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chickensuitgay · 1 year ago

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Happy 2nd anniversary! 🦌

Since this post first came out I've been meaning to reply to it, but I kept putting it off until I decided to wait for the anniversary of the rip.

Back in late 2020, MLP rips were starting to get some steam which eventually culminated in the anniversary event which I decided to make a rip for. I was already knowledgeable about MLP because I was into it in like 2014 and I even used to have the word Brony in my YouTube username at some point but unfortunately I got bullied out of it and distanced myself from it. I never hated it but my interest in it just went dormant for the most part. That was until a few days after the event I decided to rewatch it, being inspired by KnightOfGames getting into it. It was the pandemic and my online math classes were literally nothing so I watched the show during the video calls lol. I easily got hooked; I originally ended off at Season 3 but within a month I finished watching everything I could. I went on to watch a ton of fan media after not having to worry about spoilers anymore, both what I remember from back then and anything newer and I was practically listening to a ton of brony music everyday. I had a new interest to channel into rips! I made a LOT of pony rips throughout most of 2021 and with the efforts of many, the presence of MLP on the channel grew a lot. Unfortunately, not everyone was very receptive about this… and I wouldn't be saying this if it was just commenters. A lot of 2021 kinda sucked for me. I was starting to have a lot of issues with the community and I wanted to leave every other week. I was lowkey feeling like quitting ripping by the end of the year, even though I knew I wasn't going to detach myself anytime soon, which just made it more painful to have thoughts about. Seeing people in the community constantly shit on MLP rips wasn't helping this at all, and usually it's like whatever not everyone likes it that's obviously okay just make whatever rips you want to but it was getting harder and harder to ignore everything when people just about everywhere, especially those who I respected, said the same stuff frequently. I was getting discouraged more and more and it also started affecting the way I viewed some people.

Let's put that to the side for now. I found out about ANTONYMPH when it first came out after someone pinged about it in a server, and I immediately loved it. I was still in the middle of being fixated on fansongs so this song made my rotation for quite a while and when the CUTIEMARKS album came out I gave that a full listen a couple times too. I remember freaking out so hard about the Fishy On Me sample because I was getting into Fortnite again that year and the song was an injoke within some friends and I literally almost got a heart attack when I clicked the sample video and heard what it was. It was a weird coincidence but I loved it more for it. After skimming through a bunch of soundtrack folders I eventually landed on Field of Hopes and Dreams and when I first slapped the songs together I was happy it worked well enough. I asked my friend Deercarcass who also really liked the song if she'd make art for my rip. It was originally planned for October 10 but the art wasn't done in time and eventually the longer it took I realized oh in the meantime I could ask the SG Art Team if they wanted to make things for it too. I wanted people to make whatever they wanted to, I wasn't particularly asking for 1:1 parodies of the art in the video (and obviously not even everything) and whatever I got I was just gonna compile as best as I could. In the meantime, the deal with MLP hate didn't seem to improve that much. I eventually blew up about it, yelling about how much I wanted to be done with ripping already because obviously it just might hurt when a community you've poured your heart and soul into for the last 5 years is starting to feel uncomfortable to be in. I feel like what was going on contributed to me getting attached to the song so much though, just because of how relevant the message of it was and how comforting it was to think about at a time like this.

Fast forward to the rip finally going up… it got its first fanart within like, 4 hours? And then Vylet Pony, burgivore and AstroEden all acknowledged the rip shortly after and I was so happy about it. burgivore even drew Gir-elle himself!

Above all, I felt so vindicated. Almost a whole year of feeling shitty about myself and my place in the ripping community but I still managed to end the year off on a high note. The rip surprisingly wasn't made out of spite (or at least initially, I don't know if it subconsciously motivated me to make it more ambitious but it doesn't matter) but it certainly felt good to take a dub after having been put down so much.

The rip grew more popular and I remember there was a point where it literally got at least 1k views consistently every day. Spamton Sweepstakes happened and I think it's cool that people say Toby was influenced by the rip, though personally I don't want to say that since I just picked up the vibes that Noelle was already written with, she just felt similar enough to Fluttershy to use as an equivalent. It's cool that it reinforced the idea more though. (also they are besties!! 🐴🦌💊 <- riamu showed up)

I'm glad the rip had such a huge impact on people. CUTIEMARKS is a really great album and probably my favorite album of all time at the moment. I'm happy the rip introduced a lot of people to Trixie's music as well. I've heard of a couple people becoming fans of her because of the rip and that makes me glad and even more that I've seen people talk about how the rip led them on a path that changed them as a person and that's so cool I can't understate how happy I am about those things. Seeing people kin Gir-elle is lovely too. People have also cosplayed her!!!! I think it's amazing how significant this format can be, how important these songs and characters can mean to people, and how so much can come out of some silly inside jokes.

As for what the rip means to me… a lot. This rip is very symbolic to me; it represents my friendships, my interests, my relationship with the channel, the community and all the time I've spent in it. This rip is representative of my passion and contains a piece of my heart. The reason for the "ChickenSuitPony" credit on the album is because it's the name of the pony OC I made as a child and I like to imagine the rip was made by the spirit of the kid who came back after having been pushed away long ago. I consider it the biggest contribution I could've made to SiIvaGunner and it isn't even my most viewed one.

The impact of the rip is something I consider to have marked off my ripping bucket list… I always wanted to make a rip like those from 2016 you just remember forever and it seems to have been successful. Of course this isn't something that should matter, rips are made for the self primarily, but it's a nice achievement. Not to say I'm going to be done soon, but if I theoretically had to cease contributing one way or another I would at least be satisfied to some extent.

Things have been a lot better since then. People have been a lot more nicer, a lot of the issues I had during that year were resolved and I think I've also changed a bit as a person and became generally more positive. The community has honestly been in the best spot it's ever been this year. In general people have been showing their appreciation for their friends more frequently, by making things inspired by them if not straight up dedicating it to them. This is something people already have naturally done of course but this year in particular it feels like it became even more frequent. This year I was surprised with a rip album for my birthday: LITTENYMPH. My heart was warmed a ton to say the least. I was mainly trying to give another example here about how great rips are as a medium and the energy they can channel outside of their face value as derivative works. I know this is just the art form of music in general but you get what I mean. Shoutout to my bestie RHMan for plotting this and all my lovely friends who contributed to it. Check out the rest of the Bandcamp too, it's just as friendly! 🐱🐰

Shoutout to everyone who helped work on the rip, Deercarcass, TVGhost, moralem, Tocinin, mBluett, 601billionlazer for all their art, Myeauxyoozi, Netyasha Roozi and overcast for assisting me with some parts of the video, all the people who helped provide things for the rapid-fire sequence, shoutout to Vylet Pony and everyone who helped on ANTONYMPH and the CUTIEMARKS album overall, shoutout to Toby Fox for making the most memorable motifs like ever somehow, shoutout to all the fans who felt attached to the rip and everyone whos made fanart, shoutout to BobTheTacocat for the SGFR arrange and just anyone whos made any tribute in any form, shoutout to ashy for being a kitty friend, shoutout to MtH for being nice to me about cringe, shoutout to Deercarcass again for being one of my most supportive friends and moralem cuz I'm really happy about how close we got during that time, shoutout again KnightOfGames for inspiring me to get back to MLP and my great friend MLPFun who's also stood by me, shoutout to anyone who has contributed to my existence and influenced my personality in any way (even the smallest bits) and thank you mel for the wonderful blog post. :)

Todays rip [First 30 Archive] - 02/06/2023

Field of Love and Cringe

Season 5 Featured on: The Inevitable Holiday Album

Ripped by ChickenSuitGuy Visuals by Deercarcass, TelevisionGhost, moralem, Tocinin, mBluett, 600billionlazer, Galacksy, Myeauxyoozi, Netyasha Roozi, over-cast07

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Boy that list of artists huh? Part of the magic of SiIvaGunner is that huge passion projects like this drop within the same schedule as every other rip, leaving it up to fans like myself to generate discussion over when things go crazy. It really isn’t often these days that an ordinary non-event rip truly blows up in the way this one did, sitting at almost half a million as of writing. But like, its well deserved!! It takes the basic concept of a mashup between Field of Hopes and Dreams and Vylet Pony’s ANTONYMPH, and turns it into a full-on tribute to the latter song, remaking the entire music video with all new visuals.

In that process, it creates a really fun new narrative of Noelle substituting Fluttershy in the original video as the “protagonist”, which creates a really fun new look into what the character is. A dorky, happy, proud and above all else SILLY little creature raised on the early 2000s internet culture. People inside and out of SiIva are in LOVE with this depiction of the character and I honestly can’t blame them, and the art used in the video is lovely in every sense of the word. Both as an Undertale fan and a SiIvaGunner enjoyer it’s been so fun seeing this strange mash-up joke turn into a full-on mainstay on the channel, bound to show up in the lore eventually. Not to mention the visuals are great not just for the way they pay tribute to Vylet Pony’s original video, but in how closely tied they still are to SiIvaGunner in-jokes: Its a love letter on all fronts

Though I’m a bit hazy on the full extent of the season’s contents, I’m willing to say this rip alone was one of the most defining moments of Season 5? With several of the original video’s creators giving their full approval to the rip and with Gir-hoodie Noelle being everywhere even outside of SiIvaGunner, its hard to say if any rips in recent memory had more of an impact than this. That’s not a knock against the rest of the channel, but a testament to just how well executed this rip in particular was. ChickenSuitGuy is a legend just in general.

#siivagunner #antonymph #mlp #girelle #noelle #deltarune #vylet pony #friends

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daddy-ul · 4 years ago

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What was more difficult, creating the account or coming up with your username?

Uhmmmmm! Good question.

Tbh, this isn't my main, so in theory i already had an account, but I think you mean "building up a metallica blog", right?

Well, in that case, the account thing for sure.

BACKSTORY TIME, DUDERS

I knew I wanted a blog to spread out 'good Lars vibes', bc the quarantine had just begun and metallica was my main source of serotonin >>> I spent a lot of time online, researching old vids, reading all the back catalogue of SoWhat! on the official site, etc, and.... I was showered with nasty comments abt him, some of them lies?

Like, I am not saying that everyone should love Lars, he has a certain type of personality and you can find him annoying, that's fine. Who cares.

But the people dissing him for his physical appearance, or spreading misinformation (like, some convoluted theory about how Lars planned Jason's demise????), and other stuff that every fan encounters around the web.

Now, I am not the type to start a war online with some faceless nickname in the youtube comment section, just writing the idea down makes me tired hjdfhsdjkfdh

SO! What’s the best way to fight back? With the good stuff! How do I share the good stuff? A blog!

Naming it took me 5 nanoseconds, bc mpft, c’mon!, a Lars blog should have a Lars’ reference url, and what’s the best place to find Larsism-s? BABBLES.

And, hey, that one from 2006 is one of my favorite babble ever and, being the bad humor connoisseur that I am, I already knew what to pick. (.... also there where a lot of James blogs, so I was ‘all these papa hets around... we need some balance, let’s bring the daddy ul-s in!’ fjksdhfsf my gremlin personality surfacing, i know). Also, as I’ve already stated before, I THOUGHT IT WAS A VERY FAMOUS REFERENCE, LIKE, EVERYONE WOULD GET IT INSTANTLY.

aaaaand it was not hfjdkhfjfhsd i ended up seeming the Lars’ version of Kirk’s pimp era *facepalm* my reputation!!! already ruined!! lol

LONG STORY SUPER SHORT:

‘Bulding up’ the blog took more time, it wasn’t difficult difficult, but surely more difficult than my brain going ‘eheh, bad pun, good reference’.

#duderz anonymouz #ask #ORIGIN STORY TIME BABEY~#you in search of a good tallica url duder?#i probably could have skipped that story #if you already knew whoops?#jinn contemplates life. metallica and life.#jinn out

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softsnuper · 8 years ago

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[TRANS] 170528 Lee Youjin V Live Broadcast (PD101S2)

Lee Youjin, one of the eliminated trainees from Produce 101, held a live broadcast on Namoo Actors V App channel last night! He answered fan questions and talked about his time in Produce 101 so here are some highlights about what he said about the other trainees.

Fan Questions:

The trainees he was closest to were his roommates at the start of the program! He roomed with Yoon Jisung, Kim Sihyun, Lee Hoorim, Kim Hyunwoo from YG K+. He couldn’t give Jisung a call bc he was probably busy (the only one left on the show).

He talked about how he was the leader twice during (for Be Mine team 2 and Rhythm Ta). He thought being leader would be easy bc he only needed to guide and lead the other members but it was a lot more difficult than he thought.

For Be Mine, he couldn’t really help the other members with learning the dance so he felt sorry towards them. Maybe if he had chosen an easier song they wouldn’t have had such a hard time. “Truthfully i couldn’t be of any help to the others, but through our struggles we got closer and did well.“

He really likes Park Jaebum’s (Jay Park) style so that’s the reason why he chose some of the concepts that he did on PD101! He wanted to be sexy like him (t/n: I think he’s talking about his performance evaluation)

The staff played Pick Me in the background but since he was caught off guard, he was able to dance only part of it. He said the trainees practiced it so much he could do the dance in his sleep.

He promised to try and call Taewoo later! He’s in a group chat with Taewoo and Taemin so they talk a lot. They’re really fun and interesting.

A fan commented “add me to the chat too~” so he said “send us your ID (t/n: kakaotalk ID)” lol

A fan asked “Who is the most handsome in PD101″ and he said “Everyone is handsome!”

He showed off the headphones he got for completing the first stage of maboy.

Youjin’s Pick Corner!

The staff set up a bracket board to see who Youjin’s pick was among his fellow contestants on PD101. When he saw the board he said, “Wow, this is like picking for the World Cup.”

First Round:

Lee Woojin vs. Kim Yongguk vs. Jung Sewoon (he said Woojin is cute but Sewoon really helped him with the hardships of being a leader. Even though they weren’t close, they talked and texted so he was really touched. That’s why he picked Sewoon)

Lee Insoo vs. Hong Eunki vs. Kang Daniel (he chose Daniel bc he was the leader for 열어줘 and taught them a lot. Youjin said everyone in the group was already good so he had to match them well)

Kim Donghyun vs. Im Youngmin vs. Joo Jinwoo (he depended on Youngmin a lot during Be Mine and is very thankful towards him)

Kang Dongho vs. Takada Kenta vs. Kim Taewoo (he picked Taewoo bc he’s funny, sings well, and is bright. He got really close to him during the show)

Lee Kiwon vs. Yoon Heeseok vs. Kim Seonglee (he picked Seonglee and said he had enough skills to compete in any program. During practice he would lift the mood and make the trainees happy but it wasn’t broadcasted)

Lee Gwanghyun vs. Park Sungwoo (he picked Sungwoo and pet the sticker with his face on it lolol. Although Sungwoo endured a lot, he was always by Youjin’s side. They were together for Be Mine and also for 열어줘 before being eliminated. Even though Youjin was having a hard time too, he felt sorry for not being able to help him)

Second Round:

Jung Sewoon vs. Kang Daniel

Im Youngmin vs. Kim Taewoo (he chose Taewoo bc they both fell down the ranks together(?) lol)

Kim Seonglee vs. Park Sungwoo (he chose Sungwoo bc he went through a lot of hardships)

Third Round:

Kang Daniel vs. Kim Taewoo

Park Sungwoo (automatic win)

FInal Round:

Kim Taewoo vs. Park Sungwoo (when he chose Taewoo, he put his sticker on the #1 spot and pat it several times; “It’s a pity that it’s not broadcasted but he’s really funny. We practiced a lot together.”)

Note: I’ll be subbing this segment and posting it on YouTube soon! I’ll link it here when it’s done and uploaded.

Update: here is the subbed segment!

More unrelated PD101 things are under the cut! Translation by @softsnuper (may not be 100% accurate)

Youjin felt a little shy and embarrassed bc he was filming V Live alone and there were a couple Namoo staff members watching him.

He has a lot of white clothing, even white shoes.

A fan asked about the meaning of his username nay_kid and he said it meant something like “live a sincere life.” Another way of saying “no” was “nay” and “kid” is to remind him of his dreams when he was a student.

He was drinking coffee throughout the broadcast. He loves americano.

When he reached 50k hearts, he got really shy from all the love.

A fan asked if he was okay and he said yes, he’s okay and will even get checked up at the hospital so do not worry!

He has 7 self-composed songs so far! He has a lot more songs he wants to make but he doesn’t have a room for it. He wants to upload 2 songs in one month on his soundcloud.

A fan asked “you know you’re handsome, right?” and he said no, he didn’t find himself handsome but he does like how he looks and personally thinks he’s cute!

A fan asked if he was thinking about releasing an album but he said that although he wants to, he wants to work on the quality of his music a bit more and in order to release an album, he needs the support of the public/community so he’ll just upload the album on soundcloud. That way, it’s free for everyone to listen to!

A fan commented “Remember to drink a lot of water!” and he replied with “I only drink a lot of coffee.”

A fan asked “Is pressing hearts important?” and he replied with “I don’t know but please press a lot!!”

He wasn’t good at aegyo before but now he’s a lot better.

A fan asks where he learned to be so talented (?) and he said “Maybe it’s in my blood.”

He has two sisters, one older who cooks well and one younger by 6 years. He’s a bit cold like his father but his mother and older sister like to take care of him. He never fights with his sisters. Since his younger sister is still young, he hopes she studies diligently and doesn’t drink alcohol. His and his older sister’s hair looks similar. He wants to care for his younger sister too but he doesn’t really know how.

Someone asked about his taste in music but he made a pass on the question bc his answer would be too long LOL

He’s holding an event where he’s giving away items that he uses often, these includes a tracksuit he wears (for girls it may be a bit big but it’ll be warm! size 100), sunglasses, and some signed selfie polaroids.

He showed the viewers the items one by one. The sunglasses were in a case with a zipper and when he opened it the zipper fell off LMAO he kept saying it wasn’t fake, the zipper just happened to fall off bc he pulled too hard and kept laughing lololol

He had the viewers guess who his favorite artist was and promised to gift them the tracksuit! He said even tho he’s worn it, he’ll keep it very clean.

His favorite artist is Giriboy! He said when others are stressed, they may drink but he listens to Giriboy’s music instead. He really admires all of his music, it inspires him. He can sing all of his songs; his favorite by him is called “All Day Long” but not many people know it.

The second prize was the sunglasses. There’s a play he always watches every year ever since the 12th grade, he wants to participate in one bc of it. (t/n: the fans were able to guess what is was but I couldn’t really catch the name of it, sorry)

Third prize was a signed polaroid selfie! When he took the selfie and waited for it to show up on film, he kept shaking it and when he realized he wasn’t supposed to shake it, he got embarrassed.

He wrote one of his songs after watching a specific movie (t/n: I couldn’t hear the title sorry) but the song is called “Why Don’t You Call Me”.

He had a lot of fun doing the V Live bc he knows how it feels to be a fan of another person and watch their broadcasts, now he can be the one doing the broadcast and it’s fun!

He wants to take on a high school student role in his acting career bc when he’s older he won’t be able to act as a student.

He eats alone and doesn’t have a favorite food but the foods he can’t eat is tomato sauce and mustard.

His least favorite season is summer bc he dislikes mosquitoes. He likes winter bc there’s snow and Christmas. It gives him a warm and cozy feeling.

When he was younger he really liked Harry Potter, his favorite part of the series was Chamber of Secrets! (This was another quiz question for the viewers, he gave away another signed selfie polaroid)

He wants to communicate with fans more but he can’t do V Live whenever he wants and he doesn’t have a fancafe :(

#produce 101 #produce 101 season 2 #lee youjin #kim taewoo #yoon jisung #kang daniel #park sungwoo #my translation #i don't want to tag everyone he mentioned so i'll stop here lol #he's one of my favorites i'll miss him :(

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decoding1432 · 8 years ago

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

Part four, sorry it took to long guys...

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

Previous parts:

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

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

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

Astroturfing it’s not a conspiracy thing because...

Reason 1: *link H*

I mentioned I would bring up again this link. I’ll explain: Apparently the blog answering the question is someone that knows plenty about the industry, bla bla, bla but never claimed to be an insider that worked near the band. The thing is the 1D bloggers appreciate him/her a lot because it has helped them understand things better, etc, etc…

“You mentioned Twitter watchdogs in an answer so that prompts me to wonder how aware the 1D Management team is of the things that are discussed online…”

“I’d say that, yes, they’re very aware of what goes on in the social media world, both on Twitter and on tumblr. It would be bad business to ignore it, especially since the majority of their success has come as a result of fans on social media.

In terms of purely monitoring social media, the different platforms require different techniques. Twitter is fairly easy, as you can just search hashtags and scroll through mentions or search by keyword. Tumblr is a bit more of a difficult one to monitor, as it’s more newly popular and generally harder to control. The best way that I’ve seen to get a handle on tumblr is to set up what basically amount to burner accounts. You create a tumblr account with an unassuming username and do nothing to the actual account. You leave the layout at default, don’t change the icon, don’t make posts, and don’t reblog or favourite anything. But you use the account to follow the blogs that control the conversation in whatever fandom you’re trying to monitor. There are usually a handful of bigger blogs in a specific fandom, and they’re the ones who control the discussion. Keeping track of what they’re saying lets you keep track of what people are saying in general, for the most part.

As far as astroturfing goes, that’s definitely not a conspiracy theory. It happens in the industry, absolutely. I’m not sure how widespread it is within One Direction specifically, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t have at least a few dummy accounts set up to try and sway fan opinion in one way or the other, both on Twitter and on tumblr.”

I’m not choosing to believe in this concept of astroturfing because a random blog in the 1D side said it... NO, I don’t know if this person works in the industry or what, I don’t know if it’s a “plant blog” itself. But I’m certainly going to validate him/her the sentences that I put in bold.

It’s obviously no secret that they actually monitor us through our SM since that’s where a big part of Fifth Harmony’s success comes from. They need to keep an eye on us, in order to assure “brand loyalty” & guide us wherever they want in concern to the narrative.

Reason 2: *link R*

“Mark Hardy is the ex marketing director for Syco, here is what he had to say about social media monitoring...

‘Hardy explains that key performance indicators included number of Facebook likes, Twitter followers, retweets, as well as YouTube views, and interaction and engagement across social media platforms.’

“It was a bit like herding cats, you had to be on top of it all the time with constant monitoring.” he points out.”

No additional comments needed... on to the next one:

Reason 3: *link S*

Explained below is the importance of astroturfing fandoms here in Tumblr, courtesy of a directioner.

When I met with social media Rob the first time, he told me that our fandom was basically a “hostile market” then went on to explain that Tumblr in general is a hostile market place. Here is a nice little article into why Tumblr in particular is a hard market place to broach.

Why historically tumblr is the best place to seed information in a seemingly organic fashion?

“It’s why Tumblr has been so loathe to embrace any sort of traditional display advertising, preferring to keep all posts “native.” It doesn’t even use the word advertising for its paid products, it’s all strictly “sponsored posts;” that is, content that looks like a regular Tumblr user could have made it, but that happens to be sponsored.”

Why target certain blogs?

“Engagement begets engagement: In order to give your posts a greater chance of getting reblogged, it helps to be a big reblogger of other users’ posts. Not only does it help your Tumblr page show up in more places, it also increases the chances of fellow users returning the favor.”

In the first paragraph it is mentioned the 1D fandom is a “hostile market”, IT IS ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THE QUESTION IF OURS IS TOO.

Reason 4: *link S*

“Understanding Social Media Campaigns:

3 SOCIAL MEDIA MODELS THAT WILL GUIDE YOUR BRAND INTO THE CONVERSATION LANDSCAPE– This article basically outlines what things to look for if you feel conversation is being swayed.

This article is more information pertaining to how to actively engage an audience in a sales campaign but what is very interesting is this little snip bit.

‘With social media, they even trust the opinions of some perfect strangers more than brand messages. This has important consequences in all kinds of relationships: buyers are more educated but so are journalists, potential future employees and everyone else in the social ecosystem of our business.’

Now what I would like to add to the conversation is how corporations successfully go about swaying an audiences conversation.”

Reason 5: The TED talk alone must make you believe (this one attached previously on part 1)

Video description: “In this eye-opening talk, veteran investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson shows how astroturf, or fake grassroots movements funded by political, corporate, or other special interests very effectively manipulate and distort media messages.”

Reason 6: *link T*

[NOTE: This is not the complete article]

Fake Twitter Followers: A Dirty Marketing Secret

A few weeks ago, I alerted readers to the growing problem of Twitter spam and now news comes that this is not the domain of underground players but one where large brands and stars may also be playing, purchasing fake followers to puff up their social media presence.

To understand how one identifies the presence of fake followers, a little pattern study must happen. In the case of someone who has purchased fake followers, the account generally sees a spike in user numbers followed by an equivalent drop in the number of followers about a month later.

But why would brands or stars do something like this? Since the early days of social media, the number of followers has been a key metric of value but getting there is tricky business. With services like Klout and PeerIndex, the raw number of followers has come to be equated, in the public mind as a measure of popularity. Agencies dealing with endorsement contracts, publishing deals, and even credit reports often take number of followers into account when figuring out who to go with and how much money should go in those deals. So having a large number of followers has come to be equated with a value of quality, which may be based on some flawed assumptions.

Reason 7: *link U*

[NOTE: This is not the complete article]

Social's Value Measured in Engagement Over Sales

Engagement, brand lift are leading social goals

“Marketers struggle to get the most out of their presence on social sites, and with brands’ continued tenure on the networks, their goals and the metrics they use to measure their performance have changed. According to a 2013 survey of US marketing professionals by Pivot Conference, which hosts leading social business events, consumer engagement and brand lift were the No. 1 goals of social media marketing, each cited by 67% of respondents. This was up significantly from 2011, when those goals were cited by about 50% each.”

In 2013 the goals were cited by 67% of respondents, now imagine 4 years later where we know SM presence in celebrities is practically vital.

“Last year, using social media marketing to garner positive sentiment was the leading goal, whereas this year it dropped to No. 4. Marketers may be finding that it is less important that their posts get a warm reception from social users and more important that they keep consumers posting, “liking” and sharing social content.”

In 5H’s case add to that last sentence “the marketers are definitely finding more important that they keep the social users making drama out of every little thing” LOL.

You might be wondering why reasons 6 & 7 are part of this. I included them mainly to show you the relevance of social media engagement to brands. Astroturfing is one of the various strategies implemented for this latter.

Reason 8:

I already show you this (if I’m corrected it was on p. II) but I’m bringing it back.

I think many of the bloggers here that surpass the standard number of followers have a handful dummy accounts or burner accounts following them…

Seriously in what world an inactivated account would follow you out of nowhere for the sake of it?!

Reason 9: *link V*

[NOTE: This is not the complete article]

Astroturfing: A question of trust

The practice of astroturfing – faking support for a product or cause – is on the rise on and offline. But how can it be stamped out?

“What do healthcare reform, climate change and financial regulation have in common? The answer is that they are all issues covered by astroturf, the practice of creating fake grassroots movements, usually by lobbyists and PR experts. These attempts to manipulate the media and public opinion seem to be on the rise – spurred on in part by the political mood and the reach of the internet.

"Astroturf front groups have been everywhere this summer, spreading misinformation about healthcare reform, carbon emission caps and financial regulation," says Timothy Karr, the campaign director for the US website freepress.net. "A healthy 21st-century democracy doesn't need phoney front groups. We need openness, accountability and real debate."

While the term astroturfing goes back to the mid-1980s, the practice began many more years ago. Unscrupulous marketers and lobbyists have long found ways to advance their paymasters' agendas – including manufactured mail campaigns, fake crowd protests and, increasingly, use of the web.

A "sock puppet" is a fake online identity created to support an argument – and, in many cases, they are untraceable. Richard Levangie, who writes about climate change astroturfing at the One Blue Marble website, says he first came across it in the mid-1990s. "I was passionate about slowing the rise of teenage smoking in my home province, and thought about starting an advocacy group that would work with teenagers ... that's where I first came up against astroturfing, in the form of smokers' rights groups who were ignoring the science about secondhand smoke, and who were trying to reframe the issue as freedom of choice." Astroturfing can range from a few forum posts or a comment praising a company to something closer to harassment, and from genuine disagreement and independent troublemakers to organised "trolls", all the way to the entirely fake campaigner.

Faked Reviews

Several authors have been found leaving glowing reviews of their own books on Amazon, while a bizarre case emerged in 2007 involving John Mackey, the chief executive of high-end US supermarket chain Whole Foods, who used a pseudonym to disparage competitors on message boards. More recently, a US PR company was found to have been writing fake positive reviews of a client's iPhone software.

The question of astroturfing comes up regularly in the world of public relations, says Jon Silk, the creative director of Lewis PR in London. "Clients new to online PR will often ask the question: 'Can't we just anonymously post positive comments?'," he says. "It takes time to explain how influence works – that it should start with a good product or service, and have a clear message that must be communicated to the right people in the right way."

Reason 10: *link W* (& last cause the list is endless tbh)

“Fake "grassroots" groups have started springing up like toadstools after a rain, and this time they're coming at us from every angle: they're on TV, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube… With all these corporate fronts coming out of the woodwork, how can citizens tell true grassroots organizations from corporate fronts operated by highly-paid PR and lobbying firms? Here are some tips to help readers spot this kind of big-business hanky-panky.

What is a "front group," really?

A front group is an organization that purports to represent one agenda while in reality it serves some other party or interest whose sponsorship is hidden or rarely mentioned. The front group is perhaps the most easily recognized use of the third party propaganda technique.

One of the best examples is Rick Berman's Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which claims that its mission is to defend the rights of consumers to choose to eat, drink and smoke as they please. In reality, though, CCF is a front group for the tobacco, restaurant and alcoholic beverage industries, which provide all or most of its funding. Not all organizations that engage in manipulative efforts to shape public opinion can be classified as "front groups," however.

The shadowy way front groups operate makes it difficult to know whether or not a seemingly independent grassroots group is really representing some other entity.”

What’s the 3rd party technique?

<“The third party technique has been defined by one public relations (PR) executive as, "putting your words in someone else's mouth.

PR firms have been known to put their words in the mouths of journalists by hiring reporters to write stories which favor their clients, or by funding tendentious university research which they then publicize as "proof" of their client's position....”>

*cough* Written interviews are a prime example *cough*

<“Corporate-sponsored front groups often are created or used by PR firms to appear as "independent" third parties.”>

I’m really considering doing a separate post about the 3rd party technique, just from reading those short extracts I want to dive deeper into the concept. Anyway continuing with the main article...

Characteristics of a corporate front group

“A front group typically has some, but not necessarily all, of the following characteristics (decoding: I didn’t copy paste all of the characteristics, just the ones I consider relate to the fandoms situations):

Is set up, operated or maintained by another organization, particularly a public relations, grassroots campaigning, polling or surveying firm or consultancy;

Engages in actions that consistently and conspicuously benefit a third party, such as a company, industry or political candidate;

Effectively shields a third party from liability/responsibility/culpability by making statements a corporation cannot make, but that nevertheless advance a specific corporate interest;

Re-focuses debate about an issue onto a new or suspiciously unrelated topic, (for example, casting the secondhand smoke as an issue of property rights)”

Rolling back the astroturf

“Documenting the activities of front groups is perhaps the single most important step in helping roll back the rise of astroturf groups.”

Soooo...

The reasons listed above were primarily articles to solidify the main argument that astroturfing is not a conspiracy thing because it happens ALL OVER THE WEB.

It’s not about being completely paranoid about everything you read on the internet. Be smart. It’s about not believing every piece of info you get served on a silver plate.

From something as “seemingly innocent” as faking a simple comment/ review of a certain product to influence the consumer’s opinion on it & discredit the competition to something blatantly serious as sending misleading information about the healthcare reform that involves the common well-being.

This unethical & deceitful phenomenon extends to the entertainment industry (fanbase social networking) up to the political world (campaigns). IT IS REAL & IT IS HAPPENING.

Yes, this fandom is gullible af & a total pain in the ass. But no, it didn’t go downhill on its own. It was a separated & very badly influenced to serve of support to the label & mgmt’s antics with the narrative. They use the fans & each one of their accounts as their SCAPEGOAT. But no one ever blames them & that’s how MIS (new acronym for men in suits) take advantage of the situation & get away with their shenanigans.

DON’T BE NAIVE, KIDS ;)

P.S. I might add a fifth part to explain how to use the astroturfing protection tools (Statcounter, TOR, etc.) It’s important to start taking measures bloggers.

#astroturfing #this is how they monitor us #sneaky little bitches #stay woke #5h blogs #camren blogs #camila blogs #read & spread

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gh0stpkmn · 8 years ago

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ok uh. yooran gaming channel au - part 2

@misfireezreal reblogged the ‘yoosung has a gaming channel au’ post and wrote a really cute lil addition that inspired me to add some more ideas to this mess of an au..... and i got really carried away

their addition / reblog post is here !! tho i’ll also put a screenshot of it under the cut... along with more headcanons/ideas/whatever for the au/scenario

god this is so cute omfg. ok so..

● yoosung liking comments that say nice things abt saeran?? so good. honestly the sweet comments probably rlly do a lot of good things for saeran’s self esteem!! they cheer him up when he’s feelin sad i would think? definitely helps a lot on his rougher days.

● misfireezeal mentioned donations so i started thinking about what donation money would go towards... when theyre not goin towards yoosung’s tuition (if he even stays in university at this point?? idk??) or his cost of living, or equipment for the channel, they go to charities.

yoosung wants to help animals so they donate to animal rescue organizations and stuff like that. he wants to contribute help to other causes too so... he wants saeran to have some say where the money goes (and i mean saeran is the meme bringin in a lot of it so. ye.)

it’s important to saeran that they donate to organizations that provide help for mentally ill people--especially mentally ill youth. also organizations that help children in foster care or like... help kids that have been abused idk.. idk! idk... things that can help young people that are going through some of the same things saeran went through

yoosung doesn’t announce the donations or anything because like... he doesn’t really feel the need to???? neither of them see a point in posting/talking about it. it just feels good to do nice things.

other stuff:

● it comes up in passing that like. saeran as a knack for hacking and everyone’s like “how could u do this?? cant believe ur a dirty hacker”

saeran’s like “ lol dont worry. i only cheat at games when i play against my brother because he’s a shit and never plays fair ”

chat is like “whoa we didn’t know you had a brother!!!”

and they talk about it a little and yoosung is like “yeah his brother is ____” (whatever his username is? i forget. hacker god i think?) “he usually plays on the shooting star server “

viewers are Shocked that yoosung knows #1 on shooting star. they demand to have him as a guest star

it’s... debatable whether saeyoung agrees to it or not?? he has to lay low and stuff.. either way, they tell saeyoung about it and he’s so amused omfg. he watches yoosung and saeran’s streams sometimes (and is so proud of his bro. he cries probably) but not super often? when he does watch, he also uses a random throwaway name

but after the chat asks for him, he logs in once or twice w/ his LOLOL screen name and people are all over omfg. chat goes wild and saeyoung is Living for the attention omg

saeran is like “you’re so dumb god i hate you”

and saeyoung’s like. “ok but are you actually planning on coming home some time soon??? tomorrow maybe? becaaauuuuuse..... i miss you”

it’s cheesy and lame and Embarrassing. saeran’s just.. “GO AWAY asshole im doing a thing....................................... also, yes. please order pizza for dinner”

yoosung thinks its funny n cute and so do the viewers.

● and ok even if... saeyoung is never a guest star, they probably bring like. mc or zen on once or twice and it’s great. a lot of viewers recognize zen (i imagine he’s a bit more famous at this point) and they are... so excited and surprised that he’s friends w/ yoosung and saeran.

i can’t really see jaehee or jumin on the show but like..........

..... the idea of them tricking jumin into trying to play a video game on the stream is so fucking funny to me????

like Somehow they manage to convince him to come over?? idk maybe by asking him to ”help them work on a big project that’s essential to yoosung’s career” or smth “that requires nothing less than jumin han’s skill and expertise” and because he’s a good friend he agrees. then they just. put a controller in his hand and he’s like “what am i supposed to do with this”

and ok jumin has probably owned a gaming console at some point but i honestly, truly can’t bring myself to believe that he uses it for anything other than like.....netflix

so he has no fucking experience and it’s. so good. yoosung and saeran are trying really hard not to laugh (and yoosung is failing)

idk what they make him play specifically but for some reason wii sports is flashing through my mind holy shit..... but actually its probably LOLOL or fallout 4 or something. idk. either way, he’s bad at it and they struggle to teach him how to even hold the controller properly

● saeran likely moves in some time after they’ve started the channel where both of them play games together. which happened pretty far into the relationship anyways i think?

and even then it happens quite a while after they start the channel. maybe when it’s been going for a year or something? maybe two??

(i have no idea???? idk how long these kinds of channels stay big??? i only watch like... fairly well known youtubers like game grumps that have been around for a long time. and mcleroy stuff on polygon idk.)

anyways

how they decide to move in is basically like... ok.

i imagine they probably get questions about their relationship a lot when they come out as a couple or when new viewers first find out about them. the flow of questions dies down after the initial reveal that they’re together but they still pop up every now and then

sometimes the questions get slightly intrusive like asking about their plans for the future which they kinda just ignore those until it becomes a really frequently asked question so they Have to answer it.. so they just say they don’t feel comfortable talking about it for the time being (because tbh they dont know lol)

and so...

probably a specific question that people ask A LOT (and have since saeran’s early appearances) is if saeran lives with yoosung, or if he’s planning to.

because he’s at yoosung’s place so often. he has been since the channel’s early days, and they post videos and stream together fairly regularly, i guess?

there’s obviously more content of just yoosung doing his thing because it is his channel after all but content featuring saeran is definitely a frequent thing (even when it’s not their duo let’s play channel or whatever... saeran can still be seen in the background in a fair amount of yoosung’s usual LOLOL streams, too. )

so uh

at some point they’re just hanging out.. (off stream, not on video or anything. just them together.. like a date night or just to spend some time together. i dunno)

maybe cuddlin’ in bed or on the couch watching a movie, having a nice time. there’s comfortable silence

and yoosung never really gave it a lot of thought before, but lately... he and saeran are just really close and their relationship is so GOOD and he loves him a lot. he’s thinking over all this stuff and how often people ask if they live together and...

i mean, he thought about it on his own before he really took the viewers’ questions seriously.... them bringing it up isn’t what sparked it necessarily.

he considered the possibility before, but he was always scared that bringing up moving in together would be too forward or pushy, and that saeran wasn’t ready for it, and that they would be rushing into things--going too fast. yeah.

he got that ball rollin’ and was trying to take it slow but recently, everyone bringing the idea up jsut. fuckin. kicks that ball. so hard. it’s going full fuckin throttle. max speed. it’s out of control and he can’t stop it

and so in this... really comfortable quiet moment he just kinda blurts out

“why haven’t we moved in together yet?”

saeran is surprised obviously. he wasn’t expecting that at all

he has briefly entertained the idea of living with yoosung before, because he’s over so often anyways, and he wants to spend even more time together.... but he’s also scared for various reasons?

such as his mental health issues, obviously. he’s also anxious that yoosung will get sick of him, or that he won’t be able to handle being around yoosung 24/7 and vice versa. he doesn’t want to get so easily annoyed and snappy like he does at home with saeyoung? he also doesn’t want to rush into things. idk. there’s a lot more reasons but those are some of them.

so when yoosung says this, he has no idea how to react??? so he just kinda mumbles “oh... uh.......”

yoosung panics like

“god, im sorry, that was so stupid. um. it’s just... been on my mind a lot lately, i guess..? god! ah... forget about that! it was dumb...”

he covers his eyes and kinda... hunches over. all embarrased and nervous and a little guilty because he doesn’t want to make saeran uncomfortable. he can’t even look at him. poor boy omg

saeran stays quiet for a long time, furrows his brows and chews the nail of his thumb and looks like he’s concentrating on something. after a while he pipes up, so quietly that yoosung can barely hear him

“i don’t think it’s dumb”

yoosung is. shocked. but also immediately hopeful! he perks up!!! looks at his bf incredulously like “you don’t?”

saeran kinda... talks slowly bc he’s thinking hard about his words and says that he didn’t expect yoosung to bring it up really but he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about it before

so they have an Important, Serious conversation about it and they both make sure that the other is %100 on board with it and ready to just. jump in and do it.

celebratory smooches ensue because they’re cute and happy and excited.

... i forget if yoosung’s place is a dorm or not. if it is, he gets his own apartment.

if it’s not, he stays in his apartment and saeran moves in there.

it’s small and kinda cramped and very far from a “forever home” but they make it work for now!! they’re happy that way... (maybe in the future they get a bigger place, which is nice because it makes it easier for saeran to have some privacy when he needs time alone.)

● yoosung definitely takes short little videos or vlogs all the time and posts them on youtube and other social media

he takes one the day after they have the conversation mentioned above. and it’s just. “you guys.... i asked my boyfriend to move in and he said yes!! god, i was so scared! tell them how scared i was, saeran!” he points the camera at saeran who is reading a book and he just.

idk he either just flips off the camera bc he’s busy and doesn’t want to be disturbed...

he looks it right at the lens and says “he was scared shitless. he literally shit his pants. it was gross. i had to h---”

cue video going blurry as yoosung turns the camera away real quick paired with. shocked, loud shrieking. “SAERAN!!! DON’T SAY----” and then the video jsut kinda. cuts off there.

(he still posts it but with some caption along the lines of “that didn’t actually happen. saeran’s just being a dick”)

and of course, there’s definitely multiple videos of the day they move saeran’s stuff in. yoosung records a bunch and puts them on his snapchat story or w/e... other social media too, so they can look back on them later...

just cute little clips, like one of saeran’s room with all his stuff in boxes..... one of saeyoung and saeran (and maybe mc) loading stuff up into the car.... one of them putting the boxes in yoosung’s apartment.... a dumb one of saeyoung goofin’ off at yoosung’s place and mc doting on him..

one of saeyoung giving his brother the biggest bear hug ever. just. completely squeezing the life out of him and dramatically pretending to be all emotional (even tho he really is genuinely emotional inside omg) and saeran being annoyed and trying to push him away “god, let me go! you’re suffocating me!”

one where... they’re bringing in the last box.

and finally like. one w/ yoosung turning around to show his whole apartment, boxes everywhere, some of them already half unpacked. “phew... finally finished! the hardest part, anyway”

it’s cute.

● the little videos are probably a thing that happens every now and then, even after that... he probably snapchats a lot of things in general bbbut a lot of the time it’s just. dumb, random videos of saeran.

some of them are stuff like:

a close-up of both of them, taken with yoosung’s phone where they’re like “streaming in fifteen! we’re gonna play ____ today.” .... real cute stuff.

or just. shitty phone videos yoosung takes of saeran where like… yoosung says something really sappy joke or pickup line? idk. something really cheesy and terrible and wants to film saeran’s reaction. and saeran looks over and his expression is just. dead inside. the camera zooms in real close on his face and he whispers “………………. im so sick of this Shi–” the video cuts off there

probably lots of them chillin and having fun with the whole rfa crew

and. maybe one where the two of them are hanging out with saeyoung and mc and other pals and.. idk. one of them says something funny and they’re all laughing but yoosung zooms in on saeran who just.........ok i imagine that sometimes his more subdued laughs come out as like?? this huffy, kinda wheezy little giggle. he covers his mouth w his hand. and the video captures that. when yoosung posts it, ppl Freak out about it because it’s so uncharacteristically adorable...

there’s videos of them going on trips or just new places in general... going for hikes and exploring maybe.. idk. lots of cute stuff.

saeran takes one of yoosung when they’re at the spca?? or some place like that. idk (i dont like pet stores but maybe a pet store).. and.. yoosung just has his hands and face pressed to a glass partition/window/whatever that has a puppy behind it. maybe multiple puppies. and yoosung turns around w/ the Most desperate, pleading expression anyone has ever seen. (saeran knows he has to say no but it’s so hard omfg)

and obviously there’s lots of little clips of video game stuff. teasers of the game content itself or their playthroughs. maybe a video of one of them sitting on the couch or a computer chair playing a game and getting angry lol.... (or saeran getting frustrated w/ a handheld game that’s supposed to be really calm like... animal crossing. idk sorry i just love the idea of saeran having a 3ds and playing chill games like that to help him relax when he’s anxious omg)

.... there’s also lil videos yoosung takes but he decides that they are private, for his eyes only... little moments like one where they’re getting ready to stream and saeran’s adjusting one of the microphones

and yoosung quietly says hey to get his attention, and saeran looks over and smiles real big and genuine w/ lots of love and tells him to “Stop goofing around. C’mon, put your phone down and help me finish setting up.” and it’s. sweet and happy and cute... yeah.

BUT uh...

yeah!

that’s all for now !!

#yooran #. gh0st blabs #forgive me... no lectures on fridays means too much free time.

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thehummusandpitacorporation-blog · 6 years ago

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Today, We Say Goodbye to David, the Internet’s Biggest Music Nerd

Today, June 29th, is David’s last day in the GMG office. Those of us lucky enough to have met him and call him our friend say the things we like most about him. The Hummus and Pita Corporation, among those lucky enough to know David very well, did not respond in time to comment, but we will update this post if and when we hear back, because we are sure they have very many nice things to say about their most loyal customer.

Yessenia Funes, Earther staff writer

David! You're one of the first people I see when I come into the office. You're almost always there early—and you're always looking fly AF. I'm gonna miss you, dude. I'll miss hearing your random snort-chuckles (or at least that's what I think they are). I'll miss your wide selection of hot sauce (although Tapatio all zayyyy). I'll especially miss our Chipotle trips. I think you might be the only other person who understands my love for Chipotle. I'll loathe whoever ends up taking your seat and send them death stares until they get the hint and leave it alone. (I'm just kidding... I think.) GMG won't be the same without you, dude. Neither will the union. But you a boss-ass journalist (even though Jay-Z probably hates you now), and I know you'll be aight. This place doesn't deserve you.

Emily Lipstein, rat wrangler, Gizmodo/Earther/io9 social

David and I have been sitting basically across from each other at GMG since I was hired on full time from my internship and he started at the company. It took, however, two weeks (at least!) for us to actually do more than just nodding when we would see each other, which is dumb considering that we both knew who the other was. David has been put through the ringer while here at GMG, in the most docile way I can say it. I'm infinitely sad to see him (and his Ed Sheeran icon in union slack) leave. Most sad of all is that the Hummus and Pita Co. on 17th and 6th will no longer have its most reliable customer. Luckily for me, I'll be able to see David whenever, now that I live within "walking distance" of Bed-Stuy and since Black & White isn't limited to only employees of Gizmodo Media Group. I hope I get custody of our desk plants.

Ashley Reese, Jezebel staff writer

Before I even knew David IRL, he was this dude on Twitter who seemed really fucking cool and kinda intimidating and I just wanted him to follow me back. Now that I know him, I know that he’s not intimidating at all (lol) but he’s still really fucking cool. And on top of that, he’s sweet and funny and incredibly smart. I’m really going to miss seeing him around the office and snarking with him on Slack, but I’m excited to see what he does next.

And thanks, David, for warning me about how cold our damn office is. A real lifesaver.

Clio Chang, formerly Splinter staff writer

David is a fucking great person.

Claire Shaffer, Jezebel intern

I’ve only known David for a few months, but even in that short span of time, I’ve gained the authority to say that he is a huge nerd. While the rest of us continue to make dumb Soundcloud jokes on Twitter, he has been wading through a quagmire of streaming data, shady dealings, and related bullshit happening within the music and tech industries. This makes him both a giant dweeb and a fearless reporter, shining a light on inequities that not nearly enough people are writing about. He’s also a nerd because we once spent a good chunk of a bar conversation on Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is a topic that he definitely brought up, not me. I’ll miss you, David, and I wish you the best of luck as Editor-in-Chief of your new sports/pop culture website, The Runger.

Katie McDonough, Jezebel senior editor

The first time I met David was during the organizing drive at MTV News (he was working there, I was helping out), and I liked him right away because he dressed cool and wanted to build a union at his job. The second time I met David was months later at the GMG offices, when I turned around at my desk to find that he was sitting behind me, at his own desk, facing in the opposite direction. It was a weird time at the company (still is) and things felt fractured with new teams coming together, but David was quick to start planning ways to connect people. He also became more and more active in our union, bringing that same drive toward connection to the work we did there, and leaving us infinitely stronger for it. I hate that David is leaving GMG because I know that I will love everything he does somewhere else and feel jealous we aren't publishing it. I will miss working with him and organizing alongside him and admiring his cool clothes every day. I will miss his passion for spreadsheets and small obsessions that become incredible pieces. I will miss David.

Frida Garza, some bitch

Since David and I started working together at GMG, we have been through a lot: helping him log in to his Univision account, to which he knows neither the username nor the password but which also threatens to self-implode if one does not log into it every 45 days; aiding him in his search for more union pins (he has a lot, check his backpack); acquiring copious amounts of hot sauce and plants for our desks, for distinct but not unrelated reasons. David has been my coworker in various capacities over the last year and a half; he somehow wrote more blogs for me when I was his editor than any other freelance writer I worked with, despite the fact we never paid him. (We did pay him, it just took so long that I was deeply embarrassed and hoped he would choose to never pitch us again so that I could stop apologizing. But he always pitched us again.) David was also one of the smartest, pitching insane but brilliant blogs that I was also insane enough to say yes to, and the whole thing was generally a fun enterprise (again, expect when I was frantically emailing finance to track down where his money went). I wish I could take credit for his ideas, but they’re all his, and any editor who has the opportunity to hear one of these should count themselves as stupidly lucky.

David, you are a true weirdo, which is why we are friends: Whether it’s your Supreme obsession, the way you know shit about the music industry absolutely no one else does or understands (including me sometimes), the fact your Slack avatar is clip-art of a turtle (I refuse to believe it’s the official turtle emoji), the way you hate most things (like eggs... what’s up with that?), the way you say EKSGETIT more than anyone I know (except Crystal Xia, and both of you drive me crazy with that), the list goes on. You are also a great reporter, an amazing friend, and will be so friggin’ successful, I know it. I’m so happy for you to write the great American non-fiction book on how the real Russian interference is in popular sports channels on YouTube. Catch you at MoMa PS1.

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