#would that i could get an adblock on mobile

[administer-distractions]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

My next book is The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation: it’s a Big Tech disassembly manual that explains how to disenshittify the web and bring back the old good internet. The hardcover comes from Verso on Sept 5, but the audiobook comes from me — because Amazon refuses to sell my audio:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation

Amazon owns Audible, the monopoly audiobook platform that controls >90% of the audio market. They require mandatory DRM for every book sold, locking those books forever to Amazon’s monopoly platform. If you break up with Amazon, you have to throw away your entire audiobook library.

That’s a hell of a lot of leverage to hand to any company, let alone a rapacious monopoly that ran a program targeting small publishers called “Project Gazelle,” where execs were ordered to attack indie publishers “the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”:

https://www.businessinsider.com/sadistic-amazon-treated-book-sellers-the-way-a-cheetah-would-pursue-a-sickly-gazelle-2013-10

[Image ID: Journalist and novelist Doctorow (Red Team Blues) details a plan for how to break up Big Tech in this impassioned and perceptive manifesto….Doctorow’s sense of urgency is contagious -Publishers Weekly]

I won’t sell my work with DRM, because DRM is key to the enshittification of the internet. Enshittification is why the old, good internet died and became “five giant websites filled with screenshots of the other four” (h/t Tom Eastman). When a tech company can lock in its users and suppliers, it can drain value from both sides, using DRM and other lock-in gimmicks to keep their business even as they grow ever more miserable on the platform.

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

[Image ID: A brilliant barn burner of a book. Cory is one of the sharpest tech critics, and he shows with fierce clarity how our computational future could be otherwise -Kate Crawford, author of The Atlas of AI”]

The Internet Con isn’t just an analysis of where enshittification comes from: it’s a detailed, shovel-ready policy prescription for halting enshittification, throwing it into reverse and bringing back the old, good internet.

How do we do that? With interoperability: the ability to plug new technology into those crapulent, decaying platform. Interop lets you choose which parts of the service you want and block the parts you don’t (think of how an adblocker lets you take the take-it-or-leave “offer” from a website and reply with “How about nah?”):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

But interop isn’t just about making platforms less terrible — it’s an explosive charge that demolishes walled gardens. With interop, you can leave a social media service, but keep talking to the people who stay. With interop, you can leave your mobile platform, but bring your apps and media with you to a rival’s service. With interop, you can break up with Amazon, and still keep your audiobooks.

So, if interop is so great, why isn’t it everywhere?

Well, it used to be. Interop is how Microsoft became the dominant operating system:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

[Image ID: Nobody gets the internet-both the nuts and bolts that make it hum and the laws that shaped it into the mess it is-quite like Cory, and no one’s better qualified to deliver us a user manual for fixing it. That’s The Internet Con: a rousing, imaginative, and accessible treatise for correcting our curdled online world. If you care about the internet, get ready to dedicate yourself to making interoperability a reality. -Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine]

It’s how Apple saved itself from Microsoft’s vicious campaign to destroy it:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Every tech giant used interop to grow, and then every tech giant promptly turned around and attacked interoperators. Every pirate wants to be an admiral. When Big Tech did it, that was progress; when you do it back to Big Tech, that’s piracy. The tech giants used their monopoly power to make interop without permission illegal, creating a kind of “felony contempt of business model” (h/t Jay Freeman).

The Internet Con describes how this came to pass, but, more importantly, it tells us how to fix it. It lays out how we can combine different kinds of interop requirements (like the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Massachusetts’s Right to Repair law) with protections for reverse-engineering and other guerrilla tactics to create a system that is strong without being brittle, hard to cheat on and easy to enforce.

What’s more, this book explains how to get these policies: what existing legislative, regulatory and judicial powers can be invoked to make them a reality. Because we are living through the Great Enshittification, and crises erupt every ten seconds, and when those crises occur, the “good ideas lying around” can move from the fringes to the center in an eyeblink:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/12/only-a-crisis/#lets-gooooo

[Image ID: Thoughtfully written and patiently presented, The Internet Con explains how the promise of a free and open internet was lost to predatory business practices and the rush to commodify every aspect of our lives. An essential read for anyone that wants to understand how we lost control of our digital spaces and infrastructure to Silicon Valley’s tech giants, and how we can start fighting to get it back. -Tim Maughan, author of INFINITE DETAIL]

After all, we’ve known Big Tech was rotten for years, but we had no idea what to do about it. Every time a Big Tech colossus did something ghastly to millions or billions of people, we tried to fix the tech company. There’s no fixing the tech companies. They need to burn. The way to make users safe from Big Tech predators isn’t to make those predators behave better — it’s to evacuate those users:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/18/urban-wildlife-interface/#combustible-walled-gardens

I’ve been campaigning for human rights in the digital world for more than 20 years; I’ve been EFF’s European Director, representing the public interest at the EU, the UN, Westminster, Ottawa and DC. This is the subject I’ve devoted my life to, and I live my principles. I won’t let my books be sold with DRM, which means that Audible won’t carry my audiobooks. My agent tells me that this decision has cost me enough money to pay off my mortgage and put my kid through college. That’s a price I’m willing to pay if it means that my books aren’t enshittification bait.

But not selling on Audible has another cost, one that’s more important to me: a lot of readers prefer audiobooks and 9 out of 10 of those readers start and end their searches on Audible. When they don’t find an author there, they assume no audiobook exists, period. It got so bad I put up an audiobook on Amazon — me, reading an essay, explaining how Audible rips off writers and readers. It’s called “Why None of My Audiobooks Are For Sale on Audible”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

[Image ID: Doctorow has been thinking longer and smarter than anyone else I know about how we create and exchange value in a digital age. -Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock]

To get my audiobooks into readers’ ears, I pre-sell them on Kickstarter. This has been wildly successful, both financially and as a means of getting other prominent authors to break up with Amazon and use crowdfunding to fill the gap. Writers like Brandon Sanderson are doing heroic work, smashing Amazon’s monopoly:

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/guest-editorial-cory-doctorow-is-a-bestselling-author-but-audible-wont-carry-his-audiobooks/

And to be frank, I love audiobooks, too. I swim every day as physio for a chronic pain condition, and I listen to 2–3 books/month on my underwater MP3 player, disappearing into an imaginary world as I scull back and forth in my public pool. I’m able to get those audiobooks on my MP3 player thanks to Libro.fm, a DRM-free store that supports indie booksellers all over the world:

https://blog.libro.fm/a-qa-with-mark-pearson-libro-fm-ceo-and-co-founder/

Producing my own audiobooks has been a dream. Working with Skyboat Media, I’ve gotten narrators like @wilwheaton​, Amber Benson, @neil-gaiman​ and Stefan Rudnicki for my work:

https://craphound.com/shop/

[Image ID: “This book is the instruction manual Big Tech doesn’t want you to read. It deconstructs their crummy products, undemocratic business models, rigged legal regimes, and lies. Crack this book and help build something better. -Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When Its Gone”]

But for this title, I decided that I would read it myself. After all, I’ve been podcasting since 2006, reading my own work aloud every week or so, even as I traveled the world and gave thousands of speeches about the subject of this book. I was excited (and a little trepedatious) at the prospect, but how could I pass up a chance to work with director Gabrielle de Cuir, who has directed everyone from Anne Hathaway to LeVar Burton to Eric Idle?

Reader, I fucking nailed it. I went back to those daily recordings fully prepared to hate them, but they were good — even great (especially after my engineer John Taylor Williams mastered them). Listen for yourself!

https://archive.org/details/cory_doctorow_internet_con_chapter_01

I hope you’ll consider backing this Kickstarter. If you’ve ever read my free, open access, CC-licensed blog posts and novels, or listened to my podcasts, or come to one of my talks and wished there was a way to say thank you, this is it. These crowdfunders make my DRM-free publishing program viable, even as audiobooks grow more central to a writer’s income and even as a single company takes over nearly the entire audiobook market.

Backers can choose from the DRM-free audiobook, DRM-free ebook (EPUB and MOBI) and a hardcover — including a signed, personalized option, fulfilled through the great LA indie bookstore Book Soup:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation

What’s more, these ebooks and audiobooks are unlike any you’ll get anywhere else because they are sold without any terms of service or license agreements. As has been the case since time immemorial, when you buy these books, they’re yours, and you are allowed to do anything with them that copyright law permits — give them away, lend them to friends, or simply read them with any technology you choose.

As with my previous Kickstarters, backers can get their audiobooks delivered with an app (from libro.fm) or as a folder of MP3s. That helps people who struggle with “sideloading,” a process that Apple and Google have made progressively harder, even as they force audiobook and ebook sellers to hand over a 30% app tax on every dollar they make:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell/posts/3788112

Enshittification is rotting every layer of the tech stack: mobile, payments, hosting, social, delivery, playback. Every tech company is pulling the rug out from under us, using the chokepoints they built between audiences and speakers, artists and fans, to pick all of our pockets.

The Internet Con isn’t just a lament for the internet we lost — it’s a plan to get it back. I hope you’ll get a copy and share it with the people you love, even as the tech platforms choke off your communities to pad their quarterly numbers.

Next weekend (Aug 4-6), I'll be in Austin for Armadillocon, a science fiction convention, where I'm the Guest of Honor:

https://armadillocon.org/d45/

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/31/seize-the-means-of-computation/#the-internet-con

[Image ID: My forthcoming book 'The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation' in various editions: Verso hardcover, audiobook displayed on a phone, and ebook displayed on an e-ink reader.]

[funkin-news]

ninjamuffin newgrounds post!

tl;dr

fuck ads!! use adblocker whenever you can!!

the crew tries to make fnf as ad-free as possible, not just the game but where you download it- it's why it's on itch/newgrounds and not anywhere that offers ad revenue

that being said, fnf mobile will likely have a free version which... will have ads. they will try not to make the ads too obnoxious

(there will be an ad-free paid version too!)

extra note from me, not the post: if you're an android user you totally shouldn't use youtube revanced and purpletv or anything for mobile youtube and twitch adblockers. it would be such a hindrance to the advertisers. ha ha

full post copied below ⬇️

greetings and merry xmas newgrounds

on my brain for a very long time has been advertisements. Something about ads that stick in my brain ever since I came across this little thing from Lichess.

In due time, unfortunately this post will become a bit hypocritical, as we will eventually publish FNF onto mobile, and that will very likely have a free ad supported version. Hopefully that doesn't undermine my thoughts too much, however FNF is more than just me and my brain! Not everything I say goes in terms of FNF decisions! So with all that being said, let me begin shouting about everything I hate about ads.

I use adblocker on everything, and you should too. UBlock Origin has been my reliable go to. Online ads are especially an insidious breed. I'll try not to be some tinfoil hat, but I do often wonder what the internet would look like if the online ad model *wasn't* fruitful back in the early days of the internet. Would Facebook, Google, etc. have an arms race to the bottom to get infinite amounts of data on every single person ever? Would social media algorithms optimize for a different experience other than *spend as much time as possible on our site*? Ads have existed before Youtube, Google, internet though. They exist on TV, on subways and buses, on radio, in newspapers. I think for the most part my deep hatred of ads is for online kind, I do think there can be "irl" ads that I find very unpleasant. Going on a subway or sitting at a bus stop, I think people deserve more dignity from their city public transit than to have something sold to them! I don't think an ad free life should be only reserved for those who can pay for spotify premium, youtube red, etc. I think everyone should be entitled to that DIGNITY.

X (the everything app, formerly Twitter ) has a Premium subscription that costs 10$/month (CAD), and they will only give you *half* the ads in your feed. How generous of them. I will be dramatic, and say that I look at ads with disgust. I hope to think I'm somewhat justified, as most ads look like dogshit, and are pretty worthless.

For a very long time (and currently, as of writing/posting) FNF has been entirely ad free. We did stand up to putting it on other web portals that offer ads and ad payments/rev share, because we do somewhat want to be part of the change we'd like to see in the world. We want to believe in a world where someone can put out a free game on itch/newgrounds, and have the development be supported purely off donations (which FNF was supported by that in the early days / first 6 months of development!). We definitely could have made much MUCH more money if we put FNF on websites that offer ad rev share, but we didn't, and I hope that doesn't fall on deaf ears.

However we do promote our own things from within the game, Kickstarter, merch, etc. I suppose I'm less upset or even thinking about that, I think there's a big difference if we had a lil Kickstarter trailer in-game that played, opposed to having an in-game advertisement for some fuckass mobile game or some cosmetics or somethin. We specifically are still curating what we are putting in the game with our lil links to merch, kickstarter, etc.

We also provide the soundtrack on Spotify / streaming services, which do indeed get money from ads. I think I'm so detatched from Spotify ads and being angry at them, since I've been spotify premium user even at the brokest poorest in my life... i need them album downloads!!! I do think that's an aspect where there is an adfree alternative, which is Bandcmap, where you can listen to the FNF OST as much as you want, and if you pay some coin, you can download it in high quality!

My thoughts on FNF mobile with ads is that they will make me very unhappy and deeply sad. I do sincerely apologize to those of you who would be unable to play FNF on anything other than a mobile device, and aren't able to get the full mobile version, so you become punished with ads. We do hope to not be obnoxious with mobile ads. If you have a computer, even a shitty busted one that runs slow, I personally hope you end up compiling the mobile version yourself to get past ads. The thought of that lets me rest easier just a little bit. The FNF will be proudly open source forever.

There will also be a paid version of FNF mobile, that will have no ads. Pay for that one if you please.

[sarkyfancypants]

Twitter or X whatever people call it these days, it's in the slums at this point. You can't go two minutes without encountering the most vile content, pessimistic, hostile, invasive posts that only ruin your mood.

That or ads and posts made by bots, because nearly a high majority of accounts there aren't even humans. I have adblockers on desktop, but on mobile I would get nearly 8 ads in a row it's insane.

I have moved on to Bluesky which is like Twitter minus the hostile environment and getting likes feels more meaningful because you know it was seen by a person and not drowned by algorithms.

A majority of artists there (mainly from Brazil) could use support there though since they had their audience taken away and forced to rebuild after Twitter was banned for them.

Really, if you have a chance, please check out Bluesky. Tags work, it's pretty chill so far, cool artists are there too.

[teecupangel]

Hello! first time asker! I've only just recently got back into AC and you're pretty much the only AC blog I've followed so far (after reading your fantastic Eagle of Alamut fic) but the thing that happened to me seems very much something you'd enjoy.

Which is the Altair Jumpscare I got

to preface, I'm an ad blocker extraordinaire and put that on pretty much everything - except my mobile games. But even so, with how much i adblock the ads i DO get are very generic with very generic characters.

EXCEPT FOR ONE BIZARRE AD

A Tap-Away ad that for some inexplicable reason had Altair in it where he waved his arms like a wacky inflatable tube man and was then promptly sucked into the tapaway cube.

I was so caught off guard that i didn't nab a screenshot and I have been trying and failing to get him to show up again after 3 weeks of doing so much more Wordscape than I've ever had before to no avail😭

But it did spawn the idea of Desmond, with a burner/stolen phone, playing a mobile game and getting that Altair Jumpscare like i did which, with some digging by Rebecca because why the hell is he in an ad??? find a breach in Abstergo's database which they can exploit.

Welcome to the fandom! I hope you enjoy your stay (don’t mind the missing exit).

Aaahhh, Wordscape. I used to play you but then you keep interrupting my time with ads so I deleted you… like all the others who dared to give me ads that takes majority of the screen.

Ngl, I would have tried that game because it dared to show Altaïr to me. Then promptly delete it after a few hours XD

Alright, for this one, we’ll set it during AC2. He’s not that close to anybody yet so he sorta kinda stole Lucy’s burner phone while she was looking.

He always had a knack for stealing, probably the only thing that didn’t make William Miles say ‘again’ more than five times.

It only became so much easier when he started reliving Ezio’s memories.

The Bleeding Effect, right?

That’s what Lucy called it.

Regardless, Desmond figured it would be alright to play it anyway. It had a cell service and he always returned it to Lucy’s bag before she notices anyway.

It was during one of his free time (Rebecca said the Animus was acting fussy for some reason), he figured he can play one more level before they tell him to go back in.

The level wasn’t anything new, kinda funny that one of the words was ‘imprison’ and he got a bonus for trying out ‘prim’ (primo was a no go though and it took a moment before Desmond realized it was because it wasn’t English, fuck, was this the Bleeding Effect as well?. Just when he cleared it, the phone let out a loud static sound.

Which was weird because (1) the game’s audio was set to mute and (2) the phone itself was set to full silent with 0 volume on any kind of media.

They all turned to stare at him and he would have apologized, had he not heard someone shout his name coming from the phone.

“Desmond!”

It was Altaïr.

It could only be Altaïr.

The voice was the same voice he heard back in the Animus.

And he shouting at Desmond, staring at the screen as he slammed one hand against…

The screen?

Golden wisps wrapped around him, dragging him to the darkness behind him as he shouted, “Desmond! Find us! We’re-”

The ‘ad’ disappeared.

And Desmond was now staring at the next level.

He could clearly see one of the words was already filled out for some reason.

‘Breach’.

“Desmond…”

“Sorry, Lucy.” He handed the phone to Lucy as he said, “I was just playing ‘cause I was bored.”

Before Lucy could grab it, he pulled it back and pressed it over his chest as he asked, “Did you guys hear Altaïr too?”

��We heard him but, more importantly, Desmond…” Rebecca glanced at Lucy before she said, “None of us should have any phones at all. Abstergo could track us.”

“It’s not mine!” Lucy immediately said, taking a step back as she said, “I don’t know why you think that’s my phone, Desmond.”

“What?” Desmond blinked, “But… I took this from your bag…”

“Shit.” Rebecca’s eyes widened as she realized, “Did… Did Abstergo plant that in your bag, Lucy?”

“What?” Lucy turned to stare at Rebecca.

“That’s not possible. We’re the ones who brought that bag here, remember?” Shaun reminded Rebecca, “And we’re absolutely sure we didn’t put that phone there.”

“Then… who did?” Rebecca frowned as she mumbled.

“We need to get out of here.” Shaun said, “Desmond, turn that phone off and give it to Rebecca. She’ll check it.”

“Wait-”

“We don’t have to tell Bill about this.” Shaun said, “That phone could have easily given Abstergo our location. We need to move.”

Lucy’s eyes widened when Desmond gave the phone to Rebecca and she said, “We need to destroy it then. To keep us safe!”

“What? No!” Desmond stepped forward to cover Rebecca.

No.

To cover the phone.

“Altaïr just used it to contact me. We need to know how it was able to do that.”

“It’s a risk but he’s right, that Altaïr could have just as easily been a trap but we need to be sure.” Shaun was already taking down the papers on his corkboard as he said, “Come on, Lucy, let’s pack as quickly as we can. We can contact Bill on the move.”

Desmond frowned.

Lucy looked pale.

Was she afraid that Abstergo already knew their connection.

“Hey.” Desmond placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling her freeze. He smiled at her as he said, “We’ll be fine.”

His smile grew as he said, “I’ll kill any Templar coming our way, okay?”

[vintage-vermin]

Did I ever tell you how I got locked out of my old acc like 10 years ago that I only made to talk to a few FF14 peeps and follow random artists? I lost my cool after getting more promoted tweets and ads then actually seeing the people I followed. Because you would also just get phone notifications about random tweet from people you didn't follow. Sure, nowadays when I do scroll through just to see either jokes or art, I have like 57 addons running to delete half the site and make it useful. But man, default Twitter? I have no fucking clue how people stomach that shit. I come from a time where there were no rules regarding internet ads. This mostly manifested into ads that would be made in flash to look cool (and would slow down your machine) and would have auto playing sound to grab your attention (Always 200% volume). Some could also 'trap' your mouse in the little ad if it was made in flash, and have a few properties turned on. If you accidently moused over it would mean you'd be fucked. Any click sends you to the malware invested site that will run the type of script that koeienmoord would have and freeze your machine if you ALT+F4'ed. These later sites became illegal pretty fast and got killed, but they were around for way too long to begin with. As soon as they started to do that, I was done. You fucked up forever to me now. I keep my adblocks up to date, I run tons of scripts to kill ads and other junk, I close sites as soon as I spot ads. I report the ads and block all blazed posts that slip through on my half cracked mobile tumblr app. I run cracked apps for streaming and other video sites for as much as I can. I stopped actively watching TV like 20 years ago. I just can't stomach commercials. I've just been programmed to instantly get a little angry and shut off whatever is showing them. Before I found a better cracked version of the Tumblr app, I would sometimes open it, see 1 ad after 2 posts and I would just close the app. Fuck that noise.

[aethersea]

The clown was real. It was unsettling to some, scary to others, and annoying to everyone. The clown, when clicked, changed the website's background from blue to old-timey newspaper-looking things all about one piece, none of them readable, just ~*aesthetic*~. That's it, that's all it did. And the problem with that was the fact that the clown's hit box was HUGE. So very many accidental clicks. Try to reblog? Nope, you got the clown. Try to like? Clown time again. The clown was fixed in one position on your screen (roughly where the stationary ad shows up on the right side of the dash on the web version, unsure about on mobile), and the dashboard scrolled on a layer beneath the clown, it so it was always on top, staring at you, and you could. not. remove. it. About 14-18ish hours after it showed up, it got replaced by a dumb cartooney skull and crossbones after, presumably, people complained loudly enough, and then even the skull was removed entirely shortly thereafter. (Bonus: icons are back on posts now. Not sure if there's a correlation, but it happened at approximately the same time). Mobile users didn't get the clown. I know some people with adblock did and had to manually select it to be destroyed, which worked for them. If you go looking for it, I know many of the posts complaining about the clown included a picture of it, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

holy shit icons are back on posts!!!!!!!!

that's hilariously awful, though, can't believe the website's marketing strategy is literally 'woe! clown be upon ye'

and the newspaper articles weren't even readable? on the getting overly invested in lore and minutiae website? missed opportunity there, idk if that would have made the whole debacle better but at least people would have been talking about the lore on your evil clown jumpscare.

[phoenixcatch7]

I feel your pain re ffnet but also… whyyyy are you browsing *anything* without an adblocker?? Adblock itself has an app that works on mobile??

Bestie if I could get an ad blocker I would T^T, my phone doesn't like it At All. Appreciate the ask though haha ^^

[radiantruffian]

I wanna talk about a stupid ad I saw today

So there I was, in the kitchen with flour on my shirt, experimenting with banana pancakes and frozen cherries and the question of whether it will taste good (for clarity, it tasted fine but the smashed banana made the batter cook into a very pasty-feeling cake, and frankly, the cherries only reinforced my hatred of fruit in cakes), when I made the unforgivable mistake of trying to watch a youtube video (an analysis about a terrible movie from Quinn Curio, a favorite youtuber of mine). Now, expecting an acceptable experience from youtube mobile is an incredibly naive thought, but I was too lazy to watch it on firefox with an adblock, so I tapped the video and was faced with an ad. My eyes rolled to back of my head, and I groaned with increasing pain and hatred for the very concept of advertisement. The ad began to load, and I shifted my gaze to the bottom right corner of the screen, waiting like a viper to strike at the skip button. But then... I heard something that made me freeze. There was a sound that caught my attention, something that moved my eyes to the screen proper, and I saw the orange box of the plastic demon temu, beside it an olive green jacket, and framing it all the voice that called to me.

If there were any one phrase to describe it, I would call it swamp noises. As if it was recorded with the microphone of a damaged nintendo dsi, a sound that echoed momentarily, following each beat without rhythm, the sound of splashing like from the bottom of a toilet bowl. One instance of it, and then a pause of many seconds, complete silence until the sound repeated. The ad reached its end, and the horrid app began to load its next shrine to capital, but not before I silenced it. The video box disappeared, but the confusion that entered my system remained. I was petrified, not from fear or hatred, but from utter and complete confusion. What the living fuck did I just witness?

As much as I hate advertisement and find its students to be worthless, I do understand the point of it. There is a product, you make the product seem attractive so that people will want to buy it. It's very simple, or at least, it's supposed to be. In the past, when this principle was embraced, you would have your product, someone would demonstrate the product, someone would declare that it's superior to others, and request that you buy it. Nothing too annoying, and in fact, sometimes they could be charming even. But then, advertisement became vogue. People began to take notice. "Oh there's money in advertising, there's prestige in advertising." And the industry was flooded by arrogant yuppies with no humanity nor common sense, ignorant morons with string-pulling fathers getting placed in positions of importance. All would be fine if they would feel confident in their cushy chairs, alas, imposter syndrome hunts even the least human among us. They want to feel like they earned their keep, their position. And so, they start putting their fingers in every pie they can reach. "Oh, give this a dutch tilt, make them wear cardigans, the light is too dim, the music is too bland, yada yada yada" and on it goes. Worst of all, their lackeys suck up to them, and their lackeys suck up to them, until a circle of unearned praise serpents around Manhattan. So many lips on so many asses that the delusion becomes more than a trick, it becomes a ghostly fog, just real enough to make our protagonists feel safe, though too weak to withstand the slightest breeze.

And finally it all circles back around to the thing that started it all; an ad selling a jacket to a backing track of toilet noises, inconceivable to the healthy mind. Now, maybe I'm too human to decipher these hieroglyphics, but I don't understand how that is supposed to sell anything. I am not interested in this jacket, I am not interested in downloading this stupid app so that I can browse for more products, I am not even interested in online shopping in general. In fact, lemme go on another rant; how do people shop for clothes online? With the amount of stupid measurements, there's no way you can know that something will fit you, you can't know if you will agree with the fabric, you can't know if the damn thing won't fall apart the moment you take it out of its box. What fucking confidence are we deluded by that we can buy any piece of clothing online? And especially where does that confidence come from when the ads are like this? Who makes these? What fucking manager green lit this nonsense? And why the hell does anybody use temu?

Anyway, to sum it up, I don't like banana pancakes, it makes the dough gummy. I'll just stick to the regular stuff. I saw an ad that had a noise like that from a toilet bowl, and I don't like shopping online. That's it.

[doxiedreg]

A yes we are back to feeling randomly sad and empty hours

I mean not entirely random, I've had a breakdown recently and probably should do something about the trauma and frustration that came boiling up instead of stomping it back in their boxes again but I don't even know how to do that or how to go about asking help with it so I'm just extra mentally and physically tired instead

AND I CANT DRAW AND I HATE IT AND IM GOING TO SHAKE MY BRAIN BETWEEN MY TEETH LIKE THAT ONE JPEG

I want to try doing other OC stuff to keep me creatively occupied but repressed special interest means I can't info dump without a question to work of. I can't brainstorm by myself. I need feedback from others to be able to write and it's so frustrating. I wish my brain would just be able to write down info but I don't work like that

Only other time I'm able to write info on the characters is right after ive drawn them and I'm posting them to social media because it makes my gears turn

But i can't draw

So I'm just sad

And getting myself to do other activities is hard.

My brain is just stuck in a negative/barely engaged loop (not a spiral) where even when I do try things to take me out of it (playing guitar or going outside or staring at my fishtank) it barely does anything. I wish I had some nearby park I could hang out in or a beach but that means I'd have to take public transport there and that's a big cause of sensory overload so grah- there is a plant market next week I'm going to with my sis so that should help but I feel like the only thing that would fix me is go on vacation somewhere in the Mediterranean but like I can't do that, I can't handle the traveling. Like once I'm at my destination everything is fine, but the airport and all that shit I can't take that. I wish I could just teleport..I wish there was more nature nearby..I just feel so frustrated. I just want to swim in the sea and look at tide pools and walk in nature and watch lizards scurry around and see the palm trees and eat yummy ice cream. See mountains again!!

But it would be too difficult..

I wish I wasn't so limited, that everything wasn't so difficult and that capitalism wasn't burning the planet down as we speak

Even the internet is becoming a capitalist hellscape with inescapable 30 second ads on YouTube, websites and socials plastered with ads it just drives me crazy on mobile. Like on my laptop I have adblock but that's not an option on mobile so I just have ads everywhere and it drives me nuts. And then there is all the spam DMs I get on twitter and insta and reporting has 0 impact. Not to mention the rich ass CEOs making the stupidest decisions and changes that nobody asked for.

I just hate it that my surroundings are turning into a hellscape. I'm trying to stay in my own bubble and ignore the things I can't do anything about and live day to day but it just wears me down so much

I just wish I could easily fix my brain again..but I don't think that's happening any time soon..I hate feeling like this..

Sorry I kinda rambled all over the place there, I just need to write down my thoughts somewhere

[linumlena]

I’ve realized that this might not be common knowledge so: 

Companies and people can track when you open emails they send to you

This is often done by embedding a 1x1px image into the email sent to you. When you open the email, the 1px image is loaded which means a request is sent to the server hosting that image - from the logs of that server it can then be surmised what time the image was requested, therefore when the email was opened. Along with that some other information, like the IP address the request for the image came from, can be extracted. That might mean your approximate location.

Since the 1px image is made to be virtually invisible to an average internet user, it’s a pretty insidious tool for tracking.

The tracking 1px image looks something like this in HTML:

In marketing those 1px images are typically not generated per user, rather they are generated per a batch of mailings/newsletters sent out. Those mailings with offers, promotions, etc. you get from companies might contain a 1px image that tracks when you and users like you open those mailings. 

Example of a mailing from ub*r eats with embedded 1px tracking image: 

This is how companies keep track of how many users open the mailings that are sent to them, which then can be converted into how many users click on links inside the mailing, then how many users click on things on the website the link from the mailing took them to, then what other things the users click on the website, how much time they spend on the website, even how far down the website they scroll, and so on and so forth. (tracking links and in-website tracking are another interesting matters) (this of course happens if you open the mailing, click on links inside the mailing, then go to the website the link directs to, on a browser without ad/script blocking addons)

However, if someone wanted to, they could generate those tracking 1px images per user, and track them individually this way.

If you’re concerned about this possibility and if your email client has that option, I would recommend disabling the automatic image loading. The images in particular emails can then be loaded individually by hand. 

Good news for those concerned about companies tracking them - browser adblockers can recognize tracking images from most major marketing/advertisement platforms (g*ogle, adf*rm etc) and block them, if you view those emails in a browser those adblockers are installed on. (i personally use firefox on desktop and on mobile - both desktop and  mobile versions allow you to add chosen adblocking and other privacy related addons - but there are other options out there which might be better suited for you: https://www.privacytools.io/)

For other instances, blocking images from automatically loading is a good option for email pixel tracking.

Source: i’m a front end developer in a marketing company and i had to embed those god awful tracking pixels in a fair share of mailings i had to code 

(ps if you’re concerned about tracking links, there are browser addons that strip links of tracking info, like https://gitlab.com/KevinRoebert/ClearUrls/-/blob/master/README.md

for other privacy related tools and info look here: https://www.privacytools.io/

im not in any way affiliated with any company, product, etc mentioned in this post)

[sampos-catgirl]

the 358/2 Days manga is gold

[fictionkinfessions]

FYI the rules page is not at all accessible on mobile. Like I can't even get to it without opening another app. Pages just aren't available in the mobile app. Could you edit the pinned post with a link to the rules page so it's easier for mobile users to find and follow them?

I don't know how to help you. I've never used the official tumblr app. Can you not search tags? On blogs? Is that not a thing?? Like how would adding a link even help if you can't open the link? You know what? You should go here.

Download the mobile browser for your gadget of choice, and once finished go into the app's add on page and install various adblocks and anti tracking add ons. If you are a pirate, there's cracked apps of the firefox browser without the browser's own tracking and such. But the official app is just fine.

Now, once you did all this, log into tumblr. Don't worry, you'll only need to do this once, firefox saves all your passwords.

Click this link.

. https://fictionkinfessions.tumblr.com/tagged/blogpages

Walla! All the blog pages that are in text post format! Just scroll down and click the read more to see the entire page.

You can also go here https://fictionkinfessions.tumblr.com/

Which will give you the mobile website version, but you can still type in the search bar 'blogpages' to get the same link.

But you might also be saying 'hey this just leads to the mobile app version??' In firefox's settings there is a option to 'Switch To Desktop View'. Meaning you will get the bigger website meant for desktop browsers. That usually forces links and pages to work better. Walla!!!

Mod Party Cat!!

[kadethecat]

what about... 20? :D

Thanks for doing the ask game! 20 is breaking the rules. I haven’t written in a while, so sorry if it’s not the best, but here it is. Also the formatting might be messed up since I’m on mobile.

Summary: Susie and Noelle wanted to have a cool night where they could watch a bunch of episodes of their favorite show, but the streaming service they have access to through noelles parents doesn’t have it on there, so Susie suggests Piracy.

“You mean like a date? Really?” Noelle wanted to make sure she was interpreting what Susie had said right.

Susie turned to the side and put a hand behind her head, her hair hiding her eyes even more. “Well, only if you want it to be…” Noelle was touched. Noelle couldn’t believe a cool girl like Susie wanted to go out with her! She was barely keeping herself from jumping around. “So what do you… what do you wanna do?” Susie was looking her in the eyes now.

“Um… maybe we could watch a movie, or a show or something?” Noelle suggested.

“Oh, I know! You could show me that cartoon you were talking about! If you uh… if you want to, anyway.”

Oh geez, Noelle hadn’t thought that Susie would actually be interested when she brought it up. She’d still follow through and watch it with her, but she was a bit embarrassed about her own taste. “Um, sure. What time?”

“Can we do 11? Like in the morning?” Susie asked.

“I’m pretty sure that works for me. So… see you then I guess?”

“Uh, sure. I’ll see you later.”

Noelle and Susie had parted ways from in front of the school, and Noelle was in her room, gushing. She was just so happy that she finally had a real official date with the girl she liked! Of course Noelle was still in fear of it going horribly horribly wrong, but she was able to put that fear aside for the most part. As well as how she always felt guilty thinking about Susie, and even guiltier now that something was actually happening. Ah, she should probably start preparing for the date to make sure it goes well.

She booted up the computer and made sure she remembered her family’s Sora login correctly. She successfully got into the streaming service, and looked in her watch list for Caught in Rola. Huh, it didn’t show up. Sora does glitch a lot... She decided to put the site’s search function into use, and Noelle put the name of the series in, and still no results showed.

Noelle’s heart was pretty crushed. Her date with Susie was probably ruined, and she hadn’t even finished the last season of the show. Ugh, she couldn’t believe that they would just take it down with no warning. She fell into bed and put on the white noise she liked to sleep to, and turned off her lamp. She still couldn’t stop thinking about the situation she was in. What was she going to say to Susie? Would she think it was Noelle’s fault? Maybe the blame did fall on Noelle. After all, it was her who told Susie that she would definitely be able to do it.

- -

The doorbell rang. It was 11:17, and Noelle was still anxious. Maybe she just shouldn’t open the door. Maybe then she can forget about this and it will somehow be fixed… the doorbell rapidly rang a few more times, and Noelle walked to the door to unlock and open it.

“Hi, Noelle, I almost thought you weren’t gonna get the door, haha. Sorry for being late. I like, forgot for a second that 10:57 was right before 11, so when I checked the clock then, I wasn’t prepared at all to leave, but hopefully it’s okay?” Susie was a bit embarrassed, and it showed on her face.

“It’s totally okay! Um, Susie? Do you think you would be okay if we uh, did something else other than watching the show…?” Noelle asked, avoiding eye contact with her date.

“Wha? I’m not mad or something, but why?”

“Well I checked and… Sora doesn’t have Caught in Rola on it any more. Sorry to let you down.”

“Oh, well. that’s not good. Uh I do think I know… something else we can do. Can I use your computer for a moment?”

Noelle was unsure what Susie was thinking of. “Alright, sure, as long as it’s within reason. And you can come inside now! Sorry for making you wait outside for so long.”

The two headed inside the roomy house, and made their way into Noelle’s room. Noelle had temporarily taken down the most embarrassing posters she had, but a few were still up. Noelle sat on her bed next to Susie, set the laptop between them and logged into her account to direct Susie onto the browser.

“Okay uhh, do you have an adblocker?” Susie asked Noelle, looking up from the monitor.

“No? Probably not I think, what’s that for?”

“No? Uh, okay. It like, removes annoying ads and popups from websites while you’re on them.” Susie tried explaining. “I’ll just get one for you if you want. It’s free to have.”

Noelle just gave a simple “Okay,” and Susie continued her work on the device.

“Okay so, I know a website that we can probably watch it on, so I’m gonna pull that up now.” She put in a weird sounding url and hit enter. A bunch of ads and spam showed up for a split second, but were quickly done away with thanks to what Susie had gotten for Noelle. “Here it is! It seems sketchy but it’s completely alright to do and doesn’t make you a bad person on its own.” Susie proclaimed.

“Wow, you’re sure that this is okay? It’s pretty cool!” Noelle was pretty excited to see the show, she would even be able to finish it on her own if she couldn’t with Susie.

“Well, yeah, as long as you didn’t invite any cops, haha ha…” the room went a bit cold.

“This- Are you saying that this is a crime!?” Noelle nearly shouted. Was she dating a criminal? Was her mom actually right about Susie being a delinquent bad influence?

“Hey, hey, I said it was moral, not legal.” Susie tried to reassure.

“Wh-what if we get caught? Undyne’s really scary, and-and people might think it’s my your fault O-or-“

“Hey, Noelle.” Susie said pretty calmly. “We’re not hurting anyone. We’re just a couple of teens who wanna watch a cartoon. And, you’re mom’s paying for that other service anyway, so the creators of the show already got stuff for what they made. It’s basically already been completely paid for, if that uh, makes sense.”

Noelle was actually almost crying, but she thought that Susie was probably right. She tended to draw her own moral line at things that the people around her would approve of, but, well, now that she thought about it, there was probably more that they wouldn’t approve of or understand, like the dark world, or how Kris can time travel, apparently.

“Wow, that’s uh… a lot.” Susie was staring at Noelle.

“Did uh.. I… I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

“Hey, it’s okay! Let’s… let’s go watch our illegal cartoons now.”

“Okay!” The two girls pulled up the show, and watched the show until into the night.

[sanchoyo]

WHY do I keep getting the worst ads. on tumblr I keep seeing that Prostate Cancer ad with the person grabbing their crotch and that manscaping razor and im like my god I am Not The Target Audience Go Away!!!! and on twitter I keep getting ~romantic vacation ads~ (which, my sister, her gf and her son are going on a beach trip for her bday and valentines so I could probably chalk that up to my phone spying on my convos with her. which doesnt really make me feel any better. I Am Rabidly Jealous if anything bc I would love to go on a vacation but Cant (but also, happy for her n hope she has fun, ofc) ALSO because I keep browsing high end fashion sites for drawing ideas, I keep getting ads for clothes that are 1000 Dollars Or More and THATS scary. thats SO Much...pls stop showing me these Things I cant Have...

the moral of the story is that I desperately need to get an adblocker on my phone -_- ik theres a no ad option w xkit on desktop so I just need to find that post in my ref tag or likes thats how to install xkit on phones to see if it like. works for mobile ads also I guess?

[frtools]

Money, the bane of all evil

The site is getting quite a bit of traffic as of late, like serious amounts of requests: 

To keep in mind, I mainly built this site for @rootstairs to easily preview her skins on people’s dragons. It grew insanely big as others started to use it too. The costs are also showing that, not just the money required to pay for the uptime but also the time invested by myself to program and provide support such as on the discord server.

So.. I’ve been thinking about advertisements. Now I know, that word will very likely make a lot of people wince.. me included. I hate ads, my adblocker is on just about every site (especially the ones that beg you). So I’ve thought of a compromise.

Turning off ads as a user choice.

I’ll never hide features behind a paywall, no donations will ever be required to use this site or it’s tools. It’s a site for the Flight Rising community. This option will be included in that. If you have an account, you’d go to your account options and simply turn them off. Meaning the only requirement is to be logged in. If you want to help support the site a little, you could leave them on if they don’t bother you. Or toss me a coffee over on ko-fi <3

Oh and for mobile users it’d be disabled by default.

Screw ads on mobile data.

What do you think of this?

Would you avoid the site if it had ads?

I’ve not done any development towards this yet, it’s just a thought that ran through my mind as I was looking into some analytics of the site and was stunned by how popular it got over the past year or so.