#with the help of a lot of links and screenshots of stuff

[arkadijxpancakes]

Yeah. This is really the core of the issue.

In the worst case scenario, you're not just giving money to a scammer. Your money might be funding wide-scale abuse.

Regarding the questions "how can you differentiate between a scammer and a real person asking for help?" and "how can you be so sure that these messages are all scam?":

The first big reason for this is that OP (and others who have given advice in the reblogs and comments) is following basic internet safety guidelines. These guidelines include:

Can you verify the sender? - Is this person who they claim they are? Does the sender fit the name in the text? Can you verify that they are real? Scam messages in general tend to come from unsuitable or implausible senders/e-mail-addresses. In these specific cases, the asks were sent as anonymous asks. This means that you can't verify the sender, because the sender isn't displayed.

Does the sender create urgency/pressure? - For example, by claiming that you need to react immediately or by threatening consequences. (In a lot of scams, this usually plays out like "You have to click this link/check that document, your account will be terminated/the data will be deleted", but "If you don't help me now, my child will die" also does the trick.) This isn't in the screenshots made by OP, but you might find this tactic in the blog posts they're referencing.

Does the request ask you to share personal information that you should never share on the internet? - Stuff like your name, age, address, bank account, etc. This isn't in the screenshots made by OP, but you might stumble into this, when you follow any links.

Is the message vague? - Do they address you personally? Does the message state a clear reason for why you received it? In case of requests for donations: does the message state a clear goal for the fundraiser? The messages in the screenshots are not personalized. They don't address OP directly. They also don't inform OP why they were contacted specifically. Both of these things are a clear indicator that the message was sent out en masse to whoever the sender could find. Additionally, all texts are incredible vague and do not inform OP about what the fundraiser is for.

Is the message asking you to click on a link? - Links can be used to lead you to fake websites, which then ask you to enter personal information that you should never share on the internet or install malware. The messages don't incorporate links, but the accounts they refer to do.

The second reason is the following question: Is this ask is realistic?

In these specific cases: Would a person from Gaza, who's house was damaged/who is living in a refugee camp, who has to care for kids or other family members and who struggling to put food on the table/stay alive and [insert all additional struggles these messages claim they face] actually do this?

Keep in mind: They claim that they are struggling. If they really have to patch up their house, take care of their kids/family members, source food and other resources, they will have limited time to spend on the internet. They will have even less time to spend on the internet, when they face additional hardships (like badly injured/ill/dying family members). Their access to the internet might also be restricted.

So.

Would this struggling person send you an anonymous ask to ask you for money? No. If they are genuine, they would want to make sure that you give that money to them, not to a scammer who pretends to be them. They would not use an anonymous ask.

Would they send you a vague ask, that doesn't explain what they are actually looking for? Part of a fundraiser is to state a reason for said fundraiser and to set a goal. Everything else will look incredibly sus. So if they really were a struggling person in need for money, they would tell you the reason and the goal of the fundraiser.

Would they send you an ask? Like: How realistically is it, that they found your account and went "Yep. This person is likely to help me. Let's ask them for help!"? If you have a blog on which you make political posts and at least some of these posts are about the situation in Gaza? Sure, someone who is looking for help might find you and contact you. But if all you ever talk about is fandom stuff and your favorite blorbos kissing? How did they even find you and why do they think that you can offer reliable help? If they really are a struggling, they don't have time to look at random people's ramblings about fandoms and kissing blorbos. Also, the chance that a person who is only talking about fandoms and blorbos is interested in and able to help is incredible low.

Would they send you a vague message that doesn't address you personally? If they really found you by looking for you, they will probably address you personally. If they contact you, because you're blogging about the situation in Gaza, they will reference that. If they found you, because they like the same blorbos like you, they will probably reference that, too. The reason: If they personalize their request, it makes you more likely to actually listen to them.

These messages look like they were sent out en masse, to every person the sender could find. It's very likely, that they were sent out en masse, to every user the sender could find. (If you look up these messages, you will find that quite a lot of people are either blogging these asks ore referencing them.)

To make this perfectly clear: A person who is struggling to care for their family and who as limited time to spend on the internet, will not send out messages en masse. They don't have the time for that.

If they really were a person who had a fundraiser, they would spent their limited internet-time, to care for their fundraiser (for example by answering questions, making updates and interacting with followers). If they really sent out requests for help to individual people, they would probably hand-pick these people. They would look for people who are already involved in the topic and who are likely to help. They would also contact them in a way, that makes them more likely to help. (For example, by addressing them personally and by stating the reason and the goal of the fundraiser.)

They are very unlikely to contact randos. Because if they were to contact randos, most of their asks would end up ignored, deleted or reported. To make up for that, they would need to contact a lot of people - but, again, they are busy with their real life struggle and have limited time to spend on the internet. They don't have time to look up hundreds and hundreds of people, just to send them bland asks on anon.

Additionally: Yes. Sending out hundreds and thousands of bland messages, in the hopes that some recipients will bite, is a common scam-tactic. Many of the very common scams (like the Nigerian prince-stuff) work like that.

If you really want to help struggling people with fundraisers, look for people who behave realistically, who work as transparent as possible and who make it very easy to vet them. They know, that there are scammers out there and they will understand, if you're skeptical. They are not going to pressure you and they are not going to guilt-trip you.

And if someone is claiming that these things can't be scam and that you shouldn't be worried about being scammed - they are probably part of the scam.

Real people would be worried about scammers. Because every dollar/euro/whatever that is paid to a scammer, is a dollor/euro/whatever that will not end up where it is needed.

I miss when I would get Tumblr asks that actually said things and weren't just digital panhandling scams.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Smiler’s Otherland -- Domains!

Hi everyone, I’m back on my Smiler’s Otherland bullshit! :D After making my initial “here’s my first ideas on the concept” post back in May 2023, I’ve been trying to get my thoughts organized regarding what Smiler’s Otherland should look like, more details about their weapons, how many outfits they need, etc. And now I’m going to share some of those thoughts with all of you! Because it’s my tumblr and you’re my captive audience. :p

So -- let’s start with the domains! Because you can’t have an Otherland without actual, you know, lands in it. So far, I’ve come up with four domains for Smiler:

Smile Street: The “hub” domain, or at least the domain any visitors would be likely to land in first, much like Alice’s Vale of Tears or Victor’s Living Dead Forest. This domain is arguably the "coziest," and allows Smiler to put their best smiling face forward. :D

-->As indicated by the name, it’s a long winding street lined with brightly-painted houses in all colors of the rainbow -- in fact, here, the shot of Towers Street from this The Smiler ad gives you a good idea of what I’m picturing:

Only, instead of just those spiraling yellow clouds in the sky, there's also a big yellow sun featuring a Smiler-logo face on it, as per this screenshot from this video on The Smiler mobile game: (WARNING -- the linked video does have flashing lights/strobe-like images starting about midway through!)

...maybe a little less overtly creepy, as this is supposed to be the friendliest domain, but you get what I mean.

-->And who lives in those cheery little houses? Why, the Advocates, of course! Who are based on these guys from The Smiler mobile game (screenshot from the same video linked above):

You know, just a little higher resolution. XD They're naturally very friendly, greeting visitors enthusiastically, and spend most of their time wandering around, trimming trees and hedges into spirals, having little get-togethers in each other's yards where they tell jokes and laugh a lot, playing various games with each other, painting big grinning faces on portable easels -- that sort of thing.

-->At the end of the street is -- well, the town SPIRAL rather than square, as the road just spirals in on itself until it stops at a big fountain full of glowy yellow liquid at the center. Around the outer curve of the spiral is a little cafe (which serves a variety of drinks and treats, though many of the drinks glow at least slightly, and the treats tend to have spiral decorations), a playground (with all the equipment painted with yellow and black stripes with occasional touches of purple and white), a general shop selling a variety of goods (which, yes, would basically be the shop from the Smiler Shop TV video, manned by Matt and Carol -- Smiler can put their parents into their Otherland, as a treat), and a train station consisting of a bright yellow covered platform with spiraling columns holding the roof up, a Smiler coaster car (like that seen above) for the "train," and tracks that start out flat but quickly spiral off into wild loops and twists (because, of course, the coaster itself has to serve as transport to the other two "nice" domains). Just a nice place to hang out, chat, and watch the spiral clouds swirl overhead. XD

X-Sector: Named after the section of Alton Towers that The Smiler coaster is actually in, this is the domain dedicated to Smiler’s interest in technology and chemistry (with the actual look of the tech ranging from more steampunky to more cyberpunky depending on the time period of the AU it features in).

-->The domain consists mostly of a big old lab, surrounded by a yard featuring grass made out of green wire, flowers made out of twisty bits of metal with stained glass leaves and petals, and simple conical trees (like the kind you might see in an old Playstation or XBox game before graphics really started taking off -- that Smiler Game screenshot above is roughly the right aesthetic). The sky here would be filled with swirling, spiraling yellow and black clouds, lit with the occasional flash of lightning. It's all very dramatic.

-->The lab itself is divided into two wings, separated by a main hall with lots of optical illusions a la the actual The Smiler station (with various changing patterns on the walls -- be warned, that linked video has a fair amount of flashing lights in it!). The left wing would be devoted to engineering and be filled with things like whirring little hypno-wheel gadgets, boxes with flashing lights, various skittering tiny robots, and other things of that nature. The right wing would be devoted to chemistry and have various workstations covered with bubbling flasks of liquid and hissing tanks filled with volatile gases -- though I'm really tempted to throw in a little bit of Willy Wonka flavor and have a big old waterfall of Joy Serum somewhere in here too. XD I mean, it feels like something Smiler would have -- maybe it flows into a giant pipe to provide the liquid for the fountain in Smile Street? Or perhaps it just serves as the "drinking water" for everyone there...

-->As for residents -- well, I suppose in addition to Advocates in lab coats tending all the various experiments, it would make sense to have Dr. Gladwell from the Smiler Takeover "Fear Test" show at the very least. After all, he is the Ministry's Chief Neurological Cortex Reprogrammer! :p The only thing complicating that is that I wanted to name Smiler's outfit for this area after him...but I suppose I could name it after his role in the Ministry instead... Anyway, the most notable resident here would naturally be the Marmaliser itself -- a big robot wandering around on its five limbs, looking for unhappy people to make happy and coming by the lab to have its Inoculator syringes and Giggler gas tanks refilled and its Tickler brushes, Flasher bulbs, and Hypnotiser wheels looked at and realigned as necessary.

Musical Mayhem: Hey, Victor wasn’t using the name :p This domain is all about Smiler's love of music and festivals and things of that nature, and -- as you might expect -- is strongly based around that whole The Smiler Takeover that Alton Towers did for the ride's 10th anniversary.

-->The domain itself is a giant fairground set in a field of glittery green grass under more of those yellow spiraling clouds, with a couple of black-and-white-cobbled looping paths winding through it. There are various carnival games scattered about (like the "Beat the Buzzer" game where you have to get a wire loop around a metal simplified Smiler logo without touching it, otherwise it'll buzz and you'll have to start again; hook-a-smiling-duck; bag tosses with grinning Smiler-logoed bags; one of those water gun games where you shoot Joy Serum at a target to make something rise up; etc), along with food stalls, comfy sitting areas, and carts where people can get balloons and little sparklers and trumpets to blow. As you might imagine, it's chaotic, but in a good way!

-->The dominant feature of the fairground, though, is a huge stage at the far end -- a bigger version of the Takeover's Celebration Stage, with all the smiley-face decorations but yellow curtains instead of red. There's a few rows of seats in front of the stage for people who want to sit down and watch, and designated "dancing spots" for those who want to dance and sing along. The dancing spots are generally more populated than the seats, as you might expect. XD

-->Again, the domain is mostly populated by Advocates from Smile Street, just enjoying the carnival -- but you can't have a Celebration Stage without Felix E. Lated as the star performer! :D (Again, Smiler can have their uncle in their Otherland, as a treat.) When he's not up on stage singing, he's wandering the fairground, encouraging everyone to let loose and have fun. Possibly Grin-Grin the clown (from the above-linked "Fear Test") also makes an appearance from time to time, creating balloon animals and telling ridiculous stories -- oh, and we probably should also have the contortionist and the magician from the "Meet The Ministry" stage show up too! All the performers for the Advocates to enjoy!

Sanctuary: Unfortunately for Smiler, as stated in the original post, we can’t neglect the spookier, scarier parts of the coaster’s theming -- and that means having a domain where everything is creepy and horrible, to represent their fears about going too far and actually harming people. And thus we have Sanctuary, inspired by all the Kelman-related materials, such as the Smile Always series and the Sanctuary scare mazes (a few clips of which can be seen in this informative video -- again, watch out for some flashing lights)! Hooray! :D

-->The area is a large, underground asylum, accessed by a pair of rusty metal swinging doors spray-painted with "THE TRUTH" in bright yellow (taken from one of the AR spots you could access with The Smiler Mobile Game back in the day -- there's a set hidden away in each of the other three domains) -- once inside, you're confronted with an absolute maze of concrete corridors, all painted a faded white. The place is not in good repair, with plenty of patches of exposed rebar and wiring on the walls and cracks in both the ceiling and the floor. The whole place is poorly lit, with buzzing yellow lights dangling from the ceiling and occasionally sparking or going out entirely. The only concession to color is in the various posters that have been hung up -- images of spirals with DO NOT RESIST written under them, photos of decaying animal corpses captioned with LIFE IS BAD, and various images of people with their mouths distorted into extremely creepy smiles. It's just a very unpleasant place to be!

-->There are two groups of people that live in this horrible location -- the first being the Corrected. These are the asylum's patients, dressed in tattered and dirty white t-shirts, pants, and dresses, who roam the halls and live in the various cells dotting the hallways. Most of them either have Glasgow smiles or various bits of machinery forcing their mouths into grins, and many also have at least a partially-shaved head and nasty scars on their scalps indicating brain surgery. However, the Corrected are all completely non-violent, either just wandering around doing their thing (vaguely giggling to themselves, drawing on the walls with whatever they can find, standing in small groups and laughing together) or hiding away from anyone they think is a threat.

-->No, the actual enemies of this area are the Staff -- the nurses and orderlies who run the place. The nurses are dressed in stained white uniform dresses, sporting dark circles around their eyes, vicious grins accented by dark lipstick, and long claw-like nails ready to take a swipe out of misbehaving patients; and the orderlies are dressed in similarly-stained yellowed scrubs, with the same dark circles around their eyes and vicious grins. The nurses carry syringes to stab unsuspecting victims, subjecting them to a variety of bizarre hallucinations; the orderlies carry shock batons guaranteed to bring patients to their knees. Their favorite activities are to stalk unwitting Corrected, then take them down while laughing hysterically. Not nice people at all!

-->And the person in charge of the whole shebang? Why, that would be Dr. Minister, a Kelman-like old man with a neat white suit sporting the Sanctuary logo, glinting glasses, and a smile that -- well, it's obvious the man's HEARD of smiling, but you're not sure he's ever seen it in action. He's insistent that everything he does for the Corrected is for their own good, and his ultimate goal is to turn Smiler into his apprentice/successor -- and Victor and Alice into Corrected. Smiler, as you might imagine, loathes this guy, and is absolutely terrified of ending up like him. :(

And that's everything I've got for now! It does make me slightly annoyed that I only have four domains for Smiler when Victor has five and Alice -- well, as per A:MR, the minimum is eight (presuming you don't count the Vale of Doom as separate from the Vale of Tears). But I do think that these four cover pretty much everything important when it comes to the coaster, it's themes, and all the events and attractions related to it. Next up, we have the weapons -- which, believe me, was a much easier post to make...

[haikyuupaladin]

TLDR; don’t give tumblr money until they start making visible improvements towards accessibility

I’ve seen a few posts around about something people are calling crab day where you’re supposed to gift the crab button to your mutuals to support Tumblr financially. Please don’t participate in this unless Tumblr starts making noticeable improvements towards accessibility between now and then. It’s been 5 months of me trying to get the bare minimum of accessibility for photosensitive users or even just find out who I can talk to to get anywhere, and Tumblr is refusing to make any changes.

@photomatt has doubled down on the suggestion that you should just pay for ad-free or install an ad-blocker instead of listening to any of the suggestions photosensitive users have repeatedly made. Please do not give money to Tumblr until they show a commitment to accessibility because they will continue to ignore our requests if it doesn’t impact them financially.

Some of the requests we’ve made are:

1. Allow us to disable autoplay on browser as well as the app. This is an accessibility feature, not a data-saving feature, and should be treated as such.

2. Include ads in disabling of autoplay, along with other formats that currently get around the autoplay feature. Currently even if you have autoplay disabled you can still end up with flashing lights in your face every few posts from ads.

3. Improve the reporting process for strobing ads. The quick reporting process doesn’t provide good options to ensure the person reviewing the report realizes that it’s being reported for flashing lights so you have to hope they agree it’s either malicious or offensive and don’t just brush you off as abusing the report function. The more complicated reporting process involves getting a screenshot and the link that the ad brings you to, which requires lingering on the ad, which if you’re trying to report the ad for your safety, is dangerous. You can also still get the same ad 10 times a row after reporting it until it’s been reviewed. Which again, presents a danger to users.

4. Add a community label for flashing lights. Flashing lights are commonly untagged or mistagged, even sometimes maliciously. It would be extremely helpful to the photosensitive community to be able to add a warning to a post that doesn’t have one.

I’ve talked a lot about the photosensitive community in this post because that’s what I have personal experience with and what @photomatt has explicitly come out and just said to buy ad-free about, but there are definitely other accessibility issues that need to be addressed as well (like the alt text function needing improvements to make it accessible to users who need it and don’t use screenreaders, or the fact that a lot of tumblr official stuff still doesn’t seem to use the alt text feature themselves). Please feel free to add on accessibility issues I’ve missed in the reblogs.

[rexomi]

Something something. Making Solas a liar in Veilguard actively brings back a problem they fixed working on Inquisition.

On December 20 2019 VGS posted an interview with Trick Weekes about their work on Solas. This whole sentence is a link so its large enough for mobile but also disclaimer this is before they changed their name so deadname warning.

Here's a transcription I found here which is where i took the screenshots above. Since I know not everyone has 40 minutes to listen to an online radio interview.

I however highlighted the main point since most of you are not reading the screenshots anyway but skimming through. Rant under Read-more. Also bc i try to not be too negative on people's dashs but also i wanna ramble some more.

"But he lied a lot more. And it really weakened his character."

You can tell this happened during the game. Solas lies only once within Inquisition. He says something he can't be vague about and you push him so he lies, badly. He usually tells the truth vaguely. Typically Solas lies no more than Blackwall.

I fully believe that if in Inquisition your inquisitor figured out that Solas was Fen’harel and asked him bluntly to his face he'd confess. He might even be impressed. But why would you ever start to think that. No one assumes that their coworker is actually Poseidon regardless of how much they love the beach and ocean.

He hides in your expectations.

You can't ask him about being an ancient elf or being Fen'harel of myth because those aren't very probable. They're astronomically low to be truth within that universe. And outside, no one finished DA2 and went i wonder if one of our next companions is the Dread Wolf. Sera said, impossible things can't be surprises. He doesn't have to lie so when the truth comes out it's becomes obvious on a second playthrough.

They then actively bring back a problem they fixed in Inquisitions development. That they were open about fixing. That having a character that outright lies to you makes you have no intention of even hearing out the character. It retroactively undercuts Inquisition bc i see people trying to find Solas' lies in it when they aren't going to find any beyond the court intrigue.

It undercuts any lore we do get from Solas bc people dismiss it outright as being a lie from Mr "I abhor blood magic". I feel like shaking people's shoulders like no, dont do it.

They retconned him guys i have proof from 2019.

And its like if you hate Solas is this even satisfying? Like that's not Solas. His motivations are gone (that's a whole other post) and so is his core personality trait. It's like they went here's the Dreadwolf but during the ten years they replaced the smug asshole who was insufferably right with a 20 yo senior chihuahua that doesnt have any teeth.

My favorite villains are those that tell the truth. Because nothing hurts more than the truth. Can you imagine if he told you the truth. If he told you horrible things that you dismissed as lies to only be true. Wouldn't Varric’s death have more weight if he told you Varric was dead only for you - for everyone - to see him in the Lighthouse. If it was a spirit who took his shape to help you or even because it saw something worth reflecting in your memories.

So you dismiss him until it's revealed near the end oh he was telling the truth and you have an oh shit maybe he was right about other things but its too late to try and stop any of the truths he told you which could be from allies/companions betraying to stuff about Ghilan'nain and Elgarnan.

Like the only way to redeem Solas was to listen to him and by going out of your way to address problems he sees and you can find the alternative to tearing down the Veil by a series a little puzzle pieces throughout the game.

Have it be he will only listen to you if you listen to him. That he'll reject your other solution bc why the hell would he trust you if you couldnt extend the same.

Like Solas couldve been a great villian and he should've been great for both the haters and those that liked him. Not only the romance but for those who became his friend. Like i keep coming back to if i hated Solas would i be satisfied with Veilguard.

And the answer is no because that isnt Solas.

Tricking him has no weight bc he's an idiot in Veilguard like not even in the ending bc doesn't notice you switch the dagger around like right in front of him but none of his actions make sense. Ppl have mentioned the regret prison makes no sense for Elgarnan and Ghilan'nain bc they don't have regrets.

Attacking Solas has no weight because he literally needs the shit kicked out of him by a dragon for it to even begin to work. They literally need him to be at deaths door before its realistic that Rook could take him in a fight.

Redeem has no weight bc of the massive retcons to his motivations. They had to retcon the post credits scene bc even if Flemythal went hey i don't want you to do this Dai Solas wouldve went okay but that doesnt solve my other problems with the veil including the corruption of spirits and the fact its in literal shambles so i guess is still coming down.

I'm just disappointed. By the end of Trespasser they had a great villian and they just tossed it to the side and reverted him and people are arguing about a character who's sole defining trait in Veilguard is a problem they solved before Inquisition launched.

Basically we can sum it up with a screenshot.

[lumenniveus]

Calling all wild witches and handsome devils: it's time to rock 'n roll.

Hey, you, wake up a new CC set just dropped! This time @mellosakicc joined me and threw in some very wicked cool goodies for you. Everything is Base Game Compatible and optimized for potato computers. Go and build your slightly haunted Memphis studio apartments.

But only after you downloaded our small tribute here: MERGED ZIP

Alternative DL on Google Drive🔗

Update: This set is making it into TS2! Well, kinda? I hope so. I'll update this if more gets converted. (pls, someone, I also don't have the know-how!)

@grilledcheese-aspiration did a stellar job porting the really pretty clutter over [Link] I love how the Belladonna looks nicer in the older game

Mid-Century's elegance meets Gothic Kitsch in Rituals, a 50 asset large set full of stuff for your living, dining and bedrooms. Every object was lovingly (help me) hand painted by yours truly (pain... the pain...!) and I hope you have as much fun playing with it as I had making it!

Read more and get a preview below the cut

As usual, here's the catalogue of the entire thing

And an unedited in-game screenshot

Highlights of this set include:

a very modular set of curtains

3D wall paneling

a vanity table

a canopy bed

vintage electronics

lots of references for you to find

buy and build items ( these walls and floors are included, yes)

I playtest to my absolute limit, but I'm a one-man-team so if you end up finding bugs I missed, please send me an ask or comment on this post. That way it gets fixed asap.

[maryland-no-rabies]

Tumblr (for newbies):

Reblogging ≠ reposting. You aren't stealing content by reblogging it, it's basically a 'group share' button. It also helps give artists/posts attention and you can reblog to interact with people. Reblog things you like.

Reblog bait. You can reblog it, but if a mutual hates reblog bait, you may tag it with 'reblog bait'. Or, find a tag with your mutual to put on posts they don't like, and block the tag under the 'content you see' tab in settings.

If someone reblogs your post, and you like their reblog, you just liked your own post.

(Sideblog section)

See my name? This is a gimmick. If a Tumblr says 'officially-(company/country/state)' then it's probably a gimmick! Check their content first because there are a few actual brand blogs, like Grammarly!

You can only make 250 posts (per email) on an account per day. This is called 'post limit' or 'PL'. I am currently on account 2, because I post too much. You may or may not hit post limit in your lifetime.

You can create as many sideblogs as you want, but you cannot like, follow, or send asks as a sideblog, and if you do so, it'll show up as from your main.

(Gimmicks)

Nobody can see your main from your sideblog, so you can have as many followers on your gimmick and none of them on your main

You will see gimmicks. A lot. It's fun.

You can interact with a gimmick as a non-gimmick

As a tumblr user, you have anon powers. You can turn any/most gimmicks into a pretty princess by typing something like '*turns you into a pretty princess*' into their ask box.

Nobody will be mad at you for making a gimmick. At all. There are like, 4 Jesus gimmicks. And it's great.

(General)

Tag a mutuals post with '10k to me', 'future 10k', '10k', or 'this will have 10k' for some fun chaos :3

Submit posts to PM Seymour's discord for MORE fun chaos

(General controls and understanding of Tumblr)

If you are in a youtube video online, you have broken containment

If you are getting a bunch of notifications from a post, you can hold down a notification from it or click the three dots on the post and click 'mute' to stop getting notifications (other than mentions)

You can also filter your notifications by clicking on the top left of your notifications tab and tapping 'custom'

The 'for you' tab of Tumblr is what the algorithm thinks you'll like based on your interests and stuff

The 'following' tab is blogs and tags you follow

On Tumblr, you can add not only extra notes in the tags but also regular tags. Spaces are allowed

If you get an ask from a Palestinian blogger, check yourself (you may find places where it's vetted/verified in their reblogs. You can also tell by them having no photos/story at all [no name, no information, just a donate link], and scams commonly use photos from Google images. Be suspicious if there's anything other than GoFundMe or something similar. PayPal is banned there.) or send a screenshot to me/somebody who offered to help. Then, you can answer the ask so people who can donate can see it, or donate yourself. DO. NOT. PRESSURE. YOURSELF.

Tumblr has a unique punctuation, in a way. which you will figure out on your own. An example is. periods to show a slight. pause

It reminds me of poetry

You can post whatever you want and you will find your people

Block people who make you uncomfortable and report bots for spam.

Welcome to Tumblr

Do what you want forever

[writhe]

help me help out my neighbors! Angie (gfm with some details) is currently houseless and needs a lot of support and my other neightbor Lee (gfm, does not include recent updates) is facing some pretty intense stuff rn and is danger of losing his home

i made these stickers, they are cool because they are letterpress printed and kind of pithy. and now this is where you come in- if you want one, please send 10 or more dollars to either/both of my neighbors. you can use the gfm links, but preferably send it to them directly:

$SassyMae300 on cashapp / localfundraising1 on cashapp or venmo with the memo 'for Lee's house'

once you do, send me a screenshot and DM a good mailing address and i will snail mail you the sticker for free. i will mail internationally. they are not waterproof but you could try putting clear packing tape over them to change that.

now behold the churning of the machine XOXOX

[avidredux]

Magic Sword

so this is one of my favorite installments of linked universe and i'm going to ramble about why

magic sword takes place right after divine dark reflections, legend is no longer a rabbit, sky is established as being a shit long distance runner, and we get what i'd argue is one of the finest demonstrations of hyrule as a character and fighter. we also get some of my favorite panels in the series, like this one

i love looking down on him

anyway starting with some general Stuff That I Enjoy on a technical level! (under the cut because this got LONG)

first the color palette of this update is so so cool, lots of lovely reds and purples. the shading is amazing, like this panel here

simple but effective! the backlighting is dramatic and interesting, and i'm always a sucker for a silhouette (or nearly a silhouette) shot.

i love the black speckles and splats of the black blood throughout this update, and the way the rest of the colors are almost a gradient through the whole thing, it starts very natural toned, and as the fight intensifies gets darker, more purple and deep red and blue, all in sharp contrast with the blinding yellow and red of fire. it's a neat detail that if i'm not mistaken shows up in quite a few updates. the colors in the comic series as a whole blend in to each other within updates, a smooth, easy for the eye to follow change.

another thing is the paneling itself. the diagonal shapes of the panel help with that movement feel obviously, but also the framing of the characters. the panel up there (looking down on wars) is much more obviously a panel looking down on wars when you can see the slanted edge of the panel, augmenting your perspective of him to make him appear smaller! a neat detail that i didn't consciously realize was there until i had taken a screenshot and seen that he didn't look nearly as tiny as he does in the comic itself.

the angled panel, pov shot, and juxtaposition of wars and moblin, it all adds to the experience of looking down on him

the lack of speech in this one is another big reason i love this update. i'm always a fan of silent updates (or mostly silent, as the case may be) because... well link is a silent hero, it wouldn't feel right for these links to be quipping like mcu characters in the middle of a fight; the lack of talking keep the eye moving, keeps the anticipation building as the fight gets bigger and bigger. it's one of those updates i've come back to time and time again and i'm always seeing new little details because without words in the way, it's almost difficult to take my time "reading" this one, i get too excited!

now onto the actual characters! wars and hyrule are in my top 3 (technically 4 because wars and legend are in a constant fight for second place) in the chain. this update, coupled with their appearance in the divine dark reflections arc, is kind of what led me to loving them in the first place, and for hyrule especially, it establishes some awesome stuff about him with very little.

we obviously get to see wars take down a few of the monsters and kick some ass, showing his bravery against a much larger foe, etc etc but this ain't about him (even though i do love him)

he also does a spin attack! still not about him tho

this is about hyrule.

LOOK AT HIM. LOOK. good. moving on.

this is one of the first moments with hyrule demonstrating his confidence in his skills. though he says in an earlier installment that he, "must have had it easy," (ironic, considering his games), he doesn't seem to doubt his actual capabilities, just what he went through. and, yeah, as difficult as his games are, most of what he went through was just fights. maybe getting jumpscared by aches here and there, and yeah the whole "monsters gunning for his blood" thing, it certainly wasn't a walk in the park but in his eyes, at least he has his memories. at least he wasn't sent on like 6 different adventures before he hit 20. he's a glass half full guy, he's not going to look at his adventures against theirs and come to the conclusion that he was unlucky.

what he does have utmost confidence in is his fighting. this isn't the first time he's been a competent fighter (the second installment sees him finishing off the moblin with his iconc downward jump strike) but it is one of the first instances of him acknowledging he's a badass. a cocky bit of lightening and a smirk and jojo establishes that hyrule knows his power. hyrule knows he could wipe the floor with a horde of monsters, no problem. and he does!

though not without getting knocked down, which brings us to, not another Big establishing moment, but a smaller one, one that pays off later when twilight nearly kicks the bucket

someone call chumbawamba

his tenacity. get knocked down, get back up. he immediately cuts this lizalfos's tail off and we get this banger of a panel

love his smirk here, he seems to like fighting quite a bit

it's a smaller detail, and when the others get knocked off their feet they tend to get up too ofc, but it's so focused on in this update compared to in other updates, like here where when hyrule gets whipped with a tail, wild kills the lizalfos, and the comic moves on to warriors. intentional foreshadowing of hyrule's life savingly perseverant nature or not, i think it's a great moment for him

speaking of saving lives, his MAGIC

probably one of the coolest panels in lu and i swear i'm not biased

one of the coolest things about hyrule (and indeed AoL, one of my favorite zelda games) is his magic! he's got a number of spells, and if i'm not mistaken he's actually used his Jump spell in the comic before this point (when he does that cool aforementioned jump strike) but his first obvious magic (spells that someone not knowing his games would recognize as magic and not him maybe jumping out of a tree) are a little bit of Thunder in the first panel of this update, and of course Fire.

it really sets him apart from the other links, since none of this is from special items. he just... has magic ability and learns some spells that he now uses in battle to devastating effect (if you're a monster at least) i love the dichotomy of him being The Classic Link, humble and brave and strong and just, while also being a bit of a black sheep with his use of magic. it's a great mirror to how his games are perceived irl

now on to some of my favorite bits just for fun

love the sequence of them saving each other back to back

i'm sure wars is rethinking everything he knows about this guy

love this panel, hyrule makes amazing faces throughout lu but this is one of my favorites, just resonates with me

SIR

screams until i throw up this one is iconic I LOVE HIM also the magical sword is so so pretty i can't believe i didn't mention it sooner like fi i love you but damn hyrule has a fine weapon

head in my hands i love these guys so bmuch

i have to include this bit from the update right before this one

i love them

anyway thanks for reading if you got this far! this is dedicated to @esthelle-wanders who commented on another post of mine and spurred me to finally write this up! i hope you enjoy it!

all artwork is from @/linkeduniverse

[borderlinereminders]

Something I get asked a lot is how can I prepare for bad times or crisis? Things like triggers, anxiety, emotional breakdowns, dark periods and etc. I’m going to share with you what I do, but we’re all different. Even if my preparations don’t work for you, maybe they can inspire your own ideas!

I practice my skills when I’m not in crisis

This includes my dbt skills but also my general grounding skills. Doing them when I’m not in crisis allows them to be easier for me to recall. When not in crisis is the time to try new ones too!

Here is my list of possible skill ideas. Tolerance is the section I recommend focusing on for getting through an immediate emotional crisis.

If breathing exercises help you, practicing these when you don’t need them could also be good!

I have a note with instructions on my phone

One set of instructions talk me through the steps of grounding. Another set talks me through dealing with harmful urges. And there’s more. I know what can send me into spirals so I also have instructions for challenging irrational thoughts and things like that. When I feel overwhelmed, it’s easy to forget how to handle stuff. Writing it down when I’m calm helps me be prepared because then all I have to actually remember is to read the list. The rest of the info is there for me.

I keep a self-care box and comfort items

Here’s how to make a self care box with ideas of what to put in it. Having ready to go items makes it so much less overwhelming to grab and utilize. One of the things I have in there is a list of small things I can do that usually help me feel calm or happy. I also save my favourite feel good video links on my phone to watch as needed.

I keep screenshots and letters from loved ones telling me they love me

When I’m in crisis, it’s easy to forget and sometimes they aren’t available for reassurance or I can’t bring myself to ask for it. Having these bits of proof can help calm me through the crisis.

I made a crisis plan

Here’s an activity idea for making one. If you aren’t up to making one, I at least recommend having a list of people/friends you can contact if you need.

Some other general tips:

Be prepared to deal with urges. Here’s a post on urge surfing.

I wrote an article on preparing for traumaversaries, and a lot of it is likely helpful for preparing for other bad times. It’s here!

Create a safe place for yourself. Maybe this means decorating your room how you want, or having comfort items or things in it. But the goal is to have somewhere you can go to feel safe. This could even be a place you create in your mind.

Overall, you know how you act during a crisis. You know what things are the hardest. When you aren’t in crisis, brainstorm how to handle those things and prepare anything you need.

[cacodaemonia]

New AO3 spam/scam tactic

Heeeey all. I've posted a lot about the AO3 comments scams that have been going around since late 2024, and yesterday, I shared a well-sourced video that discusses the explosion of long con scams in general since 2020. For anyone who's curious about this kind of thing, those links might be useful for you, but I think they also help explain why this comment I got a few days ago immediately pinged my scam radar:

(Yes, since then, AO3 support has responded to me and confirmed that the account is posting spam. I'm not slandering some random new user)

So, red flag #1: the comment came in on a fic I'd just posted that day. This is very consistent for these seemingly innocuous comments—they'll pop up the day a new work is posted or the day a new chapter goes up. Red flag #2: I don't recognize the user at all. I'm sure this wouldn't work for very popular creators on AO3 who get loads of comments, but I know all the people who comment on my stuff and rarely get new commenters. So that was odd in itself. Red flag #3: the comment is extremely vague and generic. It doesn't mention characters or anything that happens in the fic, but unlike short comments by real people, the message has a very... 'email they sent to a work colleague with whom they're friendly' vibe to it. That's pretty standard, too. Red flag #4: when I went to the user's profile, I saw that, shockingly, it was a brand new account and completely blank. For a while, these scammers were including weird amounts of contact info in their AO3 profiles (you can see examples in the posts I linked to at the top), but lately, they've been more bare bones. Red flag #5: the comment is such weird overkill. This is probably more specific to the fic I posted that day, but if it had been a long, complex story, I might have just thought the commenter was being extremely generous with their wording. The thing I posted, however, was a 600 word fluffy scene where nothing 'captivating' happens 😂 Like I said, weird overkill.

I think that covers my main reasons for immediately being suspicious. I wanted to explain them because a lot of people I've spoken to about these spam comments don't suspect them right away. And it really sucks having to be paranoid, but here we are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As I mentioned, AO3 confirmed that the comment was spam, and they took it down. I also saw another comment from the same scam account yesterday, but by the time I got the reply from AO3 this morning, that comment was gone. So it may be that they're mass deleting comments by those spam accounts now? If anyone has insight on this, I'd love to know.

Anyway, just to give another example of the wording of the comment, here's a screenshot of it:

Vague again, and the fic was a one-shot, so mentioning a chapter is fishy.

I hope this helps prevent a few people from getting sucked into these long con scams. I still don't know exactly how they play out beyond the scammers offering to do paid art commissions, but obviously, they're making money with the comments or they wouldn't be flooding AO3 with them.

[gottagobuycheese]

HEY! YOU!

You've probably heard by now, but from March 4th to 10th 2024, Help Gaza Children will be sending all their donations to families in northern Gaza, where food prices have skyrocketed even more than in the south. Their goal is $25K by the end of the week; at the time of writing this post, it's about halfway a quarter way there! (OG post about it) [EDIT: my mistake, I misinterpreted the numbers in the original post; evidently I cannot do arithmetic anymore]

This is their notion site, which has their donation link as well as additional info, their FAQ, important updates, and proof of purchases from donations they’ve gotten in the past. You can also donate directly to their paypal here.

As such, I'll be open for sketch commissions up from now (March 7th, 2024 ~02:20 PST) through March 10th in exchange for proof of donation to Help Gaza Children!

BASIC OVERVIEW:

Tier 1 - Basic head/bust sketch for $1-5 USD, +50% for basic color. Up to 3 characters.

Tier 2 - Basic screencap resketch for $5-15 USD, +50% for basic color.

Tier 3 - Posed sketch for $15-25 USD, 1-2 characters ONLY.

Tier 4 - Colored clean sketch: $25+ USD, 1-2 characters ONLY.

RULES:

Please provide a visual reference or detailed description of the character(s) you want drawn (and depending on the tier, a screencap or pose/expression you want to go with it)

DO'S: OCs, humans and human-like creatures, other creatures that don't have a lot of mechanical or anatomical detail (as in, I can TRY to do mecha stuff, but I think you and I will both be better of if I don't lol; can ask for further details)

DON'T'S: any NSFW stuff, real people currently alive (as in, historical figures in the setting of historical fiction may be okay, but other things may not be; can ask for further details)

If you've made your donation in a currency that is not USD, I'll give you something of equivalent value according to the tier based on whatever the conversion is at the time that I look it up. If one or both of our economies crashes spectacularly in between the time you send it and the time I look it up, I'm very sorry in advance

DISCLAIMER 1: I reserve the right to decline a commission for any reason; however, if this ends up being the case, I may reach out to you to see if we can come up with a middle ground that suits us both.

DISCLAIMER 2: I don't anticipate being able to do a lot of these, as I've got a full-time job that's in the ballpark ~80+ hours a week with really weird hours. That being said, depending on how far this goes, turnaround time will probably be ~2-3 months, give or take...something. I'll update you monthly until it's done.

FOR PERSONAL, NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY!

If you're interested in nabbing a sketch from me in exchange for your donation, email a screenshot (devoid of any personal info please) of your donation receipt and details of your sketch request (e.g. reference, tier, etc.) to gottagobuycheese@gmail.com. For your donation to count for a sketch, it must be made after I wrote this post! (March 7, 2024 ~02:20 A.M. PST)

If you are NOT interested in nabbing a sketch from me, feel free to donate anyway!!

(And if you've got any questions about anything feel free to email, DM, or send an ask!)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

Media explainers are a cheap way to become an instant expert on everything from billionaire submarine excursions to hellaciously complex geopolitical conflicts, but On The Media's "Breaking News Consumers' Handbooks" are explainers that help you understand other explainers:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-and-gaza-edition-on-the-media

The latest handbook is an Israel-Gaza edition. It doesn't aim to parse fine distinctions over the definition of "occupation" or identify the source of shell fragments. Rather, it offers seven bullet points' worth of advice on weighing all the other news you hear about the war:

https://media.wnyc.org/media/resources/2023/Oct/27/BNCH_ISRAEL_GAZA_EDITION_1.pdf

I. "Headlines are obscured by the fog of war"

Headline writers have a hard job under the best of circumstances – trying to snag your interest in a few words. Headlines can't encompass all the nuance of a story, and they are often written by editors, not the writers who produced the story. Between the imperatives for speed and brevity and the broken telephone between editors and writers, it's easy for headlines to go wrong, even when no one is attempting to mislead you. Even reliable outlets will screw up headlines sometimes – and that likelihood goes way up in times like these. You gotta read the story, not just the headline.

II. Know red flags for bullshit

The factually untrue information that spreads furthest tends to originate with a handful of superspreader accounts. Whether these people are Just Wrong or malicious disinfo peddlers, they share a few characteristics that should trip your BS meter and prompt extra scrutiny:

High-frequency posting

Emotionally charged framing

Posts that purport to be summaries or excerpts from news outlets, but do not include links to the original

The phrase "breaking news" (no one has that many scoops)

III. Don't trust screenshots

Screenshots of news stories, tweets, and other social media should come with links to the original. It's just too damned easy to fake a screenshot.

IV. "Know your platform"

It used to be that Twitter got a lot of first-person accounts from people in the thick of crises, while Facebook and Reddit contained commentary and reposts. Today, Twitter is just another aggregator. This time around, there's lots of first-person, real-time reporting coming off Telegram (it runs well on old phones and doesn't chew up batteries). Instagram is widely used in both Israel and the West Bank.

V. "Crisis actors" aren't a thing

People who attribute war images to "crisis actors" are either deluded or lying. There's plenty of ways to distort war news, but paying people to pretend to be grieving family members is essentially unheard of. Any explanation that involves crisis actors is a solid reason to permanently block that source.

VI. There's plenty of ways to verify stuff that smells fishy

TinEye, Yandex and Google Image Search are all good tools for checking "breaking" images and seeing if they're old copypasta ganked from earlier conflicts (or, you know, video-games). The fact that an image doesn't show up in one of these searches doesn't guarantee its authenticity, of course.

VII. Think before you post

Israel-Gaza is the most polluted media pool yet. Don't make it worse.

There's plenty more detail on this (especially on the use of verification tools) in Brooke Gladstone's radio segment:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-gaza-edition

The media environment sucks, and warrants skepticism and caution. But we also need to be skeptical of skepticism itself! As danah boyd started saying all the way back in 2018, weaponized media literacy leads to conspiratorialism:

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2018/03/09/you-think-you-want-media-literacy-do-you.html

Remember, the biggest peddlers of "fake news" are also the most prolific users of the term. For a lot of these information warriors, the point isn't to get you to believe them – they'll settle for you believing nothing. "Flood the zone with bullshit" is Steve Bannon's go-to tactic, and it's one that his acolytes have picked up and multiplied.

It's important to be a critical thinker, but there's plenty of people who've figured out how to weaponize a critical viewpoint and turn it into nihilism. Remember, the guy who wrote How To Lie With Statistics was a tobacco industry shill who made his living obfuscating the link between smoking and cancer. It's absolutely possible to lie with statistics, but it's also possible to use statistics to know the truth, as Tim Harford explains in his 2021 must-read book The Data Detective:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

There's a world of difference between being misled and being brainwashed. A lot of today's worry about "disinformation" and "misinformation" has the whiff of a moral panic:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/are-we-having-a-moral-panic-over-misinformation.html

It's possible to have a nuanced view of this subject – to take steps to enure you're not being tricked without equating crude tricks like sticking a fake BBC chyron on a 10-year-old image with unstoppable mind-control:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/28/fog-o-war/#breaking-news

[peachyfnaf]

waving. hellooo tsams (and even general dca) community!!! i have found an art thief on pinterest, and would greatly appreciate some help getting their stuff taken down :)

this is the link to said art thief's profile

and here is a screenshot of just a small amount of stolen art that i could find by scrolling down through their profile. there's a lot of popular artists in there- huh? much more than just my art has been stolen by this person. (and obviously, none of what is shown is mine. or about 98% of it is- there might be 1 or 2 of my drawings in here lmao)

so, now that we know about this- how do we fix it? how do we get this person's blog taken down? here's some step-by-step instructions of what to do!

click this button right here

select "report" (there's also a "block" option, which is up to you whether or not to use after you report)

select whichever one applies to you!! for the second one, you gotta *find* the art piece they stole from you, copy its link from the pinterest post, and then go through a rather annoying process to get it taken down, but it'll be worth it to get rid of this person. but, if you really don't wanna go through all that though (which is completely fair, its annoying as hell) then just mark "spam" instead. You're not lying about that, either

and that should be it!! remember to always plaster your signature all over your art, fellow artists. thank you for the help dca gang, now toodles :)

[armoricaroyalty]

Get ready for Simblr Bingo!

Simblr Bingo is a week-long event themed around community and engagement. The goal is to send as many asks, leave as many comments, and reblog as many posts as possible in a one-week time span.

To help you on your way, you'll get a unique Bingo Card with a variety of different challenges. For example, you might be tasked with Sending an anonymous ask to a mutual or reblogging a post featuring an elder Sim. Your goal is to complete as many challenges as you can and rack up the bingos!

How to Participate

It's simple! To get your bingo card, click here, then click "Play" and then "Player." Starting on Sunday, October 6th, post a screenshot of your bingo card with #simblr bingo (and link back to this post, if you can!)

Throughout the week, keep your eye out for chances to complete goals and mark off spaces on your card. You can either edit your downloaded card in an image editor or mark off your completed goals on the bingo website (be sure to bookmark your card!)

Rules for playing

No double-dipping! There might be some overlap in some of your challenges (for example, you might have squares that say Reblog a piece of CAS CC and Reblog your favorite hair) but you can only complete 1 objective at a time. To mark both as complete, you'll need to reblog 2 posts.

Spread the love! Try to engage with as many different people as possible. You might be able to complete your whole bingo card by going through the archives of a few friends and mutuals, but that's a lot less fun than seeking out new people to engage with.

Be nice! A few of the challenges say specifically to compliment someone on something, but that doesn't mean you can be a hater for the rest of the prompts. Focus on spreading positivity.

Can I generate a second card?

Yes! Follow the steps above, but open the card in a private window.

Are there any themed bingo cards for specific simblr genres?

What a specific and leading question! Yes! Below the cut, I've made a royal simblr bingo card featuring challenges specific to royal simblr. If you'd like to make a card dedicated to your favorite genre, follow the instructions on the website and send me the link. I'll edit the post to include your link!

Ready...set...bingo!

Themed Bingos

Royal Simblr Bingo by @armoricaroyalty

Tips for making a themed bingo

Check out the Simblr Bingo Starter List

Come up with different prompts and challenges for each category (asks, comments, reblogs). A good bingo game needs around 75 items to ensure all players have unique cards.

I tried for 30 ask prompts, 30 comment prompts, and 15 reblog prompts. I want to encourage people to actively engage with one-another versus only reblogging.

Try to include prompts that encourage people to talk to new people, engage with new stuff, and seek out to posts that get less attention.

Keep it positive! Focus on spreading positivity and making it fun for everyone.

[tinystepsforward]

automattic vs wp engine mastterpost

adrienne's GitHub recap is probably the best place to see a comprehensive timeline of what's going down. it's been kept up to date. my (very out of date) previous writeup is here.

what's happened/other links

Matt has not logged off, just switched platforms, so there's lots on X/Twitter, Reddit, and Hacker News. it's really not worth wading through.

WP Engine actually filed suit.

the complaint includes some truly remarkable screenshots of Matt trying to blackmail the CEO of WP Engine.

which... personally i would not happily work for someone who just blackmailed me while not even my boss, but that's just me. he hasn't denied this at all, in fact confirming on Hacker News:

I haven't doxxed any private texts from other parties like they have. [source]

and, notably,

I even invited her to my 40th birthday on Jan 11, another text message she decided not to share. [source]

this gives me the creeps. in the context of the rest of the way he's talking to her, and the ways in which he's interacted with women in general, it's. not great.

also he slid into an ex-employee (also a woman)'s DMs asking why she was being mean to him bc he'd never been nothing but nice to her, while also making legal threats. so y'know, pattern of behaviour.

a good writeup of the social side of things

if you don't care so much about the open-source stuff, Steph Lundberg's writeup is, like her previous one on Matt's Tumblr meltdown, pretty solid and people-focused.

Mullenweg has already demonstrated egregious lapses in judgment and abuses of power, it’s just that up until now he’s wielded his power against vulnerable populations without access to high-powered lawyers and their own massive platforms.

a more technical writeup

this one is melodramatic in the same ways Matt was (uses war terminology), which i don't agree with, and which led to some... internal arguments at Automattic. that part's not my story to tell, but a little more on that later. it's a solid writeup of the actual WordPress side of things. there's some seriously dodgy trademark behaviour going on here.

of note: this blogger locked comments on his post:

and then Matt, uh, found a way around that:

wild!

10% of Automattic leaves

that's a link to Matt's blog post. here's an Internet Archive link.

in short, staff were offered a severance deal of the higher of $30k or six months' salary. while that's very generous, it's still very risky in today's tech market, especially (for the same reasons i mentioned when Matt was melting down on here) for people outside the US, people who need the health insurance, or people with young kids. despite that, 10% decided with very little notice (they had two days to decide) to leave.

However now, I feel much lighter. I’m grateful and thankful for all the people who took the offer, and even more excited to work with those who turned down $126M to stay. As the kids say, LFG!

i'm thrilled to see some of my ex-colleagues make it out. i'm keeping the rest who have stayed on in my thoughts. i don't know anyone who's wholesale shilling for Matt.

Matt's been pressuring staff to post in support of him, @-ing the entire company to vote on Twitter polls in his favor, and so on. many of the people who stayed have written blog posts about it, all starting with "I stayed". people on social media have pointed out the very clear pattern of Automatticians jumping into discourse to defend Matt, and it doesn't look good.

i don't have a lot to say about those posts, except to highlight Jeffrey Zeldman, whose "I stayed" post is perhaps one of the more honest ones. (his Rodney King reference was in poor taste, and he... i don't like his role at automattic, tbc) but like. he's nearly 70. he helped shape the modern internet and develop its accessibility standards. he has often put his neck on the line for disabled staff who don't have as much clout as he does. given the financial troubles he talks about and the state of this market and how old he is, i personally have read between the lines of what he's saying in a particular way.

fuck, man. i'm sad. i'm sad for all my friends who are creaking under the strain and watching others leave but who can't do that. i'm sad that many of them are left in teams which are half-empty or divisions where significant senior leadership are just gone, with no time to document what they had in progress.

i'm sad for Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the former executive director of the WordPress Foundation, who was dealing with a personal emergency and ended up having to miss WordCamp US (where Matt started publicly starting shit with WPE). she came back from that to a gigantic fire in the community she's invested a decade of careful, Matt-negotiating, stewardship to, and decided to take the severance offer. she deserved better.

other things Matt's been up to

mostly linking to comments or posts which compile things here, bc it's too scattered otherwise.

blocking people from the official WordPress X account if they disapprove of his actions.

publicly talking about a vulnerability in ACF, a plugin WPE maintains, which could put thousands of sites at risk. this is not normal, and he met with so much horror even from current staff that he deleted his post.

saying he comes across badly because he's "a little ASD", which is driving me personally up the fucking wall. he's never once said it before and he really is turning into Temu Elon.

generally bragging that he still has more planned. jesus fucking christ

continually saying that WPE's suit is against WordPress.org and the community, which is not true. on which note, his pinned tweet is certainly something:

his choice of lawyer is uh. the kind of guy to defend nestle against literal child slaves.

as always, while i think WordPress crumbling will disproportionately affect websites in poorer parts of the world, there are certainly tyrants who are causing much more immediate and potent suffering. if you've read this far, please do send anything you have spare to gazafunds.com.

[madynacht]

A few people have asked me about kitbashing art from retrograde minis so I decided to make a tutorial on it!

First off I recommend installing paint.net, I find it has everything I need for what I make but as long as you have some sort of art program that has layers it will work. But I'll be showing stuff in paint.net since its what I know. Here's the link to paint.net, its free! https://www.getpaint.net/ First step you need to do is to make sure antialiasing is off, just select the paintbrush or eraser and select the following two options:

This will give the paintbrush and eraser a hard edge, which are vital to working with pixel art. Heres a comparison:

Now we can get to the actual kitbashing. There are two methods I know of, the first is the one I primarily use and the other my lovely girlfriend @gay-dollish-catgirl uses. Both are useful for different circumstances so I encourage mixing them up! The first method is what I called layer and erase and I find it is the easiest. First get the two colours you want for your mech, usually the base colour and then the accent colour. You can get these by downloading from retrograde minis, taking a screenshot of the web page, or using the All++ option if you have patreon membership, which I personally recommend to support the creator! For this example I'll be using this tortuga in platinum and scarlet:

I recommend fiddling around in paint.net to get used to the tools, especially the magic wand tool, I could do a tutorial on that alone, and if anyone wants that I can! For now we will focus on the kitbash. Next you want to put these in the same image and layer them on top of each other. First add a new layer, which you can do in the layer window here:

This will create a new layer above the selected layer, which you can then drag around above or below the existing layers. Next, take your other coloured mech and place it above or below the current one, with the base colour you want being above the accent layer. In this case I want the platinum to be the base colour and the scarlet to be the accent so Ive organized them like this:

Now we can actually get to doing the kitbash, and from here its simple. All you do is erase from the base colour layer to reveal the accent layer underneath, make sure you have the base colour layer selected too, other wise it will seem like nothings happened... that happens to me a lot. But if you did it right erasing the top layer should reveal the bottom layer and cause it to show through like so:

From there just continue to do so for any other parts you want to be the accent colour

Once you have all the parts you want coloured done, merge the layers together with the following button:

Once its merged you can just start over with a new colour, doing the same technique to continue adding to the mech until you are happy with the end result! I recommend experimenting with the tools and shortcuts in paint.net! Now for the other method which admittedly I'm not as good at but I wanted to show off anyway! This method involves creating a colour palette and manually replacing the colours. First find the part you want to replace, which in my case is the top of the mechs head

If you look at the colours on the head you can see there are actually only really 4 different colours, which if I colour them differently you can see:

It looks a bit weird but can help visualizing that there are only 4 different colours. What you then need to do is make a palette of 4 different colours to replace the existing one. This can be done several ways, by taking the existing colours and tweaking them, taking them from another image, or just playing with colours and eyeballing it. I find the first option to be the best for me

Eventually youll get something like this! It will take some time fiddling with colours to get it exactly right but once you do you can make some pretty funky looking colours with this technique! As an end note be sure to save the files in PNG and not the PDN format, the PNG format is more widely supported, and PDN should only be used when you want to keep the layers, which can be useful if you want to reuse stuff from a mech for later! once again Im not an artist, so Im not sure how helpful this will be, but if it gets a few more people making mechs then that is my goal! If anyone has any questions please feel free to send me and I'll answer them as best I can! If anyone makes any mechs using my techniques please lemme know so I can check them out and reblog them too!