ask-artsy-oncie

[ask-artsy-oncie]

2024 is Washboard's final year of operation

Washboard was released to the public a whopping 11 years ago (I was a boy back then!). It served a valuable & unique purpose at the time, offering people a way to filter out posts they didn't want to see on mobile platforms. But, in case you missed it, Tumblr's mobile app has had tag & content filtering for years, effectively patching the gap in functionality that Washboard was made to fill.

It's not just redundant, either - Washboard's age means its tech stack is incredibly outdated & vulnerable to security threats. I've accepted this burden for years, but the benefits of keeping it online will inevitably outweigh the risks at some point. I feel that Washboard has been past that point for quite some time; I hope you'll understand.

As such, I'll be taking Washboard offline later this year. The domain name was just renewed, but I will likely allow it to expire in the next year or two as well.

Washboard was my first creative coding project that I feel left a positive impact on the world. If I had infinite time, I'd try my hardest to preserve it online, but nothing moves faster than time. I hope I was able to help you better curate your online experience for awhile!

#Goodbye to a legend #The thing is - I still use washboard!!!! #Because it was the only way I could navigate fandom tags in a barable manner #The tag browsing on washboard is still somehow better than tumblrs #Ah well #We lost so many good community made improvements over the years so I'm not surprised and I'm just. Gonna have to accept it. #It was a good run!! #And back during its early years it helped me blacklist content that was genuinely triggering to me #And for that I will always be thankful.

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Fullmetal Alchemist // Hiromu Arakawa

#FMA #Feel this

[ask-artsy-oncie]

this is the best video ive seen in my goddamn life

#AAAAAAAA #HOLY SHIT #MASSIVE LEGEND HERE #undertale

[ask-artsy-oncie]

googling ‘jobs for autistic people’ and realising that everyone still thinks autistic people are either sheldon cooper or really tall toddlers

[ask-artsy-oncie]

nothing more embarassing than when you develop personal beef with a piece of media thats entirely petty. like sorry no i cant talk about that show it. bit me.

[ask-artsy-oncie]

When I was a kid, maybe 14 or so (which is, you know, 20+ years ago), I belonged to a Yahoo! mailing list for an anime called Gundam Wing. It was mostly populated by other teens, of varying ages, as it was started by a teen and her friends. Eventually it migrated, when Yahoo! groups started as forums, and even branched off into non-GW related stuff in a second forum.

One of the things I remember the most clearly is the oldest person in the group. Her name was Steelsong. She was a 40-something Dom with a sub whose name we knew even though we knew nothing else. She ran her own fanfic archive because the web was still handmade HTML and navigated in webrings and I’m pretty sure Google didn’t exist or was only barely, barely launched and not well known. She was kind and patient and we loved her. She treated everyone on the group with the respect given any adult, even though most of the rest of the world was still treating us like we were children. Not teenagers even, but children. She never once condescended to any of us, never made our youth a barrier to her respect, never treated us like we were incapable of being full people or like we were less than her because we were young.

I remember that she hosted our fanfiction, as absolutely terrible as it was (and I still have some of it, I am WELL aware of how cringingly terrible it is, just absolute nonsense garbage), right there alongside of other fic that was soul-achingly beautiful. Not a separate section for her friends or for kids, just right there like we were good enough to feature alongside other authors. I never once received crit from her that I didn’t ask for, only support. Only love. I am still writing today partly because Steel was so kind about our fic, fanfic and original.

I remember that when I started doing clay sculpture, she commissioned a tiny pair of dragons from me, to support me doing artwork. She sent a check my mom cashed for me, and my mom helped me mail it when it was finished. It broke in transit, and Steel assured me that she mended it and that it was still beautiful. It was a small gold dragon curled up with a small silver dragon.

I remember that her patience knew no bounds. I remember that she was there for us, regardless of reason. When we wanted to know silly things like what to do with a single AA battery, she answered. When we had serious questions about sex, she answered.  When we had questions about writing, she taught us. When one of our group members, a young gay teen in Australia, ended up in the hospital and then stopped making posts, and we all knew what had happened, she let us talk to her about it because we couldn’t go to our own parents, even though we had just lost a friend.

She was not a replacement to my parents, but she was an extra parent, in some ways. A friend, certainly, but someone that had been through more life than we had and was willing to pass on knowledge if we asked for it. Someone older that we trusted with things that were too uncomfortable to go to our parents or teachers or whatever about, because we already knew she wasn’t going to judge us or something, and that we would get an honest answer.

I don’t know why I’m remembering this so hard tonight, and I’m not sure if there’s a point to sharing this, except that I know she’s gone now. She was ill the last time we spoke, and her site went down a long time ago, and I miss her. She was a huge influence on my life, then and now. She was hope, for me, that life as an adult didn’t have to be boring, it wouldn’t have to mean giving up the things I loved and Becoming Only Responsible With No Fun. Her presence meant I had hope I could still write and play with friends even when I wasn’t ‘a kid’ anymore. And she’s gone, and I miss her, and I wanted to share her from the perspective of youth, and the perspective over twenty years later has provided me.

And I think of her, when people go off about older folks being in fandom with younger folks. I’m an older folks now, or at least middle aged folks because there are certainly folks older than me still, but I wasn’t always. I’ve been here since i was a younger folks, and I know how much Steel’s presence and support meant to me, how much she helped not just me but everyone on that group. And I think of the people saying older folks don’t belong in fandom, and that they shouldn’t interact with younger folks at all, and I just think… I can’t agree. I needed that kind of solid presence in my life back then and even at the age I am now, I need the folks older than me to stay. I want them here.

So I guess, like, if you’re here and you’re 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or whatever, I want you here in fandom with me, still. Your presence here is a comfort. It is hope. It is a reminder that life will continue to be fun, even as I get older, myself. And if you’re younger and you have this sort of elder in your groups, I hope that they are like Steel. I hope they are kind and patient and supportive, and that knowing them gives you hope for your own future. I hope in twenty years you look back and remember them fondly.

[ask-artsy-oncie]

#Good ref #Aaaaaaa I love alphabets sm!!! I'll have to look through this when I have time!!!

[ask-artsy-oncie]

that one friend who is insanely smart, but also the most oblivious person on earth

#PnF #Omggggggggggggg

[ask-artsy-oncie]

[ask-artsy-oncie]

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Reblog with your favorites lesbian ships, canon or not

#I know I don't talk about PJSK a lot on here but #I need everyone to know I *literally* lose my mind over MizuEna. They are everything to me.

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Big Sur, California by Dingyi Sun

[ask-artsy-oncie]

"Damn bitch you live like this" is exactly why Roxanne would only talk to Max on her porch and not let him inside

#Lolly out here giving me the goof troop content I've been craving I guess #goof troop

[ask-artsy-oncie]

does anyone remember the 2010s when like. teslas were the Good Car. no one else had EVs out yet and you saw a tesla and knew it was a rich hippie with solar panels powering their off-grid passive design urban mansion housing 12 rescue cats and an anaconda. while we're all driving around in our carbon-farting gas guzzling at least fuel efficient old toyotas. you saw a tesla driver and were like 'if i work hard and pool money with my friends we might be able to own one tesla all together in 10 years time'

now it is 10 years time and teslas are killing motorcyclists and drowning drivers and it's like. i'll take my push bike and BRT rides and a share in a renault zoe but can we just. please get rid of those things

#The BMW is on like their 3rd or 4th wave of EVs jsyk!! #I have a shitty little i3 2014 that has like 60 miles of range on a good day but it gets me to where I need to go!!!!! #Do some research and find a good EV and FUCK TESLA!!!!!!!!!!!

[ask-artsy-oncie]

[ask-artsy-oncie]

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Miss Congeniality (2000) dir. Donald Petrie