#your ux is shit | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

taffywabbit · 4 months ago

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"why not just make your own website?"

with the announcement of cohost's death and amidst all the other tumultuous shit currently going on with social media as a concept (i am AMAZED twitter has survived this long given the circumstances), one suggestion that i've been hearing a lot is "we should just go back to the good old days of personal websites. let's all just make neocities pages!!"

(this is gonna be a long one sorry)

and like. idk! it's certainly something i've considered, i think it would be a fun thing to have, but it also feels like the equivalent of "capitalism sucks so let's all just run off into the woods and live in a cabin outside of society" to me. like it would be nice, it would be fun, but it doesn't ultimately solve the actual problems that are present with the modern internet, it just evades them. more importantly in my case and many others, it does not really help people who rely on the modern internet and the connections they're able to make there for their income. sure i can make a website and host my art and blog posts there, but who's going to see it? i can't build a consistent audience and make a living off of random passersby who peek at my website once, say "huh, neat!" and MAYBE add it to an RSS feed or whatever if they really like it. there's minimal potential for meeting and impressing new people outside my existing circles if i don't ALSO still have some manner of social media platform to promote the website on.

a lot of the "solutions" i see people proposing for the slow, painful decline of social media as a user experience keep coming back to old-fashioned, more isolated/insular systems. we miss forums, we miss personal webpages, we miss newsletters, etc etc. but like... those things were ideal in the "old web" because the old web was more about sharing hobbies and interests with whoever happened to pass by and check them out, and even just USING the internet was a niche hobby in and of itself for a lot of people. if you wanna be kinda cynical about it (and not unjustifiably so), web 2.0 is much more blatantly business-oriented, and its algorithms and carefully crafted UX's are primarily meant to funnel you towards viewing ads and spending money on products. looking at it that way, it sure does suck and Everything Was Better Before! but the modern web is ALSO more powerful than anything before it for just like. connecting people. spreading information and news. showing your art/music/writing/thoughts/etc to strangers who never knew you existed an hour ago. putting the tools to reach out to someone and tell them you think they're cool right there on the same website where their art is hosted, just a comment or a message away.

if you're able to avoid patterns of engagement-bait and obsessing over follower counts as a measure of self-worth (a big "if", i realize, but i view it like installing an adblocker - it's just kind of a basic prerequisite for modern internet safety and survival), a lot of these systems can genuinely be really positive and life-changing in ways that were simply not possible 20 years ago! almost all of my current closest friends are people I met through sharing our art on platforms like Twitter who were complete strangers at the time. all of the art clients that regularly pay my bills and support my work came from places like that too! the "social" part of "social media" is really what makes it ultimately worth keeping around in any form, and makes the pursuit of a Good social media platform still valuable.

there's a lot to love about the old web - its aesthetics, simplicity and freedom for personal expression - but every time someone says "just delete your socials and make a personal website" i am forced to confront the fact that i could never do what i currently do or be the person i am on the old web. if i was stuck hanging out in my own little space and only ever interacting with people who openly and loudly share my interests, i couldn't support myself with art full-time, i probably would never have met the kind and quiet strangers who are now my best friends and have made me who i am, and i'd just generally get a lot less insight into the vast range of experiences and perspectives that exist outside of my own. my life would be on a fundamentally different trajectory in countless ways without the advent of web 2.0.

and that's not to say "well twitter and facebook and tumblr all suck but you kinda still have to hand it to them" cuz you don't, obviously. they're corporations, and their job is to take the personalities and thoughts and art of the people who use their products and try to scrunch it all into something uninform and marketable that generates profit and pleases their shareholders. but like, you CAN still make a good thing out of them! these websites are tools just as much as geocities or myspace or IRC used to be. and the one thing these newer tools are pretty much all REALLY good at is discoverability. if you're just a hobbyist at the things you wanna share on the internet, then you likely don't have a lot of use for those tools, and perhaps you WOULD genuinely be happier just keeping a personal blog site or hanging out in private groupchats or sticking to specialized federated Mastodon instances or whatever. it just isn't feasible for me, and there are a LOT of people in my same situation. my entire industry of online freelance artists barely existed 20 years ago, and the web culture of that era is largely incompatible with my continued survival in the mid-2020s. i would LOVE to run off and live in the woods in concept, but all my survival skills are adapted for city living and i would just eat the wrong berry and die out there. i want- i NEED people to try and improve the spaces we're in, and support better forms of social media (like what cohost was trying and largely succeeding to do!) instead of just complaining that it all sucks, everything was better when we were kids, and digging ourselves little holes to hide in. much like all the other problems and frustrations and systemic issues of the world we live in, the modern web isn't going to go away if you just ignore it, so we may as well try to make it better for everyone.

anyways tl;dr i probably WILL make a neocities at some point. it could be fun, even if it doesn't help my career stability or whatever. but i do also need ALL THE SOCIAL PLATFORMS I USE FOR MY JOB TO STOP EXPLODING PRETTY PLEASE, and failing that, some actual half-decent alternatives that aren't going to fizzle out in a month would also be great thanks ✌

#buny text #webbed site #long post #sorry this one got embarrassingly long and i probably repeated myself a lot #i've just essentially had this same conversation like 8 times in the past 24 hours and wanted to actually put my thoughts somewhere public #i hope it doesn't come off like i'm snapping at anyone either. i know this suggestion is always made out of a desire to be helpful #and i do appreciate it and have given it no shortage of thought #i just needed to explain why it isn't a viable solution for everyone and why actual good usable social platforms are still important

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sigmaleph · 1 year ago

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getting increasingly concerned about tumblr's reliance on A/B testing.

the justification for any number of recent changes from staff has been "We ran the tests! Sure, people are complaining, but that happens all the time; we can clearly see the boost in engagement from [whatever bullshit they tested]"

and like yeah it's basically true that if you change anything about a website you will get people complaining that they hate it, even for changes that will more or less be universally agreed to be positive two months later, so the mere existence of those complaints is not evidence of anything.

and yet. i don't know exactly what tumblr measures when it runs its A/B tests, but I expect whatever it is it gets you a fundamentally incomplete picture of user experience. how much time i spend a day on tumblr (and how many posts i make and reblog and like and so on) is, let's be honest, a lot more driven by what's going on in my life, and by content other people post, than by the interface. I don't know how they measure my engagement, but i really don't think it depends much on UX.

and one answer to that is, well, I'm a captive audience. i've been here for nearly a decade, I met a lot of friends through it, I use the website every day; they don't have to do anything to retain me as a user. they need to get other people using the website more, not make the experience better for me; if i'm here all day and love it or here all day and hate it, they don't care. it's not a pleasant thought, of course, but it makes a sort of business sense

except of course i am not going to be here forever if i hate it! there is some amount of making the experience worse that will eventually convince me to give up and rebuild my social network elsewhere, and every time they pull this sort of shit they invisibly burn some amount of goodwill with long term users in return for slightly better engagement numbers with new ones, and at some point you burn more than you have and the site collapses

I don't expect this to sway tumblr; frankly, the subtext of every change tumblr does is that the site is unprofitable, they're running out of patience for it to become profitable, and the default outcome is it collapses. 'keep things going as usual so you don't alienate your existing userbase' is not an option when 'things as usual' means the website dies.

but it sure looks like on the way to dying the website will also steadily get worse and worse.

#meta

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lovestaysblogs · 8 months ago

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ooo also would love a minho x reader where they are sort of enemies in the friendship group/ think the other dislikes them and maybe reader needs help/ ends up hurt or drunk and minho comes to help and they realise they didn’t actually hate each other and the group is glad they’ve finally stopped being blind (I think i have an angst obsession)

unfortunately i like you too

pairing: college au!lee know x reader word count: 3306 genre: not really friends/ rivals to lovers, fluff, angst, unrequited (but not really), hurt to comfort warnings: description of unintentional self-harm (pressing your fingernails into your palms), alcohol network: @skzstarnet request by: @missvanjii

When I first met Lee Minho I thought he was a piece of shit. And that’s just me putting it nicely.

We were placed in a group together in our first year for Introduction to Computer Science.

He was always correcting me with his stupid signature smirk on his stupid face, wearing his stupid glasses, and laughing his stupid laugh while I struggled to retort his reply. In fact, if my stupid body had some backbone and I wasn’t so unfortunately attracted to him, and if I didn’t hate how much I got nervous when he would come from behind me and click my mistakes away, I could easily respond to him.

In that class I also met two of my closest friends now. Felix, another international student and Nayeon, both who had the brightest smiles. After completing our assignment, the four of us unintentionally formed our own little friend group.

At times we meet at a coffee shop not too far from campus to get some work done. It was a perfect day to meet up. With how chilly it’s been, the sun finally showed herself after days of rain.

The quaint coffee shop turned out to be our favourite spot off campus. The simple designs mixed with the smell of coffee were calming factors for us. After coming here almost every week, the owners now know our orders and always have our table ready for us.

Felix and I were the first to arrive. He barely waited til we sat down properly for him to pull out his laptop, plug it in and start typing rapidly. His forehead formed rare lines as his eyes moved rapidly to the screen.

After getting our order, he turned his laptop to me and asked me to see if I could fix his worries.

“Lix, I have no idea what to do to fix that program,” I said.

Felix sighed as he turned his computer back to himself. One could see how stressed he was. His face was wearing a foreign frown as he typed quickly.

“What program?” A voice that I recognized way too easily, said sitting down in front of us.

I glanced up at Minho, we made eye contact and he smiled. I looked away and rolled my eyes at his presence. Since it was just the three of us, Nayeon as usual was late.

The owner brought over his order, he smiled and thanked him while slightly bowing, making his bangs fall onto his glasses. After taking a quick sip of his coffee, he quickly fixed them before asking again,

“So what’s this program you’re talking about?”

“The program for my Analysis of Algorithms class. I’ve been working at it for days and it’s due tonight and I asked Y/N to look at it for me –”

“But Y/N’s more of a UX designer Lix,” Minho interrupted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

He laughed, “Nothing, just that your focus is in UX design, so I wouldn’t be surprised that you wouldn’t know how to fix it,”

I know what Minho said wasn’t inherently bad, but the playfulness in his eyes alongside that stupid ass smirk made me know that he knows he’s pissing me off.

I squinted my eyes at his response and opened my mouth to answer him but Felix interjected.

“This is due tonight. I don’t have time for your bickering back and forth as a badly concealed attempt at flirting,” He groaned, placing his fingers at his temple.

“Felix!”

Minho laughed and took Felix’s laptop and started typing.

“What? It’s true. You do it every time we hang out and I’m too stressed to have that right now,” He pouted, placing his head on my shoulder.

I started to pat his hair and said to Minho,

“Look at what you did to the poor child,”

“Me?!”

Before he could continue, Nayeon finally entered the coffee shop with a smile on her face. She said hi to the owners and waved at us from the counter.

She sat down beside Minho and pulled out her laptop as she said,

“What did I miss?”

“Nothing much, just Y/N and Minho bickering again,” Felix said.

“Oh so the usual,”

Minho snickered at that.

“We do not argue that much. Y’all just lucky I can tolerate his ass,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Careful with rolling your eyes all the time babe, they might fall out,” Minho said looking up at me.

“Ughhh, can you not! Have you finished fixing my program, you’re over here flirting?” Felix groaned again.

My eye twitched, “He was not… flirting,”

Right? He calls me these silly nicknames all the time. And as much as they make my heart speed up a little, it means nothing to him.

Minho turned the laptop back around to Felix, “I’m finished with it Lix. You must have not noticed but you skipped out on a couple lines of code and also had some of them in the wrong places,”

“Have I ever told you I love you? Because I love you,” Felix exclaimed, lifting his head off my shoulder to check his laptop.

Minho laughed at his theatrics but he just had to pipe in, “Also, I wasn’t flirting,”

Nayeon rolled her eyes, “Sure, whatever you say,”

Minho chuckled before opening his own laptop, “Why would I flirt with Y/N?”

“You guys are blowing shit out of proportion. He was just being a dick as usual,” I said.

“Yeah plus, she isn’t my type anyways,” He shrugged.

The air stilled. I stopped typing after hearing his words. Nayeon and Felix locked eyes before simultaneously looking at me. Must be to see how my face might have changed upon hearing his words.

They’ve told me once before that as fierce I might try to present myself on the outside, with the dark makeup and dark clothes, I’m as soft as a cloud on the inside. And sometimes that bleeds through. I’m unable to hide my emotions to protect myself and I get figured out. I don’t think either of them know about my unfortunate crush on Minho. Well, if they do, they haven’t told me.

“That’s a bit much Min,” Nayeon said.

She reached for my hand on the table, gently unclasping my fingers that were pressed so tightly into my palm. I didn’t even notice I was doing it.

Minho looked up and our eyes met when Nayeon spoke. It’s like he felt the shift in the energy. He blinked rapidly, as if he was slowly processing what just happened. One would think he would stop talking at this point.

Wrong.

“Y/N knows not to take me seriously,” He said with a slight smile looking right at me.

My throat closed up. “Right,” I forced out, “Because you don’t take me seriously either,”.

His eyebrows pushed together as if he was surprised at what I said. Or maybe it was how I said it. His eyes latched onto mine. His mouth slightly opened, as if he was searching for what to say.

Felix placed a hand on mine, to comfort me but to warn me to be cautious as well. Now I know I must have been wearing my feelings on my face again.

After I could trust myself to speak, I raised my face and tucked my locs behind my ears. I started packing up my stuff.

“I forgot I had to do something back on campus. I’ll catch up with you guys later,”

Walking out of the coffee shop, I cursed myself over and over again. We do this all the time. We argue, we bicker, we insult. But it wasn’t personal. And the feelings I felt for him that made me so frustrated with myself, never came up.

It’s not like I expect anything to come out of this. A relationship with Minho was the last thing I thought of. But to hear him blatantly say I never even had a chance, hurt. I didn’t even know I wanted one.

The noisy street to the bus stop did not help to drown out my thoughts. In fact with how loud it was inside my brain and outside, I wish something would shut up. I felt enclosed and uncomfortable. Maybe I was wearing too many layers. But it was too cold to go without a jacket. Tears brimmed my eyes and I started pressing my fingernails into my palms again, simply hoping to relieve some frustration.

A hand gently stopped my pressing.

“Lix?”

“Hey,” He said softly.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave like that. My mind is just so loud right now and God –”

He smiled gently, “You don’t have to apologize Y/N,”. He interlocked his fingers with mine and squeezed my hand as we walked to the stop.

We sat down and waited for the bus to come. The once bright blue skies quickly turned gray under the influence of the month of May.

“It’s okay to feel, you know Y/N? You don’t have to be this tough girl all this time,” He frowned.

“When I do feel, it hurts Lixie,” I placed my head on his shoulder.

He patted my head gently, “I know love, I know. I just wish the both of you would stop arguing and actually realize how you feel”.

“He feels nothing for me. Didn’t you hear what he said?” I said.

Felix only sighed and said nothing else.

The next time our group was together, was at the club on Friday night. Nayeon and I were in the bathroom checking our makeup while the guys got drinks. We both matched in our black little dresses, accenting our figures. My locs were in a high bun with two framing pieces out. I reapplied my liner and lip gloss and glanced over at Nayeon whose light makeup contrasted with my dark one. I smiled at her through the mirror and nudged her.

She caught my smile and began laughing, “We’re literally twins babe,”

I nodded and hugged her, “We are,”

She looked at me a bit more seriously, “You know I love you right Y/N?”

“Of course Nayeonie. I know,”

“Good. I also straightened out Lee Minho after you left,” She said, fixing her hair.

“You did not!”

Maybe I heard her wrong over the blaring loud music.

“I did! I told him that I know y’all argue but that was pushing it,”

“There’s nothing wrong with him not having feelings for me,”

“It’s not that. It’s how he said it,”

I reached over and gave her another hug, “Well either way, thank you for protecting me Nayeonie,”

She hugged me again, “Always, my Y/N. Let’s go dance and get really drunk now!!”

Her smile was devilish.

Walking over to the bar, we saw the boys with our drinks.

Felix handed over mine and said “What were you guys doing in there? Took so damn long!”

I giggled and downed mine, “What happens in the girls bathroom, stays in the girls bathroom,”

“Whatever, let’s go dance.” As he pulled me into the crowd, I locked eyes with Minho.

We haven’t really spoken since the coffee shop. He gave me a small smile and nodded at me, which I returned.

Anyways, I wasn’t here to focus on Minho and my failed attempt at not checking out how good he looked tonight under the flashing lights.

After some time and ten more drinks later, I lost the group. I stumbled out of the crowd and sat at the bar. I reached into my purse for my phone and tried my best to find one of their numbers.

“Hey,” An unfamiliar voice said.

I looked up at the owner of the voice, “Do I know you?”.

He laughed, “No, but you can get to know me. I bought a drink for you,”.

He slid a bright red drink over my way. With the slight consciousness I had, I shook my head.

“No thanks,”

He sat down next to me, “Come on, I’ve been watching you all night and now I’m finally talking to you. Just take the drink at least,”

“You’ve been watching me?”

“Yeah” He said with a smile, “I think you’re cute,”.

I smiled back at him and took the drink in my hand, but before it could even reach my head, a hand snatched it from me.

I looked to see Minho pouring the drink on the ground.

“Yeah, she’s not drinking that,”

“Excuse me? Who are you?” The stranger said standing up.

Minho scoffed and had his stupid signature smirk on his face, “You wanna find out?”

Minho took a step forward, as the guy took a step back, “I didn’t know she was your girl. Sorry about that man,”

The guy then left without sparing another glance at me.

“Do you hate me that much?” I said as Minho turned back around to me.

“Wh-what? Y/N, you were not seriously going to take a drink from a random ass guy,”

“What if I wanted to?!” I stood up and yelled over the music. “Is it so jarring to you that someone actually wants me?”

Tears brimmed at my eyes, “Or do you just want to humiliate me, every chance you get?”

“No Y/N what?” Minho said, startled.

I shook my head and started to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me through the club.

We walked in silence to the nearest convenience store. I didn’t fight or even yelled when we reached outside. He simply just told me ‘Let’s go for a walk,’ and for some reason I listened. I sat down outside on one of the stools. Minho went inside, saying he needed to get something.

You could barely see the stars tonight. What wasn’t covered in clouds was covered by the bright lights of Seoul. Reminds me of how conflicted I felt about Minho. He’s a good person, I know he is. And that makes me wonder how good he would be as a boyfriend. But he doesn’t see me as anything but a friend.

“Drink,” He said, handing it to me.

I struggled with opening it and he took it from me, opened it and then put it at my head.

“What makes you think I would want to humiliate you?” He said when I was finishing drinking, taking a seat right next to me.

God, I could barely focus on his words. He slightly turned his body to me and the white button down shirt with the few buttons open at the top distracting me.

“Y/N?... Babe come on, answer me,” He said, bringing back my attention to his face.

“I don’t know Minho, I don’t know,” I said.

He ran his hands through his hair, “I know what I said in the coffee shop was uncalled for. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push it,”

I shrugged, “Thank you, but I didn’t expect anything else to be honest,”

His eyebrows furrowed, “What do you mean?”

“We don’t really like each other. We don’t necessarily say the kindest things all the time,”

“You think I don’t like you?”

I nodded, “Yeah, I mean… you never proved otherwise,”

“I was just teasing. I thought you were too. I liked annoying you because… I liked getting a reaction from you. I liked knowing what pissed you off and knowing I’m the only one that can get on your nerves in a certain way. I like you Y/N… a lot. And I’m sorry for not paying attention to the weight of my words,”

“You like me? If you’re just saying that to piss me off more Lee Minho I swear,” I rolled my eyes and started to turn away from him.

I couldn’t allow myself to get hurt once more and much worse to show how hurt I was right in front of him.

“No, no” He turned me back around and reached for my hands, “This isn’t a joke, I promise.” He said as he looked right into my eyes as if he would die if he looked away.

“But you said I wasn’t your type,” I said softly.

“That was me deflecting. Felix called me out on my flirting and I felt nervous. I didn’t know what to say, but I shouldn’t have said that and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Y/N”

“Yeah… you shouldn’t have,”

He scratched the back of his head, “Did you really think I didn’t like you? Does that mean you don't like me either?”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Damn, and here I thought it was just some freaky foreplay we were doing?”

I slapped his chest, “What?”

“I mean, we were bickering all the time but I just thought it was playful, so I didn’t take it seriously. I just thought that the bickering would eventually lead to a confession,”

Now all those nicknames he called me made sense.

“So, is that what you want? A confession?”

“Is it selfish to say yes? I do really like you Y/N. I was really hoping you’d feel the same way,”

“What do you like about me?” I said.

I looked up at him and gosh my heart was speeding.

“Your creativity. God, the way your brain works is so mesmerizing. Everytime you send a mockup to the group chat, I’m in awe of how creative it is. I like how kind you are. Even though you portray this really tough act, your heart is soft. You’re always trying to help someone out and it’s always with the utmost genuinity. I like your eyes. I like how they tell your emotions so well, especially when you’re trying to hide them.”

“Minho,” I said softly.

“I can go on,”

“You don’t have to. You don’t have to, because unfortunately I like you too.”

He laughed. He laughed his stupid laugh. His stupid eyes formed pretty crescents and his stupid head tilted slightly back.

“Why are you laughing at me?” I pouted.

“I’m sorry baby, you just confessed in the cutest way possible. ‘Unfortunately’?” He laughed again.

My face got hot. He looked over at me with a soft smile. His hands cautiously but gently reached for my face and lifted it up for us to meet at eye level.

“Unfortunately, Y/N I can’t let you go after experiencing what it’s like to be close to you. Unfortunately, I can’t see you without the endearment of how adorable you are. And unfortunately that comes with the affection I have for you, waiting to be shown, if you’d let me,”

“Show it,” I said, my voice no higher than a whisper. “Show your stupid affection. Whether that be in the way you tease me or hold me, unfortunately I want you either way as long as you’d let me,”

He blinked a couple times as if he was processing my words. His eyes travelled down to my lips at which I leaned closer. He reached down and pressed his on to mine.

Our group met again at our designated coffee shop. Felix and I were sitting across from each other, discussing the class we just had.

Lee Minho walked in, with a smile, “Hey baby” He leaned down to give me a quick kiss.

When I turned back to Felix, his mouth was wide open. Minho laughed, his cute laugh as Nayeon finally entered.

“What did I miss?” She asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” Felix said.

As he tells the shocking discovery of our new found development, loud squeals and giggles could be heard from outside our coffee shop.

I glanced at Minho as he wrapped his arm around me, telling our best friends how this all happened.

You know now that I think of it, he isn’t that bad after all.

a/n:

reblogging helps writers work to be found so please reblog if you liked it!! i wanna say first i'm so so sorry for taking long with this request! T.T life happened and i started writing it then i hated how it was turning out so i redirected and now honestly i think this is the best fic i've written.

i really do think i've improved in my writing. so thank you for this request! i love when i'm given request because it really forces myself to write within that perimeter so i hope i've fulfilled it :))

my requests are still open so if anyone would want to send anymore feel free!

also i have 15 followers aaaa. i know it might seem small to some but it means a lot to me! honestly my goal isn't numerical but just to have black girls feel seen in the fanfiction especially kpop fanfiction world.

okay i've talked too much now. i have a lot of wips that i'm excited about :)) i'll see u soon ! sending lots of love and happiness y'all's way<3333

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256gb · 1 year ago

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What's your favorite UX terminology? Mine is meatball menu

god there's a lot of ui/ux nomenclature that i love because it's just so human & cute (these are interfaces for humans after all!) and i can't pick a favorite but here are some that jump to mind

breadcrumbs (the hierarchy of links that show the path to the location you are in)

nudging (subtly drawing the user in to perform an action)

full-bleed (no margins)

throbber (i shit you not that's what a loading circle is called)

flingable (there are a lot of physics based interface elements these days)

floater (persistent button floating over the main view)

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kirain · 11 months ago

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I've been on this site for over ten years and I've never had to do this, but sadly the time has come where I feel forced to make a call out post, if only for the safety of my blog.

Please do not harass this person. PLEASE DO NOT HARASS THEM! That is not my goal here. That said, I do suggest you avoid them at all costs, for your own safety and sanity.

A few days ago, I made a post responding to some anonymous hate I received regarding Gale Dekarios, a character from BG3. An account named Turtwg, who has now changed her name to Shdowheart, took issue with the content and tone of my post. Instead of simply blocking me, she attacked me and several other people in the notes, and accused me of sending the anon to myself.

I responded, arguing against her accusations and a few other remarks she made. Just typical fandom discourse. Or so I thought.

I regret it now (only because I've lost some evidence), but I deleted many of her and my messages. They were clogging up my post and veering extremely off topic, but eventually she admitted I didn't send the anon to myself. When I asked her how she knew that, she said she traced the anon to a Gale-centric account. You see, she believed the anon wasn't sent by an Astarion fan, but by a Gale fan trying to create discourse. In a normal situation, I'd say that's a fair assumption for anyone to make, but something seemed off.

First of all, despite several people telling her it's not possible to track down blogs through their anonymous messages, she insisted she found the user responsible—which honestly made me wonder if she sent the anon herself, hoping to create drama. If she did, then mission accomplished, I guess. We messaged back and forth in the notes for a while, with me commenting on both the impossibility and morality of tracking down an anonymous user. During that time, her responses to me were lightning fast. Constant. Remember that for later.

Second, she soon told me she had the anon's IP address, which she said she'd "happily send me". I told her an IP address doesn't prove anything because it can be photoshopped and a lot of people use VPNs. I also pointed out how utterly insane it is to dox/cyberstalk someone over a post about a video game. It's really not that serious. But out of sheer curiosity, I told her to give me the blog name. Not because I believed her, but because I was curious to see if she'd accuse a popular blog or someone who could defend themselves. The moment I asked, she went silent for nearly an hour. 🤔

When she came back, she gave me the name of an account called Dekariosbf. She told me to message the account, so I did, though I made no accusations against them yet. As I waited for a reply, I accused Turtwg of making the account herself, as it was barren with no activity whatsoever. No likes, no posts, nothing. She easily could've created the account during that hour of peace. Moreover, after she gave me the account name and I accused her of creating it, her responses were once again lightning fast. 🤔

As we argued, I sent my brother-in-law and a friend of mine a link to my blog and had them read through the discourse. They don't have Tumblr accounts, but they're both computer nerds and my brother-in-law literally works with computers/programs for a living. I asked them if anything Turtwg said was valid, and they (along with someone else in the notes who claimed to work in UI/UX) confirmed that no, absolutely nothing she said was valid. Tumblr pays for a service that protects their users, and the only way to trace anons is by using extremely unsavory and illegal methods ... and even then it's extremely unlikely to work.

Speaking of, my brother-in-law eventually messaged me and told me he found the actual account that sent the anon. I stupidly believed him and jumped the gun on that, because it turns out he was just being a shit disturber. That said, I used this information to call Turtwg out on her lies. In response, Dekariosbf miraculously (and in a rather timely fashion) responded to me. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots of this interaction, but I'll explain why in a moment.

Dekariosbf was chatty and cordial at first. I asked them for their main account name, but they refused to give it, saying they only use it for poetry; which, as you can see from the screenshot, directly contradicts their bio, but I digress. I was suspicious, but also kept in mind the possibility that this might've been an innocent person Turtwg accused. For a while we shot the shit, talking back and forth about BG3, reading, teaching—but I did this for a reason. I wanted to get a feel for their writing style. Sure enough, they wrote exactly like Turtwg. Same spelling mistakes, same pattern of punctuation, same use of lower case letters instead of capital letters, same abbreviations, etc.

Finally, when I was sure it was her, I dropped the bomb. I very gently told "Dekariosbf" that someone named Turtwg accused them of sending me a hateful Gale anon, but that I didn't believe it. Low and behold, they did a complete 180.

"Yes, it was me. It was totally me. I just LOVE your blog and RESPECT you so much. I LOVE Gale and I wanted to know what you'd say if I sent that anon. It wasn't meant to be hateful. Please don't write a call out post about me. Please don't tell your followers. I mean, I understand if you do, but please don't. Turtwg messaged me and threatened to dox me and sent me a photo of my IP address. She's so smart, I don't think you should mess with her. Oh and my mom can't speak English. If we get doxxed, I think it would kill her."

Right...

I said I didn't believe them and accused them of being Turtwg on a sock account. They kept insisting they weren't, begged me to believe they sent the anon (and I mean they were desperate for me to believe it), and very strangly didn't express any anger or confusion over the situation. When I brought up the accusation, they completely changed their tone from friendly to "oh yeah, that was me". I kept saying I didn't believe them, particularly because of what my brother-in-law said, but promised not to call any attention to them. I was happy to simply let the matter rest. Suddenly, mid conversation, they deleted their entire blog. Poof. It's gone now, along with all our messages.

I thought that would be the end of it, but not even five minutes after Dekariosbf flung themselves into the void, Turtwg herself DMed me out of nowhere and accused me of trying to hack her account, presumably because I told "Dekariosbf" that my brother-in-law is computer savvy. Keep in mind that before this moment, our entire conversation took place in the notes of my post. I never DMed her, nor did I have any intention of doing so. I also had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, I just knew she was lying to me. Now it looks as though she's ramping up to lie to the Tumblr admins in order to get my account deleted.

And all because my post about a video game made her angry.

I really hate drawing attention to this. You can see in my other posts that I always censor people's usernames, but as I said at the beginning ... I don't feel like I have a choice this time. I want this up so the Tumblr admins or whoever can see it.

Turtwg has attacked other people for posting their opinions as well. For example, she attacked this person just because they expressed their opinon on wyllsterion. She went so far as to call them racist when Wyll is literally one of their favourite characters. She just got mad because they don't think Wyll and Astarion make sense together; a perfectly valid opinion. And I only know about this because I received messages warning me about interacting with Turtwg/Shdowheart from someone who recognised them in the notes of my post.

I guess I should've blocked her from the start, but I've said many times in the past that I enjoy a good debate. Plus I was genuinely curious to see how far she was willing to take her lie. Unfortunately, I underestimated just how unhinged she truly is. On her own blog, she's even admitted that she's had to make a new account seven times, likely due to other drama she started.

I was very hesitant to put this in the BG3 tags, but since that seems to be the fandom she interacts with the most, I figured it would be a fair warning to anyone else she might harass. She's particularly active in the Astarion/Wyll/Wyllsterion tags. Stay safe, everyone. I think I'll sign off for a while. I'm tired, and this has somehow become the most toxic fandom I've ever dared to be a part of.

Please do not harass this person. PLEASE DO NOT HARASS THEM! That is not my goal here. That said, I do suggest you avoid them at all costs, for your own safety and sanity.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #wyll ravengard #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep

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txttletale · 1 year ago

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Hey ms healed, are you aware of the game "shadows of forbidden gods"? It's a game where you play as some evil, almost forgotten deity and try to start the apocalypse. You do this by moving your agents through an actual simulated world and try to corrupt people and spread your influence. It's a bit rough UX-wise but I think it touches a lot of things you like.

i've had a couple playthroughs of it. i like it, there's a lot of potential there, but i think the bad UI is really really damaging in that what should be the central appeal of the game -- the characters and their quite complicated system of preferences nad motivations and reactions to things -- is really obscured and hard to see. shit like having a hated and feared minion kill a hero's brother so the hero chases them to the other side of the world while you corrupt their hometown is awesome, but the UI really prevents you from seeing that's happening or feeling emotionally connected to the characters in the situation in the way something like e.g. crusader kings does

#ask #i bet itll be really good in like 5 years

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th3-0bjectivist · 8 months ago

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MAY 24’ PAGE UPDATE: We’re on Deviant Art now + EPIC INSTAGRAM RANT w/ Springin’ Chip!

Heya folks! It’s your new page mascot, Springin’ Chip, with a page update and this adorable pic of me growling at the camera.

I seem to have a natural penchant for making disturbing and unnatural faces for the camera, so we’re just going to roll with it for this post until the magic runs out! If you wanna know how things are going for me, eh, y’know, I’m fine I suppose. I’m sniffin’ lots of ass n’ crotch these days! I’m also trying to grab food off the kitchen table and counter if I can reach it (I have VERY long legs and I’m a food-aggressive A-hole), and I’m putting every possible thing that’s on the ground directly into my mouth! Being a puppy is awesome, it’s almost like you don’t have to be responsible for anything and everyone just cleans all your messes for you! Carpe diem, folks!

Firstly, thanks for all the likes and reposts out there, this page is officially full steam ahead! It’s beyond full steam ahead; it’s a rusty freight train operated by a perma-drunken operator at breakneck speeds over a shallow ravine!!! One of our paintings (that we thought was a real piece of shit) ended up getting nearly 500 hits within a few weeks! And just a few little house cleaning items; the next few weeks will be SPACE ART WEEK 24’ on this page, meaning everything we post will be space-themed. We do it every year on this blog, sometimes twice a year, and we mostly use it to bridge periods of slow art generation. We’ve got new art coming in about three weeks, for now enjoy the space art gifs and cosmic images.

***** And now for the primary page update: I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that th3-0bjectivist is on Deviant Art now. Earlier this year, we shut down our art store on Poshmark (it was simply not a great place to sell art, good overall site for more practical sales though). We also shut down our gallery page on Instagram. So, if you’re looking for a place to view a full gallery of, AND perhaps purchase th3-0bjectivist’s original art, please check out our Deviant Art page. If you would consider a purchase that would certainly be appreciated, money is TIGHT for us these days, my friends! For a pissed-off but comprehensive rant of Instagram from me, please click just below. *****

I suppose you guys want my review of Instagram in proper English now, then? Y’know, folks…. I busted my dog-ass to learn English for my contributions to this blog. The LEAST you could do for me is go out and learn just a little bit of canine for my sake. But, okay humans, without further ado, here’s the expletive-laden top five reasons th3-0bjectivist left Instagram in GLORIOUS ENGLISH!

1- Instagrams’ UI/UX eats ass with bare hands. I’m a dog, folks. I like ass. I like ass A LOT. You know what I DON’T like!? Having my nose forcibly buried deep inside IG’s plastic, ugly, squarish, basic-bitch design sphincter. I mean, seriously, who came up with this design ethos!? Josef Mengele? Text that you have to squint to see!??? The fact that I have to click on things several times because your wonky-ass click-targets are so small you gotta break out a lens magnifier to see where the hell they begin and end!?? Reminders to follow blogs that you purposefully unfollowed months ago?? Fuck that noise! This isn’t a website, merely looking at Instagram is torture under Geneva statutes and I would seriously advise anyone out there reading this to avoid IG’s horrendous site design at ALL FUCKING COSTS! You’d think over time Instagram would get better at this shit! Nope!! Same bullshit on Instagram, somehow gets WORSE every year. EAT ME, IG!!!

2- Instagram is simply NOT a friendly place for artists anymore. Never really was! Looking to promote your art on our platform!? Too bad, bitch! Sit your ass down and watch the SHITTIEST of shitty videos that our algorithm prioritizes over promoting an actual resurgence of grass-roots American culture because we are desperately trying to keep up with TikTok. Great initiative, IG! Hey next year, why don’t you try to bring EVEN MORE shitty videos of white pre-teen girls trying to dance in sync with Lady Gaga classics! WOOF! WOOF with a burning, acidic bark you clueless dipshits!

3- There is no sense of community on Instagram. We sign on to Deviant Art, for the first full day we are inundated with messages from absolutely everyone that notices we’re new… and they welcome us to the community. We sign on to IG, everyone ignores our profile in unison. Why? Because community is NOT prioritized on Instagram, the INDIVIDUAL is. This is the primary reason why it’s so common to see selfies on IG that depict a veritable slideshow of a ‘perfect life’. We know the whole ‘perfect life’ shtick is an act, folks. Again, I’m a spaniel dog, and even I can recognize you shouldn’t be smiling that much in all your pics… that’s not natural! But then again, if it weren’t for the ’perfect life’ selfie and couples shot, why would Instagram even fucking exist in the first place? Am I right folks!?

4- Too many scammers on Instagram. It’s amazing how, every time we post a painting to IG, we get a message from another motherfucker who wants to purchase our art NFT! WOW! What a deal! So, let me get this straight… I sell my digital art to you at NO COST for our work, and I get… nothing in return! Fuckin’ nothing. No money. No digital rights. No citation for intellectual property. No respect. No nothing. Hey NFT scammers!! Here’s the deal from here on out. You want our art NFT!? We want 10,000 dollars, per piece, up front. We’ll give you our Zelle account, send us 10,000 dollars, up front. No more bullshit. Send us money, send us money now. You want the intellectual property to own!? We’ll trade it for cold, hard, dirty, fatass dollar bills!!! You pay, we provide. You could just buy the physical canvas art and do whatever you want with it afterward! We’ll ship the damn thing to you for a pittance. JUST GIVE US THE LITTLE BIT OF MONEY WE’RE ASKING FOR YOU PEDANTIC, CLUELESS, INTERNET NFT SCAMMER-BITCH!!!

5- Instagram is a property of Meta. Failbook sucks. Instafail sucks. Even Zuckerberg doesn’t have faith in his own properties, to the point where he has cashed out to the tune of hundreds of millions and is actively seeking to hide away, underground, once the economic shit hits the fan in the United States. What a stand-up guy! All of you who are on Facebook and Instagram might want to start jumping ship while it’s still first-and-fashionable to do so.

As bad as Tumblr can be sometimes, at least there’s a community here. At least we have something of a megaphone here. And yes, we have our beloved pornbots, but the artistic community here still has standards, which is why we push for tasteful nudes over full on penetration. Check out th3-0's page on Deviant Art and enjoy SPACE ART WEEK 24' folks!

Thanks for joining me, until the next page update/rant! Springin’ Chip

#Springin' Chip #page update #good boy!#he got a whole super-treat for writing this #we're on deviant art now #even thinking about purchasing something would be appreciated!#instagram rant #this page #full gallery on deviant art!#i'm migrating the whole thing!#the only English-literate dog on Tumblr or anywhere

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