok! in fact i am flattered and honored

tattoos?

- please ask me first! a lot of my work is of OCs, commissioned, or otherwise very personal - so it's a case by case decision!

real life wall decoration?

- i do have a redbubble, but it's a little limited in scope - mostly because a lot of my work is fanart of other people's property. if there's something i've made you want to see on there, let me know and i'll see what i can do! as for fanart - i'm honestly okay with people printing their own prints for their personal blorbo shrines or whatever, as long as it's not for profit! if you contact me i can even share a hi-res version of the art with you ;3c

anything AI- or blockchain related?

- nope! any use of my work in this context is without my permission.

🌿 WILL YOU COMMISSION ME/PROMOTE MY THING ON YOUR BLOG/GIVE ME MONEY?

nope! please don't ask me to.

🌿 I DON'T LIKE YOU BUT I CAN'T TELL YOU BECAUSE ANON IS TURNED OFF :(

you can blacklist my handle in your settings. be free. live your best life. you'll never have to read my annoying ramblings again...!

[queersatanic]

Today is a good day for The Satanic Temple to release its finances.

[ID: Today is a good day for The Satanic Temple to release its finances" text atop a painting of an anthropomorphic black goat in a suit with flowers holding the hand and apparently courting an elven peasant girl; remaining image descriptions as alt text in images /ID]

"Today is a good day for The Satanic Temple to release its finances."

We say that a lot. Sometimes, defenders of TST accuse us of just not knowing how corporations work

So, let's take a look at one of the few windows of transparency we have: Facebook ads.

Facebook/Meta offering financial transparency? Shocking! We know. But here it is, "Ads from The Satanic Temple", tied to the main Facebook page that has been around since Jan. 1, 2013.

And it's been running ads since May 7, 2018.

These dates are important b/c the for-profit corp "United Federation of Churches LLC dba 'The Satanic Temple' " didn't exist till 2014, but it was the entity created earliest specifically for TST endeavors; "The Satanic Temple (Inc.)" wouldn't be a tax-exempt church till 2019.

If you'd like more details and citations on all of this, please refer to the relevant articles in The.Satanic.Wiki and the linked sources there.

Now, as we look at TST's current ads that started running June 8, 2022, this association makes sense: it's United Federation of Churches LLC dba The Satanic Temple, clearly they are selling merchandise, a for-profit endeavor.

Sure, fine.

But hold on: June 1, 2022, the same "The Satanic Temple" was running ads about how "The Satanic Temple stands ready to assist members who share its deeply-held religious convictions regarding the right to reproductive freedom."

That's gotta be for the tax-exempt church, right?

(Reminder: The Satanic Temple cannot help you get an abortion, and it does not deserve your support.)

After claiming to raise $350,000 last year in the name of fighting for abortion and saying they were going "On the Offensive" this year for another $150,000, The Satanic Temple's accomplishments were that they "assisted nearly 20 members" in some vague way and sent a letter.

We've pointed this out before, but look at the fucking gender demographics of how The Satanic Temple targets their ads Let's be clear: TST knows what the fuck they're doing here, whatever ignorance they plead in a deposition later.

Every single bit of that is fucking awful, unconscionable bullshit from an organization that relies on you and Upworthy-style blogs falling for their hope grift b/c you want some "good news for once" without looking deeper into it.

But still which "The Satanic Temple" is it?

All the ads say "Paid for by The Satanic Temple" Is this the for-profit corporation or tax-exempt church? Yes, the money could go to a different place if you buy a hoodie than if you give a donation. But which one specifically is buying the ads? Which budget? How can you tell?

As we've talked about before, when put on the spot on the record, both Doug Misicko ("Lucien Greaves", "Doug Mesner") and Cevin Soling ("Malcolm Jarry") admit to not bothering with too much care distinguishing the various entities that make up The Satanic Temple

Example:

And as we've talked about before, against us TST was willing to attempt to fundraise $30,000 for the tax-exempt church "The Satanic Temple" to use in a SLAPP suit pursued by their for-profit corp doing-business-as "The Satanic Temple".

Even if everything The Satanic Temple is doing financially *were* above-board and on-the-level, the promises the misleading ads they are running for donations would be bad. However: their finances are not above-board and there is every indication they are not on-the-level.

Moreover, we know from comparing the official filings for the sole entity the law does require The Satanic Temple to disclose finances for (Reason Alliance Ltd.) that TST will claim in ink things that are untrue, like Doug Misicko not taking any payment.

That's the same situation where Doug Misicko got caught paying himself the fundraising money for the Belle Plaine monument but trying to redact his own name after first trying to claim it went to the artist instead of himself (or one of his pseudonyms)

If you gave The Satanic Temple $1,000, how would you know where it ended up?

(And how much do you think is still ending up in the pockets of the only two owners, corporate governors, registered agents, treasurers, etc., overseeing all this money without showing their receipts?)

So, today is a good day for The Satanic Temple to release its finances.

[munchlax-musings]

Intro Post (Edited on 06/30/2023)

Hello! You can call me Sleepy.

I also stream under the name Melody_Wisp over on Twitch! I stream video games :)

profile pic image description: To be edited at a later date!

Full profile pic can be found here.

You can find me on:

Twitch: Melody_Wisp

YouTube: @MelodyWisp

TikTok: @MelodyWisp

And:

Discord: MelodyWisp

HiveSocial: SleepySnorlax

The StoryGraph: SleepySnorlax

Github: AnonymousMunchlax

Pillowfort: SleepySnorlax

Disabled.social: SleepySnorlax

Feel free to say hi, ask me questions, or chat with me! My DMs are open on Discord, HiveSocial, Pillowfort, and here on Tumblr. My Asks are also open on Tumblr.

I live in the US's EST time zone, but I'm up at odd hours of the day. You can just ask me if I'm online if you feel unsure. I'm a super chatty texter, and I love meeting new people! I also love infodumps, and do not mind at all if people drop in-and-out of conversation without warning. I do the same (●'◡'●) And I also like to help people, whether that's through education on the aspects of accessibility and ableism that I am most familiar with or helping to write alt text or image descriptions for images.

Also also: If my image descriptions and alt text or whatever else are ever insufficient, please do reach out. I do review my own posts very often and try to adjust where I can, but I err pretty often as well. This is not to say that I wish to put the onus on anyone for whom image descriptions and alt text are a necessity or a helpful accommodation, but that I will never be offended by a correction or a suggestion. I know how it feels to attempt to help someone by offering advice on accessibility, or ableism, or other forms of bigotry and getting overwhelming pushback or microaggressions in return. It's exhausting! So I promise to always be open-minded and to never take this sorta criticism personally :)

Important: I've started color-coding and emboldening every other line on lists to help with readability. It helps me substantially. The color isn't as important as the contrast, I think.

My interests include (besides those related to my identities):

stenography (machine shorthand)

transcription and captioning

language learning (Japanese)

webtoons and webcomics

manga, manhua, and manhwa

music (primarily Japanese)

video games

research

coding (beginner)

learning how to draw

accessibility (providing, learning about, and educating about it)

educational materials development (steno)

This blog will focus on providing updates on my studies in stenography, Japanese, drawing, and coding, as well as my adventures on StoryGraph.

Master tags for filtering my posts:

munchlax's musings (ALL posts)

steno update post

adding books to storygraph

learning how to draw

drawing progress

reblog

steno theory creation

PS:

I made this Tumblr ages ago, but never used it until now. My AuDHD brain just suddenly hyperfixated on my old blog, and ta-dah! I've been procrastinating for hours by customizing it! Is it ugly? Yes. I'll keep experimenting with it. I'm not good with... organizing or making things look pretty. Or coding.

[antimonarchy]

Hmm I promise I’m not asking in bad faith but I think for me it’s that I’ve never understood the point of captions on images? It makes sense for me when it’s a video, or maybe something with small text, but why image descriptors? What enjoyment does a blind person gain from hearing a described piece of static art they can’t see? Is that totally ignorant of me to ask?

this question does come off as a bit ignorant, but I'll do my best to answer it. Firstly, without an image description/alt text, a blind person using a screenreader might have no idea what an image is, which obviously means there is a gap between a sighted and blind person's experience of a post. Secondly, I'm sighted so I can't speak from experience but vision is only one part of experiencing art, the meaning gained and general feel of a painting, which can absolutely be communicated through an image description/alt text, are just as important. That isn't even taking into account that many blind people were not born blind and so descriptions of visual imagery and colors might appeal to them for that reason.

If anyone is interested further I recommend you read this Atlantic article on multisensory experience of visual art and making visual art in museums and elsewhere accessible