#website content 2017

[sonknuxadow]

actually wait a second. is the only evidence people have for the title of the alleged generations remaster the fact that theres a website with the name. how does that prove anything. just because theres a website for it doesnt mean its official? some random person could have grabbed the url

[ms-demeanor]

making my own post because nobody needs my bullshit on their post:

OP:

Reblog 1:

Reblog 2:

My response:

The IRA blogs were here and they were active and they were quite popular; their posting patterns did not match normal tumblr users (i was followed by lagonegirl and followed back only to be put off by the account reblogging the same five or ten posts every hour for a day before selecting another five or ten posts to reblog hourly the next day - it was clear engagement bait).

Tumblr has never been as transparent about these accounts as both Twitter and Facebook were, but several of the accounts had shared names across platforms and you can find a significant amount of data that was released by both facebook (ex: ads purchased by the IRA accounts) and twitter (over three million tweets from IRA accounts). Academic researchers have published papers on the data released from facebook and twitter. Several papers. So many papers. Soooooo many papers. We have a LOT of direct evidence that you can explore for yourself that there were hundreds (possibly thousands) of IRA accounts that were created on Facebook and Twitter. Of those accounts, some shared usernames across platforms, and of those accounts, a few had tumblr accounts that posted the same content on twitter and tumblr.

To quote a buzzfeed news article from the time:

The Russian-run Tumblr accounts used the same, or very similar, usernames as the account names contained on a list of confirmed IRA accounts Twitter submitted to congressional investigators. In some cases, the Tumblr and Twitter account has the same profile image or linked to each other in their bios. Some IRA Tumblrs and Twitter accounts also cross-promoted content between platforms, further linking them together.

Current tumblr user @ alwaysbewoke (who I don't want to tag because I'm sure he's got better things to do) is interviewed in that article and talks about following one of the blogs identified by tumblr as an IRA blog that had a matching account on twitter identified as an IRA account but unfollowing when the left-leaning blog supposedly run by a black creator started rooting for trump in the election.

Dr. Jonathan Albright is heavily quoted in the article; the data review he collaborated on is one of the only reviews of this subject that includes data from Tumblr and Reddit.

One of the claims that I've seen is that tumblr just deleted funny black people, but these were blogs with thousands of followers on tumblr who never recreated, never popped up on another social media site, never started a reddit account after getting banned; nobody ever showed up saying "hey this is 4mysquad, I got banned on tumblr and twitter, follow me to pillowfort". These very popular blogs got deleted and, as far as I know, nobody ever popped up claiming to be a person who was deleted - and it's not like tumblr users haven't figured out how to evade bans.

What you are doing when you make posts saying that the IRA accounts on tumblr never existed is *absolving tumblr of guilt for their utter lack of transparency.*

Tumblr is not the only tech company that has tried to fly under the radar as its larger counterparts face regular scrutiny in Congress and in the press. Earlier this month, Reddit revealed it too had deleted hundreds of accounts with ties to the Internet Research Agency. A WIRED investigation found more than a thousand links to Russian propaganda websites are still live on Reddit, and unearthed two suspicious accounts that Reddit immediately shut down.

So should you believe what Tumblr says? No, because Tumblr has been functionally fucking silent on this issue and the information about this subject aside from the list of blogs has come from the hard work of data scientists, journalists, and researchers.

(For the record; some of those bot accounts that were recorded by Dr. Albright also had Google+ accounts in 2017 - there is every possibility that they had myspace accounts).

Now, the reason that I'm popping onto this post as an annoyed anarchist is that I was tracking a similar group of blogs for a while and was discussing them and I stopped precisely because of the galaxy-brained liberals who are now trying to dunk on communists for criticizing electoralism. One of the people who was following my project was one of the ones who started calling out the "joe biden kills dogs" posts as disinfo and I realized they were using some of the guidelines I'd written up to "identify" misinformation and that is very a rock fucking stupid approach to what was clearly a leftist making jokes and was horrified and realized there was no way that I could continue documenting what I was documenting without someone attempting to call actual leftists russian bots.

I've seen the post that OP is referencing [it's one where someone makes a very obvious joke about the democrat presidential ticket and people jump on to call them a bot and then someone tries to do the "AI tell me a story" thing and OP is just like "I don't want to :(", proving that they are in fact a person and not an AI] and have deeply enjoyed the humor of watching liberals a) not understand a very, VERY obvious joke and b) become the unwitting butt of a joke they were trying to make, but also I am so exhausted by watching normie dems call leftists AI bots after years of watching normie dems call real live actual leftists who hold actual political views that real people actually have, like prison abolition, russian bots.

But I am also so fucking tired of left conspiracism and how stupid it sounds when leftists dismiss a preponderance of evidence that is easily accessible and publicly available for analysis as "lol so you just trust everything tumblr tells you?"

No, dipshit, learn to click a fucking link or twelve.

[yurimother]

Second English Edition of Independent Yuri Manga Magazine “Galette” Launches Crowdfunding on Kickstarter

On Tuesday, the independent, creator-owned Yuri manga magazine Galette launched its new Kickstarter campaign to fund its second English edition. This initiative follows the successful crowdfunding of its first English edition in August.

In the first 24 hours, the campaign raised over ¥3,000,000 (approximately $19,000), surpassing its initial goal of ¥2,000,000 (around $12,500). At the time of publication, it has doubled its goal with the support of over 300 backers contributing to the project, putting it in the top 10 of current Kickstarter campaigns.

The crowdfunding campaign is set to conclude on January 31.

The first overseas volume and special booklet can be purchased as optional add-ons, so those who did not pledge to the first Kickstarter still have the option to acquire them.

The English editions of Galette contain translated versions of selected works from the magazine’s publication history. The second volume includes seven titles, including an extra story from Milk Morinaga’s bestselling 2006 manga (licensed in English by Seven Seas). It will be published in both ebook and paperback formats and will be around 260 pages long.

The series included in the second special English edition of Galette are:

Liberty by Izumi Kitta× Moto Momono

I Want You to Show it Only to Me by Nekohariko 22

That Woman in the Infirmary by Miyuki Yorita

Fluffy, Fuzzy, Dreamy by Mera Hakamada

The Girls' Arcadia by Haru Yatosaki

Sky Blue Melancholic by Ringo Hamano

Grooming Everyday (GIRL FRIENDS extra edition) by Milk Morinaga

The Kickstarter campaign includes several stretch goals such as a new book cover, additional color illustrations, postcards, and an acrylic stand of Yuna and Rena from Milk Morinaga’s My Cute Little Kitten (also licensed in English by Seven Seas).

Additionally, backers have the option to pledge at a higher level and receive a bonus special booklet containing English editions of previously published one-shots by Milk Morinaga, Mera Hakamada, Yukino Sakuraya, Moto Momono, and Nekohariko 22.

The manga is translated by Red String Translations.

Galette is a creator-owned Yuri manga magazine, largely funded via memberships on Fantia. The first Japanese issue of the quarterly magazine was published in February 2017. Since then, Galette Works has published 32 volumes of Galette alongside multiple collected volumes of serialized works and 25 volumes of its sister publications, Petit Galette and Galette Meets, the latter of which feature more adult content than the main magazine.

Galette Works plans to crowdfund and publish seven volumes of this overseas edition, drawing from eight years of previous releases. Afterward, Japanese and English editions of Galette will be published simultaneously. However, if any future edition fails to reach its funding goal, Galette Works will cease releasing English volumes.

You can support the Galette- Special English Edition02 campaign on Kickstarter until January 31.

Sources: Kickstarter Campaign Page, Galette Works Offical Website

[samuraiko]

Contacting your Senators and House Reps -- some helpful scripts!

Begging any and all of my friends/followers in the United States to reblog this one and PLEASE be sure to tag it -- if you have ideas for better tags, use them and I will update THIS post with the better tags!

---

So since the Fascist Regime™ (aka the current US administration) is losing NO time in speedrunning the Nazi Germany storyline, it is more important than EVER to let your elected officials know that this is absolute batshit and they should be doing everything they can to oppose it.

As a note -- your elected officials' contact information is PUBLICLY available via the official government websites senate.gov and house.gov -- these are their OFFICES (not private residences).

Elected officials cannot help but notice when suddenly their offices are getting bombarded with phone calls. That said, I urge anyone who calls them to be polite, firm, clear, and specific about why they are calling. To that end, here are a few useful sites with scripts for calling them!

https://callhub.io/blog/political-campaign/call-your-representative-script/ -- pretty straightforward, gives some ideas of how to tweak things

https://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/fact-sheet-how-to-call-your-elected-officials.pdf -- this one explains the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices!

https://www.padeasla.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Script-for-Calling-your-Senator-and-Representative.pdf -- again, tweak these as necessary to address the proper issue or issues you're calling about

https://www.kchealthykids.org/uploads/1/3/2/6/132654074/sample-phone-script-to-contact-your-legislator-.pdf -- Also, just to remind folks, you can find your Senators' and House Rep's contact info at either senate.gov or house.gov, just select your state and off you go!

http://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Generic-legislator-call-script.pdf -- this one is the *BEST* for anyone with social anxiety! All the useful tips and tricks you could want for how to overcome those hurdles!

If you REALLY feel uncomfortable calling and talking to a person, you *ARE* allowed to leave a message after hours. Just read off the script of your choice and you're good to go.

You can *ALSO* use these as templates for EMAILING your elected officials! As per the aforementioned government sites, virtually *ALL* of them have contact forms that you can fill out. Do not use 'burner' information with them, as you want to be sure they recognize you as a valid constituent and not just some rando harassing anyone and everyone.

[digi-lov]

— A Getting Into Digimon Master Post

▙▚ TOYS - ANIME - GAMES - COMICS & MANGA - NOVELS - CARDS ▞▟

I've been getting asked a couple times how to get into Digimon, so I figured I collect some posts and info in a master post!

Digimon is a multi media franchise, so there really is no one way to get into Digimon. But I hope this post can help people getting an idea what to look for.

Digimon Card Sleeve Artwork by Tonamikanji

Shout ot to wikimon.net for a ton of the information, and to Digimon Basic - an amazing resource for Digimon material!

▙▚ DIGIMON WEB

As I mentioned, Digimon is a multi media franchise, and there is some content of just general Digimon lore on Digimon Web. There some fun facts to read up upon! There's also the official Digimon Reference Book / Encyclopedia online.

• Digimon Encyclopedia • Appmon Encyclopedia • Agumon Expert Research Profiles • Digimon Journal

▙▚ TOYS

So Digimon, or Digital Monsters, originally started as a virtual pet toy. I made a Post about this origin and relation to the Tamagotchi frachise before. ▞▟ Check it out here >>

Besides that, Digimon released many many "Digivice" toys tying into the animes, but also figurines and much more. I don't have nearly enough expertise to cover them in more details, but there is a LOT! You can check out the LCD Toy history on the official website, and even that doesn't cover all of it!

▙▚ ANIME

The first and second season of the anime, and the surrounding movies, share a continuity, but aside from that all seasons are self contained and you can watch whichever you want.

Notably, Adventure recently got newly released blu rays with japanese audio and english subtitles! ▞▟ You can get them at the Crunchyroll shop >>

I know some people like the english dub, but personally, I honestly don't like it at all... I do really like the german dub, but I really recommend watching the Japanese version. It's my favorite and is considered canon.

Adventure: Digimon Adventure (Movie) (1999) •Digimon Adventure (Season 1) (1999-2000) Digimon Adventure: Our War Game (Movie) (2000) •Digimon Adventure 02 (Season 2) (2000-2001) Digimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Touchdown!! Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals (Movie) (2000) (Digimon the Movie is a super cut of all previous movies done by the dub team) Digimon Adventure 02: Diaboromon Strikes Back (Movie) (2001) •Digimon Adventure tri. (6 Movies or 24 Episodes) (2015-2018) Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (Movie) (2020) Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning (Movie) (2023) [Digimon Adventure: (Reboot) (2020)] Tamers: • Digimon Tamers (Season 3) (2001-2002) Digimon Tamers: The Adventures’ Battle (Movie) (2001) Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express (Movie) (2002) Frontier: • Digimon Frontier (Season 4) (2002-2003) Digimon Frontier: Revival of the Ancient Digimon (Movie) (2002) Savers/Data Squad: • Digimon Savers / Data Squad (Season 5) (2006-2007) Digimon Savers The Movie: Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!! (Movie) (2006) Xros Wars/Fusion: • Digimon Xros Wars / Fusion (2010-2012) Appmon: • Digimon Universe Appli Monsters (2016-2017) Ghost Game: • Digimon Ghost Game (2021-2023)

▙▚ GAMES

Like the anime, Digimon games are almost all completely self contained. Essentially the only exception is a couple WonderSwan games centered around Ryo Akiyama. They're also almost all widely different! No Digimon game is truly like another! In the list below I put well known games in bold, and more obscure games, or the ones never released in the West in small. I also left out all "dead" mobile games.

· Digital Monster Ver. S: Digimon Tamers (1998) (Sega Saturn) [JP only] • Digimon World (1999) (PS1) · Digital Monster Ver. WonderSwan (1999) (WonderSwan) [JP only] · Digimon World: Digital Card Battle (1999) (PS1) [JP only] · Digimon Adventure: Anode Tamer & Cathode Tamer (1999/2000) (WonderSwan) (EN release "Veedramon Version") · Digimon Adventure 02: Digital Partner (2000) (WonderSwan) [JP only] · Pocket Digimon World (2000) (PS1) [JP only] > Pocket Digimon World: Wind Battle Disc (2000) (PS1) [JP only] > Pocket Digimon World: Cool & Nature Battle Disc (2001) (PS1) [JP only] • Digimon World 2 (2000) (PS1) · Digimon Adventure 02: Tag Tamers (2000) (WonderSwan) [JP only] · Digimon Adventure 02: D1 Tamers (2000) (WonderSwan Color) [JP only] ·Digimon World: Digital Card Arena (2000) (PS1) ·Digimon Tamers: Pocket Culumon (2001) (PS1) [JP only] ·Digimon Tamers: Digimon Medley (2001) (WonderSwan Color) [JP only] ·Digimon Park (2001) (PS1) [JP only] • Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit (2001) (WonderSwan Color / GBA) > Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit Ver. 1.5 (2002) (WonderSwan Color) [JP only] > Digimon Frontier: Battle Spirit / Battle Spirit 2 (2002) (WonderSwan Color / GBA) ·Digimon Typing (2001) (PC) [JP only] • Digimon Tamers: Battle Evolution / Rumble Arena (2001) (PS1) ·Digimon Tamers: Brave Tamer (2001) (WonderSwan Color) [JP only] • Digimon World 3 / 2003 (2002) (PS1) ·Digital Monsters: D-Project (2002) (WonderSwan Color) [JP only] ·Digimon Racing (2004) (GBA) • Digimon Battle Chronicle / Rumble Arena 2 (2004) (PS2 / GCN) • Digimon World X / World 4 (2005) (PS2 / GCN) • Digimon Story / Digimon World DS (2006) (DS) ·Digimon Savers: Another Mission / Digimon World Data Squad (2006) (PS2) • Digimon Story: Sunburst & Moonlight / Digimon World Dawn & Dusk (2007) (DS) ·Digimon Championship / Digimon World Championship (2008) (DS) ·Digimon Masters (2009) (PC) [Korea only] · Digimon Story: Lost Evolution (2010) (DS) [JP only; EN Fan Translation exists] · Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Blue & Red (2011) (DS) [JP only] • Digimon World Re:Digitize (2012) (PSP) > Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode (2013) (3DS) [JP only; EN Fan translation exists] · Digimon Adventure (2013) (PSP) [JP only; EN Fan translation exists] • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (2015) (PSV, PS4, Switch, PC) • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory (2015) (PSV, PS4, Switch, PC) • Digimon World -next 0rder- (2016) (PSV, PS4, Switch, PC) · Digimon Universe Appli Monsters (2016) (3DS) [JP only] · Digimon New Century (2021) (Smart Phone) [CH only] • Digimon Survive (2022) (PS4, Switch, PC, XBO)

There's also a couple Fan Games I've been enjoying, that I want to shout out here:

• Digital Partner by Aludeku • Digital Tamers 2 by dragonrod342 • Digital Monster NET DRIVER by kuhamaven / Alice Studios

▙▚ COMICS & MANGA

Digimon has several comic or manga adaptations, some longer but many short promotional works for new releases.

Although there's way more older Manga, I will start with a list of modern Comics/Manga, as we have received a variety recently!

The big one right now is Digimon Liberator! I've been loving it personally. It's a full color web comic, so it has not normal page layout and instead is just scrolling. When it first released I made a post with my Spoiler Free Opinion on the Prologue and Chapter one! ▞▟ Check it out here >> Read Digimon Liberator on the Official Website, GlobalComix or Webtoon!

But Liberator is actually not the only comic currently running!! Thanks to the Digimon Comic project we have FIVE more ongoing series to check out on the official Digimon Web site!

• Digimon Rikollection by Okutsuwa Waga • Digimon Paradox by Minato Ayumu • Digimon Knuckles by Soda Ichigo • Story of the Royal Knights by Yabuno Tenya • Digimon Seekers ~Witch of the Crossroads~ by Kariki Hajime

If you read any of the comics above, show your support by answering the survey on the website!

• C'mon Digimon: The capering monster BUN (1997) (Author: Izawa Hiroshi | Illus: Yabuno Tenya | Publ: Shueisha - Akamaru Jump) • Digimon Adventure V-Tamer (1998-2003) (Author: Izawa Hiroshi | Illus: Yabuno Tenya | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon Chronicle (2003) (Author: Shisheni Okorarana | Illus: Moriyama Soh | Publ: Bandai) • Digimon Next (2005-2008) (Author: Okano Takeshi | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon Xros Wars (2010-2012) (Author: Nakashima Yuu | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon World Re:Digitize (2012) (Author: Fujino Kouhei | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon World Re:Digitize Encode (2013) (Author: Fujino Kouhei | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (2015) (Author: Fukuda Ikumi | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon Universe Appli Monsters (2016-2017) (Author: Akamine Naoki | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon Universe Appli Monsters: Appmon Academy!! (2016-2017) (Author: Hirose Katsuki | Publ: Shueisha - Saikyo Jump) • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hacker's Memory (2017) (Author: Akamine Naoki | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump) • Digimon Chronicle X (2018-2020) (Author: Moriyama Soh | Publ: Shueisha - V-Jump / Digimon Web) • Digimon Dreamers (2021-2024) (Author: Yabuno Tenya | Publ: Shueisha - Saikyo Jump / Digimon Web)

▙▚ NOVELS

There two big web Novels of note for the Digimon franchise. Firs one is Digimon Seekers, which ran from 2023-2024 and consistes of 4 Chapters plus an Epilogue. You can read it on the official Website, but many fans noted the english translation being not great at certain points, so some dedicated fans edited the translation to fix the issues.

The second is Digimon Liberator, which is not simply a novel version of the web comic, but instead tells the story from the perspective of a different protagonist! From what I can tell, the translation for this one is better, although they sometimes mess up the card effects, so make sure to read the actual cards, which are included as pictures.

• Digimon Seekers: Official - Fan Edited Translation • Digimon Liberator: Official Website

▙▚ CARDS

Finally, what this blog is all about really, the Card Game. There have been many Digimon Card Games over the years, but I'm really only familiar with the current one. If you want to try learning it, there is a tutorial app in the Play Store, and a Rules video on the official YouTube channel that covers the essentials. There are also Fan made simulators to play online, with dedicated fan bases that you will surely find people to play with or show you the ropes!

If you just like the look of some of the cards, I encourage you to check the pricing on cards you got your eyes on. If the card isn't insanely diffcult to get and important for meta decks, you have fairly good chances to get some gorgeous cards for reasonable prices! I also collect Pokémon Cards, and let me tell you, the production quality of the Digimon Cards is leagues above.

[maybe-boys-do-love]

It's wild that the whole global trend of gay-focused happy ending romance shows and movies has only been going on for *looks at calendar* a measly ten years!

Just ten years ago. 2014. That's when you get the discovery of a market for queer romance series and films with happy endings. That year the OG Love Sick in Thailand came out. Brazil puts out The Way He Looks, which deserves so much more credit than it receives for influencing the aeshtetics of the genre. Looking premieres on HBO, and although it had low ratings, it's an important touchstone. And, despite Nickelodeon’s censorship and shifting the program from tv to its website, the Legend of Korra confirms Korrasami in its season finale.

The next year, in 2015, we get Love Sick season 2, and China, pre-censorship laws has a few options: Happy Together (not the Wong Kar Wai one lol), Mr. X and I, and Falling In Love with a Rival. Canada, premieres Schitt's Creek. In the US, Steven Universe reveals Garnet as a romantic fusion between two female characters, and will proceed to just be so sapphic. Norwegian web series Skam premieres and sets up a gay protagonist for its third season, which will drop in 2016 and entirely change the global media landscape.

Then, 2016! This is the MOMENT. That aforementioned Skam season happens. Japan puts out the film version of Ossan's Love and anime series Yuri!!! on Ice. China has the impactful Addicted Heroine, which directly leads to increased censorship. The US has Moonlight come out and take home the Oscar. In Thailand, GMMTV enters the BL game and Thai BL explodes: Puppy Honey, SOTUS, Water Boyy, Make It Right, plus, the Thai Gay OK Bangkok, which, like its influence, Looking, is more in the queer tradition but introduces two dramatically important directors to the Thai BL industry, Aof and Jojo.

By 2017, Taiwan enters the game with its History series. Korea’s BL industry actually kicks off with Method and Long Time No See. Thailand’s got too many BLs to mention. Call Me By Your Name, though not a happy ending, makes a big splash that will send ripples through the whole genre, and God's Own Country offers a gruff counter-argument to problematic age differences and twink obsessions. This is also the year of Netflix reboot of One Day At a Time bringing some wlw to the screen, and the Disney Channel has a main character come out as ‘gay’ on Andi Mack ( I’m am ready to throw fists with anyone who thinks the Disney Channel aesthetic isn’t a part of current queer culture). And I'd be remiss not to mention the influential cult-following of chaotic web-series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo: "Sometimes things that are expensive...are worse."

All this happened, and we hadn’t even gotten to Love, Simon, Elite, or ITSAY, yet.

Prior to all this there are some major precursors some of which signaled and primed a receptive market, others influenced the people who'd go on to create the QLs. Japan has a sputtering start in the 2010s with a few BL films (Takumi-Kun, Boys Love, and Jujoun Pure Heart). Most significantly in the American context, you have Glee, and its ending really makes way for the new era that can center gay young people in a world where queerness, due to easy access to digital information, is less novel to the characters. And the QL book and graphic novel landscape was way ahead of the television and film industries, directly creating many of the stories that the latter industries used.

There's plenty of the traditional queer media content (tragic melodramas and independent camp comedies) going on prior to and alongside QL, and there are some outlying queer romance films with happy endings that precede the era but feel very much akin to QL genre tropes and goals, many with a focus on postcolonial and multicultural perspectives (Saving Face, The Wedding Banquet, Big Eden, Maurice, My Beautiful Launderette, and Weekend). I don't mean to suggest that everything I’ve listed ought to be categorized as QL.

Rather, I want to point out how all of these new-era queer romance works are in a big queer global conversation together, in the creation of a new contemporary genre, a genre that has more capacity and thematic interest to include digital technology and normalize cross-cultural relationships than other genres (there's a reason fansubs and web platforms are so easily accepted and integrated to the proliferation of these series).

You're not too late to be part of the conversation. Imagine being alive in the 1960s and 70s and participating in the blossoming of the sci-fi genre. That flowering is where gay romance sits now. Join the party.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

From the Slang Dictionary

part 2

Algospeak - coded language that people use (“speak”) to avoid being censored or moderated by AI algorithms. It combines algo- from the word "algorithm" with the word speak. The word was used as early as 2016 on social media. Many websites, especially social media sites, use AI algorithms to moderate the large amount of content posted on their platforms. These algorithms often automatically flag or delete content that contains or mentions words or phrases that the algorithm has been programmed to recognize as being unacceptable. However, this often causes algorithms to flag or remove permitted content that discusses sensitive issues or content that uses the “unacceptable” words without breaking any rules. Being aware of this, many communities on social media use coded language, emoji, or euphemisms to avoid having their content removed by algorithms. The term algospeak refers to this language. For example, people used terms like panoramic, panini, and panda express to refer to the COVID-19 pandemic after platforms began removing content that mentioned the pandemic to attempt to halt the spread of misinformation. Some other examples of algospeak include using the word seggs instead of sex, the word accountants to refer to sex workers, the word unalive to refer to death or suicide, the corn emoji to refer to pornography, and the phrase leg booty to refer to the LGBTQ+ community.

Birb - also spelled as berb, is a deliberate misspelling of bird used in internet slang such as DoggoLingo. It’s used as a playful way to refer to cute birds, particularly pet birds.

Bye Felicia - a slang way of dismissing someone. Sometimes formatted as bye, Felicia and based on a movie character whose name is spelled Felisha, it often appears in memes, GIFs, and hashtags online to express disregard or indifference to someone. The term has been popular in Black culture since the 1990s when the film was released, although the original spelling of the name “Felisha” has changed to the more common (and, some would point out, more “white”) spelling, Felicia. Bye Felicia is considered by some to be an example of white culture appropriating Black culture, often with little knowledge of the original source material. The phrase enjoyed renewed popularity around 2009 thanks to its frequent use on the reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. It got another bump in December 2018, when former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, used it as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to describe what was going through her head as she and President Obama waved goodbye to the White House at the end of Obama’s presidency in January 2017. Bye Felicia is most often used humorously or as a way to throw shade at someone, suggesting the speaker couldn’t be bothered with another person’s presence or is surprised they haven’t left yet. While humor is almost always part of the intention in using the term, the tone in which it is said has changed somewhat over time. Initially, bye Felicia was said coolly or nonchalantly, as in the movie Friday; now, it’s just as often used in a more aggressive or melodramatic way.

Doggo - this and pupper are affectionate terms for dog and puppy used in the internet slang called DoggoLingo. This emerged in the 2010s and drew on existing online culture, such as lolspeak, the snek meme, and Doge.

Left on read - in internet slang, a person is left on read when a recipient has read, but not responded to, a sender’s message. The expression is often used to express feeling ignored. A read receipt lets the sender know a digital message has been opened or seen (i.e., read) by the recipient. Microsoft Outlook, for instance, allows read receipts for email. Apple has enabled read receipts for text messages since 2011.

Receipts - slang for “proof” or “evidence,” often used to call out someone for lying or to show someone is being genuine. In popular culture, such receipts may come in the form of screenshots, images, or videos. They also often concern things done by famous people. One of the first prominent uses of receipts came in a 2002 interview of singer Whitney Houston by Diane Sawyer for ABC. Sawyer brought up the topic of recent tabloid headlines that accused Houston of buying large amounts of crack cocaine. Houston denied these accusations and demanded proof: “I want to see the receipts.”

Shelfie - a picture of a shelf, especially a bookshelf that shows off someone’s books, movies, art, collectibles, special belongings, etc. It can also be a proper selfie if you are in the picture with the shelves. On social media, the hashtag #shelfie is often posted alongside pictures of various shelves where a person lives or works.

Snacc - internet slang for an extremely attractive or sexy person (i.e., you want to gobble them up like a snack). It’s also internet slang used when cute animals are seeking or enjoying a snack. Snacc, with two Cs, emerges on Black Twitter in 2009, the deliberate misspelling is consistent with other black slang terms, such as phat, thicc, and succ. Early uses of this term refer to actual snacks. Sexual senses of snacc do begin to appear around this time in wordplay, but it doesn’t take off in earnest until around 2017.

Spirit animal - In certain spiritual traditions or cultures, this refers to a spirit which helps guide or protect a person on a journey and whose characteristics that person shares or embodies. It is also metaphor, often humorous, for someone or something a person relates to or admires. The ancient concept of animal guides, particularly prominent in some indigenous, especially Native American, religions and cultures, was adopted in Pagan and Wiccan spirituality in the 1990s. In these contexts, spirit animals are meant literally, referring to spiritual guides or totems that take the form of animals. Earnest quizzes began to emerge in the mid-2000s to help you find your spirit animal. Spirit animal has increasingly been used to indicate, ironically, a strong appreciation or identification for someone or something.

Tea - best served piping hot, tea is slang for “gossip,” a juicy scoop, or other personal information. As far as we can tell, it was steeped in black drag culture. One theory connects tea to the celebrated drag performer The Lady Chablis, who is quoted in the 1994 bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: “Yeah, my T. My thing, my business, what’s goin’ on in my life.” T, here, is short for truth.

Source ⚜ More: Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs ⚜ Part 1

[mitigatedchaos]

Kontextmaschine is Dead

(~1,000 words, 5m)

Noted blogger @kontextmaschine is presumed dead, following the discovery that the sole resident at his most likely residence was found deceased during a wellness check initiated by concerned Redditors.

Prior to his last post on Aug 22, which indicated a serious health problem, he reported taking over twice the dose of creatine he had been taking at the beginning of his lengthy post-COVID health saga, in which he also reported becoming bisexual, having "zero" anxiety, gaining 3D vision after years of not having it, becoming incredibly convincing, and having to learn to walk and use his muscles properly again. At the time, he felt he was becoming trimmer and physically stronger, and reported engaging in a long project of yard work, although photos from the inside of his house generally looked somewhat messy.

A Tumblr user who met him briefly in person after the beginning of the health saga but before these most recent events reported that he was friendly, charismatic, hospitable, and clean, but "physically, a mess," with motor control issues on one side of his body.

Topics of discussion were similar to the content of kontextmaschine's blog, such as differences in east and west coast government in America, said to be "totally on brand," but it was said that the prolific poster seemed "less self-grandiose" in person.

Redditors theorize that the decline of kontextmaschine's health following his first self-report of COVID-19 infection may have been due to undiagnosed brain cancer, which could be more consistent with observed changes in behavior than the after-effects of a viral infection, given that most reports of "long covid" are about effects like fatigue, and not total loss of anxiety or alteration of sexual orientation.

Despite multiple suggestions, from both anonymous and pseudonymous users, kontextmaschine refused to seek professional medical care for his condition.

Regarding the mourning of public figures, in 2018, a period of increased Progressive sensitivity during the Trump Administration, kontextmaschine wrote,

through the years realized that through whatever blind groping the ‘90s-ass “edgelords” were desperately trying to save us from this, through proper gatekeeping and filtering at first I’d thought it was gratuitous and supported it being relaxed, maybe not shaming everyone who publicly mourned a suicide, mea culpa, mea culpa, I have debts to pay

In 2019, he added:

That was how we kept the internet culture from growing mawkish and cry-bullyish: basically, if you were so weak as to get weepy over corpsemeat you got cancelled, the shame would follow you forever and you’d never be allowed to forget it.

Given his writing, it is likely that kontextmaschine would not have supported excessive public mourning over his death, though in 2017, following the theft of his motorcycle, when the popular blogger @argumate jokingly criticized him by writing, "no references to pinball, no insight into historical Americana, this isn’t the kontext I signed up for," kontextmaschine wrote,

“when bad shit happens people mock me accurately” is the community I’ve been looking for my whole life so

Like argumate, perhaps the most famous of the rationalist-adjacent bloggers on Tumblr, screenshots of kontextmaschine's Tumblr posts would end up on outside websites.

Kontextmaschine was generally considered an interesting, if controversial writer. One Tumblr user characterized him as a member of the "obnoxious Tumblr right," though another user asked, "wait, how is kontextmaschine is right wing?" After another user claimed that the nuclear bombing of Oregon would be a net improvement in the world due to kontextmaschine's residence in Portland, tumblr user @random-thought-depository wrote a 2,400 word theory post arguing that kontextmaschine's philosophy was a means to coordinate to join a future political coalition favoring the formation of a more brutal and oppressive hierarchy in pursuit of his own advantage.

Though kontextmaschine's ideology advocates that humanity should adopt "r-selection," meaning more offspring with less investment in each (or youth, sex, and death), this blog dissented against the coalition theory, arguing that motorcycles, kung fu, women, Hollywood, and not having to report to HR are all traditionally cool, and the causality of the kontextmaschine ideology could easily run the other way.

Though he had a period of identifying as female in his youth, appropriately LGBTQ for a Tumblr user, his 2011 statement of principles, including "the lesser yields to the greater" and "suffering is the mark of a wrong person," and general body of work, could be described as a strain of right-wing thought, though not of the traditionalist Christian or rational technocratic varieties.

Prior to the post-covid health saga, kontextmaschine's health posting was primarily about his bipolar disorder, with both manic and depressive phases.

Kontextmaschine maintained generally friendly relations with other bloggers in his sphere of discourse, sometimes debating but rarely aggressive, except in response to anonymous hatemail. In response to one particular piece of hatemail, kontextmaschine stated that as a writer, of course his primary form of influence would be his posts.

In a post chain reblogged by dozens of Tumblr users, multiple Tumblr users wrote that they enjoyed his writing and are disappointed by his death, describing him as a unique thinker that will not be easily replaced. Several felt that there was not much they could have done, as after returning from his covid infection, he was not taking medical advice.

One Tumblr user wrote, "rip. Inspirational manic poster," while long-time and prolific poster argumate described him as, "one of the bloggers of all time."

Internet users speculate that Kontextmaschine is survived by his outdoor cat, Badger, about whom he posted frequently. He may also be survived by other members of his family, with whom he apparently did not live, and rarely spoke about.

It is recommended that enthusiasts of kontextmaschine's blog make backups of his writing for archival purposes.

[aestherians]

Remnants of the Danish otherkin* community

*Otherkin used as shorthand for otherkin, therians, nonhumans, linkers, and anyone who might feel at home in these communities

In 2014 the Wayback Machine crawled a personal website called Tusmørke (Dusk/Twilight), belonging to an unnamed (presumably) therian. According to the Wayback Machine, the website had three articles about therianthropy, which have not been archived and are only recorded through their dead links from other pages:

The articles were: Therianthropys 3 løgne (the three lies of therianthropy), Skifte (shifts), and Fakta og teorier (facts and theories). I visited the site while these articles were still up, though I don't remember their contents. The only note I took was that they used the word "andenslægt" to refer to otherkin.

The Wayback Machine additionally archived page 13 of the site owner's webcomic, Et Andet Liv (Another Life):

On the comic's page there are links to bios for the characters Marcus, Shela, and Chez, none of which have been archived.

The website additionally has a link titled Det Ukendte (The Unknown), which leads to a fantasy roleplaying forum called Moranien. In the single archived thread (from 2006) we can see a user, named Sündir, playing as a wolf character named Cheza, and on a list of recent threads the same user is playing as a character named Marcus. This is likely the same person who created the comic characters Chez and Marcus, but impossible to know for certain.

Additionally, on a current iteration of the Moranien RP (character page last updated in 2011, though the site was seemingly update months ago), there is a character named Sündir who is a wolf shapeshifter and follows a god named Therian. This RP group also wrote the song "Therians Ulve" (Therian's Wolves) in 2006 for one of their live sessions.

I assume that, by the time the Wayback Machine crawled Tusmørke, these pages (the articles, the comic, and the list of links) were not meant to be seen by anyone except the site owner, as the front page had, by this point, become a link redirecting visitors to a forum by the same name, Tusmørke.

The redirect had the following description:

"Tusmørke er et forsøg på at skabe et dansk hjemsted for furries, therians, wiccans og alle andre slags spirituelt interesserede. Lige nu er vi ved at revurdere vores side, men du er altid velkommen til at besøge vores forum, hvor vi blandt andet debatterer alt mellem himmel og jord, hyggesnakker samt arrangerer vores næste årlige træf! Vi glæder os til at lære dig at kende. Ønsker du yderligere oplysninger, kontakt en af administratorerne på forumet."

In English: "Tusmørke is an attempt at creating a Danish home for furries, therians, wiccans, and all other kinds of spiritually interested. At the moment we are reevaluating our website, but you are always welcome to visit our forum, where we, among other things, debate everything imaginable, chat, and arrange our next annual meet-up We look forward to meeting you. If you wish to know more, contact one of our administrators on the forum."

Though no individual threads of the forum have been archived, we can see the titles of one thread from 2010 and two from 2012, started by users Fenrisskorh and Ulven, respectively. Ulven was also a member of the Moranien forum. Everything related to Tusmørke seems to have started in 2006 or earlier and ended around 2012.

In 2017, a hyena therian from Denmark, calling himself Dæmien, started an English-language blog about the daily life of an adult therian. The blog was abandoned after 4 posts.

Also in 2017, I tried to get a forum going titled teriantropi.jcink.net. It only gained one other member, a dragon furry who questioned whether or not he was otherkind (he wasn't), and I abandoned it within a year.

[teawithtrop]

Introduction Post 🤎

Hi, everyone! I wanted to introduce myself since this account is new.

I’m Tea! I’ve been a Tolkien fan for a little over twenty years and have been following news about The Rings of Power since Amazon bought the rights in 2017. I also run a Tolkien (book-focused) website called Tea with Tolkien, which is my primary platform.

I started to get involved with The Rings of Power in May 2022 when I was invited to join about 30 other Tolkien creators for a first look at the series in London. Among other things, we saw some early footage and got to chat with the showrunners etc. After that trip I was initially skeptical of the series and felt I didn’t understand the premise for the series well enough, but was open-minded and still relatively excited.

As season one was airing and I was finally able to wrap my mind around this series as being a genuinely new take on Tolkien, I grew to love it. It’s not perfect or without issues, but it’s been a real gift to be able to return to Middle-earth in this way.

On this account, I’ll share news, analysis, memes, artwork, and general series-related content. Thank you for reading and for following along! ☕️

-

Season One Memories

Season Two Memories

Filming a ‘lore deep dive’ with Felicia Day about Fëanor and Celebrimbor.

San Diego Comic-Con 2024

Season Two Finale

[valleyfthdolls]

Onyx's cringe ass horror recommendations for Halloween: so you like the idea of mascot horror, but most mascot "horror" makes you wanna kill yourself

I personally love the concept of mascot horror, at least in the idea of childish horror, combining childlike and nostalgic things with actual horror, etc. I don't love Garten of BanBan.

So here's some "mascot-esque" horror I think is a good sort of replacement, that utilizes the contrast of cute and childlike vs disturbing without just pretending to as an excuse to open a merch store.

1. Petscop (2017-2019 YouTube series) Basics: A man discovers an old Petscop disc in his mom's house and uploads a series of videos of him playing it to prove to a "friend" that it's real. Not outright scary, but cryptic and eerie. Content warnings: Child abuse and allusions to suicide

2. Shipwrecked 64 (2024 video game) Basics: A cursed "lost N64 game" created by a slighted developer with the intention of exposing the covered-up crimes of the company that commissioned it. One of the most outright scary on the list. Content warnings: Graphic violence, self-hate, self-harm (brought up by ralseibinary because I forgor)

3. Mr. Hopp's Playhouse (2019-2023 video game series) Basics: A girl's dying gift from her grandmother- a creepy toy rabbit named Mr. Hopp- turns out to be housing a demonic entity. Not very scary, but an entertaining game with an interesting story. Content warnings: Emotional abuse against children and implied violence (both in Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 2)

4. The Walten Files (2020-present YouTube series) Basics: A series chronicling the disturbing incidents and supernatural occurences around the now-defunct Bon's Burgers. My personal pick for the scariest on the list. Content warnings: Harm against/death of children, extreme/graphic violence

5. Harmony & Horror (2019-?? YouTube series) Basics: A mad toymaker traps his family inside a series of grotesque living dolls in a search for the perfect toy. A somewhat disturbing and scare-heavy series. Content warnings: Religious/satanic themes, graphic violence, domestic and child abuse

6. The Nursery (2024-present YouTube series) Basics: My own horror series. A girl returns to her hometown years after leaving to investigate the urban legend of "The Thing" and an unidentified Jane Doe. Not so much childlike, at least, not yet, but designed to be Petscop-esque, sort of nostalgic. Content warnings: Implied child abuse and abandonment, graphic violence, harm to and death of small children, religious themes, body dysmorphia

7. Welcome Home (2023 "ARG") Basics: A website detailing the restoration and preservation of the fictitious lost Sesame-Street style show Welcome Home. Not really an ARG. The opposite end of the spectrum from The Nursery, Welcome Home is less horror-based and more rooted in the nostalgic, childish aesthetic. Content warnings: None that I know of

8. Amanda the Adventurer (2023-present video game series) Basics: A Dora-the-Explorer-esque public-access TV series houses at least one demon and the trapped souls of children who have been lured in by the show. Content warnings: Religious/satanic/cult themes, implied harm to/death of small children

9. Choo-Choo Charles (2022 video game) Basics: A giant spider inhabiting a defunct train terrorizes a remote island, and an archivist and monster hunter is tasked with finding the spider's eggs. Different from most mascot horror and basically all horror on this list, but in a way that felt worth honoring with its inclusion. Content warnings: Religious/cult themes, animal death?

Feel free to add in in reblogs!

[mariacallous]

In early 2020, deepfake expert Henry Ajder uncovered one of the first Telegram bots built to “undress” photos of women using artificial intelligence. At the time, Ajder recalls, the bot had been used to generate more than 100,000 explicit photos—including those of children—and its development marked a “watershed” moment for the horrors deepfakes could create. Since then, deepfakes have become more prevalent, more damaging, and easier to produce.

Now, a WIRED review of Telegram communities involved with the explicit nonconsensual content has identified at least 50 bots that claim to create explicit photos or videos of people with only a couple of clicks. The bots vary in capabilities, with many suggesting they can “remove clothes” from photos while others claim to create images depicting people in various sexual acts.

The 50 bots list more than 4 million “monthly users” combined, according to WIRED's review of the statistics presented by each bot. Two bots listed more than 400,000 monthly users each, while another 14 listed more than 100,000 members each. The findings illustrate how widespread explicit deepfake creation tools have become and reinforce Telegram’s place as one of the most prominent locations where they can be found. However, the snapshot, which largely encompasses English-language bots, is likely a small portion of the overall deepfake bots on Telegram.

“We’re talking about a significant, orders-of-magnitude increase in the number of people who are clearly actively using and creating this kind of content,” Ajder says of the Telegram bots. “It is really concerning that these tools—which are really ruining lives and creating a very nightmarish scenario primarily for young girls and for women—are still so easy to access and to find on the surface web, on one of the biggest apps in the world.”

Explicit nonconsensual deepfake content, which is often referred to as nonconsensual intimate image abuse (NCII), has exploded since it first emerged at the end of 2017, with generative AI advancements helping fuel recent growth. Across the internet, a slurry of “nudify” and “undress” websites sit alongside more sophisticated tools and Telegram bots, and are being used to target thousands of women and girls around the world—from Italy’s prime minister to school girls in South Korea. In one recent survey, a reported 40 percent of US students were aware of deepfakes linked to their K-12 schools in the last year.

The Telegram bots identified by WIRED are supported by at least 25 associated Telegram channels—where people can subscribe to newsfeed-style updates—that have more than 3 million combined members. The Telegram channels alert people about new features provided by the bots and special offers on “tokens” that can be purchased to operate them, and often act as places where people using the bots can find links to new ones if they are removed by Telegram.

After WIRED contacted Telegram with questions about whether it allows explicit deepfake content creation on its platform, the company deleted the 75 bots and channels WIRED identified. The company did not respond to a series of questions or comment on why it had removed the channels.

Additional nonconsensual deepfake Telegram channels and bots later identified by WIRED show the scale of the problem. Several channel owners posted that their bots had been taken down, with one saying, “We will make another bot tomorrow.” Those accounts were also later deleted.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Telegram bots are, essentially, small apps that run inside of Telegram. They sit alongside the app’s channels, which can broadcast messages to an unlimited number of subscribers; groups where up to 200,000 people can interact; and one-to-one messages. Developers have created bots where people take trivia quizzes, translate messages, create alerts, or start Zoom meetings. They’ve also been co-opted for creating abusive deepfakes.

Due to the harmful nature of the deepfake tools, WIRED did not test the Telegram bots and is not naming specific bots or channels. While the bots had millions of monthly users, according to Telegram’s statistics, it is unclear how many images the bots may have been used to create. Some users, who could be in multiple channels and bots, may have created zero images; others could have created hundreds.

Many of the deepfake bots viewed by WIRED are clear about what they have been created to do. The bots’ names and descriptions refer to nudity and removing women’s clothes. “I can do anything you want about the face or clothes of the photo you give me,” the creators’ of one bot wrote. “Experience the shock brought by AI,” another says. Telegram can also show “similar channels” in its recommendation tool, helping potential users bounce between channels and bots.

Almost all of the bots require people to buy “tokens” to create images, and it is unclear if they operate in the ways they claim. As the ecosystem around deepfake generation has flourished in recent years, it has become a potentially lucrative source of income for those who create websites, apps, and bots. So many people are trying to use “nudify” websites that Russian cybercriminals, as reported by 404Media, have started creating fake websites to infect people with malware.

While the first Telegram bots, identified several years ago, were relatively rudimentary, the technology needed to create more realistic AI-generated images has improved—and some of the bots are hiding in plain sight.

One bot with more than 300,000 monthly users did not reference any explicit material in its name or landing page. However, once a user clicks to use the bot, it claims it has more than 40 options for images, many of which are highly sexual in nature. That same bot has a user guide, hosted on the web outside of Telegram, describing how to create the highest-quality images. Bot developers can require users to accept terms of service, which may forbid users from uploading images without the consent of the person depicted or images of children, but there appears to be little or no enforcement of these rules.

Another bot, which had more than 38,000 users, claimed people could send six images of the same man or woman—it is one of a small number that claims to create images of men—to “train” an AI model, which could then create new deepfake images of that individual. Once users joined one bot, it would present a menu of 11 “other bots” from the creators, likely to keep systems online and try to avoid removals.

“These types of fake images can harm a person’s health and well-being by causing psychological trauma and feelings of humiliation, fear, embarrassment, and shame,” says Emma Pickering, the head of technology-facilitated abuse and economic empowerment at Refuge, the UK’s largest domestic abuse organization. “While this form of abuse is common, perpetrators are rarely held to account, and we know this type of abuse is becoming increasingly common in intimate partner relationships.”

As explicit deepfakes have become easier to create and more prevalent, lawmakers and tech companies have been slow to stem the tide. Across the US, 23 states have passed laws to address nonconsensual deepfakes, and tech companies have bolstered some policies. However, apps that can create explicit deepfakes have been found in Apple and Google’s app stores, explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift were widely shared on X in January, and Big Tech sign-in infrastructure has allowed people to easily create accounts on deepfake websites.

Kate Ruane, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s free expression project, says most major technology platforms now have policies prohibiting nonconsensual distribution of intimate images, with many of the biggest agreeing to principles to tackle deepfakes. “I would say that it’s actually not clear whether nonconsensual intimate image creation or distribution is prohibited on the platform,” Ruane says of Telegram’s terms of service, which are less detailed than other major tech platforms.

Telegram’s approach to removing harmful content has long been criticized by civil society groups, with the platform historically hosting scammers, extreme right-wing groups, and terrorism-related content. Since Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov was arrested and charged in France in August relating to a range of potential offenses, Telegram has started to make some changes to its terms of service and provide data to law enforcement agencies. The company did not respond to WIRED’s questions about whether it specifically prohibits explicit deepfakes.

Execute the Harm

Ajder, the researcher who discovered deepfake Telegram bots four years ago, says the app is almost uniquely positioned for deepfake abuse. “Telegram provides you with the search functionality, so it allows you to identify communities, chats, and bots,” Ajder says. “It provides the bot-hosting functionality, so it's somewhere that provides the tooling in effect. Then it’s also the place where you can share it and actually execute the harm in terms of the end result.”

In late September, several deepfake channels started posting that Telegram had removed their bots. It is unclear what prompted the removals. On September 30, a channel with 295,000 subscribers posted that Telegram had “banned” its bots, but it posted a new bot link for users to use. (The channel was removed after WIRED sent questions to Telegram.)

“One of the things that’s really concerning about apps like Telegram is that it is so difficult to track and monitor, particularly from the perspective of survivors,” says Elena Michael, the cofounder and director of #NotYourPorn, a campaign group working to protect people from image-based sexual abuse.

Michael says Telegram has been “notoriously difficult” to discuss safety issues with, but notes there has been some progress from the company in recent years. However, she says the company should be more proactive in moderating and filtering out content itself.

“Imagine if you were a survivor who’s having to do that themselves, surely the burden shouldn't be on an individual,” Michael says. “Surely the burden should be on the company to put something in place that's proactive rather than reactive.”

[unpretty]

i hope my misadventures aren't dissuading anyone from making their own website as a patreon alternative, when i first did this back in 2016/2017 it was actually pretty painless so most of the issues i am having right now are based on the fact that i already have a site with content and members that i don't want to lose or fuck over

more specifically i originally set it up with a service that did most of the hard stuff for me, which meant that when they changed from a free service that took a cut to a paid service that still took a cut it really fucked me

if i'd done just a teeeeensy bit more work in the beginning i would be doing much less work right now, which is the actual lesson you should be taking away from my Agonies

[olderthannetfic]

Since you've mentioned that you use Scrivener as a word processing software, I have a bit of a weird-ish question. I have looked at the programme and it seems incredibly useful, and then I looked at the pricetag and- gulp.

I currently use Word which costs 5 euros per year thanks to university, but am thinking about switching to another programme that isn't related to my uni as I feel too paranoid about my smutty fanfic ideas being looked at by my uni and them disapproving of my writing. XD (Word keeps marking "fuck" with a squiggly line and suggesting I choose another word to avoid offending my readers, but if canon doesn't give Barclay some holographic MMF action taking place during "A Fistful of Datas" and turning both his holographic partners into holographic Data and therefore inducing maximum tension and insecurity due to feelings in poor sandwiched Barclay whenever he meets actual Data after that, I will have to write it myself! :P )

According to the website where one can buy a Scrivener license, one pays for the current version of it and will have to buy later versions anew if I haven't misunderstood. You seem to have used it for quite a while, and I haven't managed to find out when the different versions came out. I know the current one is 3, but I am unsure how much time passed between 1 and 2 and 2 and 3, and am unsure whether it's a good idea to buy a license now or whether it would be wiser to wait if it's likely that another version might be released in the near future (that is within one year for example) because then I might wait a little while with my purchase, heh. It probably sounds quite stingy but I am solely getting it for my tiny and too seldom indulged hobby of writing fanfic, and currently have to kinda sorta pay more attention to my wallet and where its contents go, so to say, which is why I'm hesitant.

The question basically is: As a (probable?) long-time user, do you think it's likely a new version of Scrivener will be released within the next year or so or do you think it's likely the current version will be tha latest to purchase for a longer while than 1-2 years?

I hope this rambly mess makes sense, haven't really slept for quite some time, so I am sorry if this is terribly incomprehensible. Sorry for the weird stingy question. Have a nice day and I hope you have slept and will sleep better than I currently do, heh!

--

I've only used it for like three years.

A quick google suggests that Scrivener 2 was released in 2010. 3 was released in 2017 basically to keep up with OS changes.

(IDK what you searched, but this isn't hard to find, dude.)

Scrivener is a fairly... old-fashioned style of software, I guess I'd call it. Some dude wrote himself a program to write his own novel and then people liked it. Some other guy decided to port it to Windows.

They update approximately never. When they do, recent buyers of the old one upgrade for free and everybody else gets like half off. The trial period is 30 days of actual use. The current retail license for 3 is only like sixty bucks. It's a commercial product, but... not like you've been trained to expect by your average modern software that wants to nickle and dime you at every turn.

Do you need Scrivener? Well, no. Not unless you want customizable high-level ebook output formatting and fancy features like that. You could just use some other free option if you just want to type stories in something that isn't Word. But Scrivener is priced extremely low for what it is.

[jimpagne]

hello! in the past you have written and translated about some moments from Are You Sure? (which i thoroughly enjoyed, thank you) and i wanted to ask if you could make a post about how you started learning korean? as a native english speaker it is a bit intimidating to me but seeing how you were able to succeed in the language, it gives me a bit of courage. i know that is not your usual content but i wanted to send an ask anyway. hope you are having a lovely day! and thank you for your response.

Oh, I would love to talk about this topic! Thank you so much for sending in the ask ;p

Also fair warning... this will be a REALLY long post.

In the Beginning...

I began "learning" Korean waaaay back in 2017 (holy shit, that was EIGHT years ago??), back when I was still a high schooler and setting alarms to wake myself up for Mystic Messenger chatrooms. I grew up in a very diverse area with a considerable Korean population, and I had a lot of Korean friends who decided to share their language with me. First, they spelled out my name in Hangul, and in my free time, I decided to learn the rest of the alphabet.

The rest is history, really.

Of course, throughout this time, I felt really intimidated. I mean, where do you even start? There were so many Korean resources online, and it felt like I was entirely lost and overwhelmed by the huge responsibility of taking on a language like Korean, one that is drastically different from the ones I know.

So despite starting my journey in 2017, I really didn't start making a breakthrough in my learning until 2021, where I enrolled into a formal Korean class at my local university. I researched a few things here and there, knew some pretty basic grammar and vocabulary, but again, I was entirely scrambled in the directions in which I was acquiring the language. So finding a professor to steer me into the right direction was incredibly helpful.

But, what do you if you can't afford or have the time for private lessons or university classes?

Even though I have had the immense privilege of going to university, I still found that the burden of learning Korean mainly fell on myself. Language classes are one thing, but you need to have the drive outside of the class to learn as well. If you only become familiar with your textbook, you'll never learn. So, outside of an academic environment, I've learned many things when it comes to teaching myself the language.

Obsessions, Interests, and... Autism?

One of the main things that really propelled my Korean learning journey was integrating the language into almost every relevant facet in my life. I have autism, so I hyperfixate on things to the point of annoying my relatives and close friends. I don't really think they care about the linguistic harmony of Korean characters as much as I do, but I can't help but fall in love with the language every single day.

I made it a goal to learn as much as I could about Korean culture, and through this I picked up a lot of vocabulary. In my personal opinion, I think what really stumps a lot of learners is that they get stuck on the "pop" culture part of Korea. It's nice and all to like K-pop and K-dramas, but if your heart is not in it beyond that, you might find yourself struggling to stay motivated. If you're going to learn Korean, you're going to need to delve into the culture, history, and every day life itself, because a lot of the language will start to make more sense.

You don't need to become an expert in those things, but you'll find that Korean people appreciate this a wholeeee lot more. I speak Korean at my workplace with Korean customers, and they'll usually ask if I learned because of K-pop. However, when I tell them otherwise, I watch just how much brighter they become.

I also enjoy writing (fics and other personal projects), and a lot of my research could not be found on western websites, so I had to start googling IN KOREAN to find what I wanted. Through this, I also mastered the Korean keyboard and I don't need to look at it to type anymore.

I started documenting Instagram captions and comments from my favorite idols, made song diaries, read children's short stories, and watched Korean YouTube channels. In my opinion, I think having physical books or physical notebooks are better than virtual ones when it comes to learning a topic.

I also made plenty of personal flashcards, and if I was using a virtual set, I would make the quiz option entirely in writing. The more you practice spelling a word, the more likely you are to remember it. I would do these quizzes over and over and over again until I could spell and remember every single one of the words in the set.

Now, if you give me a set of 50+ new Korean words, I can have it memorized in less than 10 minutes.

Resources I Personally Like

Spoiler alert: It's not Duolingo. Duolingo is probably one of the worst resources that you could use. I hate that green bird.

I would also like to preface that I use an adblocker, so I'm not sure if any of the websites have ads or how invasive their ads are. So, if there's like ten billion ads on one of these websites, I didn't know! I would marry my adblocker if I could.

The reason why I put emphasis on the word personally is because at the end of the day, how people learn language is entirely a customizable process. What works for me might not work for you. People just have to find what works.

How dependent you'll be on these resources that I'll list also depends on your current Korean level. A lot of what I will provide will be more beginner friendly, but eventually you'll find yourself doing your own research or making your own resources.

Also, it is incredibly important to note that language learning is not one skill. As someone who also studies language acquisition, imagine Korean Fluency itself to be an empty box with different shaped cut outs. There's a star cut out, a circle cut out, a square cut out... etc. You need to fill the box, but in order to do that, you need to fill it with different shaped pieces.

Speaking is a separate skill. Reading is a separate skill. Listening is a separate skill. Writing is a separate skill. Your mastery in Reading won't always bleed over into your mastery of Speaking. These are muscles that must be exercised separately. Of course, they can help each other, but you need to know that just focusing on one facet, or one cut out shape of the language will not be enough to fill that box.

How To Study Korean 한국어를 공부하는 방법

First of all... this person is incredible... The person who made this website is a foreigner who learned Korean, and I think that's an incredibly valuable perspective to take on when you're also a foreigner learning Korean. Their explanations are very precise (they've saved me during so many of my Korean exams), and they also grouped many grammar concepts into digestible levels, so you can start from level 0 and progress onward in a way that makes sense.

I honestly almost feel offended that all of this is free. Thankful, but offended. It's seriously such an incredible resource. If you're looking for a clear roadmap, this is your website.

GO! Billy Korean

Again, if you're looking for a foreigner to explain it in a way that makes sense to your English brain, this guy has some pretty good videos. If you go to his playlist section, he has clips from his livestreams where he teaches Korean grammar and concepts in depth. Some people might not learn that well from just reading, so a video format is perfect for those craving a more personal touch from a teacher.

Talk To Me In Korean

You probably saw this coming. There's a reason why these guys are the best! I know a lot of their options have recently become paywalled, but they still have a lot of valuable lessons on YouTube and they also offer free podcasts on Spotify if you'd like to take a listen. You can also take a level test on their website to determine which course might be best for you. I have a couple of their physical books, some of my favorite being....

Easy Korean Reading For Beginners: this book really introduces you to easy concepts and basic vocabulary, but it also showcases Korean sentence grammar in a very clear way.

My First 500 Korean Words: This book is exactly what the title is. However, in addition to the 500 words, they give related vocabulary, crossword puzzles, reading exercises, and they also break up the words into a weekly manner, so you don't feel overwhelmed to learn everything in one go. Vocabulary is so, so, so important. And anyone learning Korean will tell you that usually its not the grammar that's the issue, its the sheer amount of WORDS that you have to learn...

KoreAnt

Incredibly underrated but very good, especially for beginners trying to expand their listening practice! KoreAnt has cute little visuals where they showcase real Korean scenarios, and they also explain the grammar and vocabulary used in their videos.

Integrated Korean (3rd Edition)

This is a traditional university textbook for English speakers, so you can buy it from multiple different platforms other than the one I linked. It's produced out of one the best university's in the United States for Korean language learning. The entire Integrated Korean series is very well put together and the main meat of the course is separated into four textbooks, Beginning 1 & 2, and Intermediate 1 & 2. Like I said, it's a university textbooks that many of my American friends use (and they all like it), so it might be on the more expensive side. Also, this textbook has sound files on SoundCloud where you listen to workbook or textbook conversations and narrations.

Since it is a textbook, it also has a workbook to pair with it, so if you want to quiz yourself or do additional exercises, you can consider looking into that as well.

그냥 한국어 Just Korean

Now this isn't super beginner friendly, as it is a YouTube channel that teaches Korean concepts... in Korean. It's a great listening resource, however, and she does provide English captions that you can turn on. So you can learn Korean grammar at the same time as listening to it be taught to you in Korean. I think that's pretty cool.

Korean Wiki Project

This is a big hub of archived information and they have a lot of fun wiki pages that you can go through. They also have some pretty solid yet concise explanations on the Korean language, and they also delve into some more colloquial topics (like common slang/texting forms). A little bit of a warning on this one, not everything is super detailed, so if you're looking for a full on lesson other than a quick overview, this is probably not the source for you.

Technical Resources

These are the resources that I recommend for like... typing, general help, or dictionary usage. Things like that.

Naver Korean-English Dictionary

I just really like this dictionary. There's something about it... Something that soothes my soul. They have conjugation settings in there and also you can add stuff to a personal list on this dictionary and quiz yourself over it. 10/10 gets me through school.

Papago

I like to use Papago for quick translations when I'm on the go and don't understand something immediately. It's far more accurate than Google Translate, however it does have its pitfalls. After all, you shouldn't be using Papago as a means to speak/learn Korean, it's just a quick resource -- and since it's artificial intelligence, it can definitely mess up and it will mess up. But if you need to translate something quickly for whatever reason, this is a better resource.

Hancom Taja

I discovered this after I mastered Korean typing! It's a typing website that a lot of Koreans actually use to practice English typing, but they also have Korean options for Korean learners. You can play fun games and select the length of the words/sentences. Fair warning, it sometimes hates working for whatever reason, but when I do get it up and running, I find the overall experience to be a lot of fun.

Language Reactor

This is a Google extension that allows you to have both the Korean and English subtitles running together at the same time over your favorite K-dramas. You can hover over words for instant dictionary translations, get full excerpts of television shows, and you can save/add words to your personal dictionary. I'm not a big TV fan, but I find this resource to be incredibly helpful whenever I am studying Korean off of a drama.

Korean Reddit

I know that the word Reddit might send chills down the spines of many, but in all honesty, you can find some pretty good help on this subreddit. Have a question? Just type up something and get some pretty good feedback.

How I Take Notes in Korean

Do you feel like you're back in school again? I remember I always hated sitting through those "useless" lectures about how to take notes... but in actuality, how you take notes can easily help you understand a topic much better.

I know you already got a taste of my note taking style from my 이게 맞아?! post, but I thought I might explain it a bit better here. Korean, in my opinion, has a lot of solid foundations, and once you work yourself up from those, learning other parts of the language become almost like second nature.

Let's do a quick example:

You might come across a 100 Common Phrases in Korean post, which great! We all love posts like that. However, when you're taking down the notes for what you've learned, you might not be getting the most of what you can get from the content.

Ex) 좋아해요 - I like you.

This is pretty standard, right? Well, how can we expand on this very simple phrase?

좋아해요: I like you

좋아하다 (verb: to like) conjugated in the polite present tense form (~어/아요). Both the "I" and "You" can be inferred due to the high context nature of the Korean language (aka, as long as the speaker and the listener both know what it's about, you can omit pronouns).

You don't need to take it exactly like that, but we've now classified the root verb, how it's being conjugated, and how the cultural behavior/structure of the language impacts its usage. These small changes can really make a difference when you're taking notes.

Also, like I did in the post I mentioned above, I went outside of the material and connected it to other forms that I might've known about. So if you were looking at 좋아하다, you might think of 좋다 (adjective; to be good), or 사랑하다 (verb; to love). Maybe you'd think of Korean pet names and you might want to do more research on Korean couple practices and vocabulary. Make connections. Build your web. It's very important to keep practicing concepts you might already know.

When you are taking notes in Korean, I think it's VITAL that you classify something as a verb or an adjective. Multiple Korean forms change based on this factor, so it's important to label it accordingly. Actually, I'll tell you a quick hack as to how you can master every single Korean grammar point (even if you don't know it yet). I'm not kidding.

To master Korean grammar, all you have to do is ask yourself these four questions.

Is it an adjective, verb, or noun? for particle usage & forms that might use ideas of continuity (adj. do not have continuous states)

Does it end with a vowel or a batchim (final consonant)? for forms that might connect with ~(으) or ~아/어 conjugations, general connectors like ~(이)라...etc

Does it end with a bright or dark vowel? for forms that might connect with ~아/어 or have irregular forms like 으 & 르 verbs.

(if writing) What tense is it going to be in? for general forms that follow the basic ~았/었 & ~(ㄴ/는/ㄹ) rules

If you know the answer to all four of these questions and you know the behavior of these forms, boom, you've mastered the general science behind several Korean grammar points!

Most Importantly...

Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

I know this is a common phrase you've probably heard a million times, but it is incredibly true. Actually, the reason why adults struggle so much in learning foreign languages in comparison to children is because of this concept of shame. Children (other than having advantages in cognitive freshness and free time) often lack this idea of having to be perfect. They make spelling errors, they jumble up their words. But they still communicate. They still try.

Adults often have this feeling that they need to be perfect, so they often shy away from the idea of potentially messing up. You are learning something new, you are meant to mess up.

And that's okay.

(Most) Koreans don't really care how GOOD you are at their language (unless you're trying to work at some formal company in Korea... sorry guys, the concept of Emily in Paris is just not realistic...), they mostly care about the effort that you're putting into learning it.

So don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions. I mean A LOT of questions. After my class time, I would go up to my Korean professor with a whole new list of words/cultural contexts/grammar points that I wanted to ask her about. She never saw it as a burden, and she was more than delighted to educate me about her home country and tongue.

But before I go, I just wanted to say that I was thinking about doing more Korean posts, but I'm not exactly sure what to focus on. I was thinking about doing a fun Linguistic-centered post about Korean, but that might not be super beginner friendly. If you have any topics you might be interested in or you might want me to cover, I'll look into it and see if I can make a proper post about it.

That's all I have for now... if you have more questions, just shoot me an ask!

[mechanismslorearchive]

Do we know if there's any reason why The Bifrost Incident didn't get any canon fics? Or of any were being conceptualized but never got finalized/released?

Nothing canon or official, really. The website content really started winding down around 2017/2018ish, and I think they were focused on writing the music rather than writing fiction about it. I have nothing concrete, though.