#twitter is an interesting ecosystem

[valyrfia]

i think what's really funny is watching all the lando stans on twitter absolutely lose their shit over their driver getting team ordered and the charles fans are there like

[yupyupppippi]

is twitter finally down

am i finally free

[smalltestaccount]

196 Migration

If you’re not aware, the subreddit r/196 is going offline tomorrow (the 12th) in a protest along with multiple other subreddits against a decision reddit has made to their API pricing. 196 is one of the largest LGBT centric meme subreddits. The deal being that 196 will be shut down until reddit backs down from their stupid decision. Other subreddits are only going to be offline for a few days. 196 held this massive decision to a poll where about 60% said the subreddit should be privated indefinitely. Despite what people say, this will be an almost certain permanent end to the Subreddit. I think that anyone who believes that the chance of 196 coming back after the 12th has not thought it through very much and I consider this putting this to a poll to have been very stupid on the moderators parts as a lot of people clearly do not fully understand the likely outcome.

In short, Reddit is going to win this no matter how it’s sliced. Reddit will only back down their decision if the money they can squeeze from API pricing is larger than the loss in ad revenue from the protest. Many large subreddits that are closing will only be down for a few days. This results in a small dip in site usage, yes, but it definitely won’t cause significant issue to Reddit. However when all these subreddits come back there will be an uptick in site traffic, generating Reddit more money. The only way Reddit will lose money is with a decrease in active users, which is why some people want the subreddit to go down indefinitely, they want to leave Reddit and take many 196 users with them. Reddit definitely will not be backing down, the chance of that happening is minuscule. Therefore 196 will not come back.

196 is a special community on Reddit as it one of the largest subreddits with a strong LGBT presence and unique culture. 196 leaving will have many negative effects on the Reddit ecosystem. There are other LGBT subreddits that will very likely be shutting down too (for other reasons) such as r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns which is one of the largest trans subreddits. 196 has a large overlap with circle jerk subreddits, over the past year or so the relationship between 196 users and circle jerk subreddits has been quite important as they essentially have formed their own ecosystem as a place that LGBT teens and young adults feel comfortable in when Reddit as a whole is more dangerous. When 196 closes some people will leave for Tumblr TikTok and Twitter due to their main source of posts going dry. Circle jerk subs will start to reduce down to the users that do not consume content from 196, a group of people that is on average more conservative than the subreddits as wholes are with 196 users. This political shift on circle jerk subreddits will cause two things, 1: lgbt people feeling less comfortable on circle jerk subs and 2: circle jerk subs doing less circle jerking, due to less users and also a reduced interest in calling out bigoted posts on other subreddits. That will very likely become a negative feedback loop where circle jerk subs become increasingly similar to Reddit as a whole. And the effect that this will have on Reddit is going to be a general trend to become more conservative as the socially progressive community on Reddit shrinks with 196s departure. It’s likely a new or existing subreddit will replace 196 (a subreddit with less moderation tools and none of the user blacklists from 196), but by the time that subreddit comes about it will not reach the size 196 did. 196 leaving will have a permanent impact on Reddit as atleast some people will be reducing Reddit activity of leaving permanently. Reddit likely won’t become a new 4chan, but I would not be surprised if it became more similar to Facebook.

And a trans woman I must also feel the need to say that with r/traa and 196 very likely closing a large community of transfems will be displaced online. In the past 6 years Ive been a trans woman on the internet I can say fairly confidently that Reddit has been one of the most popular sites for trans women to congregate at, along with discord. Trans women are very likely a majority of the trans community on Reddit however on other sites like TikTok and here on tumblr trans women are definitely a smaller minority of the community. I feel like I should’ve just put that out. Right now is a scary time to be a young trans woman and two of the largest online places of support for young trans women closing doors will have negative impacts on the trans community.

Many 196 users who are smart enough to see what lies ahead are finding ways of congregating outside of Reddit. Besides the small social media sites that will obviously die before getting off the ground, tumblr is the most recommended place to call a new home. I know this sounds familiar to what happened with twitter, and the idea of Redditors coming to tumblr is quite scary. But I assure that 196 users are not dissimilar to tumblr users.

196 users migrating here to tumblr are using the tags #196 and #r/196. I will be posting some of my 196 and old r/traa posts under these. As a pseudo archive. I’ll also reblog and post as some of my favorite posts I wish to remember. Hopefully a migration of 196 users to tumblr is successful (though unlikely), if that happens I will try to post memes in the style of 196 posts. I know that I am an incredibly small account that is mostly inactive, so neither this post nor future posts will get much visibility. But I want to be here to support those trying to migrate

[keplercryptids]

if you've never considered playing anything other than D&D 5e, now might be the time to start.

as you may have heard, Wizards of the Coast wrote up a new Open Game License that was leaked and it's really, really bad. (i linked to the article about it yesterday but here's a twitter thread of the author of that article summarizing it.)

i'll attempt my own breakdown of what this means here:

the new OGL revokes the previous OGL. this is bad for so many reasons, and will affect all kinds of TTRPGs like Pathfinder, and third-party publishers like Kobold's Press.

it also means that character sheets wouldn't be able to be used in unauthorized virtual table tops anymore, including Roll20, Foundry, etc.

the new OGL grants WotC a perpetual, irrevocable license to all third-party content produced and published under the old OGL, as well as future content. for example, if WotC hypothetically liked Dimension 20's Unsleeping City setting enough, it could sell products related to that setting, without needing D20's permission.

the new OGL can be updated, changed or revoked with only 30 days' notice. truly wild.

anybody who makes more than $750k revenue (not profit, but revenue) has to pay 20-25% over that amount in royalties to WotC. this will affect so many kickstarters raising funds for indie TTRPG systems that used to fall under the original OGL. $750k sounds like a lot but keep in mind publishing books is expensive.

this is really, really bad. WotC will probably go back on some of this based on public response, and a lawsuit may make them go back on even more. (some of what they're trying to do here is illegal? i think?) but they'll likely still push forward with some of it.

it seems WotC's goal is to 1) appease shareholders (which in late-stage capitalism means "exponential growth forever") and 2) create a closed ecosystem for d&d that's completely under WotC's financial control. think: D&D Beyond being the only place you can access any D&D content, character sheets, etc. and i mean, in general, they've shown a pattern of greed and weighing corporate interests more heavily than their customers or employees.

now would be a great time to move away from d&d if you've ever considered doing so, or to consider it if you haven't.

if you want something similar to d&d 5e mechanically but a bit crunchier, try pathfinder 2e. if you want narrative-focused storytelling games, try Powered by the Apocalypse or FATE systems. if you want a mechanics-forward episodic style of play, try Forged in the Dark systems. if you want a cross-genre game with freeform character creation, try Savage Worlds. and this is an extreme short list of the great TTRPGs out there! a lot of systems that, IMO, people would have more fun playing than d&d, just based on preferred style of play. try them out and please don't give WotC anymore money lol.

[pixiecaps]

so you’re new to tumblr/qsmpblr? hello!! heres a short guide

- unlike twitter we don’t have any main updates accounts instead to keep up with whats going on in the smp a lot of us simply read through the qsmp tag as thats where the majority of liveblogging will be at. a lot of bloggers tend to do summary/update posts for cc’s:) however the quackityupdates blog is here as well and tends to posts updates on tweets !

- do not crosstag anything unnecessary. do not tag minecraft under any qsmp post. that tag is used by mineblr and people specifically talking about the game. instead the main tag you should always use for posting about qsmp is simply “qsmp”. if you post fanart then you can use the tag “qsmp fanart��� :D some general advice is try not to clog up your posts with incorrect tags or too many tags. for instance if you’re liveblogging a philza stream do not do #qsmp #philza qsmp #philza minecraft #qsmp liveblogging ❌ instead you can do #qsmp #philza #liveblogging ✅ (using philza as an example because if you tag #philza minecraft it will get into the mineblr tag so please avoid using that tag)

- how to make mutuals.. the age old question. on tumblr we don’t do the whole List of Interests follow me thing. a lot of us simply post our silliest thoughts into the main tag and you’ll eventually gain followers and maybe make mutuals! its all based on vibes and if somebody thinks you’re cool enough to follow back!

- since tumblr doesn’t have the same algorithm like twitter and is instead very self curated following people is important as is reblogging! reblogging helps boost posts and get more people to see stuff!!! so remember reblogging is vital to our ecosystem. a lot of us leave funny comments and thoughts in the tags of reblogs not the replies!! so keep that in mind:D

- block liberally. if you see a post you don’t like simply block and move on. sending anon hate/death threats is immature. the best way to handle that is to avoid engaging with it! like previously mentioned tumblr is a self curated experience. you have control over what you see and don’t see. you can also filter content and tags you may want to avoid coming across in settings!

- anonymity is a privilege. nobody here owes anybody anything. if you so choose use fake names, hide your age, etc. bloggers here thrive on privacy. nobody is entitled to know anything you don’t feel comfortable sharing! everybody is different not every blogger wants to share a lot on their intro posts and thats okay. remember to be respectful and treat everybody with kindness!

- tag neg and critical posts. for instance instead of tagging #qsmp #neg ❌ do #qsmp neg ✅ as the majority of people who filter those tags do it as #(word) neg or #(word) crit !

if any other qsmp blogger wants to add on to this feel free AND if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask <3

[chamoemileclown]

What’s parkour civilization? I feel like I’ve never heard it before this week, but everyone’s making art of it rn. Did I miss something???

Parkour Civilization or pkc is something that gained a lot of traction on twitter sometime around the end of last week (maybe like october 2nd or 3rd i’d like to say) and it’s sort of spreading to here so here’s a really quick run down on pkc and some discussion on why its super popular all of a sudden. vv

Parkour Civilization is a series of minecraft roleplay videos by Youtuber @/Evbo that were originally released in 10-15 minute segments but later compiled as longer videos on his channel.

The series is about Evbo living in a world where everything he has to do is parkour related. If he wants a house he has to do parkour tricks, if he wants food he has to jump for it, if he wants to better his life and level up from a parkour noob to a parkour pro he has to do a parkour course. To add some risk it all happens over the void so there’s always some risk Evbo could fall and die at any time.

It’s not crazy special story wise and the series doesn’t treat itself seriously. It knows it’s a silly premise and I think that’s why a lot of people like it. I’m sick right now and I watched it because it was something fun to watch while I couldn’t do much else and by not being too serious it made me not expect certain things from it. If any of this sounds interesting id recommend giving it a watch.

I think it blew up like it did because of the intro of the first episode was a good hook for what pkc is. Evbo is given a choice between a hard parkour jump for some raw beef or an easy jump for raw chicken. Evbo goes on to say nobody jumps for the beef because it’s really not worth the risk and then watches his one remaining neighbor jump for it and fail, jumping into the void.

It right off the bat introduces you to the world and its mechanics and sets up a silly tone. It’s a format people can easily apply to a bunch of different memes/ their favorite media. It’s something you can easily reference and even if you don’t know the source material you can understand the concept.

pkc had viewers even before it blew up but a lot of the memes drew in new viewers which spawned in fanart which brings in even more viewers and that’s why it may seem like it came out of the blue.

I’m sort of hoping this is the new wave of minecraft content since we really haven’t had anything like this since 2020 and I think we’re overdue for a new era. A lot of people (including myself) thought this would come with the qsmp last year but I think it’s good that we’re getting some fresh faces in the mcyt ecosystem.

Here’s Evbo’s channel if you are interested, he’s currently working on a pvp civilization series which i haven’t really checked out yet but I hope to see more cool stuff out of him.

[yonpote]

its still an hour left for the us east coast until Thing Day. not to get mushy but like, im happy they got to meet on this day cuz it spawned ALL OF THIS. that one meeting, that one youtube comment, that one twitter reply, led to this massive, insane, and at the core, extremely loving and caring community! its so wild how dan becoming fixated on this one youtuber and phil finding himself charmed by this guy in return, it led to all of this. the art and stories and edits and projects and fundraising events and deeper connections beyond the youtubers we like, its why i prefer calling us a Community over a Fandom. like we are a fandom but moreso we kind of have our own weird little ecosystem thats infinitely interesting in its own right and yet centering these two... "Just Some Guys"-ass guys! like they are regular ass people but thats kinda why we love them so much right? especially now, they are so themselves and even when they were closeted they always championed and identified with people who were a little different, who were outcasts, like no wonder we find so much comfort in them!

and its just this incredible thing where they are in turn comfortable with us and they've become one of us or maybe they've always been one of us, literally phil having been a yaoi fanfic writer in his youth LOL but seriously!! i cannot think of a single creator who is at dan and phil's level of popularity and yet always stayed down-to-earth and felt like a PART of us, and more specifically, enjoys being inundated with our culture as fans! we joke that they stalk us but honestly it's cuz they are interested in the shit we post and talk about and they think we are interesting and funny people enough that some of yalls tweets show up directly on their feed. i dont know ANYONE who has this sort of willing interaction with even the admittedly weirder side of fans and fandom culture who isn't doing it in some tongue-in-cheek "we actually think youre all cringe" way. they GET us in a way you dont often see with creators as big as dnp.

anyway love is love i hope their kiss is broadcasted live in an mcr fan's instagram livestream <3

[drdemonprince]

This is prompted by your most recent substack about fame, because my point is extremely tangential, I'm putting it here.

It's interesting to have seen the internet go through many stages. From the newsgroups/BBS era, to internet forums, to blogs, to social media, and how the respective environments shaped things.

In the early days, it's very much a group thing, some people became Big Name posters, pseudonymous, but still a group thing. The blog era was more personal, but still something made by someone who's just a person, even if not literally pseudonymous. Also, still text based, a lot of it even often. Social media changed that, with it's focus on follower counts on one hand and to snippets of text (twitter) or images (insta), and even though it's social media-ness is debatable, video (insta, youtube). The semi-anonymous nature however, was completely lost by now.

The doing it because you enjoyed it, or whatever, also recedes into the background because this is where monetization really takes off. The deleterious effects of the interaction between monetization and follower counts (notability) need no introduction, but painting with broad strokes, make something appeal as broad as possible deepens the flattening effect a medium like video already has, the visual aspects often being more important than the messages. It also has a much higher barrier to entry. Spinning up your own blog is cheap, text takes only a tiny amount data. Video is not. It's expensive to make (especially if you want slick videos), expensive to serve, so it's predisposed to big, single platforms that can leverage economies of scale.

The natural result is that you have a few people with big audiences, instead of many people with small audiences. If audiences is even the right word for that. If I'm talking about say, some TV show on my blog, and someone responds, it's a fairly equal conversation. More between peers, of sorts, just two people talking about something they share. As opposed to a Youtuber who makes a video about it with 100,000s of viewers. Because there are so many fewer voices, you lose the breadth of conversation too, narrowing to a small range of popular topics, and the distinction between You, and You as Your Brand gets eroded.

It's kinda notable in the autism sphere. Blogs where people talk about their experiences, how they dealt or didn't deal with things, have fallen off. Twitter came and went, and now there's Youtube and insta, where everything gets simplified down to a few slides or a 10 minute video about only the most basic aspects. Which is just... sad. I wouldn't have known that autistic burnout is a Thing many people struggle with if not for a blog post a friend came across and shared one day.

There was a comment from someone, a while ago, about how they used to have ASMR videos on, until they were able to get out into nature, and their desire for those videos completely disappeared. We're all very deprived. Of social contact, foremost. The pandemic poured gasoline on an already smoldering fire I feel. Latching onto someone 'famous' in a surrogate of social contact & context, like that person with their ASMR videos, feels like an understandable (though not good) outcome of that, which brings with it very regrettable excesses.

I think this is all pretty much a correct analysis, thank you! Though I would qualify that we have shifted away from the period of the Youtube mega content creator a social media ecosystem of intimate-seeming connections with smaller influencers, these days. Think of your Twitch streamers with a dedicated base of like 50-200 viewers per stream (and a Discord and a Patreon that supports them), the fitness Instagrams that sell meal plans online, the tarot witches and activist influencers offering one on one sessions, etc. Those communities can be more niche, but they still offer the illusion of a connection -- and if anything, that illusion is more strong because the creator is a "micro" famous person, and can take time to interact closely with fans here and there. We might already be heading out of that period of social media, though, especially with the disintegration of Twitter and the slow death of Meta's apps, too. I don't know what comes next but I hope we are due for a reappraisal of all of this, and the norms surrounding it.

[lokh]

Im gonna need your like, whole musical rec list, bc literally every song you have posted has not flopped once, give me your faves i need to eat them

OUGHHH YOUVE UNLOCKED THE BEAST ARGSHHFHJDF....

in the interest of making this both easily accessible but not stretching the dashboard, im embedding bandcamp links when i can, otherwise linking to youtube when unavailable

in no particular order, inclusion based mostly on what im still actively into LMAO but also just things you should give a go at least once:

list of artist recommendations

zeal and ardor: described as a mix of african-american spirituals and black metal. try devil is fine, you aint coming back, wake of a nation or church burns

bloodywood: indian folk metal, literally nobody is doing it like them. recently featured in monkey man (2024), try chakh le, yaad or dana dan

stromae: if youve never heard any of his songs WHAT ARE YOU DOING..... incredible lyricist, described as a blend of hip hop/electronic. papaoutai made the rounds on tumblr a while back, but you should also try santé and l'enfer

alamat: pinoy pop. a youtube commenter described them as sounding like 2nd gen kpop which probably also explains why i took a shine to them LMAO, notable for the amount of filipino culture on display and the diversity thereof (singing in different languages, themes). first heard them thru kasmala either here or on twitter lmao, try aswang or maharani

andy bull: alt-pop. a lot of poppy and upbeat songs with a melancholic undertone imo. an australian artist, try it's all connected or keep on running

cosmo sheldrake: electronic, wikipedia also lists him as folktronica and baroque pop. you may have heard the song come along on an apple ad - hes known for sampling sounds from nature. pliocene for example features sounds from endangered ecosystems.

if you like cosmo sheldrake, you might like hidden orchestra (electronica, ambient). also making use of field recordings, i really love the archipelago mixtape but its a hard sell at about an hour lmao. if you like the following song then i implore you to give it a go

son lux: experimental, you may have heard from them in the entire soundtrack for everything everywhere all at once (!!!!!). try dangerous, dream state (brighter night) or live another life.

ammar 808: electronic/world fusion, also behind bargou 08 (folk rock you should also listen to). i just cant get ain essouda out of my head, but i also love geeta duniki

miyavi: j-rock, used to be a visual kei artist. these days he might be known more for anime openings like flashback (kokkoku) or other side (id:invaded), or for work like snakes in arcane (or actually inspiring and voicing a character in it), but ive always been partial to his early work like sukkyanen myv or ashita, genki ni naare

songs/albums

'threads' album by now, now (indie rock).

'dream to make believe' or 'what to do when you are dead' by armor for sleep (rock, emo). here's the truth about heaven from the latter album

i already posted about it but denzel curry's 13lood 1n + 13lood out mixx (rap, trap) is extremely good

the guilty gear soundtracks and im so serious im not fucking joking. different kinds of rock and metal and all sorts of influences put in, a genuine labor of love. xrd and earlier games are mainly instrumental with some vocal tracks (try give me a break or big blast sonic), while strive pretty much always includes vocals (of course i need to rec rock parade, but also try requiem. its genuinely hard for me to pick and choose lmao)

not an album and not an artist

coke studio pakistan and coke studio bangla knocking it out of the fucking park, im particularly a fan of harkalay and kotha koiyo na. you could try the other coke studios too (tamil, india, etc)

triple j like a version is when the radio station triple j brings in artists and has them do a cover of a song (artists choice). i liked denzel curry's cover of bulls on parade and flume's shooting stars (video for this one is incredible, man had a vision you just have to stick it out), but you get a lot of interesting interpretations like the wombats' running up that hill, gordi's in the end or, infamously. the wiggles' elephant

ive DEFINITELY missed out some, but thats what my music tag is for LMAO i hope someone discovers something they like here!!!!

[mctoran]

The Backrooms community is currently facing a very serious problem; that is to say, there’s not even a community to begin with. There seemed to be at one point, but it has since dwindled into a pitiful state. Most people are only engaging with The Backrooms concept on a superficial level; with generic liminal space images/aesthetic art, crossovers with completely unrelated fandoms, AI slop, or fan content of Partygoers or Kane Pixels lore. There is practically no interest whatsoever in The Backrooms beyond this generic surface, and the community around everything beneath it is dead. The Backrooms is so, so much more than any of those things, and this misrepresentation cannot stand.

The best way to revive The Backrooms community and inject new life into it is through fan content. More specifically, fanart. And Obviously, this refers to anything besides the aforementioned examples. This initiative is specifically for people to produce fanart related to obscure and underrated aspects of The Backrooms mythos. To do this, simply visit any of the wikis listed here, find something that genuinely catches your interest that you haven't seen anyone else talk about online, and make fanart of it. Then, share your art online; Reddit, Tumblr, X/Twitter, wherever. This will start conversations and garner interest around these more obscure pieces of lore, enriching and diversifying the ecosystem of the backrooms community beyond its generic surface level. If anyone here has even some level of actual interest in The Backrooms, then they will heed this plea.

[mdhwrites]

The Isles is Particularly Awful for Sequel/Next Gen Stories

With Belos gone, the Isles loses literally the only thing that makes it unique from any generic fantasy setting out there: The Coven System. Worse yet is how much the show tries to blame every bad thing on the Isles on Belos and his collaborators, portraying pre-Belos as utopian, so now that he's gone, you have to retcon that part of the show to have ANY real threats.

That's really the main thrust of this. I could expand but the basic point is that there's just nothing to do with the Isles that's better than doing it during Belos' reign. You could explore the Isles but now you're just messing with monsters in their ecosystem who were never a real threat in the show. You could try to depict the reconstruction but there's no tension between people of the Isles, just a need to rebuild. Besides, how do you even portray that when the Isles has zero culture so there's nothing to explore in how they are besides how they feel about Belos falling which is seen as a positive by EVERYONE if the group shot at the end, where even old enemies are now on Luz's side, is any indication.

Really, the only thing about the Isles that is still intact in a way that makes for interesting storytelling AT ALL is Hexside and pretty much just because it's a generic fantasy school that you can do whatever you want with. Which... Yeah, that's pretty much all I've seen. Despite the fact that the fandom immediately went for fankids after the finale, no one seems to have anything to do with them besides throwing out concepts and shipping. Or, you know, recycling old plot lines but with the new cast, committing the cardinal sin of next gen stories of just having an excuse to reset and retell. *glares at Boruto*

But what else are you supposed to do? Unless you want to say Eda and Raine failed in reforming the Isles, you have no conflict there. You either have to bring back old villains, bring in an invading force, both... Or change things so drastically that I question why you're not just doing an original story since you're having to put in that much work anyways.

I guess MAYBE you could do the Isles integrating with humans but like... The show made it clear that that's not a hard process either direction. And why should it be? The Isles is so generic as to barely feel like the other world that it is instead of just our world but with elves.

Even Amphibia, which ends similarly happy, still gives people more to do simply by the fact that it explored its setting. There's still so much out there. The three races still have to figure out how to coexist. Andrias wasn't a toxic power structure, he was THE power structure and the entire world has to recover from an incredible ecological disaster instead of just a glitter bomb.

So yeah, good on those who are having fun with their fan kids but I'll just continue to hope they don't try to continue TOH, not when they left themselves nowhere to go.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[tagedeszorns]

(Violetbirdie here) I think it's complicated due to a variety of issues. 40k as a franchise is huge, but it isn't the sort of thing that tends to have overlap with tumblr type fanspaces. It also doesn't help that 40k is a fractured fandom featuring tons of different factions, so it's not like a standard fandom where there are main characters and a main story that people will always flock to. The primarchs are the closest thing we have to that, which is why there is naturally more content for them. In addition, fandom itself is in a bit of a flux state and has been ever since the 2018 nsfw ban which caused a lot of people to leave for twitter, which is now undergoing its own huge changes right now (and I just hate twitter on principle).

I suppose the one thing I think would help, would be somehow getting the 40k tumblresque fandom space more consolidated as a whole. Like, somehow have a blog that is popular for all factions that posts headcanons about everything, thus getting people interested in parts they don't normally think about. Because 40k is a huge time investment to learn about. I've been listening to audiobooks for what feels like nonstop for over a month, and even then I could only ever feel confident telling people about Emperor's Children. So it naturally is harder for new people to get into the fandom and focus on some of the smaller things because there is just so much. It's almost how I view your blog. I check it daily for fun art/headcanons/just general character stuff, and you made me more interested in some of the captains and such. But even then, you have your focuses. So a space even more general where someone would reblog art from everything 40k would likely be nice? Maybe I just miss the livejournal days of fandom. As far as more engagement, I think having silly things like character weeks which encourages people to draw or write or talk about specific aspects is a huge benefit. It sets a schedule and makes people feel like they are shouting less into the void.

But as someone new here, maybe its my weird perspective, but I don't feel like things are getting less popular. If anything, from just checking AO3, it seems like things are only getting more popular for less of the reddit type and more for the Tumblr wanting to see hot dudes and their complicated feelings type. Also more people are getting into 40k in this side of the space through rogue trader. Like people I never talked to about 40k are starting to look into the series because they played Baldurs Gate 3, and needed a new RPG to play, and conveniently Rogue Trader is filling that for them. So, I'm optimistic if anything. Sorry about the long ramble! Just kinda dumping my thoughts out.

I love Tumblr because, unlike Twitter or Bluesky, it allows for way longer, way more elaborately structured posts. I love it when artists don't just slap their pics into a post and be done with it, but instead add stuff like maybe "I read this book, here's a quote, and it gave me this mighty need to draw this". Or "please listen to this music here while looking at my pic! It goes perfectly with it!". Or just a multi-paragraph-essay (preferably very unhinged) about the character in the upper left corner.

This in advance, so you can see I'm totally with you on the "miss Lifejournal"-thing, because blogs are so much better than just 500 characters, four pics and nothing else. And why I think Tumblr is a very good replacement for Lifejournal.

The multitude of Tumblr-blogs with their many different angles are such a treat and provide such a rich ecosystem! I follow artists posting exclusively admech-stuff, others solely Drukhari, some writers focussing on just one Astartes Legion ... it's phantastic and the depth of their niche-knowledge is mindblowing.

I agree with you that this will be overwhelming for new fans coming from rather monolithic stuff like Rogue Trader. And the key to keeping those new people involved and making them feel welcome is showing them all this variety without scaring them away.

Maybe this new feature Tumblr is working on, can be helpful here. I haven't read much about it yet, but it seems the "Community"-feature has the potential to bundle stuff in a way that's more approachable for new and old fans alike. Maybe there's room for your idea of having "character weeks" (I like that! Sounds very MacDonald's. I'll have Fabius with extra pickles, please! 😁).

I'm sharing your optimism that both the new games and maybe the new series/movies will bring a lot of new fans over and some of them may even stick around. I am a bit wary that there's the possibility of a MCU-situation starting to build up, but since Warhammer-lore is in a constant state of flux anyways this might just add some spice to the mix.

So, yeah, hope for the darkest of futures!

[hrodvitnon]

Additional Novel Stuff! (that the other submitter missed)

Post from Mystical got my attention and so I hunted down the info on Reddit, found the guy who claims to have made the notes originally and he offered more info in a Twitter thread. I would like to urge to take both the notes from earlier and everything I’m about to say here with a grain of salt as the novel isn’t released till the end of April, and to consider this post supplementary to the one made earlier as Mystical seemed to miss the Twitter info. 

The prologue actually opens with Serizawa, Vivienne, Andrews, and Emma meeting in Greenland to discuss some strange properties about some of Earth’s ice. They sample stuff from glaciers, Ghidorah’s prison, and the ice caps, and realize that when the ice was first frozen- the freezing was instant, described like a ‘reverse bomb’. This is also where we get that 3 million number for Shimo’s age as that’s when the earliest instance of this special ice was dated. Shimo is then dubbed as Monster H, standing for Hypothetical, as the only evidence they had of her existence was the weird ice patterns. 

This is actually Andrews’ motivation for joining Monarch, to uncover this weird anomaly. 

When Kong first meets Shimo, he can sense her violent rage towards Skar, but also sees how the crystal controls her. 

There’s additional info during the mural scene where all the history is discussed- including the info that Shimo froze Ghidorah (god it feels so good have this confirmed) and an additional mural of Shimo fighting Godzilla in which Godzilla seemed 'worried’ about something. What he was worried about they don’t say, but I like to think Godzilla could additionally sense that she was being tortured by Skar and that he wanted to help her but didn’t know how- and had to revert to fighting her. Additionally, a note from the Reddit post states that Godzilla was additionally apprehensive about fighting Skar/Shimo. Could be interpreted that he thought he might lose or that he didn’t want to battle Shimo again because of her state. Either way, the characters confirm that the two have some sort of history.

Shimo is not the first Titan. The characters say the mural could be translated to say 'The First, The Foundational, The Ultimate, and/or The Quintessential’. However, I still believe that it is not the case that she is the first because right after this they actually that very same Iwi word to describe Mothra of all Titans. I have no idea what to make of this, crazy interesting that they elevate her to be on Shimo’s level of ancientness or importance. 

Shimo is incredibly strong. Near the end of the book they describe her power as 'world-killing���, and actually describes Evolved-Zilla as being on the backfoot whenever fighting her. 

However, they do confirm she started the Ice Age to balance the Earth’s ecosystem and not out of destructive behavior. 

The bit about the governments of the world plotting to invade Hollow Earth actually revolves around a desire to control Shimo like Skar did, seeing as it was revealed in Rio she can be controlled. (sidenote: this is like, the perfect sequel hook. Operation: Destroy all Monsters, anyone?) This is what that 'end of the world’ note was talking about, a future in which humanity finds a way to control Shimo.

Apparently it’s made clear that Shimo and Godzilla were allies back when Ghidorah was around messing shit up. 

Finally, there’s actually an extension of the post-battle scene where Shimo’s visibly distressed after being freed and Kong comforts her by petting her for a while in the Hollow Earth.

Small tidbit about Scylla not in the thread but mentioned in another tweet: She’s described as loving destruction and that she was actually beginning to warm the planet instead of cooling it, like her job was- so Goji was absolutely justified in dealing that death.

The thread was all about Shimo and has great info- but I honestly can’t wait to see the context surrounding the other notes especially the one about Godzilla and Mothra being family. (Ikik everyone wants this to be a Mothzilla confirmation, but I will be equally interested (maybe even more interested…) to see if they classify them as something else; say found-siblings. I also wanna know if there’s an implication that they grew up together- which would further creates a mountain of questions…). April 23rd is when this thing releases and this info is either confirmed or not.

---

*Serizawa and Vivienne mention* BRB PRE-ORDERING THE NOVELIZATION

Whether any of this delightful information turns out to be true once the book comes out, we Shimo fans are going to be happy with the abundance of lore. Also, YES KONG GIVE HER ALL THE PETS SHE NEEDS IT!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Taylor Lorenz at User Mag:

Minutes after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 election, Dana White took the stage to thank the influencers who helped lead Trump to victory. “I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan,” he said. The acknowledgement crystallized an alliance between Trump and a vast network of online influencers. Joe Rogan*, Adin Ross, the Nelk Boys, and the myriad content creators who Trump collaborated with during his campaign played a key role in amplifying conservative messaging and helping him reach audiences that traditional right-wing outlets simply never could. You can read more about Trump's influencer strategy in an article I wrote for The Hollywood Reporter today.  While the right has spent years fostering a symbiotic relationship with alternative media, the left has failed replicate anything like it. There are simply no progressive content creators with Rogan's cultural impact and online following, and a quick look at the podcast charts or trending channels on YouTube shows the disparity between conservative vs progressive creators' reach online.

Without a network of culturally relevant influential content creators boosting and translating their messaging, the Democratic Party is rapidly losing credibility among younger, predominantly male audiences who have become ardent supporters of influencers that promote a distinctly conservative worldview. This imbalance when it comes to online influence is no accident. It is the result of massive structural disadvantages in funding, promotion, and institutional support. And understanding why Democrats can't (or really won't) cultivate an equivalent independent media ecosystem that rivals what the right has built is crucial for anyone who hopes to ever see the Democrats back into power. 

The conservative media landscape in the United States is exceptionally well-funded, meticulously constructed, and highly coordinated. Wealthy donors, PACs, and corporations with a vested interest in preserving or expanding conservative policies strategically invest in right-wing media channels and up and coming content creators. This creates a well oiled pipeline for conservative influencers: young TikTokers, YouTubers, livestreamers, or podcasters are discovered, developed, and pushed to larger platforms, often with the financial backing of conservative billionaires or organizations on the right who have long recognized the content creator industry a valuable means of shaping public opinion and policy. Organizations like Turning Point USA, PragerU, and The Daily Wire and others receive millions from backers who view them as advertising for a broader conservative agenda. These media entities act as content creator incubators and spend extensively on outreach, production quality, and audience growth. The resources and near unlimited funds they receive allow conservative content creators to grow rapidly and spread their message widely. 

[...]

There is simply zero equivalent to this massive infrastructure on the left.  Leftist channels do not receive widespread financial backing from billionaires or large institutional donors, primarily because leftist content creators support policies that are completely at odds with what billionaires want. Left leaning influencers argue for things like higher taxes on the rich, regulations on corporations, and policies that curb the power of elites. Wealthy mega donors aren't going to start pouring money into a media ecosystem that directly contradicts their own financial interests. And so, progressive creators are left to rely on meager crowdfunding efforts to make a living. 

Because they are not well funded, leftist creators also don't have money to pour into production teams or marketing for their independent media businesses. While Bari Weiss and other billionaire-backed right wing influencers who cosplay as independent media can hire large staffs and run national ad campaigns thanks to their robust funding, progressive influencers are forced to rely on organic growth on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, TikTok. Meanwhile, these platforms' distribution algorithms have been shown to reward conservative outrage and extremism.  There is simply no way that progressive content creators can compete. So, they burn out, they quit, and this further constrains the left’s ability to build a powerful leftist influencer ecosystem that could even begin to rival conservative influencers' reach and power.

All of these things could change significantly if the Democratic party had any interest in supporting the independent media ecosystem on the left, but leftist creators have been repeatedly shunned by the Democratic party establishment.  Harris' campaign is a perfect example of this. Biden began alienating progressive content creators before Harris even became the candidate. When Harris did become the nominee she showed a repeated refusal to engage with any creators challenging her ideology or policies. Mainstream Democrat loyalist centrist creators with very little cultural relevance were welcomed at events like the DNC and campaign rallies, invited to speak and collaborate with the campaign, while influencers who challenged the Harris campaign on issues like the war in Gaza, or spread more populist messaging were not granted access or similar opportunities. 

The closest thing to a "progressive Joe Rogan" in mainstream liberal media is probably the podcast Pod Save America. But the podcasters on that show operate with a clear allegiance to the Democratic Party establishment. They don't speak to the youth or the disaffected masses who are fed up with the entire system.  "Republican independent media is directly linked to the party in ways that the Democrats cannot recreate among the independent ecosystem because they're ideologically opposed to Bernie style populist sentiment the base wants to hear," leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker tweeted yesterday.  The end result of all of this is an influencer landscape that's heavily biased towards right wing creators. We have created a system where right-wing influencers can thrive and scale rapidly and leftist content creators remain marginalized, struggling to gain traction and funding without selling out and becoming right wing grifters (which is just objectively SO much more profitable!).

Taylor Lorenz wrote in User Mag on why Democrats need to form their own Joe Rogan-like influencer circle, just like what the right did that propelled Donald Trump’s win.

[oldguardleatherdog]

This blog is being stalked by Twitter's cringe-inducing "commentary community"

Along with my other social media accounts! Here's today's Wall O'Text™️ with all the juicy details!

Did you know that Twitter trolls have a "community" all their own?

Twitter's "Commentary Community" (I prefer the far snappier "CoCo") is a study in sociology gone wrong. They combine bad-faith moral outrage with Puritan self-righteousness and condescending LGBTQ-phobia into a toxic slurry of fecal napalm designed to cause maximal misery for the targets of their daily brigadings and coordinated hatestream attacks.

When they're not targeting outsiders, they turn their fire on each other with radioactive glee. And this is all they do, all day, every day, living off their own bile, a daily diet of ultraprocessed poison. You don't want to imagine what their offline lives must be like.

The Venn diagram of CoCos, Kiwi Farmers, YouTube streamploitation hacks, and self-loathing gay and trans people is close to a perfect circle. Arrogant disdain for anything they deem unclean or that ruffles their fee-fees isn't a bug, it's a feature.

The level of sheer gall with this crowd is off the charts, and the number of CoCos who have the standing, achievement, talent, scholarship, or knowledge that would legitimize their moralistic hectoring is exactly zero.

Many CoCos make significant money on Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms from this fetid cesspool of free-range loathing, mega-stalking, and network of like-minded fans who amplify their obsessive campaigns to the millions of mouth-breathers and MAGA chuds that give Elon a reason to crawl out of the woodwork every morning - too much money to go unexamined for much longer.

There's more than a hint of sus activity and shady people in the CoCo ecosystem. A thorough examination by investigative and oversight authorities who may have an interest in the flow of money, misinformation, and funding sources for this crowd would go a long way towards reducing their daily firehose of sewage.

Of course, I'll continue to post the same way I've been posting online for the past 36 years, with increased safeguards and monitoring. We run a tight ship in this kennel, and people of good will are always welcome here.

I encourage you to send asks and messages with material I can post here that my growing CoCo fan base can put to use as they reach around my hot, wet, throbbing, pulsating blog, desperate for a fix, grasping for another strawman, trying to convince themselves that they're needed and necessary and loved.