#which should be the expected experience

[ambagel]

I'm just laughing at the difference between my Ruggie Birthday Jacket card pulls and my Masquerade Malleus card pulls. I started with roughly 140-ish pulls, but I had to go all the way to 200 pity for Malleus. I finished all the twistune missions and kept doing them for achivements, I was basically running twistunes all day long, I leveled up a bunch of R and Sr cards, at one point I accidentally wasted a ten pull on Jade's jacket banner and almost screamed. By the time I got the last pull I was so mad that I smacked the screen when he showed up. Then Ruggie, I save for months to make sure this won't happen again, and first try there he is 💃 I've since forgiven Malleus but it's very funny to me how different these two went🤸‍♀️ I expect my Silver birthday pulls to be hell

[awkward-teabag]

I have to wonder how many people celebrating AI translation also complain about "broken English" and how obvious it is something was Google translated from another language without a fluent English speaker involved to properly clean up the translation/grammar.

Because I bet it's a lot.

I know why execs are all for it—AI is the new buzzword and it lets them cut jobs thus "save" money and not have to worry about pesky labour laws when one employs humans—but everyone else?

There was some outcry when Crunchyroll fired many of their translators in favour of AI translation (with some people to "clean up the AI's work") but I can't help but think that was in part because it was Japanese-to-English and personally affected them. Same when Duolingo fired many of their translators in favour of LLM translation. Meanwhile companies are firing staff when it's English to another language and there's this idea that that's fine or not as big a deal because English is "easy" to translate and/or because people don't think of how it will impact people in non-English countries.

Also it doesn't affect native English speakers so it doesn't get much headway in the news cycle or online anyway because so much of the dominant media is from English-speaking countries and English-speakers dominate social media.

But different languages have different grammar structures that LLMs don't do, and I grew up on "jokes" about people speaking in "broken English" and mocking people who use the wrong word when it was clearly a literal translation but the meaning was obvious long before LLMs were a thing, too. In fact, the specific way a character spoke broken English has been a way to denote their native tongue for decades, usually in a racist way.

Then Google translate came out and "Google-translated English" became an insult for people and criticism of companies because it was clearly wonky to native speakers. Even now, LLMs—which are heavily trained on English compared to other languages—don't have a natural output so native English speakers can clock LLM-generated text if it's longer than a sentence or two.

But, for whatever reason, it's not seen as a problem when it goes the other way because fuck non-English readers or people who want to read in their native tongue I guess.

[jacksoldsideblog]

I'm curious — is there any unusual (as in, people would not expect this of them) jobs y'all can think of that would occupy the same narrative niche as the narrator's crash coordinator job? With the same level of abject, disturbingly accepted corruption and whatnot, the vibe of "in a just world you would be a good guy but instead you're much worse than most people can dream of"

[miabrown007]

sometimes twists in stories get you by being smarter than what you expect from their genre.

[strawbrains]

Ngl still hurt by the anon who said my partner and I are both too feminine to tell im the butch despite the photos in question being from halloween and everything

[folerdetdufoler]

Hi, I wrote my first evak fic in early 2023, before that I had been an avid reader for years. I know the fandom is a little quiet but there's this hardcore group of writers and readers that seem to have been around since the start and all know (of) each other. I don't know how to word this without sounding envious but it seems to me that group doesn't really read, comment on, give kudos or support new fics outside of their little circle. I want to believe it's a time issue but I have to say it comes across cliquey and a little hurtful. I really hope I am just being an insecure baby but I would be so happy if the established and popular writers would give me feedback and leave comments.

hiya! congratulations on writing and posting! i know it can be a big, scary jump from reading to writing and sharing, so applause for that in the first place.

i'm sorry your contributions to the fandom haven't been received the way you'd like them to be. if i'm included in this group of writers and readers, then, well my reasons for not reading/commenting/supporting are possibly going to be more hurtful than what you're already experiencing! i've whined about it years ago (first here, then here), and unfortunately it all still stands, because i have done absolutely zero work on bettering myself as a human being. i think i've read a handful of fics, mostly because they've been sent to me directly, with someone asking for my thoughts, and i managed to put in the effort to read it and offer a polite response. but there are also a bunch of fics that have been shared with me that i haven't read, even when i've said i would. i'm sorry if you have specifically done this with me in the past, because i have not treated your work, your creativity, with the respect it deserves.

i can't speak for anyone else, on how they choose to spend their time reading or writing, or the relationships they have with other fans. on the one active skam discord i'm in, i think a lot of them know each other from other fandoms, or have different relationships beyond writing/reading skam fic. also, as skam fades, people might only have the bandwidth for enjoying and supporting fanworks from established relationships, the same way you still want to support a favorite author even when you or they have changed genres or whatever.

but in reality i don't know the group where this is happening or why. i agree, it would be nice to receive more readers and commenters in general, and being jealous of the attention other people receive is natural. but i don't know how to change your relationship with that group, or my relationship with reading & supporting.

[lockhartandlych]

told my mom i'm developing a widow's peak and she laughed, saying "yeah, it runs in the family among the men."

jesus christ with that and the neckbeard i really am intersex arent i

[ratmans-notebooks]

i have to stop looking at blogs with vile takes im getting so worked up for nothing

[crearuru]

i trust all of you will remember to be intersectional in your support for women and the disabled and you all will not expect autistic people to be psychic nor will you blame women for being adversely affected by an interaction

[theheightofdishonor]

every day, my new initiative to wait til a show is done airing to watch it seems more and more like the right choice. And it's not all shows mind you (I'm literally watching 3 right now), just shows that I have high expectations for, especially with plot and themes. It seems like pretty much every time I get my hopes up, the story inevitably fumbles so i'm better off waiting til it's over so I can get my expectations in order.

Like, I want to watch these shows while they're airing and join in the discussions and stuff but I also hate being disappointed when the show doesn't live up to my expectations and lately it seems almost inevitable that it won't, especially from gmmtv.

[themournwatcher]

to the anon who told me that my trans characters are problematic … good, lmao !!!!!

that’s kind of the whole point of the characters that I write. They’re flawed. They’re bad people. Given that there is an increasing lack of critical thinking and understanding of nuance in society today … yeah sorry you think my trans men based off of my own experiences are problematic. they’re supposed to be. human beings by nature are problematic.

I refuse to sanitize my fiction to appeal to the moral masses. I am not comforted by relatability and unwavering righteousness. when everything is an idol and a beacon of goodness how am I supposed to be able to look at myself in my wretchedness and be happy. and be satisfied. I find comfort in the very human way that my characters interact with the world. Other people have too.

In short: eat shit

[perenlop]

it’s not even funny how dot’s quaxwell is easily the best written starter so far…

floragato is still my favorite of the three, and she gets points for her great backstory and personality, but it is kinda annoying that theyve only really done One kind of episode with her (jealousy arcs) and fuecoco’s just The Silly One and they’ve sorta passed on doing anything super interesting with him so far.

quaxwell meanwhile has been consistently endearing and has had a good amount of interesting screentime and interactions, and has the most interesting dynamic with his trainer where he’s basically her older brother trying to look out for her and help her get comfortable with herself, rather than the reverse we typically see. this show’s gotten me to like the quaxly line more than i did initially tbh

[mariocki]

Funny Games (1997)

"Why are you doing this to us?"

"Why not?"

[scribblinaway]

wow ok i am now squarely in the target demographic for Chatelaine Magazine but their content is so great i'm not even mad about it, is this what it feels like to know middle age is fast encroaching?

[train-fans-anonymous]

Guys my 2000 word Rodimus angst fic got deleted from my drafts because I forgot about it ☹️

[anethara]

look im gonna level with you. as a survivor of multi-instance SA whose abusers were usually men and boys: if ur afraid of men, what i hear is that you believe in the validity of patriarchy and its philosophical positions.