#want to start selling your stuff on market sites?

[ladyelainehilfur]

The world is so cruel to people who don't have credit cards...

[dashiellqvverty]

there’s stuff i’m actually mad about re: tumblr rn and the MAIN one that pisses me off is the prev tags chain thing. like even before ‘prev tags’ took off and became a hot topic it was still common to just click back through to see other people’s tags. and while there is now a way to click back through to OPs post or the previous post by clicking the right part of the post, you can’t then go back to the blog BEFORE that one. which fucking sucks (actually i haven’t updated the app since this started and i’m using xkit on desktop so idek what state this is all in rn)

but anyway i don’t even hate it as much as other things it just makes me the angriest bc there is NO reason for it, and no reason not to listen to the userbase and switch it back. and it frustrates me when i see complaints about it on staff posts right next to complaints about tumblr live bc like… you know that’s never gonna change right?? obviously no one uses tumblr live, everyone wants to be able to turn it off permanently and not have to snooze it every week - but given all of that, i think it’s pretty clear that it’s executive-level decisions that tumblr is being made to implement?? like, the fact that there is a “snooze” option at all, to ME, says “we know none of you want this so this is how we compromised”

and similarly the fucking new viewer for pictures/gifs (why anyone thought it was a good idea to include images and gifs in this rather than just videos, i don’t know). that’s probably what i hate the most but i can see why there is pressure to do something like this and i don’t think feedback is going to make a difference. the reblog chains thing just fucking baffles me and i hate that they haven’t listened on that one - they did with the marketplace icon!!!

[theplantbish]

Helsingin Sanomat Käärijä article (11.10.) translated

Käärijä licks a carrot and makes OF content - It’s not just about clowning, the artist says

Käärijä’s CCC era comes to an end, when he releases a new album in November. On the album he sings about sex, among other things.

At the moment Käärijä is on an European tour. Between summer’s festival gigs and his fall tour he had time to take three weeks off.

Summary box:

Käärijä, Jere Pöyhönen, released a new song called Sex = Money, and makes OF content

OF-account has a couple of hundred of followers, subscription costs 40e per month

Pöyhönen is on an European tour, in Germany his gigs have been nearly sold out

New album People’s Champion comes out on Nov. 1st. It includes a personal song

“I started to sell sex because sex sells.”

Sings Käärijä, Jere Pöyhönen, on his new song Sex = Money. In the song’s promo video Pöyhönen licks a dirty carrot on a balcony. Fans know what the carrot is a reference to. On a video (plant note: it’s a pic HS get your facts right) posted on Käärijä’s OF account, a carrot sticks up from between Pöyhönen’s buttcheeks.

Yes, Käärijä makes OF content.

On the paid adult content site he has a couple of hundred followers. Subscription costs 40e per month.

When asked about his adult content career, he laughs.

“It’s more just a little fun for the fans,” he tells HS on the phone.

Pöyhönen is currently on an European tour. On the four gigs held in Germany the tickets have been nearly sold out, he says. The venues have been theaters and clubs that fit from 700 to 1,500 people.

On the stage Pöyhönen has been speaking rally-English and has been on his element. The audience has been a bit more grown up compared to Finland, he says.

Käärijä gathered a big audience in Hamburg on Oct. 8th

In Finland Käärijä is an Eurovision hero that also kids admire. At all ages gigs he can’t curse and make dirty jokes the same way he does at club gigs.

Pöyhönen hopes that kids won’t find his OF account. That’s why he hasn’t posted about it much on his social media.

The new song that tells about selling sex won’t be left out of all ages gigs. The lyrics of the song will be changed, though, Pöyhönen says.

“Maybe we’ll sing about selling Lego.”

Whether parents play the new song to their kids or not is out of his hands, according to him. As a child he listened to Petri Nygård’s songs.

“And I’m still sane.” x

Pöyhönen talks about OF as a branding tool, that mostly gives him just a bit of extra money.

He created the account with Häärijä last December. At first it worked as a paid advent calendar for the fans. Pöyhönen told in the Urheilucast podcast that they made 40K euros on the first month.

Pöyhönen won’t reveal what he makes with the OF account these days, but evidently he has made more during the year.

“If someone wants to pay for it, that’s nice. But I have completely different sources of income,” Pöyhönen says.

In the videos Käärijä and Häärijä do mildly naughty things to each other. It’s like a dirty Kummeli show. More like soft porn than actual porn, Pöyhönen describes. 

“We’ve filmed stuff for the account that has made us laugh.”

(there was a pic of the crowd but I don't feel comfortable posting it here. The text under the pic: According to Pöyhönen, the audience at his European gigs is mostly just adults.)

It’s not all just about clowning. OF account and Sex = Money song are an ironic statement on how the world runs around sex too much. As if it was easier to sell sex than music.

Even though Pöyhönen himself says that he objects to marketing music with sex, Käärijä the character does it blindly with everyone else.

“In a way I’m taking a stand without taking a stand.”

Käärijä’s CCC era comes to an official end, when his new album People’s Champion comes out on Nov. 1st.

On the new album we’ll hear the first song fully sung by Käärijä. The topic is personal, Pöyhönen reveals, but won’t comment on the new music more than that.

“There probably won’t be any radical changes,” Pöyhönen says.

Pöyhönen wants to hold onto his underage fans. He sees the all ages gigs as great opportunities to talk about bullying, for example.

“Even before ESC Käärijä character was obscene. I don’t want to change my musical style too much. I make art that looks like me, my own thing.”

[cozylittleartblog]

hi I just wanted to say thank you for your post about sheezy.art! I didn't know that existed, saw your post, checked the site out, signed up, and I am having so much fun so far! ...And being reminded how much stuff I missed from older internet days (I have started putting stamps on my profile. I forgot how much I loved stamps) - which is fun! Just... Thank you for sharing that existed! I never would have known otherwise and I'm so glad I know about this now??? :D

o7 I'M DOING MY PART TO SPREAD THE GOOD WORD OF SHEEZYART. I hope they seriously up their marketing efforts once the site comes out of beta next January, this site seriously needs more people and I am not kidding when I say I want it to become the next deviantart. It really is just Deviantart But When It Was Good, the deviantart of my late 2000s and early 2010s childhood.

I do not like modern internet design at all, but sheezyart gets it all right. Even my very few nitpicks can be excused by the fact the website is in beta, and they're still working on getting everything up to their standards. I need to get more stamps on my profile, it is The Way Of The Art Websites. and the biggest perk is again they are very anti-AI so all the artists are Real !!!!!!!!!

tired of the rapid eshittification of the internet? join sheezyart. tired of websites selling you out to train AI datasets? join sheezyart. miss Old School Deviantart? join sheezyart. need a new art website that actually respects you as an artist? join sheezyart. love super advanced profile customization? join sheezyart. even if you're not an artist, join sheezyart, cuz every art website needs a non-artist demographic to enjoy our works!!

if we want alternatives to the corrupt self-serving social media platforms, we have to support their competitors and help them get off the ground, so that one day they may have enough support to stand face-to-face with them.

everyone join sheezyart and then tell your friends to join it too

my username is Cozy if any of y'all want to follow me if you do!!!

[casper-spills]

| Tarot Cards: Places they represent |

✩░▒▓▆▅▃▂▁𝟑𝟎𝟎 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥!▁▂▃▅▆▓▒░✩

Hey guys! Welcome back to another post ♡

We reached 300 followers! And I'm gonna do a special for you guys because I seriously am so grateful for all of your support. My blog has been growing so fast and I literally never expected to be where I am today. Thank you! ♡

This post will be a little different to my usual stuff. I was thinking I might start a series like this where I give some tips on how to read your tarot! I'll also include the sources I use at the end in case you wanted to check those out too.

Anyway, here is a list of places that the cards represent ♡

Sincerely,

Cassy the friendly ghost ♡

✦Masterlist ✦Paid Readings ✦Support me through Kofi

𓆩♡𓆪 𝙎𝙐𝙈𝙈𝙀𝙍 𝘿𝙄𝙎𝘾𝙊𝙐𝙉𝙏 50% 𝙊𝙁𝙁 !! 𓆩♡𓆪

Ends on September 22nd

| KO-FI SHOP |

| MAJOR ARCANA |

1. Magician - Kitchen, labatory, shows, music, magic, performances

2. High Priestess - Secret place, secret society, library, somewhere quiet, reading rooms, theatre, halls

3. Empress - Old/stately homes, old school building, old hospital building, boutique, beauty parlor, restaurants

4. Emperor - Royal palace, business establishments, schools, univerisity

5. Heirophant - Church, univeristy, temple, place of worship, corporate building

6. Lovers - Sweet shop, date locations, love hotel, honeymoon places

7. Chariot - Car ralley, racing fixtures, garages, horse racing, highway

8. Strength - Zoo, petting zoos, gym, fitness studios

9. Hermit - Cave, retreat centres, hill walking

10. Wheel - Ferris wheels, london eye, casino, lottery tickets, shops selling wheels

11. Justice - Court, arbitration offices, counselling institution, police department

12. Hanged Man - Bungee jumping, sky diving, thrilling activities

13. Death - Church yard, funeral parlor, butcher, cemetary

14. Temperance - Cocktail bar, queues, waiting rooms, chemist dispensary

15. Devil - Adult shops, clubs, casinos, brothel, strip clubs

16. Tower - Chop shops, tall buildings, skyscrapers, stormy areas, fire

17. Star - Water, ocean, river, stargazing

18. Moon - Nighttime, stargazing, movie, stage, theatre

19. Sun - Birth centre, midwifery unti, hospital, holidays, tanning booths, abroad

20. Judgement - Rehabilitation centres, church, treament centres, spa

21. World - Airport, flying, dance studios

| MINOR ARCANA |

☁︎ 𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 ☁︎

Ace - Editor's room, skyscrapers, office, library, radio tower

Two - Statue of liberty, new york, seashore

Three - Hospital, rainy place, cloudy areas

Four - Bedroom, quiet places, funeral parlor

Five - Debate club, near water, themepark, competitive environments

Six - Boats, river, cruisers

Seven - Archery, secret location, casino, bomb shelter

Eight - Prison, therapy

Nine - Psychiatric hospital, confessional

Ten - Surgery room, accupuncture clinic, dentists

Page - Fraternity, rowdy places, sports arena

Knight - Windy places, windmills

Queen - Fenced off places, great walls, boundaries, spikes fences

King - Lawyers office

🕯 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 🕯

Ace - Workshop, construction site

Two - Balcony, overseas, historical travel, boat

Three - Seaside, boat travel

Four - Fastfood, cafe, outdoors, wedding, celebration

Five - Sport centre, pool game

Six - Market, downtown, show, event, someone/something noticable

Seven - Competitive/violent environment

Eight - Road trip, highway

Nine - Competitive environment, barrier, wall, bouncer, high security

Ten - Workplace, labour, sweatshop

Page - Disco, dance, party

Knight - Hot and dry place, bonfire, abroad, holiday

Queen - Social events

King - Active place, fast moving environments

꒦꒷ 𝒄𝒖𝒑𝒔 ꒷꒦

Ace - Lake, pond, birdbath, birds

Two - Luxury, home, common dating places

Three - Bar, pub, party

Four - Under a tree, graveyard

Five - A place of regret, place of bad memories, hospital, flooded areas, bridge, after party cleanup, alone in a bar

Six - Flourists, schoolyard, playground, nostalgic places

Seven - Highup places, views, drug suppliers, spots where people do drugs, drug shops

Eight - Bookstore, library, cave, quiet

Nine - Bar, party, pub, dinner, home

Ten - Family gatherings, park, outdoor, bbq party

Page - Aquariums, fish tanks, sea parks

Knight - Picnics, peaceful/romantic areas

Queen - Bathtub with cancles, home, skinny dipping, swimming

King - Beach, lake

˗ˏˋ 𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔 ˎˊ˗

Ace - Dispensary, bank, currency exchange centre

Two - Circus, arcade, carnival

Three - Fashion show runway, art gallery, boutique, museum

Four - Uncle scrooge's home, gold reserves, saferoom, secret hideout, vault

Five - The streets, people living in powerty, homeless spots,

Six - Pawn shops, currency exchange shops, trade stores

Seven - Nursery, orchard

Eight - workshop, construction site

Nine - Gardens, green parks

Ten - Market

Page - Field, farm, family business

Knight - Workplace, chores, school

Queen - Home, nursery room

King - Bank manager's office

♥Thank you for your support!♥

Dividers by @cafekitsune, @animatedglittergraphics-n-more

Source

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Where do you find all your neat little trinkets and such? Is it just accumulated over the years, or do you use marketplace, or antique malls, commissioning stuff? I want to add more to my home, but I don't really know where to look outside of hyper specific ebay searches.

I guess, more succinctly, how do you Find Things?

Heya! Finding cool stuff is a lot about doing just enough research. I'll show you how my mind works.

Let's say I saw this cute cat in the wild. I want to buy it, maybe see if it's something fun to collect.

If I use Google lens on the photo, I get some promising results - this is something that was mass-produced!

Let's click on a result.

I've learned something! This ceramic is called "redware" and the figure is from the 1950s. So, off to another web search.

Oh! A maker name! "Shafford." This will make future searches easier. And look - there are other related cats - it looks like as various household items! (If you further researched the original cat, you'd also learn it is a tape measure and was made in Japan.)

Now, let's say you don't have a photo to start with, or just a vague idea of something you might want. Let's hop to Facebook marketplace and see if anyone is selling cute ceramic black cats.

All of these results could go down their own research paths, but again, I'm using the example of the Shafford cats.

Armed with some knowledge, it takes just a few searches to find an impressive haul. Honestly, if that wasn't 5 hrs away from me, I'd buy that lot in a heartbeat, selling/gifting what I don't want.

For future searches, you now have two paths:

Search for things using basic terminology to find sellers who aren't super knowledgeable. So, something like "vintage kitchen cabinet". You might luck out and find a seller who just wants the thing gone, they don't know its value, and it might be a steal for you!

Search again using the specific terms you have picked up from your research. So, "jelly cabinet." This will get you in front of listing from experts, where you are likely to find a better quality item at the current market price.

That is how I found this for my kitchen, btw.

Learn the common synonyms and mispellings. Bookcase, bookshelf. Captain's desk, secretary desk.

Click on seller stores and profiles to see related items. As you research, you will start to stumble across other items and figure out your sense of taste. You will find cool shit you never knew existed. You will learn new search terms as you pick up bits of history. You will also start stumbling across online speciality sites, or local resources, like antique shops and vintage fairs. You might learn what estate sales are, or about auctions open to the public. You start developing a habit of scouting out shops and sales when you're in a new town. You put big fairs and small swap meets on your calendar. You build relationships with contemporary artists who make things you like.

My sense of style is something I've actively been refining for decades now, and it isn't just vintage tchotchkes. I do this for clothing, for the crafting I'm into, etc. Curiosity and style go hand in hand and the best part is that your eye and research chops will only improve, even if you're just window shopping.

I hope this helps!

[linkablewritingadvice]

How much should it cost to be a writer?

It depends what route you’re taking. If you are planning to go for traditional publishing, which looks like you finishing a manuscript and then querying agents who will then take your book to publishers, you should be paying for basically nothing. One exception would be if you decide to hire an editor to get a pass over your manuscript and/or query package before sending it off, but this is not required.

If you are in the process of trying to get your manuscript traditionally published, you may be approached by a “publisher” offering to publish your manuscript for a fee. THIS IS A SCAM! An author should never be paying for “publishing services.” Anyone asking you to pay for your own printing, marketing, etc. costs is taking advantage of you. These are called vanity publishers and they will not turn you a profit, help you attract readers, or provide you the prestige of being published. 

Always check on Writer Beware - search for the name of the person or company. You can also just google that name along with the word “scam” or “reviews.” In general, don’t let yourself be blinded by dreams, or let yourself be convinced that something is a good idea because you really want it to be true. Never, ever, ever pay a publisher.

If you are going the self-publishing route, you will be paying for certain things, but none of those should be payment to be published. You are the publisher. Uploading your manuscript to Amazon or other marketplaces is free. However, you will be paying for things that a publisher typically pays for. This could include:

-Cover art - you could do this yourself, though this isn't recommended. A good cover is key to a book's success, so budget to purchase a pre-made book cover, or hire a professional cover artist.

To find pre-made book covers, you can just Google "premade book covers," or check one of these sites: BookCoverZone RockingBookCovers Beetiful

And here's a list of places to buy both custom and pre-made cover designs that's a good start. You can also check Reedsy and Etsy for people listing cover design services. If there is a self-pubbed author whose covers you love, try asking them what artist they use.

-Formatting - you could do this yourself using a formatting program like Atticus, or you could hire someone who does professional e-book formatting.

Here's an article on the turbo-DIY route. Here's a list of formatting programs you can use. To hire someone, you can simply search for book formatting services or look at places where people list such services for hire, like Reedsy, Fiverr, or certain Reddit boards.

-Ad campaigns - you may want to pay for ad campaigns on platforms like Meta or Amazon. More niche, author-specific platforms like BookBub, Book Funnel, or Book Sirens also come with certain costs. 

-Author services - you may wish to hire an expert in things like marketing, blurb copy, social media metrics, newsletter management, etc. You can find information on that here.

Be aware that scam publishers might try to pitch themselves as "author services" - you should be paying someone to help you with specific aspects of your self publishing work, NOT paying to be published.

-Software and platforms - whether it's a subscription to Duotrope, a paid Scribophile account, access to pro Canva features, etc. you may decide to pay for tools that you will use to do your work well.

-Expert advice - some people offer courses, books, or other resources on how to do specific things like write a compelling blurb or run an effective ad campaign. You may notice that a lot of the links I shared here will include upsells from people doing exactly this!

Be very cautious about this, as most of these people claim that they make tons of money on their self published books, but really, they make their money selling this stuff to people like you. Always check out a person’s free resources first, and wait to invest in this sort of thing until you have a specific question you need answered or are trying to do a very particular thing that you need granular guidance on. 

One thing you should NOT pay for is a review, feature, or interview. Self-published authors will be approached by a lot of scammers who claim that, for a nominal fee, they will share information about your book to their huge audiences. These are completely useless and a waste of money. Never spend money on this.

Always keep track of what you are spending on all of this. You may be able to deduct it from taxes you pay on your income from writing, and you will want to really understand what your profit margins look like.

[therobotmonster]

Let's talk about Toys in Cereal

This is a part of several posts of mine that have gotten big, but I figure it's best to address the phenomenon itself in a new post.

If you want to just browse a ton of cool old cereal toys once we're done, go to: www.cratercritters.com. It's a neat site.

Cereal toys are a long-standing American tradition. Some tag-questions asked if they went away because of greed or because of regulations, and that's complicated.

There are food regulations that complicate things. You may have heard that Kinder Eggs are not legal in the US.

This is usually framed as a "fear the stupid American Kids will eat the toy" kind of thing. This is not the case.

The actual regulation that blocks the Kinder Egg is about food safety from bacterial and undisclosed allergen contamination. Inserting a baggie with a toy into that exposes everything in the cereal bag to the outside of the toy package, and that's a no-no in the US market. The rare thing we're more strict about than the EU.

But that doesn't affect cereal toys, because they can get around it by having it in a separate package outside the food bag, between the inner back and the cardboard box. Much easier on the parents to find when you open the box, too.

Kinder has, themselves, addressed the US Kinder Egg problem the same way, with the Kinder Joy.

Splitting the package. into two sections that are individually sealed.

But a big blow to the practice was the end of the Australian R&L Toy Company.

R&L made tons of simple pack-in Premium toys from the 60s through the 80s. They were the primary supplier to Kelloggs, and made everything from simple one-piece figurines to little build-yourself-action-toys.

For instance, these "Wacky Walkers" worked by tying a string to the figure and the weight, then dropping the weight off a table. The figures would hobble forward on their feet, pulled by the weight. Neat-o!

Then there's stuff like these Toolybirds. I'd sell any one of you to the goblin king for a set of these, because I sure can't afford them at $25 apiece or more. I'll probably just make some dinosaur-knockoff version or somesuch to 3d print, eventually.

R&L went out of business in the 80s and its molds were sold to a toy manufacturing company in Mexico that produced their stuff as bag toys for awhile, before everything just faded away.

Meanwhile, the cereal market was forced to contract elsewhere without a devoted company doing essentially just that.

Liscenses came to the rescue. Fun fact, if you wanted toys from most of the Disney Afternoon, your only hope was Kellogg's.

As time went on, you started even getting software in cereal.

Chex gave out a free, PG-version of DOOM for free. Not a couple of demo levels, a whole game, run on the doom engine, with aliens you zap with a spoon.

But as time went on, companies got less and less into the idea of enticing with freebies, and parents started objecting to the marketing of sugar cereals with toy surprises, because given the opportunity, most parents will blame the company for making something the kid wants for their unwillingness to say "No."

The eternal conflict:

Cool thing the kid would enjoy that you might have to put your foot down over because enforcing moderation is a parent's job, verses unobjectionable conformist mush designed to increase your kids' "goodness levels."

I think the banning of cartoon mascots for snacks in certain countries is also ridiculous.

Thing is, any company could bring them back at any time.

The Monster cereals did figurines of their mascots in cosplay in 2021. Of course, they did it as a limited edition bullshit thing where the actual monster cereal mascots were chase figures, but they made them, they could do them at any time if they wanted to.

They could bring the magic back. Nothing is stopping them.

'cept there's no room for joy on the spreadsheet.

Gotta hit you with a little ennui. It's that ambergris stink that makes the perfume truly sweet.

[shadyufo]

How much do you like selling on Etsy? I've been thinking about opening up a shop to sell my own taxidermy art on there. It's just that I've heard Etsy is known for shutting down shops randomly and people keep saying that Etsy's "dying"/on a downward slope. I also heard there are a lot of scammers... What are your thoughts?

Hi Anon!

My feelings about Etsy have definitely gotten sorta complicated over the last few years.

First of all, I love my little shop. I love getting to interact with so many sweet and lovely folks and I love getting to send my art and oddities all over the country. I’ve sold pieces through Etsy that have ended up in museums and classrooms, as props in movies and television shows, that have been centerpieces in peoples’ weddings, that were birthday gifts for little kids just getting into nature and science, and so many other neat and wonderful places with some really awesome people who I am forever grateful to for supporting my shop.

That said, in my opinion, Etsy is definitely not what it used to be and there are plenty of things I wish they would do differently to make the site better for sellers and buyers. I think their search feature needs a total revamp and they also need to crack down on all the sellers flooding the site with mass-produced merchandise. Their recent decision that AI-made content is totally fine by them is another serious bummer and a slap in the face to the real artists using their platform. The list goes on.

In spite of all that, if you want to open an online shop, then Etsy is still probably the best site to do it on, at least starting out. It’s a trusted, household name and they have millions of users from all around the world so you are going to be getting much more traffic than if you were just starting your own site from scratch without any sort of social media following.

You'll still likely want to grow a social media presence (if you haven't already) to help drive traffic to your site rather than rely on Etsy alone for this. A great deal of my own shop's traffic comes from Tumblr and what little I post on other social media. This is something I really should be better about as I've kinda shot myself in the foot by not utilizing them more over the years...but I just really don't like using TikTok or Instagram haha.

From what I’ve seen, vulture culture stuff-wise, Etsy mostly gets mad at folks who sell wet specimens or other more “gruesome” type of oddities and don’t blur the main listing photo or do something similar to warn folks that it could be something they might find upsetting. They also prohibit the sale of some animal parts that are perfectly legal to buy and sell provided you follow the laws around them. So if a seller was listing some of those items, while legal elsewhere, that might have gotten them in trouble with Etsy. Here's a list of what they don't allow. And here's a more specific list of their prohibited animal parts. Note bear, wolf, and zebra are on the list—it's perfectly legal to sell parts from some of these animals in some places provided you follow the laws around doing so, but Etsy doesn't allow it at all. I've had them remove listings for domestic dog and cat skulls in the past as well—the law there is in regards to selling dog and cat fur (which is illegal in the US) but Etsy seemed to think it covers bones as well which it does not.

As for scammers, don't click on suspicious links anyone sends you and watch out for people wanting to contact you outside of Etsy. Don’t swap phone numbers, email addresses, etc with people. Etsy has guides on their site on what to watch out for that it’d be good to read through.

So all of that to say that if you want to start selling your work online then I think Etsy is most likely going to be the best place to do it, at least starting out. If you want to just dip your toes in the market before opening an Etsy shop though you can always try posting a few items here or there on Instagram or one of the oddities selling groups on Facebook but in my experience at least, Etsy is still the best way to go. Then, once you build up a following, you can always start your own site or branch out beyond Etsy if you want to.

I wish you all the best, Anon! Hope you find wild success selling your work wherever you decide to do it <3

[willpowers]

literally obsessed with tumblr learning all about the batshit stuff happening on neopets. the seasonal attack pea drama, while it may actually be the funniest thing to happen this year (saw a girl on fb cry about wanting to burn down TNT hq over it), is not even half of it.

basically, it all started a few months back with the Faerie Festival. It is a yearly event, and it usually roughly follows the pattern of people donate items, each item being equal points regardless of rarity. Those points can be spent on exclusive, high value, rare items that can either be only found during the festival, or are normally extremely expensive and hard to obtain. So every year, people would fill their safety deposit boxes with junk items such as driftwood, bottles of sand, kelp, other items that you could barely sell for a single neopoint, in hopes of being able to make bank during the festival.

this year, however, was a curveball. now, there was a daily limit on donating items, as well as points being awarded based on rarity classification. All in all, now there was a finite amount of points you could get, and all these hoarders now found themselves with piles of items that were useless even in the event.

also, every day you could receive a faerie quest.

for those who don't know, faerie quests happen one of two ways. either you get randomly assigned one as a random event when browsing the site, or you spend real money (about a dollar fifty USD), to get a fortune cookie which gives you faerie quests.

each faerie has a different pool of items requested, and will give a specific prize. Some will increase speed, some level, ect ect. However, there are some that offer more valuable prizes, and are therefore the rarest to get, which is the faerie queen herself, who offers great stat boosts all around, and the fountain faerie, who gives the incredible boon of being able to use her fountain, which allows you to change your neopet into any color imaginable without having to spend millions on a paintbrush.

now, getting a daily quest sounds reasonable, after all, what are the odds of getting the elusive fountain faerie or faerie queen?

well! in this event!

it was 100%.

so that meant EVERY DAY of the month long festival people were able to most likely get a free dip in the rainbow fountain, tanking the value of paintbrushes, and greatly inflating the value of the potential things she could ask for.

things were CHAOS.

in response to the chaos, what did the devs do? they increased the pool of items the fountain faerie could ask for SIGNIFICANTLY, making people hoping to scalp these items unable to predict exactly what she would ask for, and what items they should raise the price of.

now this pandemonium only lasted for a few days before they also made it more likely to get requests from other faeries, still with a focus on the rare ones, as a way to calm things down a bit.

also, every day, you could receive a gift box. inside the box was a random item of INCREDIBLE rarity. for instance, I got a sword I was able to quickly sell for 10 million neopoints. More neopoints than I had ever seen in my years on the site.

so not only were things fucked up by the faerie quests, now most high ticket items in the game were quickly tanking in value now that every player had a chance to get thirty of them within a month.

for a poor player like me, it was great fun! i finally got the chance to get neopets in colors i have always wanted, and was able to get a good chunk of neopoints in my bank for things i wanted to start collecting. things were well.

however, the players that had spent hundreds of real life dollars securing their spot in the neopian elite, were not happy.

many a discussion thread on the site and off were battles of peoples opinions on the changing of market value for items. however, the festival ended, and so one would assume things would go back to normal, right?

wrong.

SO wrong.

the people who were running neopets almost IMMEDIATELY AFTER sold the company to new hands.

thus, more changes begin to happen.

some were amazing all around! the new team seems very dedicated to slowly restore functionality to the games, and have cut ties with all NFT bullshit their predecessors did. in a public statement they have enthusiastically announced that they plan to gain profit from the site by putting more investment into real life merch, some of which started quickly to happen!

in fact, hot topic started selling collecter blind box pins! once again could i go into a mall and walk out with neopets merch, ah, those were the days.

(well, actually, people would buy the entire stock and resell it at an upcharge, causing a whole debacle about that, but thats real life drama, not the neopian kind im talking about)

now, it all seems good. people are positive. they even have a great new idea to raise activity and add structure to your daily use of the site!

daily quests!

now it is structured as so. Every day you get about 5 daily quests, and completing all of them gets you 20k neopoints. not a shabby amount, but not nearly enough to make you a neo-billionaire.

every day you finish all your quests gets you one day closer to a weekly prize, given if you complete seven days of quests in a row!

and! every quest you complete has ITS OWN prize! talk about incentive!

however. guess what those prizes were? both the weekly mega prize and the daily prizes, some given out simply for feeding your neopet?

SOME OF THE RAREST ITEMS IN THE GAME

before people would spend their entire neopian career trying to get a petpet like a krawk, or a kadotie, or a rare paintbrush, or even a great battledome item

now people were being handed them like stickers at the dentist!

so once again, the billionares are mad, the poor people who simply want to enjoy fun items that were once out of reach are happy, and all in all the entire economy is in shambles!

and now, here we are! at the yearly advent calender! a daily chance to get prizes!

AND THEY DO IT AGAIN

to explain the huzzah over the seasonal attack pea, know that it is in fact the second most powerful battledome weapon, going routinely for tens to hundreds of billions in neopoints. something that most players would never dream of being able to acheive.

and it is being randomly handed out like candy! (until they decided to remove it from the prize pool, which caused riots, so they put it back)

so once again, pandemonium!

if youve ever been interested in starting or rejoining neopets, nows the time! things are getttting interesting!

[songbird-at-the-fireside-chat]

Browsing the World Wide Web

Browsing the World Wide Web

One of my favorite passions is creating/finding ways to navigate the web that are healthy, authentic, and fun! Here are some resources I use to guide my internet usage. Some language has been slightly adapted for tone and accessibility. For more in-depth reading, follow the links! (taken with permission from https://yair.garden/browsing). Shared Ideals

MelonKing has an excellent list of shared ideals which I try to keep in mind as I browse the web. It's a great starting point!

Creativity is First: We see the ability to design, decorate, and graffiti digital spaces as essential and powerful.

The Internet is Fun: We want the Web to be a playground that's free to explore and enjoy.

Corporations are Boring: We are tired of the monetization, data abuse, and endless breaches of trust in corporate culture.

The Web is Friendly: We believe the Web should be friendly and supportive; caring is a radical act.

Right to Repair: We value the freedom to make, break, and repair our stuff - tinkering is a form of debate and protest.

One World Wide Web: We want free open knowledge and global connectivity, without paywalls, bubbles, or borders.

Chaotic Effort: We believe that value comes from the time and effort put into projects they love for no reason other than love.

No to Web3: In many (but not all) situations, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, unfairly trained AIs, and buzzword tech are unwelcome and uncool.

Manifesto for a New Web

The YesterWeb is an organization seeking to progressively transform internet culture and beyond. After two years, they created three core commitments and three social behavior guidelines to benefit everyone.

A commitment to social responsibility and partisanship.

A commitment to collective well-being and personal growth.

A commitment to rehumanizing social relations and reversing social alienation.

50 additional manifestos can be found here Social Etiquette

Engage in good faith.

Engage in constructive conflict.

Be mindful of participating in a shared, public space.

Why say no to Web 3.0?

One of the shared ideas of our community of web surfers is to push back against "Web 3.0". Here's why:

It's driven by predatory marketing tactics.

It requires complex technological and financial knowledge to fully understand.

It is actively harming the environment.

It caters to early adopters and whales.

It profits off artificial scarcity.

Investors are banking on Web3, and they really don't want to be wrong.

Personalized Web Surfing Guide

Make your web surfing personal and adventurous, away from corporate influences. Here's a simple guide for a unique browsing experience.

Configure your browser

Remove Ads and Clean up Privacy:

Ublock Origin for removing ads

ClearURLs for removing tracking elements from URLs

SponsorBlock for skipping sponsorships on YouTube

Make it a Safer Space:

ShinigamiEyes for highlighting transphobic/anti-LGBTQ sites

TriggerRemover for removing trigger-inducing content from pages

Clean up UI for Beauty and Minimalism:

CleanerReads for a muted Goodreads experience

Minimal; for a minimal and less attention-grabbing internet

Bonuses for a Cool Experience:

Library Extension: Check book availability at local libraries

Translate Web Pages: Translate pages in real-time

Return YouTube Dislike: Bring back the YouTube dislike feature

How to Browse and Surf the Web

Explore Beyond Corporate Sites: While the internet is vast, the majority of users only see a small fraction dominated by large corporate sites. These sites often prioritize shock value and extreme content, overshadowing the richness of the wider web. Explore alternative avenues to discover the internet's diversity.

Search Engines: Avoid corporate search engines like Google. Instead, consider using alternatives like Kagi, which focuses on privacy and doesn't sell your data. While it costs around $10/month, Kagi offers a diverse mix of web content, making it a worthwhile investment for varied search results. Other niche or non-commercial search engines can also provide unique content. While they may not be sustainable for daily use, they're great for discovering new sites. Find them here.

Webrings: Webrings are collections of websites united by a common theme or topic. They offer a unique way to explore sites created by real people, spanning a wide range of interests. Here are some of my favorite webrings:

Hotline Webring

Retro Webring

Low Tech Webring

Geek Webring

Soft Heart Clinic Mental Health Circle ...and here are some list of webring databases to explore!

Curated List of 64 Webrings

Neocities Webrings

Curated List of Active Webrings

Comprehensive List of 210 Webrings

Cliques/Fanlistings Web Cliques/Cliques are groups which you can join usually if you fulfill a certain task such as choosing an animal or listing your astrological sign. Fanlistings do the same for fans of various topics! You can then be linked on the clique's/fan group's site for further website discovery! Here are some web clique directories:

Project Clique

Cliqued

Fanlistings Network

5. Link Directories

Many sites have smaller link directories of buttons where you can find sites that they are "mutuals" (both creators follow each other) and "friends/neighbors" — sites they follow. It's a great way to build community. There are also larger link directories of sites which someone finds cool, and it's a great way to intentionally explore the web. Here are some of my favorites:

SadGrl Links

Melonland Surf Club

Neocities Sites

Onio.Cafe

Though there are many more! 6. Random Site Generators

Finally, there are random site generators which allow you to randomly stumble upon websites. While not very practical, they are a lot of fun and offer a unique way to discover new corners of the web.

A list can be found here

What now?

The next question you have is probably how can you become an active member/contribute in this world of the underground web? I unfortunately don't have the energy to write a guide right now but it will come soon! In broad strokes, consider making a site on Neocities. If you do make a site, remember to include a robots.txt file to get AI and bots out of there and don't forget to rate your site so we can know who it's for. If you'd like to transition off social media I recommend an RSS Reader such as the one at 32bit.cafe or on Fraidycat (guide on this to come soon as well!). For your twitter-fix you can always post a status at Status Cafe and your mood at imood. There is a whole world out there full of passionate and friendly people who are ready to reclaim the web. Excited to see you there!

[mxjackparker]

I love your work, and I have a question.

I'm a trans guy who is thinking about starting an OF. I have a lot of knowledge in marketing and the kink scene, but otherwise I haven't monetized this part of my life yet.

What are the basics I should know about this kind before I jump in?

The knowledge of marketing and kink will help you a lot! Honestly, most of the work is the marketing, and you'll spend far more time on that than you will making the actual content for your subscription site (at least at first).

My best advice with the start of your advertising would be the sex worker version of "work smart, not hard" - a little nudity and some clips go a long way in your advertising. I realize many people don't want to show themselves for free and want to censor all their ads, but I've always gotten more subs through people finding the clips on my profiles on porn sites than I have through marketing or Twitter or via social media (with Reddit being the occasional exception, when a picture gets a lot of likes, but only with nudes!)

Post in every possible "trans" tag you can find on porn sites, like adding "ftm" and "trans" and even tags like "twink" or "femboy" even if that's not actually your aesthetic because people in those tags often will want to see just any trans guy.

Basics outside of the marketing stuff:

Prepare what you'll do if people in your life find out: vanilla job, family, etc. Take precautions in like with the risk and how bad that'd be.

Get a cheap second phone + a protonmail email account and use that phone number and email when you sign up for stuff so you don't get recommended to people you know!

Create a menu of services you offer and costs; it is easier to get more money from someone already subbed to your subscription site than it is to get a new subscriber. If you can pull £50/$50 from one subscriber, that'll be worth many new subscriptions!

Also I'd hugely recommend going with JustForFans or an equivalent rather than OnlyFans. They permit more content, break down less, and the owners of OnlyFans have donated money to Israel.

I'd also suggest signing up to additional sites, like IWantClips or Manyvids, where you can sell full videos. It'll bring more people to your subscription site, has internal traffic, and you'll make extra money that way and seem more "professional". They also have trans tags/sections!

[theliterarywolf]

So uh, what's the deal with spindlehorse and merch? Cause I didn't even know there was official merch for HH, I only knew about unofficial merch that fans would make in their spare time

So during the lead-up to the premiere of Hazbin Hotel, A24 and BentoBox (the studio that was brought on to help with production) put up some early-access bonuses people could buy.

They ranged from trading cards, keychains of the HH Key, enamel pins, an official playbill for the series and VAs, and early-access to the first two episodes.

And if you wanted to splurge, you could get the ultimate package that included all of that.

... I splurged on the ultimate package.

I still don't have my playbill.

Also, something something -- I had to pay extra for my access to the first two episodes even though I already paid??

But the series premiered proper and, as anyone who's in marketing would tell you, you would think that they would have had merchandise ready for people to purchase as viewership creeped up.

Well... The only official merch available throughout the entirety of S1 was Amazon offering crap-quality t-shirts, some crap-quality popsockets, and trading cards --

Wait, no. The trading cards have been on waitlist since January.

Meanwhile, people who want to support the show are disappointed because, well, they don't want the crappy merch on Amazon and there are some who feel like they're being punished for not knowing about the early-access bonuses.

So we actually didn't start hearing about anything in the way of better official merch until we were pretty much on the week of the finale's release. And even that wasn't a 'hey, you can buy this now' or even a 'coming soon to *insert store-chain*'. No, it was the Spindlehorse artists who have been assigned to handle to designs of the better merch posting on Twitter about how they're still finalizing designs. In addition to this, we got an official Instagram post talking about how they're still in discussion about what store-chains they want to collab with; though it seems like the bulk of this merch (whenever it releases) will be sold by Hot Topic.

Now, of course, in this bizarre in-between period, fans and entrepreneurs are going to do what fans and entrepreneurs are going to do. So we had an explosion of fans selling high-quality fan-merch. Typical stuff: get some good merch, rep your favorite blorbos, and support some independent artists while you're waiting for official merch to drop.

Well... Apparently, some Etsy store owners who specialize in HH fan merch have been reporting their stores getting taken down by Amazon. Now, while it's true that 'oh, people who sell fan-merch know that they either have to have their own independent sites or they have to use creative alternative names on places like Etsy (i.e.: 'Look at this cute Pikachu cloud pin -- I-I-I mean -- look at this cute 'electric yellow mouse sleeping on cloud' pin'), but it's shitty on Amazon and A24 to start doing this now when they're the reason that Spindlehorse can't sell HH merch on SharkRobot anymore unless it's of the pilot-designs of the characters.

[shadowmaat]

Artificial Incompetence

The conversations around "artificial intelligence" are getting a bit bonkers. Not that they're really conversations so much as screaming matches. And not that we're talking about true artificial intelligence so much as algorithm blending programs.

I don't like the recent fad of ABPs. It has a lot of the same earmarks and defenders as NFTs had, and boy howdy did that not work out well for folks. I don't think ABPs have been tied to the fake currency market, but their current implementation is still going to do more harm than good, in my opinion.

I'm not gonna say that writing or art should be "hard" or that people need to "struggle" in order to create things. I do, however, believe that they need to do the goddamn work themselves. Feeding prompts into a content generator doesn't make you a writer or artist. Well, scam artist, maybe. It's taking words/brush strokes from someone else and claiming credit for it. Even if you mention you used an ABP you still didn't create the art yourself, you just fed a program some prompts or the name of some artists you like and it spat out something you claimed as your own.

That's one of the big hangups I have with this fad: taking credit for someone else's work. Reaping all the perceived benefits (kudos, reblogs, etc) without actually doing anything to earn it.

If I give someone a prompt and they write a fic based on it, that story isn't mine. Sure, they might mention I gave them the prompt, but they were the one to write the actual story. Not me. My name doesn't go on the author line and I can't boast to others about the fic I wrote. Because I didn't.

I'm all for accessibility tools to help people complete tasks, and if ABPs were being widely used to help make creative efforts more accessible, I might have a different opinion. As it stands, however, the vast majority of people currently using ABPs aren't using them to help with their own creativity, they're using them as a substitute.

The arguments about data scraping and plagiarism are important, especially if we want to make sure that ABPs stop doing that, but from where I stand it still all boils down to people trying to loophole past responsibility and effort.

It gets worse when you switch gears from fic writing to essays and articles. At least in fiction stuff is supposed to be made up, so, all jokes aside, if some details are wrong it doesn't really matter.

When students start submitting essays to their teachers that they didn't write or sites try using an ABP to write articles, facts become a lot more important. And ABPs are infamous for making shit up whole cloth, even to the point of citing imaginary sources for their facts. That is, quite frankly, dangerous.

You think the past few years (decades, centuries) of misinformation have been bad? It can get a whole lot worse. These programs can seed in just enough "real" information to sell their bullshit as legitimate, and if even some experts have to double-check stuff to figure out what's false, where does that leave the rest of us? Especially all the ones who don't fact check at all before reblogging/believing something they read?

I think the future of artificial intelligence- real artificial intelligence- could be incredibly cool, and when the first AI submits a fic to AO3 I hope I'm around to read it. Right now, though, it's less about exploring potential and all about exploiting it.

[vibestheoracle]

10 Easiest Ways to Make Money Online in 2024

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Leveraging Platforms for Gig Work

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[cloudmancy]

I’ve honestly been thinking about how to reconcile actually seeing problems with CR content policy and all that stuff with those people being close friends and collaborators with people from D20.

( Especially that I do consider myself the CR fan, I like watch the streams which feels a bit hypocrytical but I giess I could have worse hyperfixations lol; to clarify I am also a D20 fan and been before even I have started watching CR)

Obviously I am of the opinion that glamourizing and putting creators and artists of any content we like is dangerous (and seeing them as our allies or friends in some capacity) - and we as fans don’t really know those people and shouldn’t base our moral judgement as ours.

But like I still wonder, how do people like Brennan think of CR and their policy, especially considering Brennan frequently praised Matt not just as a creator but as a person

I am curious on your thoughts, not trying to start any discourse here, just thinking

great questions! I want to start off by saying that I really don't care to speculate what brennan's opinion on the policies are: firstly because I don't parasocialize people like that, and secondly because he would not be in charge of any content policies for dimension 20 even if he felt some sort of way about it. I think if you want to reconcile liking CR while having issues its content policy, we need to look at what the issues are first.

as much as I've dunked on CR's content policy, it is nothing unusual for shows to want to protect their own IP. the terms of copyright in there are pretty standard for any form of media (even if I think it's pretty ironic that critical role is itself derivative of another franchise). the only reason dimension 20 doesn't have anything similar is because they're not at the point where it's profitable for people to sell knockoff merch or make knockoff mobile games using their characters yet. I think you need to prepare yourself for dimension 20 eventually reaching that level of success too.

dimension 20 from the start has and always WILL market itself much more as a product than critical role. it explicitly is one of the few things that kept dropout going through the bankruptcy of collegehumor as a parent company, it treats its audience like paying customers and respects audience feedback accordingly, and that's fine! I like that about it! it means that we get sensitivity consultants and production value, because we are customers paying for a product and there are now standards on how that product is delivered.

so yes, I do think dimension 20 will, at some point, implement their own content policy. they already have copyright over their works and properties, even if it's not stated anywhere on site. I have asked about the validity of fanworks before, and gotten this as a response:

For copyright protection reasons we are obligated to protect our IP in instances where we see it being monetized / exploited (the legal meaning) by non-official sources, and sanctioning monetized fanworks in an official sense could create a situation where our copyright becomes compromised on a legal level (without that sanctioning being a long legalese-ful document filled with caveats).

so we're at the same place that critical role fans were five years ago - it's not technically sanctioned, but dimension 20 has been turning a blind eye and even supporting some of the charity endeavours that involve the use of their IP. what remains to be seen is what happens when D20 eventually does put a content policy of their own in place, and which types of fan content will be restricted.

my issue with critical role's content policy is and always will be how they choose to reinforce it, and the way CR itself still markets itself as a small game between friends and refuses to acknowledge how corporate it has become. they may not be explicitly allowed in their policy, but imo they should only come into play when there's actual scammers using copyrighted logos or copyrighted images to sell products.

a content policy for CR was inevitable. there will be one in the future for dimension 20 too. but there is no reason that CR should have been striking down charity projects and fanzine productions, from members of their own community and official artists no less. I can only hope dimension 20 will not go down the same route in the future.