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hootpoop12 · 6 years ago

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Theory time

Alright, so we all know through the context of this being written in a fanfiction/a03 format that this is all a play about canon VS fanon. What is a little hard to decipher is what are the things that are plays off fanon and which qualities are the true aspects of the characters(canon)? ANYWAY here are just a few of the things I am ASSUMING are plays off fanon based on my years in the fandom and sheer obsession of consuming this shit (trigger warning for everything taken place in the epilogue FYI):

-Dave: I think some of the main aspects of fanon influencing his epilogue version is intertwined with “woobifying”, “Slow burn”, and even possibly even “sexuality”.

-Woobifying is a fandom concept of reducing a character to “a cinnamon roll too pure for this world” someone you wanna baby (often applied to trans guy characters whether canon or headcanoned). This one is a bit of reach I’ll admit because it DOES makes sense that after years of living with Karkat the dude would soften up but there were times in the epilogue even Dave admits he’s gotten softer and the dude just plain out was very passive. In my time I’ve seen tons of depictions of Dave as a lot more emotional than shown in the comic or a lot more woobified in fics (like in meteor fics where he often has very dramatic emotional outbursts) By the way this is NOT me shitting on you if you like viewing Dave in that way because a lot people with trauma relate to him and use him for “cathartic release”(me fucking too lol). It’s more a guess/observation of maybe why he’s developed in this way due to the comic now being a strange sponge absorbing all fanon, good and bad, into it weird ass grasp.

-Slow burn is likely the trope that plays into why the hell it took so fucking long for him AND Karkat to admit their feelings. If you have literally ever consumed Davekat content I’m sorry but 99% of it is slow burn lmao every meteor fic is pining, every coffee shop AU is the budding of a lifelong partnership, and every Harry potter furry inflation pwp crossover WHATEVER fic is 10k words building of sexual tension like......To bring their other relationships in canon into this we can see that Dave was able to flirt with Jade and Terezi and entered a relationship with them at a pretty normal rate WHICH can totally be attributed to the fact he views them as girls and himself as heterosexual so was much more comfortable making a move- sure. Looking at Karkat, however, and you see the dude is a little shy about romance sure but he was still able to flirt with Terezi and make awkward moves on John so like......I can’t help but to feel like something outside (us?) was influencing them?

-Sexuality is another sort of reach but I think it’s something to consider. In terms of the comic....when exactly DID canon end? You could argue at the end of act 7.......or the moment John used his retcon powers to create a new timeline. Fandom Dave (on the tumblr side at least) was usually consider queer and a lot people shipped Dave with another dude. Perhaps John going back and rewriting canon helped bring our influence over Dave’s sexuality into the comic? I remember finding out Davekat was canon and confirming my “Dave is bisexual” headcanon and just thinking in wonder how it felt like Hussie was plucking my desires straight from my head and incorporating them. Which made me HAPPY by the way. If this is anywhere even near truth it’s not like he didn’t do a fantastical and natural job of incorporating it into the comic which shows how “incorporated fanon” is not a totally horrendous thing. The comics always done it with fandom memes and such.

-Rose Lalonde. Not too sure what fanon influenes were brought onto her to be honest? In candy she was almost like a creepy stepford wife which is. Bizarre to me. Rose is the most contrary and rebellious character so seeing her settle down like that (OR FUCKING DOING SOME GUYS LAUNDRY) is a little strange. In meat she insists that she is an individual despite being married but that could have EASILY been Dirk’s influence? Also her biggest fandom stereotypes off the top of my head is Know-it-all smug meddler, alcoholic, and elegant. Really none of that was applied so still need to consider her more. The most damning thing however is where is all the piss?? If you look at the amount of piss kink rose fanfiction one has to wonder......and I can’t even continue this joke.

-Jade Harley: Gonna keep it real with ya’ll. I feel like this epilogue gave Jade Harley way more character. She wasn’t given much in canon except for lonely silly girl so it makes sense to me why she’d grow up desperate for physical bonds and inserting herself into relationships. I liked her telling John that she wasn’t some princess in a tower anymore cause it shows she KNOWS how everyone has always viewed her and that’s a little sad. As for tropes around her character.....yep people pleaser, silly girl, hippie, shoved aside for literally any other character......Need to think about her more, too.

-Jake fucking English. What even is there to say? He more than anyone was influenced by fanon and it doesn’t take too much thought to see how. In a lot of fandom jokes and in fanfiction he is basically treated as a stupid piece of meat. I genuinely don’t read much fanfiction about him except from a trust few fans who I know care about him and will write him in a full rounded way. In any case we see a single moment in which Jake has this oppressive narrative taken away from him and it was when he was talking to Dave and Karkat during their election conversation. If that wasn’t already hard enough to read we can look back at the implied rape that took place with him in the beginning of Jane’s relationship with him or over the course of it. John, the one person supposedly not influenced by fanon as he’s still tied to the comic via retcon powers, is even the one to tell people that Jake is basically being raped. So yeah. Good times. I’ll get to Dirk in terms of Jake in a moment L M A O. Imagine that being the saddest lmao you ever just read.

-Jane Crocker: Welp hope you weren't a Jane fan lmao. What can I say except it FEELS like all the subliminal messaging really got to her and she’s like......warped by the condesce? I think if in the comic they showed more of her political takes then maybe this wouldn’t have come as such a shock. Like, I flat out am disgusted by her character now? She’s a facist, abusive, rapist(that was hint, unfortunately)? WOW good take homestuck writting staff?? I mean I know one of you used to write like incest pedo rape porn but aight??????????? Anyways in fanon Jane is treated as the girl who gets in the way of dirkjake so kinda that early 2000s bitchy yaoi girl brand, boring person in the background, or the hottie. They obviously kept saying she was “easy on the eyes” so there’s the hottie trope but that’s about it.

-Roxy Lalonde: Out of ALL the Alphas they fucking escaped with their goddamn dignity PFFT. So in terms of tropes: trans Roxy, alcoholic, and flirty “boy obsessed”.

-So with trans Roxy this is like Dave’s sexuality thing I discussed where a widely celebrated headcanon influenced canon and that not necessarily a BAD thing. Like I said, this theory is that canon is just absorbing fanon for better and for worse. I saw people were bummed they weren’t a trans girl but I am actually down with this for two reasons. 1) being all those memes “what’s your gender?” “the void” and 2) a part being friends with someone who’s trans is.....not being used to seeing them as the gender they actually are but taking the time to learn these new unfamiliar pronouns- and get the fuck over it. It’s their choice and you just gotta accept it despite your feelings.

-alcoholic Roxy was not at all incorporated which is the biggest fanon about her (not as much in recent years thankfully) so honestly? Kinda diminishes my argument. It’s not like the writers were worried that tossing out their progress as person was bad writing lol look at Dirk.

-Flirty Rox. In candy they were SUPER fast moving in their relationship with John and despite towards the end they said that Dirk dying made them wanna do something with their life I just....don’t buy it? Mainly because john who is uninfluenced by the fanon tropes even noticed how fast they were moving and how stepford agreeable wife she’d become.

-Dirk Strider. Aight. So. Here we go. fandom tropes are controlling puppet master, abusive, and cold/uncaring.

-Dirk is a naturally controlling man, yes. Every version of himself struggles with this, yes. Even if we work on issues does not mean old flaws will never leak out, yes. However, after in the comic itself we see conversations with some of his closest companions and the effort he was making and ready to continue making was completely obliterated. Dirk is someone who takes his projects a little too seriously so why would he toss out this one- the most important one in his life? ANYWAY........Dirk in canon is shown that he’s also not great at multi-tasking or really anything that he really makes himself out to be AMAZING at. Don’t get me wrong I actually view Dirk as a complement dude cause he did get all the alphas into the session in a smoothish fashion (yes hal is him so it still counts) but, like, even when Dirk sounds like an AWESOME engineer to Jake he even admits that he basically had the future’s technology to help and it wasn’t that impressive. So now he’s claiming he’s the BEST? Wack.

-Abusive Dirk......The sheer amount of people in the fandom who still misconstrue his character as heartless and the sheer amount of fanfiction of sociopathic Dirk might’ve done something. If he is truly becoming his “ultimate self” and he is heart aspect.....all these fanfiction splinters are getting applied to him as well, ya’ll. INCLUDING one of the epilogues writers who literally used to write fanfiction depicting Dirk as a brutally abusive and manipulative version of himself. With the similarities between their big fic and the homestuck epilogue I can’t help but to wonder if they’re subtly trying to incorporate that? After all Alt Calliope goes into detail about how the writer/narrator is IMPORTANT and when one is someone who enjoys viewing dirk as such....well who’s to say pfft Everything about how Dirk treated Jake was some of the most shocking to me. How did you get the guy taking most of the blame for a relationship gone wrong to a man who in a very rapey way makes someone obsessed with him, stupid, and unable to ever receive respect? Horrifying stuff to read, lads. It makes much more sense to me if you look at this fandom’s perceptions on DirkJake. My god there are some bad takes and there’s a whole section of the fandom who was hellbent on making the ship out to be the most problematic ship to ever occur. So whereas in the comic you have Dave pointing out that both sides had issues and everyone was willing to talk things out you had half the fandom insist that it was all Dirk’s fault and he just COMPLETLY forced himself on an unwanting Jake. Yep, sound familiar?

-cold uncaring. yep tons of depictions of Dirk being cruel to his friends and family and sorry but go reread Homestuck I don’t even know what to tell you if you actually believe that. There’s literally nothing here I could write to help you. As if the whole thing about his character isn’t about how the people around him helped prevent him becoming like that and he hasn’t said in a dozen different ways how much he loves them and wants to treat them better. Get out of here with that shit lmao

I guess all can be said about Dirk at this point is either 1) the absorption of the vast amount of terrible Dirk depictions from ascending to his ult self has warped him 2) he’s playing a villain just because Homestuck being over means not existing which TERRIFIES him and existing is a higher priority than treating the people around him right or 3) caliborn influence

1) For the ascending I’m pretty sure this is the theory that’s gonna be right

2) playing the villain is probably not what it is because on twitter all of the writers are saying the transphobia is literally just him and they’re boosting a lot of theories say “this is a story about friends you love disappointing you and you moving on” So. Yeah. Take that depressing nugget of information. (I literally will be fucking dead inside if that really is where this story is taken. No joke I will probably quit this fandom lol don’t know if any of you really know how big that is for me to say

3) Caliborn? eh maybe who the fuck knows after typing that last bullet point out I’m too bummed to continue this hah

#Homestuck #Homestuck epilogue #upd8 #dirk strider #personal #fyi I love people who tell me when they disagree so if this seems like utter bullshit do not hold back

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blogdience · 5 years ago

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The Last Hoorah

Welcome back to weekly blogs!!

Why do audiences consume what they do? What needs are audiences searching to satisfy based on the media they are searching to consume?

Audiences interact and engage with media for many different reasons and use media to fulfill many different needs depending on a user’s emotional well-being or a goal at a said moment in time.

For instance, many students may turn to their social media accounts to connect with friends or to keep up on the latest news every two minutes; to satisfy what needs exactly?

The need for escape or distraction from work.

We have all done it, student or not, media content is used as a constant distraction, although at times we may use media content to further excel our knowledge, such as digging for videos or articles to learn more on a topic.

For this particular theory of Uses and Gratifications, I want to focus on a little app I love and continuously use to satisfy my needs as a consumer of media; YouTube.

YouTube is a platform filled with videos to satisfy many needs of its users. Whether an audience member needs a good laugh, and informative learning video, or a good playlist of songs to match their mood, YouTube offers it all.

It makes me think about the particular YouTube videos I watch and reflect on why I choose to watch the videos I do and what need I am trying to fulfill.

I have always been interested in crime and the psychology and the mystery behind a criminal’s actions. I believe my fascination for it all came from my father and his career as a Peel Police detective in organized crime.

My Dad in his full Peel Police get-up as him and my mom head to his retirement ceremony.

First time ever seeing him wear this suit, he was always in jeans and plain t-shirts going to work!

It is something that always intrigued me, partly because the “behind the scenes” of criminal activities are only shown in movies or other fictional forms. I think the idea that humans can do such awful things, and the excitement of trying to solve something so extreme, fascinated me growing up and continues to do so. I went back and forth for years thinking of all the ways I could become a detective or deal with murder or missing people’s cases without starting as a boring ticket or traffic officer.

Now I realize for all jobs, as drake says, you need to start from the bottom.

I have been watching true crime YouTube videos for years. When I say true crime, the videos I watch are solved and unsolved murder cases, as well as, missing people or solved abduction cases. I would think of it as a topic I am extremely interested in, however, I am not in school studying. Therefore, I turn to these videos, whose creators usually have a background in criminology, to fulfill my “needs” or interest in such topics.

Two of my favorite YouTubers who I religiously watch are Bella Fiori and Kendall Rae.

As discussed in the lecture on October 10th, Gratifications can be broken down by the MAIN acronym.

M-modality

A-agency

I-interactivity

N-navigability

I watch their videos via YouTube on both my phone and laptop; whichever is most convenient at the time that I want to watch. This is referred to as mobility. No matter where I go, I am satisfied that YouTube is available as an app via my phone or on my laptop via Safari.

As much as I love watching videos on YouTube, I also love creating videos on YouTube. I have mainly only created travel and fun vlog videos, but this is an example of agency. I consume YouTubes content but turn into a prosumer when I share my own content.

Enjoy...

youtube

When I watch YouTube videos, I do not often comment or like the video. However, there are users who do feel the need to leave their opinion, like or dislike the video or take it a step further and mimic, mock or turn it into a meme.

Such as Rebecca Black's song “Friday”, that Professor Good showed in the lecture on November 14th, 2019.

In the instance of the true-crime videos, as I mentioned earlier, Kendall Rae sells merch where 100% of the proceeds goes to the organization called “Thorne” where they help find victims, limit crimes, and raise awareness for sex trafficking. Audience members who purchase, design the t-shirts, leave suggestions, or share, are interacting with the creator’s content. Interacting with media content this way gives the audience members a chance to give back and feel fulfilled in doing so.

Lastly, most social media users do not just have one form of social media. I personally find myself following and interacting with the YouTubers I watch across other social media platforms.

Different platforms of social media allow audiences to interact with media is various different ways based on what the platform offers. However, when texts get spread across different platforms it can cause a telephone effect. News or scandals can get misinterpreted or easily spread like wildfire. Not only that but with many different platforms of media allows for many different opinions.

We live in a digital day and age where “cancel culture” is huge. If one thing is misinterpreted or decoded in the wrong way, audience members can turn a person’s world upside down within hours.

In recent news, Don Cherry, a long-time Canadian Icon, shamed Canadians who do no purchase poppies during the month of remembrance for Canadian soldiers. For those who missed the live Coaches Corner episode, where Cherry “misspoke” by referring to immigrants as “you people” instead of addressing it as “everyone”, the video can be found on almost every social media platform…

However, here is a video from City News Toronto’s YouTube channel…

youtube

The whole scandal started when Don Cherry was mentioning the poppy. A widely known symbol throughout Canada that reminds its nation of all the fallen soldiers who fought for our freedom and the ones that continue to do so.

That nights broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada was broadcasted to millions, not just in Canada, but all of America too.

How an audience interprets Don Cherry’s message is based solely on each individual audience members personal experiences and upbringing. For instance, immigrants and people of color were mainly offended by Cherry’s comments. Defending themselves, many of “those people” who immigrated to Canada, who claim that they do wear a poppy and support the Canadian vets were extremely offended by the comments made. Of course, on the contrary, those who were on Cherry’s side either kept quiet or were majority white Canadians who were born and raised here.

In this instance, those who came to Canada felt attacked by Cherry’s comments and those who were born and raised in Canada agreed with his comments.

For instance, I am a twenty-year-old female, born and raised in Canada, and I grew up in a very hockey-oriented family which led to Don Cherry being on my television set every Saturday night. From my perspective, what Don Cherry was attempting to say was correct and everyone, whether born here or not, should be wearing a poppy in remembrance. I do not agree with how he spoke and the words he chose to use to get his message across. However, I may interpret Cherry’s comments in that way because of my background and how I was raised.

While many people have their thoughts and opinions, I think in this case especially, the audience member’s background and demographics directly affect how you respond to the comments made by Cherry and your reaction to the news of him being let go after 38 years of Hockey Night in Canada.

However, times are changing, rights are changing, and in this social media, cancel culture day and age, comments such as Don Cherry’s do not always fly.

Fans were furious when SportsNet announced they were letting Don Cherry go. The buzz around it all hit home for many Canadians and others who grew up with Coaches Corner every Saturday night tuning in to see Don’s many crazy suits. Cherry became a Canadian icon for a reason, he became a part of the hockey audiences Saturday night viewing routine.

Often, hockey fans become very immersed with the games they watch, especially if it is their favourite team playing. Don Cherry would give his professional hockey advice based on his evaluation of the first period. The part that made Don Cherry so popular, is his straight to the point, uncensored opinions. Cherry, aside from his hockey sense, is known to be unapologetically himself and I believe that is what fans loved about Coaches Corner. When Coaches Corner appeared after the first period, at least in my hockey household, everyone would stop and listen to Don Cherry’s thoughts on how the players, coaches, or refs were performing.

The firing of Don Cherry disrupted many Saturday night hockey rituals.

The week following Cherry’s firing, conversations throughout fans started circulating. Fans began questioning who Cherry will be replaced with or what will now fill the Coaches Corner broadcasting time after the first period.

Fandom is “associated with cultural tastes of subordinated formations of the people, particularly those disempowered by any combination of gender, age, class, and race” (Fiske cited in Sullivan, p 193).

Fandoms can hold great power when they rally together.

For instance, Don Cherry got fired due to audience members complaining and writing into SportsNet.

On the contrary, fans of Cherry and Coach’s Corner are currently rallying together, and earlier this week protested outside of Rogers (Owner of SportsNet) headquarters in Toronto.

Whether or not Cherry gets brought back, the voices of fans are very powerful and are heard.

For instance, the city of Toronto, while awaiting Kawhi Leonard’s decision on signing with the Raptors, tried to sway the basketball star to stay with Toronto by offering “Kawhi and Dine” restaurants where Kawhi and his family would be able to eat for free. A multi-million-dollar penthouse was also offered to Kawhi for free along with many other things. Fans of Toronto and all of Canada was making an outcry for Kawhi to stay and as a result companies and real estates offered up insane deals if the athlete signed with the Raptors.

Not a bad time to be Kawhi...

Meet mini Brooke...

This is me when I was in grade four and did my very first speech on my favourite hockey player Sidney Crosby. That same year I got a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey with Crosby’s number as well as a hat.

In the lecture on November 7th, Professor Good listed on a spectrum the types of fandoms from the most passive to the most active. From passive to active the continuum went as follows; Consumer, enthusiast, fan, petty producer.

As a young fan of Sidney Crosby and always begging my parents for Penguins merchandise, I would definitely put myself in the consumer category. I would also consider mini Brooke to be an enthusiast as well as a fan because those pictures were taken moments before my dad recorded me saying my speech and later emailing it off to the Pittsburgh Penguin team.

Arguably, I could be a producer by making a fan letter and video of my speech to send to Crosby. Weeks later I got a response from the team and a signed Crosby hockey card.

Some fandoms, for instance, take their support and turn themselves into producers such as creating fan pages, blogs or YouTube accounts dedicated to the content they are fans of.

Sullivan mentions Intellectual property and discusses the challenging question of when users of digital media create content who exactly owns the content that is being generated? Should content creators, regardless of the size of their following, be given credit or payment for the refurbishment of their work?

Jack Denmo is a Canadian YouTuber from Hamilton, ON who started creating videos interviewing young adults within the bar atmosphere of Hess Village. He has a subscription of 414,000 people on YouTube and 29,500 followers on Instagram. Just recently the television station French TV aired Jack's videos on their program. One of Jacks' follower's videos recorded the feature and sent it to the YouTube Creator.

Jack responded by posting it on his story asking French TV “Where're my cheques, boys?”.

Content creators, especially YouTubers, produce content and post it on a public platform where it has the potential to be scooped up by big companies or stations such as French TV to then be used as television entertainment for their audiences without any payment given to the original creator.

Many of us are working for these large companies for free and our audience attendance and participation are sold to advertisers. Many blog websites or social media sites would not be able to support themselves if audience members did not actively, but passively, work for them.

Sullivan coins this term as “Crowdsourcing”. This means that companies rely on content creators and audience members to create content for them.

For instance, many companies such as Frito-Lay did a competition with its consumers, challenging them to come up with their next chip flavour. While consumers went to work inventing and working with different flavours to create the next Lays flavour, Frito-Lay sat back and let the consumers do the work.

On a smaller scale, I previously mentioned the YouTuber Kendall Rae and the Thorne initiative to raise awareness around sex trafficking. The t-shirt designs that are sold are to raise money for Thorne are created by Kendall Rae’s audience members. This is another example of Crowdsourcing because Kendall Rae’s fans are putting in work and effort to create a design to be sold. These fans and contributors are of course unpaid.

As you can see, audience consumption, creation, and how audiences interpret the content that they consume is extremely powerful and can sometimes raise tricky questions.

Audience experiences and interpretations of the content that is consumed can lead to the careers of people, such as Don Cherry, to be jeopardized and “canceled”. In a generation where fans can easily make their voices heard, it ultimately has a huge impact on certain media content and what is produced to appeal to what fans want. It becomes a sticky situation also when content creators are not getting correct recognition for the work, they put into the content they create.

At what point should an online content creator get paid and given proper ownership of their content?

As well as, who has the power in today's society? The media or the audience?

If you ask me, from the examples I have talked about within this blog, it is evident that the audiences of today's media content hold extreme power. Media companies want to satisfy the needs of consumers and will go to lengths such as changing plot lines or firing popular segment hosts, such as Don Cherry, to avoid the possibility of being canceled by overbearing audiences.

Today, Transmedia makes news and opinions of audience members spread like wildfire. Once the headline of something breaks loose, almost every social platform is booming with the opinions of its audience members. We live in an inescapable society, where thoughts and opinions are strongly being shared. Audiences, now than ever before, have the tools and access to make their concerns known and stand for their beliefs, thus, putting power now in the audiences hands.

Thanks for reading!!!

References

Sullivan, J. (2013 or 2020). Media Audiences: Effects, users, institutions and power (1st or 2nd ed.). Sage Publications Inc., New York, NY.

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taciturnlexemic · 6 years ago

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JKR and the Bad Representation

I see people are mad at JKR over on twitter again because she's said more stuff. Or At least making fun of her for doing so. Still other people are telling these people to get out of the Harry Potter fandom if they don't like what she's doing, and while I agree attacking the woman is bad I don't think all criticism should just be written off.

Her newest decloration of canon is that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had an 'intense' relationship. It was love, and it got sexual etc etc. Cool, whatever. I'm sure there are former fans hating this and actually getting mad about it, but I haven't seen a single person spouting anti-LGBT rhetoric in her tag, all I've been seeing is what we usually see: people making memes about her tactic of '2nd level canon distribution' and people disappointed that it's only ever been 2nd level canon.

So to anyone mad at either of those two groups, there's a decent reason for the frustration. Years ago when the books first came out, that one comment from JKR was the only explicit rep for LGBT people got. An offhanded, secondary thought of a statement that was quickly shot down by other fans with "it wasn't in the books so it doesn't count". Lots of LGBT Harry Potter fans were excited about it because at the time they didn't get much in the way of mainstream representation [I hadn't even realized I was gay yet and I thought it was cool], only to have it backhanded by most of the other fans. Which is the main problem with even the most straightforward 2nd level, retroactive canon, it’s still 2nd level added in as an afterthought.

You can argue it was a young adult series in the 90s/early 00s so she couldn't have gotten away with it, so this was the best she could do. Okay. [As the top selling young adult series for decades I'm not too sure about that, but fine]

Now we get more direct representation in new shows and books and media in general. It's 1st level canon, and it's not slowing down. So now we get the author of our beloved childhood book series... still only saying this sort of thing in passing. It's via tweets or special features on new movies. But nothing is shown in the works themselves.

The newest movie is called "the crimes of Grindalwald", Grindalwald and Dumbledore are the focus of the movie, and not even a nod to any sort of relationship, former or otherwise, is there. It's just a spell keeping Dumbledore from fighting Grindalwald directly, why couldn't it have been more emotional than that? Why not the aching betrayal of a former lover, the pain of the love he still has for this man who he now sees is monstrous? You don't have to go into detail about their sexual past, you don't even have to do flashbacks [though you could], but you could easily just give merit to the pain it causes Dumbledore to have to fight this fight. And give some more depth and stakes to the reason he won’t fight himself.

People are mad because JKR continues to make these attempts at second hand representation, and by now we see how lazy they are. It costs an author nothing to jump on Twitter and 'by the way' some info into their media. Which yeah will blow up the internet, but half the time parents won't see it, or will figure it's not in the actual media so their kids won't actually be exposed to it. It's safe because it's able to be ignored. And actual LGBT people will consume the media and get less than they would just flipping through statements from the author online.

It's half-formed, lazy representation. And in a world where people deserve more and have thankfully started getting more, it just falls short.

[She also doesn’t only do this with LGBT rep, she does it with poc rep too. It’s a weak effort to seem progressive while playing safe so conservative parents will keep paying to see her stuff]

#TL Discussion #Commentary #Reference #Advice #TL Fan #Fan #Fandom #Interesting

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localbizlift · 6 years ago

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Squad is the new screensharing chat app everyone will copy

Squad could be the next teen sensation because it makes it easy to do nothing… together. Spending time with friends in the modern age often means just being on your phones next to each other, occasionally showing off something funny you found. Squad lets you do this even while apart, and that way of punctuating video chat might make it the teen girl “third place” like Fortnite is for adolescent boys.

With Squad, you fire up a video chat with up to six people, but at any time you can screenshare what you’re seeing on your phone instead of showing your face. You can browse memes together, trash talk about DMs or private profiles, brainstorm a status update, co-work on a project or get consensus on your Tinder swipe. It’s deceptively simple, but remarkably alluring. And it couldn’t have happened until now.

How Squad screensharing looks

Squad takes advantage of Apple’s ReplayKit for screensharing. While it was announced in 2015, it wasn’t until June 2018’s iOS 12 that ReplayKit became stable and easy enough to be built into a consumer app for teens. Meanwhile, plus-size screens and speedy LTE and upcoming 5G networks make screensharing watchable. And with Instagram aging and Snapchat shrinking, there’s demand for a more intimately connected social network.

Squad only launched its app last week, but droves of Facebook and Snap employees have signed up to spy on and likely copy the startup, co-founder and CEO Esther Crawford tells me. Screensharing would fit well in group video chat startup Houseparty too. To fuel its head start, Squad has the $2.2 million it raised before it pivoted away from Molly, the team’s previous App where people can make FAQs about themselves. That cash came from betaworks, Y Combinator, #BUILTBYGIRLS, Basis Set Ventures, Jesse Draper, Gary Vaynerchuk, Niv Dror, and [Disclosure: former TechCrunch editor] Alexia Bonatsos. Next, Squad wants to let people tune in to screenshares via URL to unlock a new era of Live broadcasting, and equip other apps with the capability through a Squad SDK.

“People under 24 do video chat way different than people 25 and above” says Crawford. Adding screensharing is “an excuse for hanging out.”

Serious ideas are preludes to toys

Screensharing has long been common in enterprise communication apps like Webex, Zoom and Slack. I even called a collaborative browsing and desktop screensharing app my favorite project from Facebook’s 2011 college hackathon. But we don’t just use our screens for work any more. Teens and young adults live on the digital plane, navigating complex webs of friendships, entertainment and academia through their phones. Squad makes those experiences social — including the “social” networks we often scroll through in isolation. Charles and Ray Eames said “Toys are preludes to serious ideas,” but this time, it is happening in reverse.

Squad co-founders from left: Ethan Sutin, Esther Crawford

“The idea came from a combination of things — a pain we were experiencing as a team,” Crawford recalls. My development team is constantly sending each other screenshots and screen recordings. It seemed ridiculous that I can’t just show you what’s on my screen. It was a business use case internally.” But then came the wisdom of a 13-year-old. “My daughter over the summer was bugging me. ‘Why can’t I just show what’s on my screen with my friends?’ I said I think it’s not technically possible.” That’s when Crawford discovered advances in ReplayKit meant it suddenly was possible.

Crawford had already seen this cycle of tool to toy before, as she was an early YouTuber. Back in the mid-2000s, people thought of YouTube as a place to host videos about eBay listings, professional presentations or dating profile supplements. “They couldn’t imagine that if you let people just reliably and easily upload video content, there’d be all these creative enterprises.”

Use cases for Squad

After stints in product marketing at Coach.com and Stride Labs, she built Estherbot — a chatbot version of herself that let people learn about her. Indeed, 50,000 people ended up trying it, convincing her people needed new ways to reveal themselves to friends. She met Ethan Sutin through the project and together they co-founded FAQ app Molly before it fizzled out and was shut down. “Molly wasn’t working; it had high initial engagement sessions, but then they would drop off. Maybe it’s not the right time for the augmented version of you,” noted Crawford.

Crawford and Sutin pivoted Molly into Squad to keep exploring new formats for vulnerability. “What excited Ethan and I was this mission to help people feel less lonely.”

Alone, together

Squad recommends apps to screenshare

Squad worked, thanks to a slick way to activate screensharing. The app launches to the selfie camera similar to Snapchat, but with a + button for inviting friends to a video call. Tap the screenshare button at the bottom, select Squad and start the broadcast. To guide users toward the best screensharing experiences, a menu of apps emerges encouraging users to open Instagram, TikTok, Bumble, their camera roll and others.

People can bounce back and forth between screensharing and video chat, and tap a friend’s window to view it full-screen. And when they want another friend to see what they’re seeing, Squad goes viral. One concern is that Squad breaks privacy controls. You could have friends show you someone’s Instagram profile you’re blocked by or aren’t allowed to see. But the same goes for hanging out in person, and this is one reason Squad doesn’t let you download videos of your chats and is considering screenshot warnings.

What’s so special about Squad is that it lacks the intensity of traditional video chat, where you constantly feel pressured to perform. You can fire up a chat room, and then go back to phoning as you please with your screen displayed instead of your blank face (though the Android version in beta offers picture-in-picture so you can show your mug and the screen).

“There’s no picture-in-picture on iOS, but younger users don’t even really care. I can point it at the bed and you can tell me when there’s something to look at,” Crawford tells me. A few people, alone in their houses, video chatting without looking at each other, still feel a sense of togetherness.

The future of Squad could grant that feeling to a massive audience of a celebrity or influencer. The startup is working on shareable URLs that creators could post on other social networks like Twitter or Facebook that their fans could click to watch. Tagging along as Kylie Jenner or Ninja play around on their phone could bring people closer to their heroes while serving as a massive growth opportunity for Squad. Similarly, colonizing other apps with an SDK for screensharing could allow Squad to recruit their users.

Squad makes starting a screenshare easy

The startup will face stiff technical challenges. Lag or low video quality destroy the feeling of delight it delivers, Crawford admits, so the team is focused on making sure the app works well even in rural areas like middle America where many early users live. But the real test will be whether it can build a new social graph upon the screensharing idea if already popular apps build competing features. Gaming tools like Discord and Twitch already offer web screensharing, and I suggested Facebook should bring the feature to Messenger when in late-2017 it launched in its Workplace office collaboration app.

Helping a friend choose when to swipe right on Tinder via Squad

In June I wrote that Instagram and Snapchat would try to steal the voice-activated visual effects at the center of an app called Panda. Snapchat started testing those just two months later. Instagram’s whole Stories feature was cloned from Snapchat, and it also cribbed Q&A Stories from Polly. Overshadowed, Panda and Polly have faded from the spotlight. With Facebook and Snap already sniffing around Squad, it’s quite possible they’ll try to copy it. Squad will have to hope first-mover advantage and focus can defeat a screensharing feature bolted on to apps with hundreds of millions or even billions of users.

But regardless of who delivers this next phase of sharing, it’s coming. “Everyone knows that the content flooding our feeds is a filtered version of reality. The real and interesting stuff goes down in DMs because people are more authentic when they’re 1:1 or in small group conversations,” Crawford wrote.

Perhaps there’s no better antidote to the poison of social media success theater that revealing that beyond the Instagram highlights, we’re often just playing around on our phones. Squad might not be glamorous, but it’s authentic and a lot more fun.

#marketing

0 notes

pmsocialmedia · 6 years ago

Text

Squad is the new screensharing chat app everyone will copy

How Squad screensharing looks

“People under 24 do video chat way different than people 25 and above” says Crawford. Adding screensharing is “an excuse for hanging out.”

Serious ideas are preludes to toys

Squad co-founders from left: Ethan Sutin, Esther Crawford

Use cases for Squad

Crawford and Sutin pivoted Molly into Squad to keep exploring new formats for vulnerability. “What excited Ethan and I was this mission to help people feel less lonely.”

Alone, together

Squad recommends apps to screenshare

Squad makes starting a screenshare easy

Helping a friend choose when to swipe right on Tinder via Squad

via Social – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2syjEYI

#IFTTT #Social – TechCrunch

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ecotone99 · 5 years ago

Text

[MF] Gassed Reality

Awakening to the sound of my phone buzzing always warms my heart: this morning was no different. Trying to shake off the brain fog that accompanies an eleven hour snooze fest, I reach for my phone. Every morning the same. I tell myself, “This’ll be the last time I look at my phone first thing in the morning” or “I’ll just check my emails and make sure I’m not missing anything”.

My eyes struggle to stay open at the screen’s brightness, slowly searing the repetitive pictures of social media into my retinas. Another perfect start to my day. After scrolling through picture after picture of lame jokes, half-naked models, and other edited versions of reality, I finally get around to my email, hoping for something to make my day interesting. Alas, nothing.

Stumbling to the restroom I commence my glamorous morning routine of taking a dump, washing my hands, and brushing my teeth. Currently there’s a fad of “morning routine’s” on the internet showcasing how awesome people are at their meditation’s, journaling, and morning yoga. Any simple youtube search of “... morning routine” will pull up a thousand videos from college students to athletes to mathematicians, all somehow waking up at 04:00 AM. Everyday I am thankful for their endless supply of advice, who knows where I would be without their input.

Making my way to the dining table I set myself up for the second disappointment of the day. Instead of going for the heart healthy oatmeal or breakfast salad, I grab ol’ reliable… a bowl of cereal. In between bites of my Honey Nut Cheerios, it’s only natural to grab my phone and scroll through more social media. After all, everyday is so different, women with different bathing suits in different parts of the world, new exotic cars, new luxury watches, new memes. That is until you start to question what you’re looking at.

I’ve been a lifelong fan of fantasy/fiction entertainment. Ever since I was little, reality has been so boring. Why would I want to be in this world, when I don’t even have super powers? Gradually as I aged, so did that ideology, and I have learned to embrace reality. Except there’s one hidden fantasy that no one seems to address: social media.

Historically, people underestimate the power of pop culture. The lyrics of the music we listen to, the messages of the movies we watch, and the endless supply of entertainment at our fingertips can prime our subconscious for making decisions about how to deal with our problems or how to spend our Friday nights. If one were to learn about life from American pop culture, then said person would be waiting every day for a spider to bite them, a stranger to take them on a journey, or for their crush to ask them to the school dance. Thankfully, the majority of these examples are obviously gassed up versions of reality, and most people don’t transition these lessons to their lives.

A gassed up version of reality however, that is indistinguishable from true reality, is exceedingly dangerous. This is social media’s true face. Planting unrealistic ideas in the heads of our society, our youth, and the impressionable is a moralistic crime that leads to millions of consumers feeling inadequate, unhappy, and jealous of a false world. New progressions, such as easily accessible internet, high quality cameras, and platforms for broadcast are arming people with weapons they do not realize they have. An audience of people that consume your ideas is a responsibility that many people are not ready for, and it is unfortunate that so many people do not ask themselves, should I put this out into the world?

submitted by /u/WrittenPhys [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2A1A42E

#Blogger #Story

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sheminecrafts · 6 years ago

Text

Squad is the new screensharing chat app everyone will copy

How Squad screensharing looks

“People under 24 do video chat way different than people 25 and above” says Crawford. Adding screensharing is “an excuse for hanging out.”

Serious ideas are preludes to toys

Squad co-founders from left: Ethan Sutin, Esther Crawford

Use cases for Squad

Crawford and Sutin pivoted Molly into Squad to keep exploring new formats for vulnerability. “What excited Ethan and I was this mission to help people feel less lonely.”

Alone, together

Squad recommends apps to screenshare

Squad makes starting a screenshare easy

Helping a friend choose when to swipe right on Tinder via Squad

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://tcrn.ch/2syjEYI via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

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fmservers · 6 years ago

Text

Squad is the new screensharing chat app everyone will copy

How Squad screensharing looks

“People under 24 do video chat way different than people 25 and above” says Crawford. Adding screensharing is “an excuse for hanging out.”

Serious ideas are preludes to toys

Squad co-founders from left: Ethan Sutin, Esther Crawford

Use cases for Squad

Crawford and Sutin pivoted Molly into Squad to keep exploring new formats for vulnerability. “What excited Ethan and I was this mission to help people feel less lonely.”

Alone, together

Squad recommends apps to screenshare

Squad makes starting a screenshare easy

Helping a friend choose when to swipe right on Tinder via Squad

Via Josh Constine https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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silverdrecms · 7 years ago

Note

📷 kerjer .. a bitch wants to draw her

reaction meme

📷 your muse asking mine to model

it’s with the thud of her bookbag and a sigh that kerry heaves herself onto her bed, ready to simply lay in this exact position until her muscles and mind feel relaxed. aside from carrying the heavy textbooks for some of her introductory level courses, which were enough of a pain to deal with today, she’d been wound TIGHT by the influx of texts from the midnight halloween suitor she’d been speaking to casually, as well as her sugar daddy. while ghosting on him after that awkward kitchen conversation with jeremy was perhaps immature and a little uncalled for, she couldn’t shake the usual discomfort that came from their encounters regardless — so she took the little bitch’s way out and feigned illness and distractions via a mountain of coursework. meanwhile, the other man, who she’d jokingly listed as STEVE on her phone, was… nice, much like herself and not at the same time, so she enjoyed talking to him; however she knew that he hadn’t reached out to her in the first place just to have a friendly chat whenever they had the time and it was definitely unnerving on all fronts as of late. there was also the upcoming thanksgiving dinner with her family that had her stressed, simply due to whatever pestering her mother would enact regarding school, dating… anything that came to her mind, thus she could only hope that her father would divert the conversation as soon as it would come to that, to let her have a peaceful few days before she returned to kent — where those very issues would be dealt with once more. the petite brunette lays limp while the other inhabitants go about their evening, unsure as to what’s being said despite hearing the voices of jae squared downstairs, she can’t make out their conversation thus she hasn’t a clue what they could be doing; she reaches for the remote of her television, simply wanting background noise while relaxing, and turns it on before flicking through the channels, only to more or less settle on one playing top 40 tracks. eventually, ker’s allotted several minutes of shut-eye, not particularly napping, when there’s a knock on her bedroom door. “ come in, ” she sings, just loud enough to be heard, or so she believes, by the person outside. she doesn’t open her eyes as they step into the room, at least not Y E T, rather only when she hears them — jeremy, as a matter of fact — greeting her. she blinks a couple of times to focus on him properly, a smile forming upon doing so, one that lacks the tiredness she assumes he thinks she has, “ hey, what’s up ? ”

conversation flows easily between them while kerry is visibly perky, her expression soon shifting to feature underlying surprise at the request he’d eventually make, one that’s unexpected if you were to ask her. “ why wo — ” slips out before she can help it, confused as to why he’d want her to do so, but redeems herself quickly with a couple of rapid blinks, “ s-sure, of course ! ” she sits up, gazing upward through her lashes with brows raised, as if to aid her to see him better in such a way. “ ho — what do you want me to do, exactly ? ” she waits for an order, one that has her r e m a i n i n g in her spot while he runs out to grab whatever materials he needs to draw her and she bites her lip, obstructing some of the faint, peachy gloss adorning them both. she quickly pins her hair on the right side of her head behind her ear and smacks said lips together to fix her momentary mistake, when he reenters and a light smile appears on the brunette. she lets him take command — following him joining her on the bed and positioning himself at the foot of it — and simply follows his instructions, which seems so odd to her; she blames it on the fact that she’s being asked to model for something more time-consuming AND unfamiliar, used to doing so for projects in one of her current fashion courses for sizing and other design purposes as well as in photos. there’s also the acknowledgement that this is jeremy requesting her to do so, that it’s especially unnerving doing so for her more constant crush, though she tries not to let it show. instead, as the music from the channel donning a black screen plays over the quiet scribbles of graphite to paper, she opts to hum over the initial silence between them — not that it’s particularly one that could be D E E M E D awkward in nature, though her actions do put her more at ease. it doesn’t really occur to her that he has to look at her quite often to create the sketch until the fifth time she lowers her gaze before it can lock on his, willing whatever flush of embarrassment that might colour her cheeks to vanish when the previous silence is broken, her lifting her head for j’s sake as a result of the times she’s slightly ducked under his keen eye. ker isn’t entirely prepared for the compliments that are to come her way, restraining her chuckle as to hide the extent of her flattery with a demure, “ thanks. ” and while there’s no end to them, her more cool demeanour falls to show the one he’s perhaps seen less of, the one where blushing accompanies the laughter and whines to stop at the more ridiculous ones he’s said that he’s used to.

in no time is their interaction like their MANY others, though she’s now more conscious of how he might read those of the past and future based on the entirety of her latest reaction from now on and can feel her grin falter at being so obvious, but soon he’s finishing the drawing and kerry can feel the nervousness at the end result ebb away at her. she doesn’t think him to be a subpar artist, of course not, but he’s been attentive throughout the time spent recreating her looks on paper and she wonders how different or similar it’ll be to how she’s come to see herself so far in her twenty years of life. “ can i see it ? ” she vocalizes in the moment, a curious look on her face, “ when you’re done, of course. ” she murmurs back an okay with a smile when he agrees, letting the minutes trickle past before he declares he’s done. the girl finds herself moving CLOSER to where jeremy had situated himself when he began, trying not to leer over him until he gives her the green light to do so as she assumes he needs another moment or two first. it’s at the turn of the notepad that she leans impossibly closer and stares for a minute before a quiet oh slips out. she didn’t expect it to be too accurate within that span of time he had taken to sketch her features, thus she’s surprised to see that said expectation was blown out of the water; and perhaps it’s simply because no one’s drawn her since her elementary school days — when everyone in art class was at a beginner’s level — that she’s astonished by the resemblance between herself and what’s on the paper, her awestruck expression on full display and probably doing enough to indicate her thoughts. “ it’s really pretty, jeremy, ” is what kerry’s able to muster, realizing how conceited it may sound in technical terms making her wince for but a second, when she turns to smile at him, “ R E A L L Y pretty. ” and she has half of a mind to slap herself out of embarrassment for only being able to repeat herself, but she refrains from doing so — at least until she’s alone once again. she’s about to ask what he plans to do with it, her curiosity getting the best of her, when she hears daehyun and jaewon discuss dinner plans on their walk to their room and UNINTENTIONALLY lets the realization of how much time has already passed distract her. “ should we put something on for dinner before someone spends a fortune on takeout ? ” because they have in the past, many times, in spite of kerry being present and capable of cooking their meal… simply because no one wished to wake her from her nap to do so. the sketch becomes forgotten as she stands to act on one of her mom friend duties, her and j subsequently walking out of her room together before splitting up — her to head downstairs and him to tuck his belongings away in his room.

it’s only when scanning her options, dae’s picky tendencies and her current aversion to having pizza again under consideration, that the drawing occurs to her and has her hiding reddened cheeks from view of the boys, ESPECIALLY jeremy.

#look at me posting it before properly formatting !!#a bitch needs a break but wants this posted so.. if it's that important ig you'll have to wait a bit FJDLKGSLF #also.. don't come for me over the Other dude #FLDKSGJKLFD i'm being a little continuous with another meme so rIP #╳┊: — walk around ‘til 3 am. •「 ask meme. 」#╳┊: — tell me what i know again. •「 answered. 」#dachyun

0 notes

chrisaldrich · 7 years ago

Text

A Following Page (aka some significant updates to my Blogroll)

I’ve been slowly but surely working on compiling a list of people I’m following online. In older iterations of the web, this would have been known as a blogroll, but I think it’s time to update the concept and potentially add some new features and functionality to it. It’s also time to upgrade its status on my site, so I’m moving it from a widgetized sidebar area on my front page to its own page under my “About” menu.

Why

Information Overload

As a member of more social sites that I have desire to count, I’m often overwhelmed with email, text, and other notifications from many of them. When I do dip into their streams, I sometimes find some reasonable value, but, more often that not, I’m presented with a melange of advertisements and somewhat meaningless and context-less posts that are more like addictive fat, sugar, and salt than healthy protein and complex carbohydrates.

I’ve read books like Clay Johnson’s Information Diet: a Case for Conscious Consumption and P.M. Forni’s excellent Thinking Life: How to Thrive in the Age of Distraction which describe an overwhelming media and online social atmosphere with some prescriptive measures for cutting down on the noise. More people obviously need this type of advice and I’m regularly thinking about how to cut down on the noise and get more valuable signal out of my online tools.

An Inventory of Sources

As a result of all this noise from too many sources and social platforms, I’ve found that having a manifest or complete inventory of all my online reading sources can be immensely valuable. It will make it easier to see what I’m reading and consuming on a regular basis and therefor easier to prune or update this list based on how often I’m reading these sources compared to the value I’m getting out of them.

I can look at the titles of the sources and better get a feel for exactly what I’m consuming and possibly how much. Those I don’t read as often can be pruned out of the list or can serve as a reminder of why I wanted to add them in the first place and what I wanted to get out of them. Better that I be nagged to read things I know I’ll get value out of than defaulting to the fast food-esque fluff that, like many others, I turn to on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram because it’s “easy” to consume.

I’ve also now compiled a year’s worth of reading data for things that I’ve read online. I’ve saved links to literally everything I’ve read in the past full calendar year to my website (though I only choose to show a subsection of those links to the public). This has given me a more solid data set of what I’ve read and interacted with to better guide my decisions about what I should put on the list and what I shouldn’t.

Notifications

As for the notification overload, by moving some of my reading onto my site via the excellent PressForward reader, I can drastically cut down on the number of notifications I get in email or via phone. I can more directly control exactly which notifications (and when they’re sent) that are originating from my own website.

Fighting Algorithms (and winning!)

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the rapid rise of algorithms. In some cases they’ve provided worthwhile improvements to our lives, while in others they’re downright malicious and destructive. This has become drastically more apparent in the past year or so, and I invite those who aren’t aware of their dramatic effects on our lives to read Cathy O’Neil’s book Weapons of Math Destruction, which does a great job of outlining them for the lay person with no technical background.

Every day these black box algorithms are choosing more and more of what we read and consume. (The only thing worse than the lack of a free press coupled with government controlled media is a corporate algorithmically controlled media which gives you the illusion of freedom.) Because most companies that are using these algorithms in the social space are doing so to keep us more “engaged” and on their sites for longer and clicking their ads with out any transparency, I can no longer trust them. My goals and ideals when reading online content are drastically different than theirs. I want to become more informed, challenged, and made to think. I don’t want their programmatic “reversion to the mean” forcing me to read more memes, jokes, political vitriol, and useless content.

To fight these algorithms, particularly those found in Facebook and to a lesser extent in Twitter, I’m going to cut them off at the knees and consciously choose a set of specific streams to read and engage with. Because I control what goes in to the system, I’ll know exactly what comes out. To touch on the food analogy again, when I cook for myself, I know exactly what the ingredients are and can thus eat a more healthy and well-balanced diet compared to going out and eating fast-food where I’m not ever quite sure if the “beef” is really beef, much less if it’s safe. Yes, I’ll say it, I’m going to go both organic as well as farm-to-table in my online social life.

Twitter thought experiment

Initially I had contemplated declaring Twitter bankrupcy. It seemed like a brilliant and cathartic-ly wonderful idea! But cleaning out my Twitter feed to a much smaller subset ultimately seemed like way too much work. I can only think about the hours and hours of time I’ve spent even creating and categorizing Twitter feeds into lists on my account. (Fortunately others can also follow those curated lists to find some value, so it’s not a total loss.) Starting over again from scratch on my main feed seemed untenable. Even if I did clean it all out, I would potentially have a better feed, but it’s still a feed on a silo which I don’t own or control and it doesn’t have any effect on needing to repeat the same work on dozens of other silos. Heavy pruning and weeding within someone else’s walled garden seemed like a painful and unscalable time-suck that I would potentially need to repeat on an ongoing basis. It’s akin to the sharecropping of content that I had previously been doing for them and refuse to continue to do so.

The better option seems to be to use open web technologies to create and maintain my own personal list. It’s something I own and can control. I can update it as often as I want. Even better, I only need to do it in one place instead of dozens and the results can be distributed across multiple sites almost instantaneously!

As I’ll also discuss below, my open list is still easily shareable and modifiable by others. So I’m not accruing benefits just to myself, but my work can become scale-able and usable by others.

What

So I’ve gone back to some of the original web technology including blogrolls and OPML files. I’ve created a Following page where I’m going to share my data. Here’s that page: http://boffosocko.com/about/following/

Context

In creating my list I wanted to go above the traditional blogroll and add additional context that most of them often didn’t originally have. I’ve tried to add a photo, logo, or avatar of some sort for all the sources to provide some visual context. I’ve also added either a description of the site or a snippet from the site’s owner to give an idea of what it is about (in addition to categorizing them by one or more tags) as well as an optional reason why I’m following them. I’ve also included a link to the site as well as an RSS, atom, or h-entry feed for the site to make subscribing easier for others. Where appropriate, I’ve added the microformats XFN data to these sites as well so others will have an idea of my relationship to those entities or people I’m following. Disclosure is a good thing, right? Just ask a journalist. (Viewing this last part is currently only available via parsers or by viewing the page source within a browser, but it’s there for potential future use.) In aggregate, these bits of context are not only valuable for page viewers who are considering subscribing/following them for themselves, but they also make a statement about me as a reader, a topic I’ll touch on further below.

Promotion of position: from sidebar to a full page

Given the value of social following/friending in the past decade, it’s long overdue to promote the old-school blogroll, which was traditionally placed in a diminutive position in one’s sidebar, to a more prominent position on its own page (or others may even choose to span it over multiple pages).

Social media platforms do their best to hide our social graphs from us thereby making more of what they do seem magical. Many have even bent over backwards to prevent other possibly competing social startups from leveraging our own social graphs on their platform to help build them up. Just where do they think that data came from initially? It came from me! I own it and should continue owning it.

To that end, my follow list in some sense is an implicit statement of me owning that data once again. While it may take me a bit to import and arrange it all, I’ll have ownership and agency over it. Perhaps an outside service may want pieces or parts of it, and in some cases having it open and portable may provide continued future value to me.

As an analogy for what this means, think back to the days of arduously making mix tapes in the 80’s. You’d spend hours and hours diligently copying and pasting songs together onto a cassette tape to give to a favored someone. The gift usually meant more than just the songs on the tape. This type of thing is far easier now with digital music services to the point of devaluing part of the original meaning of a mix tape. However, almost no modern music service will allow you to take your hand-crafted playlists out of their service to other competing services to make it easier to switch from something like iTunes to Amazon Music or Google Music. It’s painful and annoying in an age chock full of digital exhaust. I’m hoping that my open following list might be a lot like the portable digital music play list I wish I had.

Identity

I’m placing my follow list as a submenu item underneath my “About Me” page. Why? On most social networks there are a few simple fields, typically in a profile or on an explicit profile page, which give others some basic data about who the account holder is and what they do. Often people use this data to make relatively quick decisions about whether they should follow (or follow back) another person. Sadly I’m of the opinion that the amount and richness of the data on these pages is too sparse to be of much use. Fortunately by owning my own site, I can remedy this problem for others who visit it.

My website has thousands to potentially hundreds of thousands of posts. What data can I easily provide people who are interested in learning more about me without reading the whole book as it were? My About page is a good quick place to start, but it can’t necessarily give the whole picture. I’ve also got a few other sub-pages under my About page which helps to round out the snapshot picture of who I am. These include:

my /now page, which tells others what I’m up to most recently, but at a higher level than reading a month’s worth of status updates;

my /Favorites page, which is a list of some of my favorite things and things I use on a regular basis; it’s not dissimilar to a “What I’m Using” page or regular posts concept;

my /Bucketlist page, which is a list of some things I’ve done or would like to do before I “kick the bucket”;

my /Social Media (or as I call it, my rel=”me”) page, which is a list of my too-many-presences on other social platforms;

I’ve also recently added an /AMA or Ask Me Anything page, so that if there’s something pressing you need to know that isn’t written or find-able on my site, you can easily ask it.

Finally, there’s now also a source for others to quickly see what I’m regularly reading and find valuable enough on the web to have created a list of it all.

I think that in evaluating others, this last page (the following page) may actually provide the most value, and so I hope it does to others in return. I can’t help noting here how I’ll often judge others by which books they have on their shelves at home, or this great judgmental quote from John Waters:

“If you go home with somebody, and they don’t have books, don’t fuck ’em!”

I hope others I’m following will follow suit and create their own following pages as I’d honestly love nothing more than to know who and what they find valuable, and to be able to extract it quickly to add to my own list! The value of discovery here can be tremendous.

Intellectual Antecedents

I know that academics like to give credit to their sources when writing papers, though they often do so in explicit footnote form. Abstracted out to a more general form, I’m hoping that my following page can also help to provide some meta data about which sources I regularly find valuable and which ones are most likely influencing me even if they’re not explicitly footnoted within my writings.

Benefit of following members of the IndieWeb

Having been using a version of my following page for a while, I’ve found one particularly nice feature of following people who are adherents of the IndieWeb movement. Because they’ve chosen to post on their own site first (and optionally syndicate to other silos), their internet presence is far more centralized for subscription and consumption. I don’t have to follow them on dozens of multiple social silos to attempt to capture all their content. I can subscribe in one place and get as much or as little as I like! You can do much the same with my site, which I’ve discussed in the past.

Now of course this isn’t the case for everyone yet, and there can be some exceptions (since not everyone owns every post-type yet nor has quit all their silos), but it does tremendously cut down on the noise, cruft, and duplicated messages that live on multiple platforms.

I’ve experimented in the past with following even a subset of researchers and their work online. The amount of time needed to catalog them all, find their various presences in sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Academia, ResearchGate, etc., etc. was painful, but then setting up notifications and creating a workflow was even worse–particularly since I want to read or see everything they’re putting out over time. I think I’d have been better off building them all custom websites to publish their content instead.

OPML means sharing

OPML really stands for Outline Processor Markup Language. It is an XML-based format and standard used for feed lists interchange. All this to mean that it’s a standardized specially formatted document that allows one to share all the data in it easily by means that make sense to certain machines that would want it.

The most common example is that most feed readers allow you to import and export OPML files (with the .xml extension) so that you can quickly and easily move all of your feeds from one reader to another. (This is kind of like the playlist analogy for music that I mentioned–it’s just a playlist, or readlist if you prefer, for feed readers.) This is great if you want to try out a or move to a new feed reader.

Even better, because you can find and save a copy of my list, others can easily port it into their feed readers and sample the things that I’m seeing and often reading.

But wait! There’s more…

Many modern feed readers are supporting OPML subscription functionality! (What’s that you ask?) It’s fine to download my OPML list and import it into your reader. But what happens when I update it next week with three new great sources and remove a dead feed that no longer works? You’re stuck missing out on the new stuff and have to manually find and remove the broken one yourself. Instead, if you’ve subscribed to my OPML in your feed reader, the reader knows the URL where my list lives and checks it frequently for updates so you don’t have to worry about syncing the changes yourself! Shazam! It’s now a lot like a shared/synced playlist for articles. For those who are familiar with Twitter lists and following those, it’s very similar to how those work, except in this case they’re open and work on multiple sites and apps instead of being stuck in a proprietary service.

How

Now the part you’ve been waiting for: How can I do this myself?

For those who are on WordPress, much of the base functionality is already built into WordPress core. Below I’ll provide a few means and tips for getting you most of the way while still having some flexibility in where and how you choose to display your particular version.

(For those not on WordPress, check out some of the details and documentation on the IndieWeb wiki and ask in their chat how you might go about doing it.)

Re-enable Links Manager interface

The code for the WordPress blogroll functionality was built into core and was known as the Links Manager, but it was removed in version 3.5 for new installs that didn’t have any pre-existing links. I’ll note that the functionality was removed in late 2012 long after social media had already begun to make functionality like blogrolls (and even blogs themselves) fall out of fashion.

Fortunately, while it’s now hidden for most, it can be brought back with one line of code. (Hooray for backwards compatibility!) You can bring this functionality back to your website by adding the following snippet of code into your theme’s functions.php file:

add_filter( 'pre_option_link_manager_enabled', '__return_true' );

You can do this manually in the administrative user interface of your WordPress install by going to Appearance » Editor, which will bring up your theme files. Then in the right hand sidebar there should be a link for editing your functions.php file. Cut and paste the line of code into the file on its own line and then click Update File.

That’s easy enough, but what do you do if you’re scared of code? (You shouldn’t be, by the way…) The same functionality can be brought back with the Link Manager plugin. Just download it in the admin UI under Plugins » Installed Plugins and click Add New at the top of the page. Search for the plugin name Link Manager to download and then activate. That’s it.

Note: some may worry at the fact that the details for this plugin include the warning words:

This plugin hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

On a scale of 1-10 for warnings, this one is really less than a 1. This has to be one of the simplest plugins in all of WordPress because it really only includes the single line of code above. There’s really almost nothing with it that could change, break, or need to be updated. It’s old, but it will work.

You’ve now re-enabled the Links Manager which will put a Links tab into your admin UI. You can click on it to start adding your links, feeds, photos, and data. The WordPress codex has great documentation for how to do this: https://codex.wordpress.org/Links_Manager

Within the admin UI you can now display a blogroll widget by going to Appearance » Widgets and moving the Links widget into one of the widgetizable areas in your theme.

Put your following list onto a page by itself

Sadly, because the Links Manager is so old and is now hidden, development on it seems to have long since stalled. This means you’ll require some simple code to get things working a bit better in terms of display. I’ll do my best to give you instructions for cutting and pasting with as little code as possible.

Plugin and Code

There’s a convenient plugin called Links Page which will get us most of the way. Go ahead and download and activate it. From the plugin interface, click the edit link for the Links Page.

The Links Page plugin displayed in the Plugin page of the WordPress admin UI.

The editor will pop up with the code for the plugin, which looks like this:

function linkspage($text) if (preg_match(" add_filter('the_content', 'linkspage', 2);

In between the parenthesis for the function wp_list_bookmarks(), you’ll want to add something like the following code snippet I’ve customized for my following lists:

'categorize=1&category_orderby=count&category_order=DESC&orderby=rating&order=DESC&show_name=1&between= - &show_description=1&category_before=<h2>&category_after=</h2>'

Yours doesn’t necessarily need to be exactly the same, but it should reflect how you’d like your own list to look. To accomplish this take a look at the documentation and examples for this function to pick and choose among the options you’d like to display. You’ll just string the options together between two single quotes and separate them with an ampersand (&) as in my example above.

Caveat: Since we’ve done some “cowboy coding” here and modified the code directly in the plugin, we run the risk of the accidentally updating the plugin and overwriting our changes. I would suggest that this risk is fairly low given the simplicity of the plugin and the unlikelihood that it would need an update. More advanced WordPress users will know that the better option is to roll up all the code in the plugin and all their changes and put it into their functions.phpfile or just fork the plugin with a new name and go from there.

CSS for styling and display

You may want to put in a bit of CSS to modify how our following list is displayed on the page. Without some tweaks or taking some extreme care when uploading or linking to the photos/avatars, we may run into some display issues.

As a result I’ve added the following snippet of CSS to my theme’s style.css file:

ul.xoxo.blogroll > li > a > img width: 20px; height: 20px; ul.xoxo.blogroll li list-style-type: none;

You can accomplish this by going to Appearance » Editor in the admin UI and editing the file by cutting and pasting the segment above into it and clicking Update file when you’re done.

The Page itself

We’ve now got all the big pieces in place. If you haven’t already, add some data into the Links Manager (documented here). You then need to create a new page on your site in the admin UI. I’ve named mine Following, but you can name yours Blogroll, Links, or anything you’d like really–it is your site after all.

Next, as described in the instructions for the Links Page plugin add the following text into the body of your post:

When you’re done, save the page. The plugin will then replace the text above with your following list based on the output properties you specified.

Optionally you may want to go to Appearance » Menus to modify your menu to show your follow page in your menu structure so people can easily get to it.

Other Options

Those who’d like a different way of doing all of the above might also consider trying out other blogroll-related plugins in the WordPress repository. There are likely some other excellent options and methods to accomplish some of this functionality in a way that’s acceptable for your needs.

Future

So where do we go from here? This is certainly not complete by any means and there could be additional functionalities built on top of and even beside all of this.

I haven’t delved into it deeply, but I know there are developers like Dave Winer who have created services like Share Your OPML which allow you to upload your own file and then get recommendations of similar feeds in which you might also have some interest. Services like this that take advantage of my open data to provide me with value in return could be truly awesome.

I’m sure others smarter than I will come up with better UI. I’d personally love to have a bookmarklet similar to SubToMe that allows me to quickly and easily scrape a page and post the data from a person’s site to my following list (SubToMe currently redirects one to third party readers instead.)

I’ve also been enamored by Colin Walker’s “webmention roll” in which he creates a blogroll of all the people who have interacted with his website via Webmention.

New functionality

The future might also bring increased ease-of-use as well as expanded functionality. I’m curious what value might be extracted by adding microfomats like h-cards to my follow lists? What could parsers do with a microformat like ‘p-following’ to more quickly create social graphs like Ryan Barrett’s Indie Map?

What might we expect with simpler formats than OPML, which could likely be done with microformat classes the same way that h-entry and h-feed have made supporting clunkier specs like RSS and Atom far easier?

I’m feeling itchy with all the potential possibilities…

Comments

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts and comments on the usefulness of any of the above. Is it something you’d attempt to do yourself? (If you attempted it, did it actually work?) What would you change? How could it be extended? What UI/UX improvements could be added? Other interactivity suggestions? How can the discoverability of such a thing be improved? What could be built on top of it all?

Also feel free to share your following pages, blogrolls, and OPML feeds in the comments below. Have you added your examples to the IndieWeb wiki to help others improve?

Are there people or sources missing from my following page that you’d recommend? (Keep in mind I’m far from done adding sources…)

A final thanks

Here’s a big thank you and h/t to all those who’ve been working on their own versions of this type of technology (either recently or for decades) including: Dave Winer (thanks for OPML by the way), Richard MacManus, Colin Devroe, Colin Walker, Khürt Williams, James Shelly, Bryan Alexander, Aaron Davis, and many, many others.

Editor's note:This post was originally published on BoffoSocko.com

#about page #ATOM #blogroll #feed readers #following #following page #friending #identity #now page #OPML #RSS #subscribing #SubToMe #IndieWeb

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corneliussteinbeck · 7 years ago

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GGS Spotlight: Suzanne Ko

Name: Suzanne Ko Age: 44 Location: Chicago, IL

What does being a Girl Gone Strong mean to you? Being a Girl Gone Strong means being a part of a community where I can have a voice. Growing up, I felt intimidated to speak up for myself. In a world where women are subjected to social pressures, bullying and body shaming, I want my daughter to know she has a community she can be part of — free of judgment.

How long have you been strength training, and how did you get started? I was never very athletic as a child and didn’t get into strength training until after college (via group fitness classes). I grew up in a very traditional Chinese household. Instead of participating in sports, my parents wanted me to focus on academics and playing the piano. It wasn’t until I discovered kettlebells in 2012 that I got serious about strength training.

What does your typical workout look like? Before I gave birth to my daughter, a typical workout would consist of mobility, Original Strength resets, kettlebell lifts (swings, goblet squats, presses, Turkish get-ups, loaded carries), bodyweight exercises (chin-ups, TRX rows, push-ups) and metabolic finishers (sleds, battle ropes). Postpartum, I have been focusing more on mobility, Original Strength resets, kettlebell deadlifts, kettlebell goblet squats, Turkish get-ups and movement flow. When I’m sleep deprived, sometimes I just want to work on diaphragmatic breathing, which is what my body usually needs.

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Favorite lift: My favorite lift is the barbell deadlift. The weight room always intimidated me and I always felt self-conscious. Learning this lift gave me the confidence to be able to “play with the big boys”. Walking up to the platform and owning a heavy lift is very empowering.

Most memorable PR: I was working with a coach and one of my main goals was to learn the barbell deadlift. I fell in love with it after pulling my heaviest one rep max at the Tactical Strength Challenge (235 pounds). My next goal was to pull two times my bodyweight. I was mentally stuck around 255 pounds. I needed to get out of my own head. I walked into the gym prepared to get past 255.

After I completed my warm-up sets, several doubts flooded my mind. I knew I had to stay focused and just visualize the lift. During the sticking point of the lift, I stuck through it and completely surprised myself at lockout. I pulled 265 pounds easily! I hit this PR shortly before I became pregnant. I used this same strategy during the labor and delivery of my daughter. Having an induced and unmedicated labor required the same focus and visualization with each contraction, similar to pulling a heavy deadlift.

Top songs on your training playlist: My playlist is an eclectic mix of music styles. Music powers my workout and certain songs help me get into the zone with certain lifts. For example, Queen’s “Under Pressure” calms me for a Turkish get-up, while House of Pain’s “Jump Around” will get me fired up for a heavy deadlift.

Jump Around, House of Pain

P.P., Naughty By Nature

Under Pressure, Queen

Sugar, Maroon 5

Top 3 things you must have at the gym or in your gym bag: Kettlebells, my music, and floor space to move.

Do you prefer to train alone or with others? Why? I prefer to train alone because it helps me to stay focused. Otherwise, I can get easily distracted! Music powers my training sessions and motivates me.

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Most memorable compliment you’ve received lately: Being told I was inspiring. I have been passionate about changing the landscape in how to heal postpartum. Many women have reached out to me, thanking me for being vocal and honest about my postpartum healing. A mom told me she owes it to me for getting to her twin boys’ first birthday. She was in a lot of pain postpartum and I helped her to heal and get out of her pregnancy shell. I never expected to go down this path in my career, but my own birth experience has fueled me to help other moms heal.

Most recent compliment you gave someone else: I often tell moms I work with that they need to be kind to themselves. When the focus tends to be on their children, I remind them of where they started and how strong they have become.

Favorite meal: I enjoy food that is made well and sourced locally and sustainably wherever possible. I seek out chefs that source their ingredients from local farmers markets. Having a direct connection to my food is important to me, as it impacts my overall well-being. I have several favorite Chicago restaurants, but my favorite meal is at Cafe Des Artistes in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I try to celebrate my birthday there whenever feasible. It is a magical experience every time.

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Favorite way to treat yourself: Sitting at my favorite cafe — with a mocha, a delicious pastry, a good book and my favorite tunes plugged in.

Favorite quote: We’re not just missing movement — we’re missing nutritious movement; movement that includes all of the right bends and squishes at the right amount for all your parts to work optimally. — Katy Bowman

I just started reading Katy Bowman’s books and am fascinated about her perspective about nutritious movement. Our cells are just as affected by the movements we do and do not feed them as they are by the foods we do and do not feed them.

What inspires and motivates you? When I can change the life of someone I work with, by improving their overall quality of their life.

What do you do? I am a certified personal trainer, yoga teacher, and kettlebell instructor. I teach my clients to train for everyday life, empowering them to train in any environment. I am a recent graduate of Jessie Mundell’s Postnatal Fitness Specialist Academy and recently started working with a lot of moms.

I wanted to create a class for new moms and their babies that was not your typical Mommy and Me class. The purpose is to teach moms how to incorporate movement throughout their day, safely exercise and pick up their babies, and help their babies with their developmental milestones. The last component was inspired by my daughter, as she spent ten months in physical therapy, due to being born with a venous lymphatic malformation. It restricted her movement on the right side of her neck. Her physical therapist was wonderful, teaching us how movement improved her condition. The valuable information I learned has helped me teach moms to encourage more play with their babies.

What else do you do? As a new parent, I have not had much time these days! By the time I want to sit down to do anything, it is usually 11 pm at night. Naps are my new jam these days.

Your next training goal: Thanks to pelvic floor physical therapy, as well as breathing and alignment strategies, I healed my pelvic floor prolapse at 18 months postpartum. I look forward to getting back to my regular lifts without any symptoms. I miss kettlebell swings. I would like to get my unassisted pull-up back and am eyeing that double bodyweight deadlift.

For what are you most grateful? My daughter Gaby Mac. My husband and I started trying to conceive at age 42, due to life circumstances. While many couples have a difficult time conceiving, we are so blessed to be able to bring a life into this world naturally.

Of what life accomplishment do you feel most proud? The birth of my daughter. Becoming a parent is the hardest thing I have ever done, but also the most rewarding. I see the better version of me through Gaby Mac.

What message do you try to convey to the moms you work with? Society imposes a tremendous amount of pressure for moms to bounce back and get their “pre-baby body” back. Instead of celebrating that our amazing body created and carried a beautiful human being, we are expected to erase all evidence of it. I want moms to embrace their postpartum bodies and give the big middle finger to anyone who may de-value this great feat. Self-care is important as a mom. Give yourself time to heal. As with any injury, birth is no different. Your body has gone through a great deal of trauma. Respect the process. Seek help and do not be afraid to ask questions. Mom and musician Alexa Wilding sums it up beautifully, “We still left Point A to get to Point B. We should be proud of the steps we took to get there.”

Tell us about a time when you overcame fear or self-doubt. I’ve been an introvert since I was a child. I dreaded gym class. I was always fearful. It consumed me. When I started building muscle after regularly exercising, my mom told me to stop, because my calves looked like the calves of a man. My parents focused on my weight, especially when I gained 30 pounds (from food sensitivities) before I got engaged. This reminds me of a meme that has been making the rounds, featuring artist Caroline Caldwell and a fitting statement: “In a society that profits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.”

I compartmentalized these fears and self-doubts, until one day I finally had to come face-to-face with them. During my training for the StrongFirst Kettlebell certification, I feared overhead work with the heavier bells. When my coach asked me to perform a Turkish get-up with my eyes closed, the fear engulfed me. I felt my body tremble uncontrollably and a stream of tears came pouring down my face. I came to the realization that day that I needed to face my fears head on.

What’s the coolest “side effect” you’ve experienced from strength training? I have a better relationship with my body. I celebrate what I can do, such as pressing a heavy weight overhead, rather than achieving a certain physique. It has been a constant learning experience. I am learning how to train my body as a whole system, rather than the individual parts. I am taking better care of my body in my forties compared to my twenties and thirties.

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How has lifting weights changed your life? Lifting weights have not only strengthened me physically but mentally. My confidence level has increased. Lifting weights have become my therapy, giving me the strength to tackle whatever life throws at me.

What do you want to say to other women who might be nervous or hesitant about strength training? Strength training gives us the tools to be independent, confident and strong in all aspects of our life. Our life loads (bags, kids, luggage, furniture, groceries) are heavier than those five-pound dumbbells. Life is heavy, so why are we not training for life?

You can connect with Suzanne on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The post GGS Spotlight: Suzanne Ko appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

from Blogger http://corneliussteinbeck.blogspot.com/2017/11/ggs-spotlight-suzanne-ko.html

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bentonpena · 4 years ago

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Five Years In, DeFi Now Defines Ethereum

Five Years In, DeFi Now Defines Ethereum https://bit.ly/33jl0u2

DeFi Dad is a DeFi super user sharing his money experiments and tutorials on Twitter and YouTube. He is an organizing member of the Ethereal Summit and Sessions, host of The Ethereal Podcast and a weekly contributor to The Defiant and Bankless.

Ethereum has always been difficult to explain. Even the founders of Ethereum have sometimes struggled to communicate the project’s transformative potential in layperson’s terms. Metaphors such as “world computer” and “gas” tried to translate Ethereum to the world, but looking back it’s clear how little we understood about the platform’s true capabilities.

By 2017, big promises were being made that Ethereum would “bank the unbanked.” But that promise seemed to go largely unfulfilled in the wake of the initial coin offering (ICO) craze. Nevertheless, the oft-repeated slogan represented the first attempt to describe Ethereum’s potential to transform personal finance.

While the ICO mania showed Ethereum’s potential as a distributive technology that could emulate, improve upon and democratize the initial stock offering, what was missing then was a simple personal financial use case that could be demonstrated to a friend, such as a mobile app. In those early days, there were many white papers, promises and signs of progress by a few teams (some of which have led to the top DeFi projects such as ChainLink, Kyber, and Set), but most of the benefits had yet to be delivered.

Meanwhile, there were lots of inspiring speakers from the Ethereum community who drew us into believing Ethereum would change the world. It just required a patient newcomer willing to wade through new ideas, intricate foreign concepts and a firehose of new information daily. Nothing was a simple elevator pitch.

When I saw Joe Lubin speak at Ethereal SF 2017, there was an inspiring message to take home. A lot of detail flew over my head at the time, but if you listened carefully it was impossible to not buy the idea that Ethereum could change the world for the better.

It’s worth noting that in 2017, ConsenSys and other early adopters and builders were also educating institutional players and enterprise software companies on how they could benefit from many blockchain use cases on Ethereum. Partnerships with Microsoft, IBM and Hyperledger helped cement Ethereum’s credibility in the enterprise blockchain race.

Fast forward to July 2018, when I started full-time work in Ethereum. We were all recovering from the hangover of 2017, thinking the bull run might return sooner before watching markets unravel and get even bloodier. We were emerging from an era without a coherent elevator pitch to be easily understood, including language that sounded like it had come from a “Big Bang Theory” script.

I recognized that Ethereum had to find any small group of fanatical users. For better or worse, I began drawing on my experience in SaaS, which taught me that startups need loyal users who find so much utility in an application that, if it were taken away, they wouldn’t have an alternative.

DeFi days

By spring 2019, I am working full time on the Ethereal Summit, a series of events celebrating the founders and builders of the decentralized web on Ethereum. It was around then that Ethereum’s narrative began to change. I heard about Compound, where you can lend and borrow – similar to MakerDAO, but with better loan-to-value (LTV) ratios.

I was astonished – $50 MILLION in an app built on Ethereum! It was exhilarating to learn a second finance application had been built, launched and had been running on Ethereum for more than six months.

All this activity came to be known as decentralized finance, or DeFi. The term was coined in 2018 by members of the 0x team, but the industry was just getting going. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I began researching every project we were hosting at Ethereal – PoolTogether, Kyber Argent and Zerion. And I did something even more radical: I began testing and using the damn products!

I needed to see my investment make money to realize the power of these DeFi applications. I started lending dai on Compound for over 10% APY and it just clicked. I’m lending dai and others borrow that money, but there’s no bank to collect the middleman fees. So, in turn, I earn better lending interest and borrowers pay smaller fees, and without know your customer (KYC) or anyone’s permission.

What stood in the way of DeFi mass adoption was better storytelling and more visual demonstration of how DeFi can work for anyone

It had long been a talking point in crypto the user experience (UX) had to improve for Ethereum to see adoption, but I found those same people espousing such criticisms often had zero experience with DeFi applications. It seemed like a lie that had stuck around long enough to become a truth, even though I was finding some DeFi UX better than my experience with legacy banking.

For me, what stood in the way of DeFi mass adoption was better storytelling and more visual demonstration of how DeFi can work for anyone. EthHub.io and Cami Russo’s The Defiant were already doing lots of legwork in this space but there was clearly more to build upon.

In late 2019, the DeFi community was still small compared to today, only a few thousand or possibly even a few hundred users, but it felt like we were on a bustling rocket ship of excitement. We rallied around this term DeFi, the simplest term to describe any peer-to-peer finance app built on Ethereum, requiring a Web 3 wallet like MetaMask, that doesn’t need KYC and has no single point of failure. If ETH is money, DeFi is your bank.

What started as a concept is now an economy of interlinked applications with more than $4 billion in value invested. But it’s more than just money. DeFi has changed the way people think about Ethereum itself and given rise to new narratives and memes.

A meme is born

Shortly after this spark was really gaining momentum in the fall 2019, DeFi users naturally found a second totem to rally around. That was the concept of Total Value Locked (TLV), coined by the team at DeFi Pulse.

TVL refers to the sum of all value deposited into a DeFi app’s smart contracts, whether that’s measured in U.S. dollars (USD) or in ETH. TVL reflected a new, un-gameable metric for adoption. It was a way to compare how much trust DeFi users put into an application. It has its flaws, but those flaws are no worse than reducing Bitcoin to its price.

DeFi also helped solidify the “ETH is money” meme. As co-host of the Bankless Podcast David Hoffman said, ETH is a triple-point asset, because it acts as a store-of-value, a capital asset, and a consumable asset. “ETH is Money” is an intentional pivot from “ETH is gas,” and updates the world on how ETH is actually used on Ethereum.

Plain and simple: ETH is money. It always has been money and to label it otherwise was a product marketing mistake in the early days of Ethereum.

Yield farming is the latest viral meme in Ethereum. DeFi is a larger all-encompassing category of p2p, self-custody, KYC-less, finance apps built on Ethereum, but yield farming describes a popular incentives program where you often provide liquidity to a DeFi application in exchange for a combination of rewards.

As Dan Elitzer of IDEO CoLab Ventures put it, yield farming is like aquaponics because it creates a symbiotic relationship between DeFi protocols, meaning DeFi participants can earn three or more forms of yield such as interest, market-making fees and pooled rewards such as a governance token like BAL or COMP. Because of the most composable incentive designs in DeFi, yield farming (aka “liquidity mining”) is like passive income on steroids, with programs delivering anywhere from 10-200% daily APY on average.

Universal appeal

Five years ago, you could argue Ethereum was attempting to do too much. Even two to three years ago, that was still a valid hypothesis, with stagnant adoption.

Today, the bold experiment of Ethereum is working. Alongside the $4 billion in assets deposited into DeFi, we’ve seen a 227% year-on-year increase in ETH locked in DeFi, and a 20X increase in tokenized BTC on Ethereum (equivalent to ~$220 million) since January 1.

What was a drawback – doing “too much” – is now a strength and a reason why Ethereum’s daily transaction volume and daily network fees have eclipsed Bitcoin’s. Although Ethereum is less than half Bitcoin’s age, it has accomplished more in the last five years, building the most advanced permissionless p2p finance system in the world while Bitcoin has continued to champion the narrower digital gold meme.

It’s getting easier every day to point to DeFi apps that clearly demonstrate value and utility you cannot find elsewhere. If you’ve managed to ignore these developments, now is as good a time as ever to catch yourself up. The story of DeFi and Ethereum is just getting started.

Disclosure

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Trading via CoinDesk https://bit.ly/35KxIA1 August 1, 2020 at 09:06AM

#IFTTT #Feedly

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makeitwithmike · 7 years ago

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4 Quick Social Media Hacks To Explode Your Audience Growth

By Patrick Foster

It’s ridiculously easy for a brand to get started on social media.

But it can also be ridiculously hard for a brand to master the art of the social news feed – not to mention navigate bad feedback and foster relationships with followers.

To help you out, this post will cover 4 quick and easy social media hacks to explode your audience growth.

Let’s get into it!

1. Everybody loves a good story

Marketing provides an amazing opportunity to tell stories. Stories are one of the most powerful and engaging tools around – and they’re free!

The modern consumer has little patience for formal, corporate brands – they want personality and pizzazz. A little bit of personality goes a long way.

To cut through the chatter of other brands on the market and make your product offering stand out, you need to tell your brand’s story. It’s a fantastic way to garner trust, and impassion your users with what you have to offer.

GoPro offer a great example of this. The company posted an open letter from Nicholas Woodman (founder and CEO) in which he addressed his customers. The letter read:

“GoPro helps people capture and share their lives’ most meaningful experiences with others – to celebrate them together. Like how a day on the mountain with friends is more meaningful than one spent alone, the sharing of our collective experiences makes our lives more fun. The world’s most versatile cameras are what we make. Enabling you to share your life through incredible photos and videos is what we do.”

GoPro also embedded the following video on their ‘About us’ page:

This video shows GoPro products in action while also featuring interviews with passionate members of staff who clearly love what they do.

Not only do these pieces of content highlight the brilliance of GoPro’s products, but they also evoke emotions from the reader, taking them back to special moments that they themselves wish they could film.

Consider telling an authentic brand story via video on your company’s own ‘About us’ page.

There’s no need to overcomplicate it – a few shareable facts about the conception of your brand and your employees will suffice. For more information on creating a brand story, check out this fantastic how-to guide.

2. There’s a meme for every occasion

Image Source: Jimmy John’s

If you’re already active on social media, then you will undoubtedly have been exposed to a multitude of memes. The very definition of the word ‘meme’ has taken a new meaning in the digital world, and these pieces of visual content, typically humorous in nature, are copied and spread across the internet like wildfire.

Due to their visual nature, memes work very well on social media. They are extremely shareable and offer value to the viewer, whether it be entertainment or information. Jimmy John’s have well and truly mastered the art of meme production and distribution with their ‘You Vs. The Guy She Tells You Not To Worry About‘ sandwich meme. This meme received a great reception and was retweeted 2,703 times – just think of how many people saw this and thought of the Jimmy John’s brand!

So, how can you capitalize on the meme trend yourself? Quite easily, actually. Sites like Meme Generator allow you to caption an image of your choosing, doing the legwork for you.

You can even put your brand’s name in the bottom corner of the meme so that, when reposted, your brand will gain the credit and personality for the meme. Using pre-existing memes is great too, and can allow you to partake in social media conversations and hashtags at the drop of a hat.

Everybody loves a splash of wit.

3. Social selling is the final frontier

Social media has developed in leaps and bounds over the last year or so. It’s now increasingly common for brands to sell directly on social networks.

Here’s why you should be investing your marketing budget in your social selling strategy:

You can learn more about your target audience by following hashtags, trends, and conversations. This will help with your customer profiling.

You can reach out to new audiences in a non-creepy way. If you use social media right, you can broaden your reach internationally to people who you would never have been noticed by before.

Customers find social selling super convenient because they can make a purchase without even leaving the social app. You can now integrate your social media networks with some selected ecommerce solutions such as Shopify.

Image Source: TechCrunch

Don’t fall prey to filling your brand’s social feeds purely with promotional posts. It’s really important to offer value to your followers to prevent them from getting bored. It’s so easy for them to click the dreaded ‘unfollow’ button. Consider getting involved in trending events, conversations and hashtags to stay current and interesting.

Lush Cosmetics have the right idea. They engage with the world through their social feed by regularly posting with relevant hashtags, which openly reveal their political stance and encourage debate. Twubs and Hashtags offer great tools to monitor trending hashtags and align yourself to join in.

If you can master social selling while peppering your feed with relevant, entertaining or informative posts, you’ll be onto a winner.

4. Say it with flowers… I mean, video content

If you’re not posting or sharing video content on social media, then you’re not using it to its full potential. Visual marketing is one of the best ways for you to engage, entertain and surprise your audience.

Did you know that 64% of viewers are more likely to buy online after watching a related video?

Here’s some more food for thought:

If you’re looking to meet consumers at the ‘awareness’ stage, you can create a video about a particular problem, question, or simply tell your brand’s story

The ‘consideration’ stage can be further tapped into by presenting a buyer’s guide or a selection of options for the user to choose from

A video for customers at the ‘decision’ stage could directly promote your product offering as the ideal solution

Pro tip: Video content is fantastic, but be prepared for it to go viral or receive negative press. Pepsi was a recent victim of this with their advert starring Kendall Jenner. This video unfortunately referenced the #BlackLivesMatter movement in a way that was deemed inappropriate and tone-deaf.

The best way to avoid this sort of situation is to play your video in focus groups before releasing it into the wild to ensure that it represents your brand in the best possible light.

In closing

Social media is powerful but it does take a quick-thinking marketer to integrate it properly into a brand’s messaging mix. Surprisingly, it does take a lot of skill just to employ memes in the right way!

It’s worth it though. Go ahead and give your brand a human face – avoid being a drab corporate giant at all costs.

Your social media engagement rates will thank you.

Guest Author: Patrick Foster is a freelance writer and contributor to multiple marketing and ecommerce blogs. He loves sharing his knowledge with others in the industry. He’s passionate about business, startups and all things social.

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trendingnewsb · 7 years ago

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Growing Old Is Easy, Growing up Is Painful

Ever since we have been able to think, we’ve been looking towards the future. We imagine how we will look when we grow up, the sort of people we are going to become. Without even knowing it, we set these expectations for ourselves because everything seems possible. From a young age we hear time and time again, “you can do anything that you set your mind to.” Untainted by the harshness of the world, we believe it.

The idea of growing older whispers promises of freedom. At this age you’ll be able to drive, at that age you’ll be able to vote. Eventually you’ll go on to pursue a career or a particular lifestyle. You think that when you’re older, you can be whoever you want. As a child I was always very fond of drumming and always wanted to be a drummer. But I was told it’s better for me to focus on my study before I pursue my passion in music. So I knew that I had to wait until I was bigger to be the self-proclaimed drummer I longed to be.

But as we do start to get older, those who have been facing adulthood long before us warn us to enjoy our youth. Take advantage of the freedom that we have now. Freedom? But we thought freedom came with adulthood; when we make the choices for our future. That is because we romanticize the idea of growing older, not growing up. Advantages come with age, but so do responsibility. Sadly, we don’t know until it comes.

Growing old doesn’t always mean growing up

So why the rush? What makes us want to skip ahead in time? The imaginary privilege and advantage I guess.

While we’re young, adults seem to have it all. Throughout growing up we are told to abide by certain restrictions based on our age, such as drinking coffee or dying our hair. There is no actual law stating this, but social norms dictate how old you must be for certain practices.

Then there are the benchmarks that are dictated by law for certain practices such as gambling, drinking, or driving. Unable to do this at our own free will while “under-aged” we long for a time when we are in charge of our choices.

Growing up should be defined by experience, not age

Let’s face it. Adulthood sucks, and we all know it. How did it get this way? Where did we go wrong? The truth is, adulthood seems to such because the expectation does not match the reality.

Growing up is different than growing old, because getting old is inevitable. The presence of maturity brought on the wisdom and experience is what signifies growing up. Your experiences have shaped you, define the person that you are, and the person you continue to grow into. Maturity is defined by the way how you perceive experiences, how you react to them, self-reflection after the fact, and the way that you carry on after the fact.

Any obstacle or experience is a chance to shape yourself. You only have two choices really, let the outcome make you a stronger, better person; or let it break you. Face responsibility, and sort out a solution. These are actions of a grown-up individual.

The idea “we can do more when we are older” is just an illusion

Just like realizing Santa Clause isn’t real (spoiler alert) we grow up to realize that adulthood really isn’t all that it’s hopped up to be. It’s a hard knock life. Instead of freedom, we get restrictions, lots of it. There are tons of rules and social standards to abide by as an adult; and we are vulnerable to judgment if we dismiss these standards.

In the working world, you are not judged by who you are as an adult. Instead you are judged by how adult you are. Are you responsible? Organized? Punctual? Articulate? You need to appear and sound like you have it all together. And the older we get, the more responsibilities and expectations get thrown at us. The best part? No one is going to help or show you the way.

You’re an adult, figure it out.

No one really knows how to “adult”

When it comes to adulting, no one really knows what they’re doing. We are all just trying our best. Many people appear to be really good at it, but deep down they are probably questioning themselves as well. The best we can do is ask for advice from our wiser, older friends and family. No one can really tell you what to do in any given situation, but they can only tell you what they would do. We all want something different out of life, therefore we all make different decisions to support our cause. We spend our whole lives trying to figure it out, taking chances and hoping for the best.

Growing up is similar to parenting. No one is ready, and no one really knows what they’re doing. As you grow, you realize all of the corny anecdotes your parents tortured you with hold some truth. You’re actually very much like them. The older you get, the more you start to respect your parents and realize that they are just people doing the best that they can do.

You really need to make time for the things you want to do.

Otherwise they’re not going to happen. Don’t keep telling yourself, “when you get older.” Cause eventually you will realize that time has escaped you, and all you have left are your dreams. The more you age, the faster time seems to go. That is because your time is already consumed.

Let’s say that you sleep for 8 hours a night, work 8 hours a day. Let’s omit 3 hours for eating, commuting, and showering. Now, you are only left with 5 hours of your day. You’re not as young as you used to be, and you might not feel so energized and motivated to pursue your own interests. It’s difficult to find the time to do the things that interest you when you have a set routine. Don’t rely on a promise of the future. You need to make the time for it now.

Nobody is thinking about you (or that meme you shared).

Now that we’re older, we are consumed by responsibilities. We all are. And that’s why most people are incredibly self-focused. Because we have to be. Times are very different when we were just teenagers, when we had all of the time in the world to just hang around and gossip.

We don’t have the freedom to be so carefree as we age. We have ourselves to look after. Those of us who have spouses and children have even more obligations. “Hanging out” is no longer a priority, instead it’s been replaced with goals and responsibilities. Our attention is directed towards more worldly matters as displayed on the news and the media. Most people share the same opinions and interests as us, so we tend to lose interest in those people and their lives.

Adulthood is a grey area, there is no right and wrong

Life is very straightforward as a child. Adults are constantly telling us the difference between right and wrong. But as we grow up, things are not unidirectional. And things that you may have grown up to believe start to show another side to them. There are two sides to every opinion or fact, and we have to choose which side we stand on.

Example: You are raised to believe the C02 emissions are bad, and very detrimental to the environment. While the former is true, we struggle to have reliable transportation without it. For your information, this conflict is known as Cognitive Dissonance.

Working for your dream= 99% suffering + 1% chance to succeed

When we’re young, it’s so easy to picture ourselves exactly where we want to be. Our parents and teachers encourage us to chase these dreams because of the benefits. If we decide to be a doctor, then we get to save lives. If we decide to be an architect, we can design beautiful buildings and bridges so people can travel and live comfortably.

What they don’t tell you is how hard it is to achieve these dreams. It takes tons of work and self-sacrifice, and in the end might not work out. This is the part that adults like to leave out. What they should tell us, is that if we want to be a doctor then we need to study super hard, no holidays, you need to work shifts in the hospital while you study which makes it very difficult to maintain a work/life balance. And worst of all, you can’t save all of your patients.

These days we can’t blame ourselves for giving up so easily. We were led to believe that if we wanted someone hard enough it would be ours, but we were never shown how to work for it. We were never told how much suffering comes along with chasing a dream.

Growing old is easy, but growing up is painful

To be the best person you can be, you need to experience as much as you can. Take those experiences, and let them shape you into being stronger, smarter, and better. Things are going to constantly blindside you, so learn to adapt. Keep your mind open, always be receptive to more knowledge. The moment that you stop learning is the moment that you stop growing.

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webpostingpro-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://webpostingpro.com/a-beginners-guide-to-meme-making-from-the-internets-best-artists/

A Beginner’s Guide to Meme Making From The Internet’s Best Artists

Like desirable artwork, properly memes talk with the outside global, and they also communicate a message from the artist at the back of them. If you need to make a remarkable meme—a meme that resonates on a viral stage—there is a lot to don’t forget: your message, your photos, your textual content, how to snap shots engage with your textual content, syntax, timing. With meme making, all the signifiers want to work collectively to amount to an incisive punch line.

Glaringly, there is no unique formula, however, their essence and final results are equal. A meme is digitally Darwinian, a system of natural selection which couldn’t be compelled into viral recognition—and is the reason why meme advent is extraordinarily hard (and creating terrible content material is embarrassing

I tried once, in a remote moment,

To create a very good meme after I used to be inspired by means of this picture of Nicki Minaj sitting on a mattress. Nicki published this in December, and it made me LOL. (Her posture and mood are ripe for reminiscence.) A few have attempted, however, I failed. I have to have been disappointed with the final product, due to the fact I will locate no hint of it on my telephone. I used to assume I had my finger on the pulse of the new new, but I can’t make a terrific meme to store my existence.

Maybe that’s what turned into lacking in my memes: too much attention to craft, muddled (or cheating) reason. A pleasant meme is a part subversive form of protest, component meticulously crafted digital residence of cards. The nature of meme advent is lots like making accurate artwork. (In fact, a good meme is and need to be considered an art shape.) @KA5SH, the rapper, and memory behind the genius “IFW with the vision/permit’s link and build” memes are decided to make human beings see them as such.

A Beginner’s Guide to Understand SEO

The term of Search engine optimization or the ” Seo” is normally noted a system that entails the optimization of a website content material and makes it appear on the initial pages of the search engines like google and yahoo which will make it user-friendly. It is the manner that entails developing a content that is straightforward to find by using the users and users can easily get admission to the data without browsing an excessive amount of at the engines like google. This content is no trouble to be had.

For the procedure of Seo,

It’s miles crucial to understand approximately the few things that contain some of the steps to create search engine pleasant content material. In case you are prepared to submit something or growing a content material on the net then It’s miles very vital to properly research the key phrases. Each and the entirety you may do may be considered by the Google and it’s going to provide you with the outcomes. So initially take a look at out the keywords which are ordinarily searched at the internet. You could easily find out the lists of some of these keywords.

Any other section is to create a content that is rich in those key phrases.

Maintain that issue in thoughts that the title, preliminary paragraph and the final a part of the content material should incorporate those key phrases. it’ll take hold of more attention of the readers and also will make it search engine pleasant.

Attempt to make the content informative. Try and add a few new data. Put most effort to get the excellent outcomes. It has additionally been observed that Google and other search engines provide the desire to the content this is lengthy. typically, it is good to Keep the length of the content more than 500 phrases but it will likely be true if you will create the content containing as much as 2000 phrases. There are extra possibilities for such content to get the higher scores at the SERPs.

The following step is to optimize the optimization of the content material that you have generated.

Because of this, there is more than one gear like word press in an effort to will let you get the unfastened plug-in. It’s miles very important to Maintain a watch on the content of your weblog or internet site. Attempt to keep away from the lengthy paragraphs and useless sentences. Try to make the content consumer-pleasant and instructive. As soon as you have got achieved with it, now The subsequent step is to show your content to the public through selling it. You could virtually share it on social media or link again your content via commenting on weblog posts and boards. Whilst you may adopt a right methodology of Seo and will avoid the activities chaotically then the effects may be remarkable.

The Three Basic Strategies – Making Tasks to Consider in an Acquisition

The acquisition is where an employer develops its assets and competencies by means of taking over some other business enterprise. For the sake of this dialogue, it must be noted right here that an acquisition strategy may be a standalone, single cause file or it may be part of a greater comprehensive multi-reason record. The primary intention in choosing an acquisition approach is to minimize the time and value of pleasurable and identified, tested need regular with commonplace sense useful resource sound-enterprise practices. The purchasing strategy shall consist of essential occasions that govern the control of this system. It shall also be tailor-made to satisfy precise wishes of person applications which include attention to

Incremental development and fielding strategies.

The purchase method will function a tick list to ensure that all essential problems and alternatives are taken into consideration a selection aid in prioritizing and integrating many purposeful requirements, comparing and deciding on alternatives, figuring out choice points and presenting a co-coordinated technique.

* A basis for making ready software plans and sports

* The formal file of all strategic adjustments made in reaction to evolving risk, era and other environmental elements and the vehicle for building and attaining consensus. Research display that most acquisition do not paintings, it is suggested that most acquisition does no longer paintings, it’s miles suggested that during state-of-the-art business surroundings, almost every organization is expected to be involved in a merger or acquisition at a positive degree in its existence-cycle. Consequently, from the above, it may be deduced that a strategy will be required to embark on an acquisition. There are basically three approach-making responsibilities.

1. Developing a strategic imaginative and prescient

2. Putting targets three . Crafting a method A strive might be made in discussing these approach-making duties to reveal how every of them could be utilized in considering an acquisition.

1. Developing a strategic imaginative and prescient:

A strategic imaginative and prescient is a view of a company’s future direction and commercial enterprise makeup, a guiding idea for what the employer is making an attempt to do and to grow to be. In impact strategic visions chart a corporation’s destiny for the following say 5-10 years. Very importantly, strategic visions are business enterprise-specific and not established i.E. to say they ought to be tailor-made for the agency in question. The vision is not defined in terms of creating a profit.

Tips to Help You Make More Income on the Internet

Gaining knowledge of to make cash online isn’t always smooth and if everybody tells you that all you have to is push a few button or join some software and you’ll make a fortune overnight then you definitely need to be very careful and skeptical because the reality is that there are certain competencies you ought to master with a view to be successful and there is clearly work involved. When you have sturdy force and are inclined to place the time as well as a few money to examine then achievement may be viable.

Associate advertising and marketing:

If you do now not have any services or products of your personal then it is nonetheless feasible to earn earnings on line as you can promote other human beings’s merchandise thru Affiliate advertising. This can be a extremely good way for the common person to get started out as it’s miles short and does no longer require a lot cash to get started. Step one is to pick out an amazing Associate product to promote, there are numerous accurate Affiliate networks such as Fee Junction, ClickBank, Linkshare to call some. The subsequent step might be to determine on visitors sources that you could send focused site visitors to your Affiliate pages. it is critical to find a way to acquire e mail addresses also from visitors as this can will let you observe up with them over time and increase your go back on funding.

You must don’t forget the usage of an vehicle responder carrier to generate an choose

In listing as those leads may be treasured inside the long term for following up and offering other similar products. A key tip to preserve in thoughts whilst deciding on a product is to make sure which you agree with inside the product and that it’s far either some thing you’re the use of or would take into account the usage of inside the destiny. Keep in mind that selling is a transference of feelings so In case you accept as true with in the goods and offerings then it is going to be contemplated in the income and advertising and marketing messages. as a way to acquire leads, you’ll want to create a touchdown web page with the decide in form.

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