#that is a meme template worthy shot

[reginaofdoctorwho]

found the thing (1982) on internet archive right after getting a custom keychain w the tagline! also, my sister told our dad the baptism reception is canceled!

[ruemwithaview]

Sometimes I wonder if entertainment folk purposefully try to craft some scenes or situations or shots with the deliberate intent of making it seem meme worthy. There has to be some sort of data-collected outline of what producers or execs think would make a viral meme template. They’re jealous of the free advertisement Spider-Man and supernatural and dr who get and want to manufacture that bottled marketing lightning.

Then I wonder what the failed attempts are, if we’re missing cringe gold not knowing that this or that scene was a blatant attempt at memery. Or I wonder if there were any successful campaigns and if there are industry meme-wizards who have shown a highly coveted knack for this sort of thing. Or I wonder -

[minzeysparkleisperfect8]

Thanks to my last post, I decided that this little shot was worthy of meme potential so I'm leaving it here so you can all make the memes you can fit in this Awase Template.

[premwareservices]

Nowadays, the cameras on your android smartphone are getting better than earlier time. The inbuilt camera app on your android smartphone is probably good, but there is always a possibility for improvement. Android users have the flexibility to choose top camera apps, with features such as multiple shot modes, steady shot helpers, composition overlays, editing tools and post-processing special effects. Smartphone makers are paying more attention to make cameras more reliable, work better in night or low light, and add more features that their competitors are providing. Many of the smartphone buyers will base their buying decisions on the quality of the cameras. So, the point is that cameras whether it is primary cameras or secondary cameras, are important on smartphones these days.

Now, the question is:

Which is the best camera application for android?

Choosing only one app as the best camera app for android among all camera apps is very difficult. Because the choice of users can vary on the basis of camera apps rating or no of downloads or no of reviews.

So, we prepared a list of the top android camera apps with all of its parameters.

Here is our list of some of the best Android camera apps. You can use these apps by clicking share-worthy photos from below top Android camera apps.

B612 -Free Selfie Camera, Photo Editor & Video App

Details about this app:

Total Installs: 500,000,000+ Rating: 4.3 No of Reviews: 67,62,131 Google Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.linecorp.b612.android

B612 is BEST “One-stop solution app” for all your camera needs.

You will find everything you are looking for here in B612 – Beauty Feature, Makeup, Stickers, Short-videos, Editing, Video templates, Music videos & more. New stickers, filters and effects are added everyday for our Indian user in India. Have fun and make amazing memories with B612.

Easily create high quality music videos

– Pair your videos with exciting tunes

– Diverse effects and playback speeds for more dynamic music videos

​

Studio feature

– Find 1000+ video templates and collage layouts to make amazing content extraordinary

– Most trending and new video editing templates for you to edit your videos easily and fast

– Find new video as well as photo edit templates on daily basis

– Easy way to find our whats trending as well as to to set new trends

Over 1,500 diverse stickers

– Facial recognition stickers that can distort your face or turn you into a cute animal

– Shiny effects and stylish analog filters to brighten your day

– Various drawing effects that you can draw as you take a video

– Celebrate every festival with new trending sticker and effects

– Find new most trending and viral

Real-time beauty and makeup effects to get the perfect shot at once

– Perfect skin with a single tap

– Find your ideal face shape with an easy-to-use slider

– Get rid of pimples Adjust the features like smoothening, dark circles, pores for perfect selfie

– Change makeup styles for every picture

Immaculate filters to suit your taste

– High quality filters perfect for selfies, food, landscapes, or any occasion

– Quick access to your favorite and most used filters

– Make and save your custom filter

Easy Photo Editor

– Use editing tools from gallery to make your existing photos more special

– Try amazing filters, stickers for pictures & new trendy photo effects.

– Use auto-cut and change your background

– Beauty and makeup editor: features like smooth skin, makeup are now easy to add

– Use new tools to make your pictures stunning: hair color changer, auto-cut, slow motion & more.

– Adjust the ration of your pictures and videos in all sizes for Instagram (1:1), Youtube (16:9) & other media

– Easy and fast one touch adjustments tools

Story Mode & Video:

– Now make amazing stories using new trending effects everyday

– Get perfect beauty and makeup for all your stories and videos

– Easy one touch share is available for your convenience

– Add your favorite music and make fun short videos

Take fun boomerang videos that play on a loop

Meet cute characters that come to life using AR stickers (Only available on certain devices using iOS 11 or above.)

Create collages where you can see all your best moments in one place.

Cymera Camera – Photo Editor, Filter & Collage

Details about this app:

Total Installs: 100,000,000+ Rating: 4.6 No of Reviews: 24,79,006 Google Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyworld.camera

Cymera reached 300 million downloads for Android and iOS users in 2018.

Get this powerful photo editor app with amazing photo effects, photo filters, stickers, crop, instafit, blur effect, mirror effect, tattoo & muscles effects and makeups!

Christmas Selfie Effect.

New Year Selfie Effect.

New Snappy sticker and the new beauty lomo filters.

Face filters to remove acnes and blemishes.

New AR Selfie effects for Summer vacation.

New Air Shape Item to uplift your pic!

Popular & New

+Collage Maker

+Live Filter

+Layout Items

+Smaller and V-shaped face

+Makeup Style

+Body and Face Editor

+Vintage, Natural, Lomo, Film, Sketch and Selfie Filters

+AR Face Sticker

+Healthy Skin Feature

+Text and MEMES

+Various hairstyles and color

+InstaFit and more!

+Import directly from Google Photos

【Main Functions】

Beauty Camera

– Professional beauty tools for your skin makeup, slim or face reshape, remove wrinkles, erase face pimples and dark circles.

– Hundreds of amazing beauty selfie filters and makeup effects.

+ Meet the smart selfie camera to look exceptional without hassle!

Amazing Filters

– Perfect instant selfies with 130 different filters.

– Edit with free filter packages for selfie, nation flags, air shape, vintage-feel, pastel colors, film-effect, black & white and more!

– Face filters for perfect selfies!

– Lens flare effects or light laked effects.

– Create your own collection of favorite filters.

+ All filters are free!

Camera Lenses and Silent Mode

– 7 different and fascinating camera lenses.

(Divided lenses/FishEye/Lomo and more)

– Anti-shake, timer, touch shooting, out-focusing options.

– Silent mode

– Bluetooth connection is available for selfie sticks with remote.

Collage and No Crop Features

– Different types of grid to combine photos (up to 9 photos) into one.

– Blurred background with a simple touch.

Retouch or Adjust Photos Instantly

– Automatic face recognition including enlarge eyes, smile and slim feature.

– Edit with Liquify, skin corrections (brightening, whitening, concealers)

– 200 kinds of natural hair and face makeup items

Shape your dream body with new features!

– New body shaping feature

– Stunning feature to Slim your waist

– The best photo editor to lift your hip

– No more bow legs. Get a sexy, shaped legs in few seconds!

Super Easy and Fast Editing Tools

– Brightness/contrast/mosaic/crop/rotate.

– Extraordinary effects including filters/lights/borders/vignette.

– High quality resolution for clean and clear photos.

– Advanced red eye removal function.

– Add a stunning art effects with color splash function.

Upgrade Photos with Unique Items

– Trendy AR stickers including face animal mask, air shape item, love stickers, beauty filters, light effects, frames

– Brush items for hand writings and drawings

– Variety of fonts in text feature

– Face pop and meme

Sharing Photos and Smart Gallery

– Organize photos by date, location, selfies, etc.

– Now you can set your edited photos as wallpaper.

– Edit photos taken by other camera apps.

– Send or share your photos on your social media channel or other instant chat.

YouCam Perfect – Best Selfie Camera & Photo Editor

Details about this app:

Total Installs: 100,000,000+ Rating: 4.5 No of Reviews: 19,34,761 Google Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyberlink.youperfect

YouCam Perfect is fully developed in Taiwan by Perfect Corp.

YouCam Perfect is the best beauty camera & selfie photo editing app with over 300 MILLION downloads and counting! Edit pictures & selfies to share with family and friends with YouCam Perfect your full mobile photo editor, selfie beauty camera & social app. Create amazing edits for social media, WhatsApp, Facebook, Tik Tok & more with our easy to use photo editor camera app.

Edit selfies & photos with hundreds of campaign and new creative templates, effects & filters. YouCam Perfect lets you combine your snaps into instant photo collages and creative frames. Get perfect selfies in just one tap with beautify, also remove blemishes & smooth wrinkles! Share your edits in an easy way with friends and family either online using WhatsApp & other social media. Stay connected wherever you go, stay updated with friends & family with easy edits, selfies & pictures!

====== YouCam Perfect Core Features =======

Real-Time Selfies &Skin Beautifying Effects in Beauty Camera

Edit Photos with Full Editing Toolkit

Cutout & Object Remover Makes It All About You!

Achieve a Flawless & Luminous Face in Every Picture

Stylize & Share Pics with Friends!

Edit Photos with Full Editing Toolkit

★Try effects and one-touch filters, photo crop and rotate, mosaic pixelate to blur the background, vignette, and HDR effect.

★Blur photos using background defocus, Gaussian blur, and other blur effect tools

Cutout & Object Remover Makes It All About You!

【Focus On You With Smart Object Removal】

★Like a green screen for your photos, cut out the subject of a photo, then give it a fun new background for a special effect.

★The unique intelligent object removal tool that you can’t find in other beauty apps

★Erase unwanted background objects or people, so that your photo is all about you!

Real-Time Skin Beautifying Effects in Beauty Camera & Video Selfies

【Real-Time Beautifying Effects & Filters】

★Bring selfies to life with short videos

★Videos and video selfies with cool filters for better Vine videos.

Stylize & Share Pics with Friends!

【Collages, Grids & Frames】

★Insert your selfie photo into a fun scene, grid, collage or template!

★ “Smart Collage” detects faces in your photos for perfect placement in collages and backgrounds.

★Magic brush adds stickers to photos with a burst of shapes and colors wherever you tap!

★Share to Facebook, Instagram and your favorite social networks

Simple Steps for a Flawless & Luminous Face in Every Picture

【Face & Body Editing】

★Face reshaper gives you a great face shape without plastic surgery.

★Skin smoothener makes dry skin, wrinkles, acne and fine lines all disappear.

★Add contours to your face to bring out your true beauty.

★Add blush & remove shine for a clear face, even without makeup. Also, add freckles, and perfect brows like with microblading.

★Eye Bag Remover diminishes dark under eye circles and reduces puffiness.

★Multi-face detection lets you touch-up every face in your group shots.

Sweet Snap – Beauty Selfie Camera & Face Filter

Details about this app:

Total Installs: 100,000,000+ Rating: 4.5 No of Reviews: 6,67,884 Google Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ufotosoft.justshot

Sweet Snap is used by over 100 million people around the world. The best FREE photo editor and beauty camera app on Google Play. You can snap perfect selfie & video with its unique photo filters, cute stickers, pretty makeup, and beauty effects. Create your own GIF emoji packages easily and take fun boomerang videos that play on a loop with Sweet Snap. In addition, you can add music to videos, create high-quality music videos.

———-FEATURES———-

Filters for pictures – Make every selfie photo amazing

* Food? Landscapes? Selfie? High quality filters perfect for any occasion.

* Glitter, Neon, Sweet, Nature…Hundred of filters for pictures to choose from.

* With a massive amount of editing options, easy to make your pics stand out.

Cute stickers – Brighten your every day

* Lovely? Funny? Fashion? There are over 2800 unique live face stickers far more than B612.

* Just simply click the stickers to easily switch between various stickers.

* Face recognition stickers that can easily suit selfies and make your photos funny.

Makeup Camera – Get pretty makeup at once

* Multiple choices of the popular lipstick, blusher, contour, and eyebrows.

* Here you can find the youcam makeup styles that best suit selfie.

* Various popular makeup selfie effects make your selfies mesmerizing.

Real-time beauty effects – Snap perfect selfies

* Acne? blemishes? pimples? Sweet Snap make skin problems disappear with just a tap.

* Retouch skin tone using our exclusive skin smoothing makeover tool.

* Beauty plus camera adds a radiant complexion for perfect face and selfie pictures.

GIF & boomerang – Funny short video maker

* Shoot an 8-second short video and turn it to a GIF emoji.

* Add music to video, customize high-quality music videos.

* An essential function to colorize daily chat.

* Trending stickers and magic filters make your short video unique and awesome.

Smart Cutout – Simply and Intelligent

* Cutout image automatically with the AI Auto Selection tool and paste it on another image or background.

* Manual eraser and cutout for finger rub background cut and removal.

* Combine your cutout photos seamlessly to create unique and funny images.

Easily Share – Snap memorable moments

* Snap perfect selfies & videos with Sweet Camera and save them in high resolution.

* Share to all social apps Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, Messenger, YouTube, Tik Tok, Snapchat, etc.

Sweet Snap is a powerful beauty plus camera and boomerang video maker, best photo editor with all photo editing features, free GIF maker app. It’s great for creating your own GIF emoji packages easily and taking fun boomerang videos that play on a loop. The draw tool can also help draw various drawing effects for your videos and photos.

With Sweet Snap, you can easily record videos, add music to video, add text on video, edit videos with the draw tool. The fast motion feature is super fun. Sweet Snap is also a free photo editor and beauty plus camera. You can snap perfect selfies & videos with ease and export it in high resolution, and share your photos & videos to Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, Messenger, YouTube, Snapchat by one click, or edit video with music and pic for Tik Tok.

Candy Camera – selfie, beauty camera, photo editor

Details about this app:

Total Installs: 100,000,000+

Rating: 4.4

No of Reviews: 35,00,230

Google Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeware.android.gpulumera

Let’s take a selfie!

With Candy Camera’s beautifying filters and silent mode,

You can take beautiful selfies anywhere and anytime!

Don’t miss out on Candy Camera’s amazing filters –

1,000,000 people taking selfies with Candy Camera every day!

★ Filters for Selfies

A diverse range of filters, designed specifically for selfies –

Every Candy Camera filter will make your skin look amazing!

Swipe left and right to change between filters,

And find the perfect beautifying filter for a selfie!

Candy Camera’s filters are shown real-time while you take a selfie,

So you always look and feel beautiful with Candy Camera’s filters!

★ Beauty Functions

In addition to the filter camera, there are additional editing tools for the perfect selfie –

Slimming, whitening, concealer, lipstick, blush, eyeliner, mascara!

Edit or use make-up stickers to look beautiful in all your selfies.

Candy Camera is the ultimate beauty tool for selfies!

★ Stickers

Stickers for every season, occasion, and trend!

Decorate your selfie with Candy Camera’s huge sticker collection –

New stickers are being added to Candy Camera with every update!

You can find cute stickers for your selfies and artistic ones for your photography.

Each sticker can be easily resized and moved using multi-touch!

★ Silent Camera

Take silent selfies, snapshots, or photography anywhere you go!

Candy Camera’s silent mode can be used for any occasion –

Never be embarrassed to take a selfie, the camera is silent!

★ Collage

Take multiple photos for a collage!

Choose from many different grids and styles –

Taking selfies with Candy Camera’s collage mode,

You’ll feel like you’re in a photo booth with filters.

Have fun taking selfies with your friends!

VSCO: Photo & Video Editor

Details about this app:

Total Installs: 100,000,000+

Rating: 4.3

No of Reviews: 11,31,810

Google Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vsco.cam

VSCO is a place where expression matters most. We offer creative photo and video editing tools, inspiration, and a place for you to be you.

Share your photos and videos with #VSCO for a chance to be curated by VSCO. We can’t wait to see what you create.

FREE PHOTO EDITOR

Take your photography to the next level with 10 free VSCO presets. Easily import and edit your RAW photos. Use editing tools like Contrast and Saturation to make your photos pop or use Grain and Fade to add texture and mimic analog film effects. Adjust or play around with your photo perspectives with Crop and Skew. Save and recreate your favorite edits with Recipes.

ADVANCED PHOTO EDITING TOOLS

Join VSCO Membership to access VSCO’s complete preset library with over 200+ presets. Recreate vintage film looks by Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, and others with Film X. Use advanced photo editing tools like HSL and Split Tone. Frame your images with a touch of color using Borders.

VIDEO EDITOR

Transform your videos on mobile with the same premium VSCO presets and advanced editing tools from our photo editor. Adjust white balance and experiment with color control with HSL.

VSCO MONTAGE

Tell a video story and make a moving collage by layering videos, images, and shapes. Celebrate moments, illustrate a mood, or experiment with photos and videos you already have in your Studio. Adjust the opacity of any media layered in to create an eclectic range of customized gel colors and double exposures.

CONNECT WITH A CREATIVE COMMUNITY

Explore inspiring photos, videos, and editorial in Discover. Find people you know and connect with friends already on VSCO. Try something new with weekly photo Challenges exclusive to your VSCO membership.

Adobe Lightroom – Photo Editor & Pro Camera

Details about this app:

Total Installs: 100,000,000+

Rating: 4.3

No of Reviews: 7,87,761

Google Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.lrmobile

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a free, powerful photo editor and camera app. It empowers you in your photography, helping you to capture and edit stunning images.

With easy-to-use image editing tools like sliders, or filters for pictures, photo editing is made simple. Retouch full-resolution photos, apply photo filters, or start photo editing wherever you are.

EDIT YOUR PHOTOS ANYWHERE

Transform raw photos with one of the world’s most intuitive photo editing apps. Simply tap and drag sliders to improve light and colour, apply photo filters for pictures, and more. Breathe life into your photo editing with these leading photography tools.

Retouch light and colours on photos to make them pop. Easy-to-use sliders give you control over your photos’ properties, even on a phone screen.

Crop and Rotate tools let you find the size and aspect ratio to best show off your camera work.

Create super clean shots with straight lines by adjusting the perspective of your image with powerful upright, guided upright, and Geometry slider tools. Experiment with Versions of photos to compare different edits without losing the original and pick your favorite look.

Access all your presets anywhere. Image edits on one device are automatically applied everywhere else.

EDIT DOWN TO THE DETAIL

The advanced picture editor helps you to finesse the details.

Take control of your image with selective adjustments. Remove almost anything from your photo with a touch of the Healing Brush. Local Hue Adjustments as part of selective edits mean you can even alter hue and saturation with precision to bring your photos to life.

Get inspired with interactive tutorials and learn how to use the photo editor to its full potential by completing step-by-step lessons curated by fellow photographers.

LIGHTROOM PRESETS SIMPLIFY PHOTO EDITING:

Achieve professional photo editing faster by using presets – filters for pictures with unlimited customization options. Presets make every step of photo editing visible so that you can learn to do it yourself.

Be an even more creative picture editor. Combine presets to recreate your favorite photo effects perfectly every time with just one click.

PRO-LEVEL CAMERA

Unique phone camera controls unlock your photography potential. Choose from exposure, timer, instant presets, raw and more. Enjoy more control over your photography on the go with capture modes such as Professional and HDR.

SMART ORGANIZATION FOR YOUR PHOTOS

Adobe Sensei harnesses the power of AI to tag and organise your photos based on the objects or people that are in them. A quick search for “mountains” or “Maria” will display all the relevant photos.

Use handy organizational tools like ratings and flags, so you can mark and group the photos you like best.

ADVANCED PHOTO SHARING

Group Albums allow you to invite others and collect everyone’s photos in one place. Share your creative process with other users in the Discover section of the app so they can see how you got from start to finish. Lightroom galleries showcase your photos online. Photo edits sync seamlessly, so any changes you make are always up-to-date.

WORRY-FREE ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD STORAGE:

The Lightroom image editor is the best cloud-based service for photography lovers.

Retouch your full-resolution shots and have both originals and edits backed up to the cloud, ready to access anywhere.

Searchable keywords are automatically applied to help you sort photos without tagging them.

Source URL: https://premware.services/best-android-camera-app/

[lunarbranded]

🍵+ gatekeeping

Send 🍵for the mun’s salt! || Meme

gate·keep·ing: noun - the activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something.Tumblr definition: when someone takes it upon themselves to decide who has access to something .

Boy, you know. I’ve been mulling over how I was gonna work with this ask and how to do this post for a while. Actually had the words a few times that I wanted to use but I waited and thought on it. As it turns out, there’s a lot I want to touch upon with my salt in this post. Most of it is general toxic behavior from the RPC community itself and some of fandom but, for the most part, it’s Tumblr bullshit to the extreme.

If you don’t want to see strong af opinions, please keep scrolling. The salt will be under the cut and I understand that most of what I’ll be saying in this post will not be popular opinions.

Gatekeeping Is A Form of Bullying

Ever heard some dudebro go ‘I bet she hasn’t even read the comics’ about a girl wearing a Marvel shirt? What about someone going ‘If you don’t read the books, you’re not a real fan’ when someone’s in line at the theater? Yeah, those are examples of gatekeeping. A couple of the most common ones actually. 

As for Tumblr RPC gatekeeping, it’s a bit more like this: 

Omg, you can’t write that because it doesn’t fit into what I believe is the only lore that ever exists

wtf why are you claiming that character is gay/trans/bi/ect? they’re not or it would be mentioned in canon

how dare you want representation for your gender identity/race/ect., that’s not okay because it doesn’t adhere to CANON

you can’t ship that because it’s morally wrong and i don’t like it (which sounds a lot like old church people bitching about anything at all really)

if you don’t have the right aesthetic then i won’t follow/interact with you at all

These are just a few examples but most of them are pretty common. And, you know, that’s sad as fuck, to be honest. So many people I’ve met on this side claim to have been bullied but they’re usually the same people who turn around and do this shit to others. It’s unreal to me that they don’t recognize their own behavior. What’s worse is that it can’t be pointed out or people want to use whatever buzzword they can to tell you to fuck off.

If you try to help correct someone, suddenly you’re every -phobic on the planet and you conveniently managed to set their grandmother on fire. The dramatic overreactions of some people have a price and they don’t realize that the emotional response is sometimes not the correct one.

Just because someone is doing something you don’t like doesn’t mean that it deserves a negative action on your part. 

‘That person upset me so I’m gonna post a callout/vague post about them!’ Why do you guys think that literally fucking everything needs a reaction? It doesn’t. You don’t have to react to everything that happens. Sometimes things warrant a simple ‘oh that’s fucked up’ and then you move on with your fucking day. 

Say you have thirty water bottles. Someone steals one and drinks out of it or whatever but you still have twenty-nine water bottles - why the fuck are you going to be angry all day about that one water bottle? What’s the point when you have twenty-nine other water bottles and you can forget about or throw away the one that was ruined/taken? 

You see, that reaction is how you guys act about any one instance that goes wrong on Tumblr except you’re pissed off for a week and you want to ruin someone’s fucking life over a post/thread that you don’t like. Or, in extreme cases, you open blogs to run your mouth at these people. It takes more effort to act like a dick toward someone than it does to just keep fucking scrolling and it’s astounding how ready people are here to wallow in negativity/toxicity.

Puritan Ship/Roleplay Policing

So I mentioned it before, but there’s this super popular idea on Tumblr that if you don’t abide by a certain unspoken ship/roleplay guideline, people will tear you apart over it. But guess what, guys, it’s fucking bullshit. 

Since when were people not allowed to make their own opinions on what they did or didn’t ship?

When did it start that people were considered trash for shipping something?

Who the hell made half of you the owners of the RPC so you think you can control what everyone does on their blogs? 

You see, this is the same attitude that I see all the time in churches. Oh they’ll tell you to your face that you’re welcome to do as you like and come looking however you want but the second you actually fucking do it, you’re ignored and treated like a social pariah. All this because people love to go around spreading rumors and talking shit about one another all over a fucking hobby. 

It’s actually kind of insane when you think about it. Like, you’re arguing over what two people are doing when they’re throwing internet Barbies at one another and you’re stomping across the playground to scream at them because you don’t like what they’re doing when it has nothing to fucking do with you. Remember what we called that in elementary and high school? Oh yeah, there’s a word for it: BULLYING. And now, it’s evolved into gatekeeping.

This attitude is literally as bad as someone going ‘you can’t sit with us’ just because you don’t like what they’re doing on their blog. 

Now, I called this section ‘puritan’ for a reason - “practicing or affecting strict religious or moral behavior.” Does that sound familiar? Because it should. Tumblr wants to call everything wrong and, from what I’ve seen, the hivemind doesn’t want people making their own opinions. Oh and don’t forget, if you don’t already know something then tough fucking luck because it’s ‘not our job to teach you.’ Thanks for the reminder, Susan, but we all know that you’re going to resort to calling people toxic abusers just because they weren’t given the chance to learn something like you were. Because that’s a fucking great way to help people to understand things from your point of view.

Look. What I’m saying is that trying to force everyone into your moral alignment isn’t okay. Some people will write murder and abusive relationships and not romanticize them just fine. The same goes for incest, rape, dysphoria, and a great number of other things. Believe it or not, some RPers actually take the time to look this shit up so they can make sure that they’re doing it fucking right and avoiding romanticization. You know, what you people want them to do but yell at them when you see it trigger tagged without bothering to take a look at the entire thread in question. Goes right back to that knee jerk reaction people like to rely on - not everything is the end of the world.

Callout/Cancelled Culture

This one’s going to be fun.

So we all know that people love their callouts but we also know that people just fucking love cancelling people. Guess what though - you cannot cancel a fucking human being because they’re not a television show. Shocker right? I know.

Now, I’ll admit that there’s some callout worthy topics but there’s some callouts that are so goddamn stupid that I just can’t take either party seriously. Now Tumblr loves dividing people, especially in the RPC. Don’t fucking tell me that cliques aren’t a thing in the RPC because ‘RPing in your bubbble’ is the same as having a clique. It’s the same concept hidden behind another name, don’t try to tell me otherwise. 

And yes, sometimes people want to run around and start ‘clique wars’ like it’s fucking high school all over again. Sorry, but no one has time for that shit. Do your replies and keep your nose out of where it doesn’t belong, Barbara. But, of course, people have trouble with this concept and get into fights. It’s natural that no two people are going to agree on the same goddamn thing. It would be ridiculous to expect this, especially on this website, but just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean that they’re cancelled. 

What you think is problematic and what someone else thinks is problematic are likely two different things. And sure, you’ll have people who agree with you and you’ll want them on your side but that doesn’t help because now you’ve created that divide. So things fester and get worse because you want to use your mental illness as an excuse (a popular choice from what I’ve seen) as to why you can’t communicate with someone. Next thing you know, there’s a huge callout against someone and that person didn’t expect it at all.

Knee jerk reactions. Fight gets worse. Divide gets bigger. Toxicity festers. 

Well now, there’s this new thing in the RPC where you can get a PSD template and fake fucking screenshots. Sure, it’s for musings and character profiles for things like Tinder, Facebook, ect. Just fun little things for you to throw your characters into and stuff like that. But there’s always that 1% who decide to use it so they can make it look like someone’s said something when they haven’t. So, when that person tries to defend themselves with a full-screen shot of their own (whole desktop or mobile version), things get worse until there’s a giant blowout. 

Once the dust settles you get this nice little ‘if you follow x, y, z then you can just block me bye’ behavior popping up. Well, that’s just childish. Unless something happened that was almost a ‘they found out where i live and they’re sending me glass filled cookies in the mail’ situation, then I have no reason to bother with that shit in your rules page. No one is obligated to tell you who they associate with just because you had a disagreement with them. However, if that person chooses to take your side, that’s up to them. 

I’m sure damn near everyone has had a similar situation to this happen to them on Tumblr before and, if it hasn’t, were you the one making the call out? If you were, was it worth it? Did it make you feel better? Sure, it might have in the moment but if you’re having that much of an issue actually communicating with others then you should take a step back and work on yourself before you involve other people. It’s like that one saying I keep seeing running around ‘if bad things always happen to you, you should make sure that you’re not the one causing it.’ 

Now, that’s not to say that I’m trying to gaslight anyone, but 9 times out of 10, I’ve looked back and realized that my own knee jerk reactions have caused a lot of turmoil that I could have avoided had I stopped and thought on it. I’ll admit that because guess fucking what, humans aren’t perfect. 

That’s the biggest issue on Tumblr. Half of you expect people to come on here and be perfect from the get go but humans make fucking mistakes and we learn from them. Do we not? How many of you can say that you were perfectly rational and amazing 15 year olds? Absolutely no one because teenagers have a lot of stress and expectations thrown on them while they’re going through a rough growth phase at that time. Things are unpredictable for them and they have school, teachers, friends, and parents throwing all of this shit onto them and then they come on here and have full-grown fucking adults slamming all this shit into their faces. It’s fucking ridiculous. And that’s another goddamn topic holy shit. The way some adults on here act is absolutely barbaric.

Sharing IP Addresses Out of Revenge/Anger

Oh this is something I’ve hated since I found out that Statcounter was a thing. Yes, I run it on my own blog but you’ll never see me sharing IP addresses on the dash. I’ll just quietly IP block you and go about my day, idgaf.

So there’s this huge trend and I’ve seen this on my own dash before (it was fucking disgusting, the response was atrocious on that person’s behalf, and I’ve since hardblocked) and it’s something I’ll hardblock over in a heartbeat. 

Now, for those who don’t know, Statcounter has a little piece of code that you can put into your blog theme and it’ll track the IP addresses of people who visit your blog. For me, I use it because I’ve had two stalkers in the past and yes, I keep screenshots of their visits for my own records. Fuck them. First one started the trigger for me and the second one recently exacerbated it. Anyway, if the person doesn’t have something on their browser to block it, Statcounter will pick up on their visit, what links they look at, how long they’ve been looking, their ISP, general location (never their precise home location, just the ISP’s area), browser info, and screen resolution. I’m sure there’s more but that’s all I recall for now. 

Having it so you can protect yourself from stalkers is one thing but having it and using it to throw someone’s IP out there is another. When I say that people weaponize Statcounter, I’m not joking. People will go on there after getting what they believe is anon hate and see who the move recent /ask visitor was and start blasting their IP all over the place.

For one thing - people can send asks via the dash. They don’t have to click onto your page at all so, there’s a HUGE risk of throwing out an innocent person’s IP address. 

Say someone does this - mistakenly throws out an innocent person’s IP after receiving anon hate. That person is likely going to have a panic attack. Not only have you shared their state and general location but you’ve blamed them for something they didn’t do. Throwing that IP out there, to any fucking extent can create a witch hunt for anyone who has Statcounter to try to figure out who the owner of that IP is. 

This is related to gatekeeping because you’re essentially blacklisting anyone who lives in that state/general area from the RPC all because you saw they were in the /ask page. How fucked up is that? It ties right back to the knee jerk response and it shows that people given even a modicum of power abuse it at the first chance. This isn’t even addressing how vicious some people answer anons.

Sure, posting an IP address on it’s own isn’t illegal but when you tack a name onto it, then it is because you’re essentially creating a threat toward that person.

Point of this section - don’t fucking share people’s goddamn IP addresses on the dash, it just makes you a douchebag. I lose all respect for anyone doing this when I find them - fuck you for doing that.

Activism Forced into Roleplay

I used to be in the Marvel RPC. Key here: used to be. Part of the issue that lead to me leaving was how much people slammed IRL issues into RP. Yes, I’m well aware that Marvel comics has a long and deep history of taking on IRL issues and the comics themselves are quite political.

However my issue comes when this is happening outside of the Marvel community.

I’ve seen people trying to force IRL events down people’s throats. ‘You shouldn’t be happy - x, y, and z are happening right now and don’t you dare tell me to be quiet about it!’ Good way to get yourself blocked. People RP as a hobby and, for some, as a form of escape. Immersing into a character to find out what makes them tick is a form of method acting, so it could be said that we’re method writing out characters to an extent. So shoving IRL issues at some RPers can cause them to lose muse or abandon blogs entirely. 

Of course, in the same breath, I’ve seen people told that they can’t RP something because they’ve never experienced it, people think they’re romanticizing it, or some other bullshit Tumblr reason. Look, I’ve experienced rape, self harm, suicidal thoughts, CSA (incestuous and non-incestuous), as well as mental and physical abuse. Don’t you dare assume that I cannot write about these experiences in an accurate way and don’t you fucking dare tell me that I can’t write it because I’ll tell you first off where you can shove your bullshit. The fact that people have to disclose that they’ve been through these things so people will stay off their ass on Tumblr RPs is fucking ridiculous too. 

You don’t get to tell me what I can and cannot write on my blog when I trigger tag the living shit out of everything to make sure that I’m protecting as many people as I can from seeing it. Do not try this shit with me. Censoring someone because it doesn’t adhere to your moral code is just as bad as banning books, televisions shows, and/or movies. 

Censoring something doesn’t solve the problem and boy fucking howdy does Tumblr have an issue with that. Censorship is another form of gatekeeping, by the way! You might not like it but people don’t go to jail for writing about incest or rape, just fucking saying. Oh but there have been crime authors sent to prison, I was suspended from school for writing about murder, but nothing about rape and incest. 

Sure, it may raise some eyebrows and people have to actually use gasp! postblock, tumblr savior, and any other method of tag blocking so they don’t see it but uh… that’s called being responsible for your content consumption.

Tumblr Is Not The Real World

Alright. So I’m gonna close this with a good reminder that I think some people on Tumblr could use. 

Tumblr is not the end-all be-all of the world.

Yes, you can make some good friends here and that’s fine but when you stay on here too long, the toxicity can start to change how you view the world around you. No, not every man that walks by you is going to rape you. No, not every woman that you see is going to be okay with you treating her the way you do female ocs and canons on here (actually, I’ve met some women who were proud they could make a full-grown man cry with the right look so). 

You have to think about how Tumblr makes you view others as well. All this ‘you messed up once so you’re cancelled’ behavior is a social media phenomenon that doesn’t carry on into real life. It just doesn’t. Sure, you can block someone you know IRL but that doesn’t stop them from talking to you if they were a Facebook friend you went to school with. If they still live nearby you, they’ll either talk to you or about you. What are you going to do? Take the Tumblr route and fucking scream at them like an incoherent banshee? No, you’ll suck it the fuck up and you’ll act like a decent person, don’t fucking lie.

You need to understand that Tumblr is it’s own entity, it’s own little sphere on the internet and, by no means, is it appropriate to carry on in your daily life the way some of you do on here. And if you do, please take a moment to stop and look at yourself. 

Self improvement starts when you want to improve but gatekeeping, bullying, and acting like a total barbarian to people you don’t know isn’t okay. This goes for the ones you do know too. I’m not saying that triggers aren’t important in the real world but you need to understand that forcing the social climate to change will only make people dislike you. When they don’t want to change, they’re not going to and some will refuse to change to spite you. 

Forcing anything won’t help. 

Gatekeeping won’t help. 

Censorship has never helped.

People don’t respond to being told what to do, feel, or think. Personally, I’d tell someone to fuck off if they tried doing it to me. So why do you think you can do it to others? Ever heard of ‘treat others how you want to be treated?’ Just be fucking decent and stop acting like other people are your goddamn doormat, jfc.

[luminoustico]

For End of the Year Writing Meme: All the questions sound super interesting so just use this as an opportunity to answer whatever questions interest you most

So funny story I put this in my drafts to complete in the quiet time of New Year’s Day, but then I forgot about it completely. BRACE YOURSELF.

A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why?

Lies by Marina and the Diamonds, to accompany the latter half of Valse Melancolique. It’s a really good song to show Irene’s POV at that point, especially her reluctance to accept that the webs she’s spun are basically collapsing around her.

“I just want it to be perfect / To believe it’s all been worth the fight,” is the most relevant set of lyrics, IMO.

B. Who’s your favourite side-character from something you wrote?

I really enjoyed writing side characters like Rose and Finn, though Rose just edges it because I’ve been enjoying writing her in Don’t Complicate It. Finn runs a very close second.

C. Get any good comments on your stuff this year?

Sure! All comments are good comments, let’s be real. Unless they’re an obvious troll comment or those “update now!!!” kind of comments. Those aren’t so good.

D. Any drawings or pictures that had a big influence on your writing?

The artwork of the late 18th century and Roberto Ferri definitely influenced the tone of Valse Melancolique. Many scenes from certain stories were driven by a single image I had in my head as well.

E.  Who’s your favourite main character you’ve written?

Though I do enjoy delving into Ben/Kylo’s psyche, I enjoy writing Rey more – she’s more enclosed, and I love chipping away at characters to get to their truths.

G. Where do you think you grew the most this year?

Towards the end of the year, I began to realise that writing can actually be fun like it used to be. I’ve been so aware of the way the world is currently that I’ve been convincing myself that my writing must have a message, or it’s not ‘worthy’. I need to understand that I started writing not to pass on any morals or messages, but as a release and a way to find enjoyment in the constant buzz.

H.  How do you write? Paper, pen, computer? Music, no music?

All of those. I write on my phone, on my computer, on pen and paper. Music and no music, it depends. Most often I’m listening to a playlist/album which then stops and I cease writing an hour or so later realising I’ve been writing in silence.

I.  What’s your favourite work you did this year? Why?

I’m always tempted to answer this kind of question with my most recent story. But I’m going to be really honest and say that star among the stars is a personal favourite. And it’s not just because of the pegging.

J.  What are the best jokes you told this year? Any jokes you thought were funny that people didn’t catch? Vice-versa?

I’m completely blanking on this one.

K. Who have you killed this year? Why did they have to die?

Qui-Gon Jinn (to match with canon), Molly and Sherlock (hey it was a story based on Dangerous Liaisons, and I was reading classical Russian literature at the time of plotting) and Kylo Ren a bunch of times (metaphorically).  

L.  Which character did you most write about this year, and why do you like ‘em?

I wrote more about Rey. As mentioned before, it’s because I like chipping away at a character’s surface but also it’s because I really relate to her, especially in regards to her feelings of loneliness and her tendency to put on ‘a brave face’. Plus I really admire her compassion and her strength. I envy it.

M. Meta! Have any meta about a story you’re dying to throw out there?

Not particularly -- just headcanons and reasons behind why I write what I write. (I’ve never been very good with meta anyway.) I really like it when other people meta my fic, or pick up on something I didn’t! That is an AMAZING feeling. 

O. Do you believe in outlines? Show us one!

I do indeed! I love my outlines. For some projects, I’ve got whole folders with docs labelled Initial Ideas, Plot Summary, Chapter Outline, etc. etc. I’ve got my notes app on my phone stuffed up to the gills with mini-outlines. I frequently use my story structure template, which is technically more for screenplays, but the breaking down into acts thing helps my brain figure things out. 

P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work?

When an author relies too much on UST and ruins the pacing. Like, an author drags out the first getting together because they believe that the anticipation is the only thing generating comments. If it’s right to have them bang, have them bang! The awkward morning after is a delicious opportunity for UST -- just a different kind. 9 times out of 10, your readers are there not for the smut because they’re invested in the story and like your writing.

Q. Quote three bits of writing you read this year. Can be your writing, or not.

Let’s mix it up.

“ “Why did you do that?” he demanded as they ducked into a side alley. “What part of ‘keep a low profile’ is difficult for you to understand?”

“I’m a good haggler,” Rey said through a full mouth. She didn’t have any idea what she was eating, and she didn’t care. It took so much effort to chew each bite instead of gulping it down whole. “He was trying to cheat us.”

“You didn’t haggle. You pushed.”

“I did not. Why would I knock him over in the middle of his stand?”

Kylo just stared. “You need a teacher,” he muttered. He watched her eat for a moment, his expression somewhere between thoughtful and disgusted, before taking a bite from one of his own skewers. Disgust won out. ” -- Symmetry and Black Tar by audreyii_fic. (Grumpy smuggler Kylo Ren, spunky scavenger Rey, canon divergence. Excellent.)

“ "Ben," Rey breathes once Kylo's mere inches away. It's the name Luke introduced him with, the only name she knows him by, and he's never bothered to correct her. Why hasn't he corrected her? The question flees from his mind as she closes her eyes and he leans down into the space between them, kissing her full on the lips. It's not gentle, he doesn't know how to be, but she opens for him the way the flowers she loves so much bloom in the sunlight. ” -- the surface of last scattering by diasterisms. (It’s the apocalypse, it’s exactly the right time to meet the love of your life, right? Read for utter devastation.) 

“ Rey could spend hours in the Falcon’s inner workings. She’d spent so much time in the belly of hollowed-out Star Destroyers, which were horrific remnants of old worlds, cold and grey. The Falcon is alive, speaking a strange language she’s just about half-deciphered. Sometimes, on days where she misses the connection most and dreams of a boy reaching across the stars to find her, it feels like the Falcon doesn’t want to speak to her. It shuts down. Sparks spit at her, and mechanisms develop odd faults.Today, a jet of steam blows directly in her face, not harmful, but almost like a snarl of 'go away'.

Rey climbs out of the hatch, fetching tools. She works with that fault first.

“I’m not thinking about him,” she promises to no-one but the ship she’s looking after. ” -- If I was born as a blackthorn tree, by me!

R. If you had to rewrite one of your stories from scratch, which one would it be? What would you do to it?

Going to cheat here and head back to 2017. I’d rewrite Two Stars Aligned. What I’d probably do is make it a post-TLJ fic, where Rey and Ben decide to run away after getting involved in a secret relationship, but get shot down by the First Order -- after landing in Giaca, they become embroiled in Game of Thrones style politics and the ruling families, while the Resistance and the First Order conduct searches for them. I’d cut out the weird Force shit and make the redemption arc thing more organic by giving the whole story room to bloody breathe. Two Stars Aligned is actually the reason why I now try to stick to oneshots for exchanges and any anthologies I get involved in.

S. What’s the sexiest thing you wrote this year?

Sexiest thing written in 2018... It’ll have to be the pegging in star among the stars.

T. Themes, motherfucker, do you have them? What are they?

Feminism. Females being allowed to be as fucked-up and broody as the men they love, and perhaps, even broodier. Make women afraid of commitment, 2k19.

U. Any stories that took an abrupt U-turn from where you thought they were going?

If I were a blackthorn tree took a pleasing turn away from the initial outline. The initial idea was lots of secret trysts and stuff like that, but I much prefer the quiet romance with a note of hope at the end that it turned out to be.

V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks.

Huh. Hm. Don’t Complicate It is turning out to be kind of fun to write; when I’m not allowing myself to be crippled by the brain goblins that is (they’re strong lately). It’s a combo of writing a trope/kink I’ve been wanting to write for ages -- A/B/O -- and remembering that it’s okay to have fun with it.

W.  Who are your favourite writers?

@kylo-wouldnt-like-those-chips - @conchepcion (every time I think I’m out, she pulls me back in *shakes fist*) - @introspectivenavelgazer - @audreyii-fic - @kylorenvevo - ambiguously - @fettuccine-alfreylo and SO MANY MORE (this post is long enough already!!)

X.  What’s your least favourite work of this year?

My least favourite has to be In Cars. It was an ambitious idea, which I didn’t really fulfil, I feel. Curse of being a perfectionist. I want something to be amazing. World-changing! Tear-jerking! I want Vestal virgins to weep golden tears over my words, already delicately transcribed onto ancient parchment by monks. Obviously, that’s an impossible standard, but I can’t help being cross when I don’t reach it.

Y. Why did you write? For fun, for a friend, for acclaim?

During 2018? Mostly for acclaim. It made 2018 a very difficult year for writing, and just a difficult year in general. I’m trying to make sure I have fun during 2019 with this stuff. Striving for perfection is a punishing task that no-one can ever accomplish because perfection doesn’t exist. Contentment does, though. As does happiness. And those should be more important.

Z. If you could choose one work and immediately finish it, what would it be? How would you end it?

I’d finish Sanctum, my priest Kylo fic. I’m split between continuing or rewriting anyway (the rewrite would include relocating the action to the medieval era, around the time Luther wrote that damned essay and pinned it to the church door). But I do know the exact image I want to finish on, which will remain whether I end up rewriting or not. It involves a name, a scrap of material and a rather fetching colour scheme. 

Ooh. Cryptic.

[un-enfant-immature]

Biden campaign releases a flurry of digital DIY projects and virtual banners. Yes, there are Zoom backgrounds

2020 is a nightmare year by most metrics, and it’s also a worst-case-scenario emerging out of a best-case-scenario for Joe Biden . After trailing in early primary states, Biden came crashing back on a stunning wave of Super Tuesday support. Now the presumptive Democratic nominee in the midst of a global health crisis that’s immobilized the U.S. workforce and somehow even further polarized American politics, the former Vice President will have to navigate completely uncharted waters to find a path to the presidency.

Biden—not the most internetty candidate out of 2020’s wide Democratic field by a long shot— is now tasked with getting creative, connecting with voters not at rallies or traditional events, the kind of thing the famously affable candidate excels at, but through screens. Making those connections is crucial for attracting less engaged voters, wrangling straying progressives and even maintaining its body of existing supporters, who need to be kept energized to power the campaign into the general election.

To that end, the Biden campaign is rolling out a new collection of digital assets to energize supporters stuck at home and to communicate the Biden brand’s visual language to everybody else. The selection of “Team Joe swag” includes some DIY options for supporters like big “No Malarkey!” home window placards and “We want Joe” button templates.

The campaign is also releasing an array of print-friendly coloring book pages to amuse idle politically-inclined progeny. Some of the pages thank frontline workers and immortalize Biden’s two german shepherds in crayon, while others depict Biden’s more meme-worthy symbols: ice cream cones and his trademark aviator sunglasses. (A viral moment from 2014 combined the two.)

For supporters who aren’t leaning into arts and crafts just yet, there’s “Joementum” phone wallpapers, banners optimized for social media and yes, a full set of Zoom backgrounds depicting Biden’s recent campaign stage: his home library.

Some critics say he needs to ditch his basement studio, but Biden said he plans to follow public health guidelines, hitting the virtual campaign trail from his now-expanded home setup in Delaware via virtual town halls and video chats, like his recent Instagram Live sit-down with U.S. soccer superstar and former Warrenite Megan Rapinoe.

The signs and wallpapers are just a tiny part of the campaign’s big picture, but depending on what comes after, a candidate’s visual signature can sear a political moment into the collective consciousness. Think Obama’s 2008 “Hope” poster by the artist Shepard Fairey, later acquired by National Portrait Gallery (Fairey himself later denounced the Obama administration’s drone program). Or Trump’s telltale red MAGA hats, which no one will be forgetting any time soon, regardless of how the general election shakes out.

Warm and fuzzy

For a campaign stuck indoors, visual branding is more important than ever. Biden’s visual brand mostly seems to focus on positive feelings that bring people together—kindness, faith, togetherness—rather than policy specifics or even “dump Trump” style calls to action.

“We want to find ways to make people feel involved while they’re cooped up at home,” the campaign’s Deputy National Press Secretary Matt Hill said. “These are tools that are going to help everyone who is involved with the campaign communicate that visually in a time when everyone is particularly logged on.”

Much has been written about how the virtual race poses unique challenges for the Biden campaign. The presumptive Democratic nominee is a candidate best known for his affable, empathetic in-person demeanor. But empathy doesn’t always perform well online, particularly when cast against the sound and fury of the factually-unencumbered, cash-flush Trump campaign.

“Branding communicates values, and during this crisis we want to let Joe Biden’s values shine through,” Hill said. “Yes, it’s of course ice cream and aviators, but it’s also decency, empathy, hope, and everything that is just the polar opposite of Donald Trump.”

The campaign frames this in broad strokes, good-against-evil language, describing Biden’s online movement as one of “empathy and human connection” out to topple the dark forces at work on the internet. The campaign’s digital director Rob Flaherty has said that 2020 is not just a fight for America itself, but also a “battle for the soul of the internet.”

“Right now, people are craving empathy and good… it gives us an advantage,” Hill said. “You have one side that often fights to win the Twitterverse with vitriol, and then you have us,”

Democrats are using a data scientist’s secret sauce to flip Texas blue

Joementum?

Biden’s campaign has come under some scrutiny in recent weeks for the perception that it’s been slow to adapt to the pandemic era. Obama campaign veterans David Plouffe and David Axelrod penned a New York Times op-ed in early May calling for Biden to step up his digital efforts, likening his current broadcasts to “an astronaut beaming back to earth.”

After weeks of concern from insiders worried the Biden campaign might not be building the online momentum it needs, the campaign just beefed up its previously lean team with a flurry of new hires. The new talent will particularly build out the campaign’s digital operations, which it plans to double in size.

The hires include former Elizabeth Warren staffer Caitlin Mitchell, who will advise the Biden camp on digital strategy and help it scale up, Buzzfeed Video and Kamala Harris campaign alum Andrew Gauthier, who joins the Biden campaign as its video director and Robyn Kanner, previously Beto for America’s creative director, to lead design and branding.

It will be interesting to see what else emerges out of the “Biden brand,” which doesn’t translate as easily to organic virality as Bernie’s all-purpose “I’m once again asking” meme or the somehow-not-cloying antics of Elizabeth Warren’s lovable golden retriever Bailey. At least for now, the campaign doesn’t seem to view that as a problem.

But cracking virtual campaigning is not the only headwind for the Biden campaign at the moment. Sexual assault allegations by former Biden Senate aide Tara Reade made their way into mainstream reporting in April. And if formulating a response to such serious allegations would be delicate under normal circumstances, the Biden campaign has had to figure out how do it from a silo.

With its early technical difficulties ironed out, the Biden campaign may have a bit more breathing room to get creative. The campaign is focused on what it views as its “core platforms” for now—Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat—but it plans to both “invest more deeply” in those and also look at other platforms in the process of scaling up.

“We’ve already seen volunteers expand on Discord, Reddit, Pinterest and elsewhere,” Biden campaign Director of Digital Content Pam Stamoulis told TechCrunch.

Stamoulis also notes that the campaign is in “close communication” with the major social platforms where it focuses its efforts.

“… We have scheduled and consistent check in times to go over best practices, recommendations, new tools and brainstorm ideas and concepts to help optimize our use of their platforms,” Stamoulis said. “We anticipate working closely with platforms as we continue to move into the general.”

Biden’s stay-the-course digital strategy seems to reflect the thinking of his unlikely Super Tuesday coup, believing that you need the biggest coalition possible and you don’t necessarily build it through the buzziest politics or the flashiest moments. The campaign doesn’t want Biden to go viral as much as it wants him to connect with the most people in the broadest possible sense.

And to his credit, between the South Carolina comeback and his team-of-rivals Super Tuesday trick, Biden pulled it all off somehow. If there’s anything we can count on in 2020, whether it’s U.S. politics or a global health reckoning, it’s that we don’t know what the hell is going to happen. That lesson seems especially resonant for the extremely online among us, who seem to discover again and again that we are but a tiny, self-selecting sliver of the American electorate.

There’s no word on if we’ll see Biden trading island codes for Animal Crossing à la AOC or a virtual likeness of the candidate looming over Fortnite’s map psychedelic Travis Scott-style, but in a truly unusual election year, nothing is quite off the table.

Vote-by-mail should be having its moment. Will it?

[terryblount]

Top Photo Editing Apps for Mobile Devices

You can never have too many apps to help with photo editing. You’re always going to have more photos to take and edit – how else are you going to the best looking, Insa-worthy photos? Here are another 8 apps to make your photos as great as they can be.

Over Edit & Add Text to Photos (iOS)

One feature that makes this app stand out is that it has been designed to do more than just edit your photos it allows you to design postcards, flyers, and memes, even providing users with a bank of images they can use rather than being limited to one’s own photos. The app also includes a community feature so that you can share your creations with other users.

Infltr (iOS)

Infltr comes with all of the standard features that we have come to expect from photo editing apps but has two features that make it stand out. The first being the number of filters that it has available for users, claiming to have 7 million filters all within just one app. The second feature that helped Infltr work its way into this list is the ability to not just edit photos within the app but also to edit videos, live photos and GIFs.

Whitagram (iOS)

This is a simple app that has limited features but allows you to turn any photo into a polaroid quickly and easily. This app does three things firstly, you can edit the brightness of your image and this is made extremely easy for the user compared to some other apps that hide the brightness feature in a sea of menus. Secondly, you can add text to you image with the app offering a number of different text styles. The last feature that this app offers and its biggest selling point is the ability to add a simple border to your photo allowing you to pick the width and color of your border.

Pic Collage (iOS)

An app that makes it easy and fun to create collages of your photos or to organize images into a variety of different grids. This is a particularly useful app for creating the famous Instagram photos where four images are displayed in a grid so that they show on your feed as one. The app also offers a large choice of stickers and drawing tools to add a little fun to your photos.

Photogrid (iOS)

PhotoGrid is an app that is trying to cover all of its bases when it comes to photo editing and it surprisingly manages to do all of them very well. It includes the normal editing tools, as well as the quickly becoming stand stickers and drawing tools. Having edited your photos you can then use the collage and scrapbooking tools to arrange your photos in a variety of ways. One very nice thing about this app is that it provides templates for you to add your photos to much like other collage apps but also has a free mode were you can arrange you photos as you wish to create that scarp book effect.

The app does not stop there though, it also includes features for creating Gifs and video collages. If you don’t want to clutter your phone with different editing apps this is a good pick as it does a little bit of everything.

Blend Editor (iOS)

This is an interesting editing app that takes a completely different approach to photo editing on a mobile and results in some very beautiful images. As the name implies this is an app for blending two photos together and it makes the process so simple. You select two images from your photos pick which one you want to be the background image and then simply swipe through the different blend modes to until you’re happy with the effect. It’s as simple as that!

VSCO (iOS)

VSCO is more than just a photo editor it is also a community. A big part of this app is the community that it has managed to create allowing users to share their creations with each other. The actual editing tools are extremely slick and easy for users to create professional looking photos. You can even explore its community for inspiration for your next great photo.

Afterlight (iOS)

Afterlight is a solid all-rounder when it comes to photo editing. The app includes all of the features that are needed to make your shots Instagram ready including filters, cropping tools and easy to use adjustments, as well as 128 frames that can be easily adjusted to your image.  Afterlight recognizes that most people want to share their photos when they are done editing and has combined the save screen with the share on social media screen making it easy to share your creations as soon as you are done editing.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

Top Photo Editing Apps for Mobile Devices published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[makeitwithmike]

Why No One Is Sharing Your Content (And How To Solve The Problem)

By Daniel Matthews

Content that goes unshared is like a commercial that no one sees. It’s had time, money and energy invested into it. It’s even got an agenda; a product to push. But no one sees it. Therefore it might as well not exist.

So how do you ensure your content doesn’t sink into the depths of obscurity? How do you find the magic formula to achieve social shares and referral traffic?

Well, there is no magic formula, but you can learn a thing or two from how Josepf Haslam, senior director of SEO at EducationDynamics, puts it:

“I tell my content creation team they have only one KPI. Was their content shared or not? Is it share-worthy?

If they think they wrote a fantastic piece and technically it looks good – it’s got the right metadata, great keyword structure, and so on – but nobody shares it, it isn’t good in my eyes.”

Even technically sound content doesn’t deliver ROI if no one shares it.

ROI for content is easy to measure. It starts with shares and ends in leads.

So, how do you build content people want to share? Read on.

First, determine what your audience wants

This is a big one. For any niche, there’s an audience. What does your audience look like? What do they value?

Develop customer personas, and think about what they value. Here’s a basic persona template from Buffer.

Think broadly. Are you marketing to other professionals and catering to their business needs, or are you marketing to a community? Knowing the key differentiators between B2B and B2C marketing and sales will help inform what type of content you’ll develop.

When developing B2B content, create 3 to 5 personas that reflect the range of decision-makers in the sales funnel.

An executive will be more likely to read a progressive piece that is informative, philosophical and thought-provoking.

A sales manager will be more likely to read an actionable piece that is directly related to generating more sales.

Although emotions are always going to play a role in B2B content, they’re more central to B2C content.

Whatever information you’re passing along to the consumer, be sure to emphasize the emotional buy-in for them.

In other words, why should this person care about what you’re saying? What problem are they trying to solve?

Here are Hubspot‘s best practice recommendations for developing a good buyer persona.

And here’s an example of a good B2B persona. Note that the following persona covers quite a few roles: Hubspot’s client, Visual Creatives, is casting a wide net, which is recommended.

This persona values things that quite a few business owners value: creativity, speed, and loyalty. Truly useful content will share these values. It will also help solve problems.

This persona’s main problem is he doesn’t have enough time to take a top-down look at the business and implement innovations that will save him time and maximize creativity.

Visual Creatives will therefore want to create the type of content that people who influence their buyer persona type will share.

You can get buyer persona information from multiple places:

Website analytics: These reveal how visitors get to your site, which keywords bring them there, and how long they stay.

Team input: People on your team can have valuable insight on your target audience from their own experiences.

Social media: Social media listening is huge when it comes to figuring out buyer personas and what your audience likes to share.

Surveys and interviews of customers: Your existing customers are your most valuable asset for identifying your target audience as you’ll be creating content they want to share with their friends.

This is a good place to start. But the next question is… does creating useful content that helps solve problems necessarily get a ton of shares? To make content truly shareable, you need to do the following.

Harness the purple cow

Even saying ‘harness the purple cow’ is enough to grab attention. But not as much attention as an image gets.

Okay, you may say, “That’s not a real purple cow, though. I’m not buying it.” Nothing beats authenticity, after all. But at least you started to put some consideration into this whole purple cow business. Now we’re talking.

Seth Godin famously discusses the invention of sliced bread and the purple cow content theory in this TED Talk:

The inventor of sliced bread initially met failure. No one cared about his product. Then Wonder White figured out you have to market the stuff to sell it.

Today, it’s not enough to put marketing messages out there like marketers did with commercials in the past. You’ve got to make your content stand out to your audience. Otherwise, they’ll ignore it.

A purple cow amidst all those regular-colored cows will stand out for sure. Even if people think it’s weird, they’ll tell their friends about it. Godin argues that it’s best to produce purple cow content. Even if people hate it, they’ll talk about it. They’ll spread your idea because it’s ‘remarkable’.

Here’s an example. If I go to BuzzSumo and type in ‘marketing’ without ruling out any type of content and looking for everything in the last year, here’s what happens.

Surprise! This article from Adweek has the most shares (950.6K).

This is an unmistakeable piece of purple cow content. Here are the takeaways from it:

Don’t overtly promote a product: Seriously. The kid who stands up in class and says, “Look at me, I’m awesome” is the least popular kid in class. The kid who tells the best joke is the most popular. In general, Adweek gains a lot of credibility by publishing content that focuses on novel ideas or concepts. In the example above, Adweek didn’t get nearly a million shares by publishing a PR piece that talks about how awesome it is.

Hone in on an important, trending topic: The word ‘important’ carries a lot of weight here. If Adweek had said, “Check out this poster promoting My Little Pony!”, not as many people in Adweek’s niche would have cared. However, people care about sexual assault and want to combat it. It’s a hot-button issue in today’s world.

Find a genuinely interesting, unusual angle: This article points out something you don’t see every day: the #NOMORE poster. Marketers deliver messages. The #NOMORE poster is a message. Adweek wisely chose to highlight the message and how it was delivered. While this fits within Adweek’s marketing niche, it also appeals to a broader audience who can appreciate the message for it’s own sake.

Let an easily digestible image, video, or list speak for you:

This shot of the most-shared marketing content says it all (see what I did there?). 4 out of the 8 top articles have video. The average attention span is eight seconds, and around 65% of people will watch the majority of a video but won’t read a page of text.

Remember that 77% of Americans own a smartphone and use it to consume content. Images, such as the #NOMORE poster, are easy to digest on social media using your smartphone. So are videos.

People enjoy scrolling through lists and quickly consuming the main points in articles. Embrace these formats. Infographics can also neatly combine the power of memes with the usability of lists.

Use tools to create shares

How could tools ever help create shares? Isn’t this all about which type of content to create?

The truth is that often, it’s extremely hard to get a lot of attention, even if your content is excellent.

For instant amplification, there’s Shareaholic. This tool makes it easier for you to enable sharing on your blog. It also offers social analytics and content promotion.

Shareable images make it simple for people to share images from your blog on sites like Pinterest.

This can be incredibly useful if you’re prone to summing up your content in an infographic. Alternatively, look at the content most shared on Facebook.

This is humorous, light fare – a mashup of the weather with a Star Wars image. It reached 40,000 people.

Then there’s the inspirational quote approach.

This gained over 10,000 shares.

Create a shareable image to go with your posts, and use an app like Shareaholic to make them easy for people to share.

Another great tool to be aware of is Google Trends. You can use it to identify content that’s trending in Google’s search engine, as well as YouTube content. You can then adjust category and location based on your aim.

Identifying search trends helps you narrow down ideas for content people will want to share right now.

Elsewhere, there’s Social Rank. This tool helps you identify and rank your Twitter and Instagram followers in terms of importance. Then, you can filter through and reach out to the most important followers; the ones who you expect to share your content.

You can also craft content based on what your most important followers have shown they like to share.

With that, you could use the tool Tweriod.

If you figure out the best times to tweet to the best people, your posts are more likely to get shares.

Then there are the tools that help create traffic. Of these, Social Locker and Gleam Competitions make the most sense.

Social Locker asks people to share in order to gain access to content. So, if you have a white paper, e-book, or supplementary study that goes with a really compelling piece of content, you can use Social Locker to generate shares.

People love competitions, which is where Gleam Competitions comes in. Say you start a contest or giveaway on social media. Gleam Competitions is a plugin through which you can manage the competition, collect emails and give people rewards for sharing.

Conclusion

It won’t matter what tools you use if you aren’t creating content that’s valuable to your audience.

Spend all the time you can analyzing who your audience is and what they want. Reinforce their values and help them solve problems they’re trying to solve.

Look for interesting and unusual angles on your topic. Look at what’s trending. Include images and videos in your posts that readers can easily share.

Keep at it! Eventually, you’ll hit a nerve. And when you do, people will share your content.

What they do after that is entirely up to them.

Guest Author: Daniel Matthews is a freelance writer whose mission is to create the most shareable content in the universe. He would also like to find the best taco stand in any given location. Hit him up on Twitter: @danielmatthews.

The post Why No One Is Sharing Your Content (And How To Solve The Problem) appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

The post Why No One Is Sharing Your Content (And How To Solve The Problem) appeared first on Make It With Michael.

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