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#i edited the post because i said internet websites
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So apparently KOSA (2024 edition) is getting either thrown out until next year or put into effect in six days. That was a guesstimate based on a different person saying that's when Congress is back in session and may be false.
Update that's going in the main post at the top: it has enough support to pass Congress.
It failed the last two times because people were voting against it.
This time, KOSA has traction among the pro-LGBTQ parties. Because nobody is fucking calling their bullshit and screaming from the rooftops that calling it the "Kids Online Safety Act" is misleading.
What will it passing do?
Nothing much, only prevent any education on LGBTQIA+ (it's that stupid fucking argument about us grooming kids again), shut down nearly every fandom space on the internet, and make it required for most big tech companies to have your ID.
Want to have resources for kids to discover their identity readily available? Yes? Then fucking speak up against this stupid fucking bill.
Fandom spaces like Tumblr, Twitter (? I thought the MAGA assholes liked Musk?), Tiktok, Archive Of Our Own, and any other website that hosts fanfic or fanart? Either shut down permanently, forced to uproot to a different country and down for a while (best case scenario, and they likely won't be able to send any data, and therefore fanfics, to the US), or gutted so that you only get to put G rated cishet ships on there, if any shipping at all. How to avoid that? I've already said it: Call your fucking representatives.
Want to avoid the fucking dystopic task of being legally obligated to give big tech your government issue ID? Again, cause an uproar. Call your goddamned representatives.
If they can pass this, the ripple effects could be catastrophic.
So, for fuck's sake, any Americans that can impact this stupid fucking bill and see this? Do everything in your power to shut it down because you have until February twenty sixth (26th) to send this bill back to where it belongs.
And if you can't do that? Reblog, copy my tags, and boost the signal.
Sorry not sorry for ranting, making you scroll through that, and swearing a probably excessive amount, but KOSA is a bill with a GLOBAL IMPACT being passed by ONE COUNTRY because some old people are scared of two guys with who were told they were girls kissing within five hundred miles of a child. Fuck this shit, I shouldn't have to worry about bad bills in America but I fucking do because I use the internet and would like to avoid mass censorship. Fuck this, fuck conservatives, and fuck the fact that some boomers make your country's policies.
Now, if you won't mind me, I'm going to be up until three in the morning downloading fanfiction or copying and pasting them into a a text file if I can't so I can read them by the end of the week.
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bengiyo · 3 months
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BL 2023 Review
I wasn’t sure how I wanted to write about BL for this year. I was originally going to do a The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly framework for it, but that feels meaner than I actually am about it. Instead, I think I’ll just write out some sections and unpack some things I felt along the way.
I Watched Too Much Again
Last year I engaged with about 92 productions around the world. This year it was 99 (I tracked stuff I completed here). Sure I dropped 18 of them this year, but goddamn. The problem with watching as much as I did this year is that I worked full time this year and also maintained a separate hobby. I also continued my twice-weekly watch sessions with my friend Emily, so there are an additional 100-ish watch sessions in here of rewatching, plus a few other rewatches (Theory of Love and My Ride most notably).
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One of my struggles at this point is I’m far too familiar with the genre, and find myself feeling impatient and irritable with shows that aren’t to my taste the way I used to. Throughout the late summer and fall I found myself increasingly grumpier about the genre, and it didn’t get better until I had a holiday and basically slept a day to get some energy back. I also found myself growing apart from fans I’ve known and followed a long time. It’s been a difficult year for me as a long-time fan because my tastes, habits, and friendships in the genre have changed even if the amount I watch hasn’t really.
I Wrote a Lot This Year
I recently converted my watch tag away from my gaming internet persona to just my shortname, so all near-1000 of my Stray Thoughts posts can be found under #ben watches now. I’ve also been going back and adding #ben writes to some of the standalone pieces that I really liked. In reviewing them, the pieces I’m happiest about are my ode to Framboise from Kabe Koji Nekoyashiki-kun Desires to Be Recognized, my post begging everyone to watch La Pluie, my post about what it means to actually like queer men, my SBS ep 10 post that ended up being wrong, my post about the Lavender Scare and Be My Favorite, my Tokyo in April is… post about the breaking of the BL line,
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However, the two posts I am most proud of is my half-joking response about why I think tagging each other back and forth across Tumblr in our writing is so important. and The Knowing: Being Queer in BL because I had so much great conversations with folks as a result of both of these posts.
Looking back at my own blog, this is probably the most active I’ve been in my entire time on this website, so thank you to everyone who interacted with me this year, because it really is people talking to me that gets me most inspired to write things down. Big shout out to @lurkingshan who will bug me repeatedly until I blog something that I said in passing.
We Started a Podcast!
After hanging out with @shortpplfedup since Bad Buddy, she got inspired and really wanted to bring something different to the BL podcasting sphere. I had time, and liked talking with her enough, so we started @the-conversation-pod. Now we’re a full year into it and planning out future stuff. It’s been so much fun being able to get things off my soul and break poor NiNi in our recording sessions.
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From this year, I think my favorite episodes we did were The Moonlight Chicken Episode, the Eighth Sense episode, the ITSAY Anniversary Episodes,  The Wedding Plan episode, , and The Holiday Clip Show. Huge shout out to @ginnymoonbeam for anchoring the transcription process, and @lurkingshan for editing.
The VIIB Awards will begin airing soontm so look forward to that.
Favorite New Term: Business Gay Performance
Let’s be clear, Bump Up Business is not good. It is an obvious BL cash grab from OnlyOneOf that seeks to comment on the fake nature of BL while doing everything it can to trick the audience into believing that the BL pair is real.
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Before we got deeper into this year, I was a big fan of a certain pairing, and then their fans took it too far and it affected the way I engaged with their performances and their work. I like that we have a new term for “fanservice” that communicates that you understand that this is for work. (thanks to NiNi for this comparison) I can look at the latest behind the scenes video from Last Twilight and say that I think Sea really understands the work they’re doing, and he and Jimmy have a very relaxed and mature version of BGP without feeling like I’m feeding into shipping.
Do I think they’re dating? No. Do I like the way they fake it? Absolutely!
I can look at one of @respectthepetty posts about Yin and War having personalized, color-coded mics, and we can talk about the next level BGP between the two and both communicate that we know that this is a performance.
It actually makes the extra PR work fun for me again, because now I can just shout “BGP! BGP! BGP!” and it not feel like I’m giving myself brainrot.
Thai BL Needs to Finish Stronger Next Year
Let’s get into some of the show stuff. This year was defined for me by Thai BL starting strong with good premises and then squandering them by not focusing on the details that mattered or leaning into baseless melodrama. Time for some reads. Some of these shows were generally good, but they failed at these things:
609 Bedtime Story: The world building crumpled in the back half and both endings are flat.
A Boss and a Babe: Cher is a pro gamer who worked for a gaming company and there was no plot point about this at all, or collaboration between the two groups.
Bake Me Please: Why was a show about cake so lacking in flavor?
Be Mine SuperStar: You had a real opportunity to explore a fan and idol romance and had Punn show so little growth. I hope the footage of First’s range is helpful now that Ja is out of BL.
Be My Favorite: You redid that whole amusement park date and muddled so much of what the hell happened on that day.
Between Us: You had years to make this interesting. Why are there five pairs and why is the end of this a JC Penny catalog photoshoot?
Dangerous Romance: What the fuck happened to the Sailom we had in episode 1 and 2 before that gun incident?
Hidden Agenda: Tee, what the hell was this? Twelve weeks of this?
I Feel You Linger in the Air: You may be the most beautiful show, with some of the most impressive performances of the year, but you absolutely botched this ending. Finish the goddamn season next time.
Love in Translation: I love you, but that whole kidnapping plot was so stupid at the end.
Low Frequency: I like your OST. That's about it.
My Dear Gangster Oppa: No examination about how gaming friendships become close quickly because of the combination of anonymity and teamwork (shout out to @twig-tea for this excellent summation).
My School President: Saving your gay commentary for the final episode felt like a conservative choice. I want more from you next time.
Naughty Babe: You retconned your own characters to tell a worse story. Unforgiveable.
Never Let Me Go: You didn’t know if you wanted to be a high school BL or a mafia story. It was difficult to watch.
Only Friends: I cannot believe you did Boston like that at the end. Either give Force’s character a clear personality next time, or keep him enigmatic; half measures make him and Book look worse. Sand was absolutely embarrassing. Boeing was a waste. Ending on all of them paired like that felt so unearned.
Step By Step: You forgot to ground Jeng’s external dreams at the end, so the final two episodes are just frustrating.
I’m glad I got that off my chest. We can go into the next year now.
Korea Put in the Work This Year
I really like the efforts from the various Korean studios this year. I really hope we get a Strongberry joint next year, but I want to acknowledge that we had 18 Korean BL dramas I watched this year, and at least three of them I think are must watches: Our Dating Sim, Sing My Crush, and The Eighth Sense. Beyond that, I think Love Tractor, Unintentional Love Story, and A Breeze of Love are easy recommendations.
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It’s really impressive how the complaint for me this year with Korean BL is not about them using their time poorly. It’s more about normal drama concerns, where I think characterization is a little weak, or a theme doesn’t land squarely. This rapid iteration from the Korean studios is really impressive to watch, and I’m excited to see what some of the recognized players do next year.
Taiwan and The Philippines Have Been Quiet for Me
I wasn’t really able to connect with much from the Philippines this year except for The Day I Loved You. I never wrote about The Day I Loved You, but this beautiful and heart wrenching show is one of my favorites from this year. I wasn’t too keen on the Oxin Films offerings of this year, and I’m still chasing down the ones from The IdeaFirst Company.
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As for Taiwan, this new BL project from the end of the year just isn’t hitting. Kiseki: Dear to Me also ended up really hurting me with the way they used Wayne Song and Huang Chun Chih. I love that angry little man with the white hair, but I’m still salty about Wayne and the general mess of that show.
Japan was Busy This Year
I watched 16 new shows, a few older ones, and a few movies this year from Japan. We haven’t gotten this much from them ever. I continue to love the Drama Shower project from MBS, and my beloved What Did You Eat Yesterday? returned this year. We had pretty stellar outings with Our Dining Table, If It’s With You, and I Cannot Reach You.
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I think a third of the Japanese BL I’ve tracked on MDL actually released this year. That’s huge.
Still, I am going to side eye Minato’s Laundromat 2. You were the show that let me down the most this entire year. More than Only Friends, more than Step By Step, and even more than Kiseki. You absolutely blew it. You were telling a great story about a man with an acute case of internalized homophobia coming out of his shell and learning to love his younger partner and you blew it for stupid amnesia nonsense. I will never forgive you for this.
Where Were All the Uncles This Year?
Really, without Jim from Moonlight Chicken, and without the men from What Did You Eat Yesterday? we had an alarming dearth of older gay characters passing on knowledge and wisdom to the youngsters this year. What the hell happened?
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Rare Dynamics Won: Second Chance Romance and Friends to Lovers!
We had so much second chance romance this year. It’s really my favorite version of gay romance because gays don’t always have ideal settings when they’re young. We had Our Dating Sim, Individual Circumstances, Jun & Jun, The End of the World With You, Tokyo in April is…, Be My Favorite, Love Class Season 2, and A Breeze of Love. I am satisfied.
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Friends to Lovers is actually so rare in romance and we have so many to choose from this year! The best examples are I Cannot Reach You and Sing My Crush, but we also have one of the pairs in Love Class Season 2.
Gay Thoughts
I had a couple of ongoing thoughts this year about queerness in BL.
First, I want to return to my post about Sing My Crush and La Pluie, and how I assert that Men Need to Be Angry Sometimes. More than giving men grace to be righteously angry or upset about things, along with letting them express it in ugly ways, I really want to get into how we engage with these shows. I will stop engaging with moralistic reads on characters in 2024. I will no longer engage with asks, reblogs, or meta gripping the fandom where we're judging the moral fiber of the character.
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The question that really only matters for me at this point is: Is this act from the character justified from their characterization, the narrative, or genre conventions; and is it interesting? Whether or not the character is good or bad reeks of the lame arguments about good and bad representation, and I am not watching BL like I’m being graded in Sunday school.
The second thing I really want to acknowledge at the end of the year is that the gay sex is finally getting better again. I watched The Novelist this year, and we have taken so long to get back to the space that show took us on the portrayal of male-male intimacy. We are in the genre about people with dicks. It should feel like it. There should be a masculine component there that feels specific to queer intimacy.
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I will acknowledge 2 Cutie 2 Pie, A Boss and a Babe, Be Mine SuperStar, Bed Friend, Candy Color Paradox, For Him, I Cannot Reach You, Kiseki: Dear to Me, La Pluie, Love Class 2, Love in Translation, Love Mate, Middleman’s Love, Naughty Babe, Only Friends, The End of the World With You, Tokyo in April is…, and Wedding Plan for your contributions.
Final Thoughts
I like how broad the genre felt this year, and I enjoyed how much speculative fiction is entering into the conversation. I don’t know how I feel about there being five vampire stories in the works next year, but overall I’m glad that we’re getting more experimental concepts. I’m burnt out on the college engineering BL, and would like to see more shows about working adults.
Despite how grumpy I was for at least three months, I think this has genuinely been one of the best years we’ve ever had in the genre. I made a lot of new friends in BL this year, and I’m excited to see what comes next. Thank you all for spending some of your time with me this year and I’ll see you in the next one.
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celestiababie · 9 months
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Cat Cam- W.JH
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Pairings: camboy! Jun x gn! reader (kinda)
Genre: just pure smut ngl
Warnings: mild pet play, male masturbation, indirect mentions of other members, cum eating, use of petnames (prettyboy, baby, babyboy, kitten) reader's username is princesspeach so jun calls them princess at one point. tbh this is just jun jerking off..idk what else to add 
Word Count: 1.9k
A/N: Okay so, I meant to post this a while ago, but a lot was going on in my personal life. Sorry that it's so short...and I didn't edit it that much, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! Feedback is always appreciated, please don't be a silent reader!
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"Oh! There's a package from sweet_tangerines. Thank you very much! The last item you sent ended up being my most viewed clip when I used it, so I have a good feeling about this one," Jun said as he waved the box to the camera.  
Jun winks into the camera, causing an influx of horny messages to scroll by on his screen, and the tips he made sure to thank as he opened up the package set in his lap.
 Truthfully this was what he loved most about his job, the attention. How he could do anything, and his viewers would eat it up graciously, leaving messages that made his ego (and something else) swell. 
At first, it meant to be a side hustle, a way to dig him out of the student debt and bills he was suffocating in. His paychecks sure as hell weren't cutting it, and he needed an answer to his problems fast.
Really fast.
Luckily for Jun, his prayers were answered one fateful night while browsing his favorite pornsite, cock in hand. Yeah, he was struggling, but everyone deserves to make themselves feel good. And if he was paying for his phone not to get shut off, he might as well make good use of the wonders of the internet. 
Usually skipping over the ads, he couldn't help but hover his finger over the button, tilting his head as a light bulb went off in his head as he watched a girl in the ad promote a cam website.
Jun never considered himself egotistical, but he was far from blind to his attractiveness. He had a handsome face, a body he worked hard for despite taking up extra shifts at his job, and a pretty cock, in his opinion. Who wouldn't want to watch him jerk off? He could do that for a few months, and all his problems would be solved.
And so he did, making an account and gaining traction pretty quickly due to his looks and how much he interacted with the audience.
A year later, he was still going live for his viewers, not just for the money, but because jerking off without thousands of eyes on him didn't do it for him anymore. He needs the attention to cum; the times he tried without left him only more sexually frustrated than before he began.
Another perk of the job was undoubtedly the gifts he received over the year, but with the package in his lap now opened, he was starting to question his audience's sanity.
 Jun typically refrained from kink shaming, but a pair of cat ears? Really?
"Sweet_tangerines, I'm not sure what you expect me to do with this, but I'll put it on just for you," Jun shyly smiled into the camera before going off-screen, causing his viewers to start guessing what the item could be.
sweet_tangerines: he's gonna look so CUTE!!
dinonono: is it a thong? I'm betting on a thong
gyubear97: I don't know what it is but I want it to be a thong 💓
princesspeach: whatever it is, I know our baby boy will look so sexy 
princesspeach tipped 500 coins!
Jun hears his tips go off from the corner of his room as he adjusts the cat eats on his head. A blush washed over him at the sound signifying a big tip, knowing exactly who it was.
His favorite reoccurring viewer was going to watch him pleasure himself dressed up in cat ears…
Jun took one last look in the mirror before making his way back to his desk, his head out of frame due to his height and hiding the surprise from everyone. Once he plopped down onto his chair, he was sure his computer was ready to crash with how fast the chat was moving.
His shyness slowly faded as he tried to keep up with the messages as much as possible.
"I see that you guys like the cat ears. We should all thank sweet_tangerines for this generous gift," his deep voice rang out to his audience, almost as if he was teasing them for enjoying this so much. 
But truthfully, he was enjoying it just as much.
Maybe not the cat ears specifically, but all the attention he was receiving because of it sure had an effect, his cock straining against his jeans, a visible tent forming, which people quickly took note of.
princesspeach: the kitty is getting hard already. you haven't even touched yourself. you should show us, pretty boy. 
Jun bit his lip as he caught your message in the sea of others, making eye contact with the camera knowing you were paying full attention to him. 
His hand mindlessly starts rubbing his thigh, inching further up until he palms himself, squeezing the sides of his shaft through his jeans and giving some relief. His head tilts back in his chair, eyes closing as he basked in the fact thousands were watching him tease himself. 
princesspeach: show us your pretty cock
princesspeach tipped 300 coins!
The sound of another big tip forces Jun's eyes open, reading out the message and thanking you for the tip as he stands up to shimmy out of his jeans. 
He takes his sweet time taking off his underwear, the band of his boxers sliding along his cock before his full length slaps against his toned abdomen, another wave of messages causing his cock to twitch.
Sitting back down, he makes eye contact with his webcam again with his cock in his hand. He slowly begins to pleasure himself, feeling his veins pulse in his grip as he moves his hand up and down along his shaft.
"How was everyone's day? I hope all of you can lay down and relax with me," he practically purrs, his deep voice rumbling in his chest.
princesspeach: how’s your hand feel, kitten? your cock is leaking so much
“Fuck, it feels so good. I wish it was you around my cock instead, baby…” Jun’s eyes flutter at the sight of the nickname, his cock jolting in response, a bead of precum leaking out of the slit of his tip. He presses his finger against the sticky substance, pulling his finger away, causing a trail of his precum to follow his finger, glistening in the mood lighting in his bedroom, driving his viewers further into a state of desire.
His intense gaze captivates his audience through the camera as he brings his finger to his lips, his tongue darting out to lick his arousal off his fingertip before sliding two digits into his wet mouth, his tongue swirling around them as his other hand takes hold of his cock, jerking himself off faster this time around. 
gyubear97: oh my fucking god this is so hot…i’m not gonna last 
dinonono: me neither tbh, the cat ears are a nice touch
sweet_tangerines: shit, he always looks good
princesspeach: see how many people love seeing you jerk that pretty cock, kitten? I bet you love the attention 
princesspeach: such a pretty slut for us
princesspeach: I’d love to stuff your cock in my mouth, make you cum down my throat
Jun can’t help but focus solely on your messages, the words flying by fast, but fueling his pleasure, getting closer and closer to his impending climax.
Jun takes a second to tug his shirt over his head, finally giving his viewers a good look at his stunning body, the mood lighting emphasizing the hills and valleys of his abs. He chuckles at the immediate response he receives while he readjusts the cat ears on his head that nearly fell off his head while removing his shirt. 
He sits back in his chair, his right hand quickly moving back to his cock, his left one rubbing up and down his stomach before inching further up to tease at his nipples, moans slipping out of him as more precum leaks out of his cock, making it easier to fuck himself with hand. 
At some point, Jun’s eyes close fully, losing himself to the pleasure as his head falls back on the headrest of his chair, his adam’s apple bobbing as he desperately tries to swallow his moans but fails miserably.
Almost anyone would agree that this was one of the most sinful sights they ever laid their eyes upon. 
The man's body on full display, cute cat ears adorning his head despite his acts being anything but cute. How the perspiration on his body glistened as he got more worked up, the dark red flush of his cock as it leaked precum continuously, his cock glossy from his arousal and emphasizing every vein along his shaft. 
princesspeach: babyboy gonna cum for us?
princesspeach tipped 300 coins!
princesspeach: cum for me baby 
princesspeach: I'll cum with you
The notification sound of your tip forces his eyes to reopen, making the grave mistake of looking at the messages that followed.
Jun's hips stutter, fucking into his hand uncontrollably as he finally falls over the edge, his whole body burning hot as flashes of pleasure run through his body.
"T-thank you for the tip, p-princess," he moans out, thick globs of cum slipping out of his slit and onto his hand as he desperately tried to ride out his orgasm for as long as possible.
Once it felt like too much, he finally pulled his hand away from his softening cock, reveling in the light and blissful feeling he get when he had an intense orgasm. He pants heavily, taking a good couple of minutes to regain control of himself before he blinks up at the ceiling.
dinonono: damn, he came more than usual today
sweet_tangerines: i hope he uploads today's stream…i need to rewatch it 
gyubear97: I already came twice…
Jun finally looks back into the camera, a subtle smirk across his lips as he raises his cum covered hand to his face to lick it off.
princesspeach: does the kitten like cleaning himself off? tastes good, doesn't it?
Jun chuckles softly at your comment as he licks off the remainder of his cum.
"I think it's time I wrap up this stream, guys. I had a lot of fun and hope all of you enjoyed yourselves as well. I'll do another stream in two days but don't worry! Tonight's stream will be posted to hold you over in the meantime. Have a good night, everyone!" 
Jun winks into the camera before waving goodbye, his free hand moving to his desk to stop his stream. 
He lets out a huff as he leans back in his chair, too lazy to get fully cleaned and dressed just yet, but the ringing of his phone from his bedside table forces him to get up out of his chair.
He rolls his eyes despite the blush on his face when he sees who's calling, taking a deep breath before sliding his thumb across to answer.
"Did you have to call me right after I closed the stream?"
"Oh shush, I'm only calling to ask if I should come over tomorrow since you won't be live."
Jun bites his lip at the offer, his mind thinking back to the times he's had you in his bed.
"You can come over, baby. I'll even wear the cat ears since you seemed to like them so much," he purrs into the phone.
"I'll hold you to that, kitten."
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I saw another post on another blog that had a really good point and wanted to share it with everyone here...unfortunately I can't find the comment now!
The anon suggested that perhaps why the wire services may have freaked out about the edits on KP's photo is because of terms and conditions prohibiting agencies from selling post-edited or post-modified images. So someone at the AP or whatever wire service saw the edits and assumed that the usual rules - no selling or purchasing edited photos - applied in this case and overcorrected by issuing the kill notice to rectify their mistake of purchasing an edited photo. And in that panic to correct their "error", no one realized that the photo was sourced from a personal social media account, thus is subject to different rules. More internet chaos and a KP apology later, the photo suddenly gets resurrected and some of the community notes are removed.
It's a good theory, and one that's very plausible. Probably the most plausible explanation of everything that happened.
As to why there was suddenly a resurrection, I'm thinking the lawyers got involved and if the lawyers finally did get pulled in, they probably said either "this is a personal photo accessed on social media, those rules don't apply" (and everyone went "shit-shit-shit") or they talked about the sudden liabilities they're now open to with this precedence of calling out edits that they now have a standard to uphold (and everyone went "shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit"). Again, this is just conjecture. The kneejerking back-and-forth that happened today does seem classically lawyerese to me, though.
A second piece to this, I'm reminded of how KP shares their photos. Which is that the actually aren't selling their photographs. It's an old story from back in 2013, but when KP published the baby George-Kate-William-Lupo photos taken by Michael Middleton, a blogger who wanted to buy the photos for her website contacted Michael or KP to enquire about purchase and usage, and Michael or Michael's people responded that there was no cost for using the photos as long as she properly credited him with the copyright and used them only for a news story. I imagine that's similar to KP's process; if a publication (such as the AP) wants to reproduce a photograph credited to Kate (or William) that has been published on social media, the entity makes a request to the office, and the communications office sends them the source file.
At no point in any of this is there actually any money exchanging hands. I'm pretty confident there's no money being exchanged for KP's personal photographs to be reused, in which case the "we don't buy edited photos" rule is null and void. Different standards apply here. (My confidence comes from the fact that this is part of the "press pact" that Meghan and Harry pushed back against; they wanted to charge copyright and usage fees for their personal photographs rather than make them freely available on request like the then-Cambridges did.)
And then finally, all photographers - amateur and professional alike - edit their images before publishing them or sending them anywhere. What Kate did is no different than what Misan Harriman or Chris Jackson or Samir Hussein do (and have admitted to! Check out those links for their "confessions."). And I suspect that KP's statement where Kate said she had done the editing herself before the photo was posted is what threw the monkey wrench that maybe brought the lawyers in - because if they retract KP's photo on the basis that someone edited it before it was first posted/submitted to the public, then they have to retract thousands and thousands of other photos on the same grounds that someone edited it before it was first posted/submitted to the public. Again, this is all speculation.
At the end of the day, it all seems to be boiling down to one thing: there was a mixup and a miscommunication somewhere. And for me, all the signs point to the cock-up happening on the media's side. The rules/terms and conditions they have in place to use only verified images are good ones to have, but the last 48 hours have made it abundantly clear that there are holes in the rules and gaps in how they vet and verify images they source and distribute.
(Honestly I'm surprised that photographers haven't spoken out in Kate's defense. I'd have thought at least one or two would've said something. I can see why they wouldn't - maybe jobs are on the line or maybe they lose contest/recognition opportunities if they do - but it does strike me as a bit odd.)
(Also, sorry to the anon from earlier this morning to whom I said I probably wasn't going to post on the photo edit drama anymore. Clearly that plan went by the wayside.)
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olderthannetfic · 30 days
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I kinda understand “minors don’t interact” and similar things, but one thing I always laugh at is “don’t tag as [thing].” You know — the whole don’t tag posts with the word queer in them as q slur, don’t tag not-inherently-shippy art as ship, don’t tag character posts as kin, etc. First of all, what would you do if someone DOES tag it like that? Call the cops? Second of all, people are gonna tag things however they want, you’re gonna have to deal with that on a website like tumblr.
There’s a similar phenomenon on Twitter where people say “don’t quote retweet”/“don’t private quote retweet” (which is especially funny cuz everyone is gonna see that and go on their private accounts and quote retweet with nonsense to piss you off, lmao)
Like if you’re really SO FUCKING SCARED of your gay post being tagged as #q slur, your Death Note edit being tagged as #Lawlight, your fanart being tagged as #kin, you probably shouldn’t be on the internet. Do you have the right to not view queer as a slur, the right to not ship whatever, the right to not like fictionkin? Of course! But people also have the right to disagree with you and tag your post however the fuck they want. One time I saw someone tag one of my cosplays as [character] faceclaim, and I was a little bit weirded out, but overall it was harmless. I never once considered adding a banner saying not to tag my likeness as a faceclaim, because if I really want to prevent anyone from doing that, the solution will be for me to not show my face online.
Small tangent: When I was younger I used to have a private sideblog that was basically just a venting diary. No one had the password, and, because it was private, my URL wouldn’t show up in the notes if I reblogged something to that blog. Basically, no one knew the blog existed. And I remember sometimes I would see a cool post on my dash, or in tags, and it would be tagged as #dont reblog (this was before tumblr had the option to limit reblogs obviously). And if the post was cool (or edgy, because like I said… vent blog) and I was sad that I “couldn’t” reblog it, I’d reblog it to the side blog, where OP would never know 😭 Rebellious as hell wasn’t I?
That being said — and this might contradict everything I just wrote — I do think people that brag about not reading/not following DNIs are also a bit obnoxious. Not people who just make statements that they don’t read them, but people who make it known how much they hate their existence. It just seems kinda edgelord-y? Idk. Obviously it’s fine to not read them or like them but making it a huge statement is just like…ok? Congratulations? Should we throw you a party? Should we invite Elon Musk?
I have followers—and follow people—who have “Antis DNI” in their bio. I also have followers and follow people who have “Proshippers DNI” in their bio. No one will ever know what side I’m on 😜😜😜😜
--
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Adrienn Banai: The Rat Lover
I didn't want to post about any of this, but this person forced my hand.
I can't let this person run around on this hellsite anymore.
For those not in the know, this person harasses artists into drawing their husbando: a rat character named "Grey" from the children's series "Larva Island". Sometimes they also harass people into drawing Grey's grandpa, a female version of Grey named "Greyless", Grey wearing Roxanne's dress from "A Goofy Movie", and plenty of parodies of the opening scene of said movie. Like, they subjected one person to draw that same sequence with different characters like 6-7 times. And the "best" part? Sometimes they steal the poor victim's art to claim it as their own. And sometimes, they create edits of them WITHOUT CREDITING THE ORIGINAL ARTISTS. And when they do get caught, they apologize. A lot. But that's only a front to get respect again.
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Her husbando
And I was one of their unfortunate victims. This person is weird as all hell; they ship this rat with Pibby (a character that is canonically from a preschool show), Meilin Lee (A hecking 13 year old girl), and Adrienn themselves.
The rat, according to the user, is 15 while the female version of the rest, his girlfriend, is 12.
Adrienn themselves are either 17 or 19.
The fandoms they follow are: -Courage the Cowardly Dog -Friday Night Funkin -Learning with Pibby -Little Nightmares -Turning Red -Anything Disney related (Goofy mostly) -Steven Universe -Made in Abyss -Road to El Dorado -Eddsworld -Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -Super Mario series and, most importantly, Larva.
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She stole my artwork just to make crappy edits
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adrienn, flat out admitting that they steal art from people
It's already kind of weird enough, but then I did more digging on this person. They have a butt ton of accounts on a multitude of social media websites. They have a few on reddit, a few on wikia, one on vimeo, and a few on behance, of all places. They have a long history of harassing users, especially on reddit and wikia. They have the most accounts on Tumblr, with five (two of them are inactive.) The second biggest is wikia, with four. The earliest accounts were on DeviantArt, which makes a lot of sense. Oh, but it gets better. They have uncensored nsfw content on two tumblrs. This is from one of their accounts. I am not going to show you the image, but I'm going to show you the tags:
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I mean, I'm glad that they tagged it as "rule 34", but I'm more surprised about how tumblr didn't purge those posts or ban the user entirely. So, if you see someone with any of these accounts ask you to draw this rat, dump the ask and block em. Hell, even report them if you need to : https://adrienn-banai-09.tumblr.com/ (WARNING, NSFW CONTENT AHEAD) https://adriennbanai09.tumblr.com/ (Not as nsfw as the one above, but still, nsfw) https://andreabanai.tumblr.com/ https://adriennsposts.tumblr.com/ (currently active) https://adriennbanai-09.tumblr.com/ (currently inactive) https://adriennbanai-2022.tumblr.com They may also go by "zoltanbanai", so keep your eyes out.
And Adrienn/Andrea, if you are reading this, I urge you to take a break from the internet and get some help. As I said multiple times, this behavior will not help you make friends. It will only make more enemies. I am an autistic just like you (probably. idk) and I really don't want to put you down like this, but you're already weirding a bunch of people out. Though you probably won't listen to me anyway, since apparently in your eyes the word "no" is just an unspoken "yes".
And please don't harass this person or send them death threats. Doing that just makes you a bad person.
I hope this is the last time I talk about this person, because I don't really have the time or the patience to deal with stupid bullcrap like this.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. The clorox brain bleach is on the right side of the exits.
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I love AO3. I really, truly do. But at the same time, it reminds me that fanfic had a very different feel back in the day… in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
We didn't so much promote our stories as we traded them like literary contraband, handing them out in the back alleys of newsboards and forums and LiveJournal to be gobbled up by the desperate, starving masses. Sometimes you wouldn't post them, you would simply mention that you had written them; and when someone asked to see your story you would send them an email with the creation copy-pasted within. Those of us who had our own Geocities or Angelfire websites would make elaborate pages for each story, setting the background and font color to match what we felt the fic evoked, and of course adding pictures that we had slapped together in Photoshop for flavor.
When FFnet came along, we eagerly thrust our creations into its algorithm, like birds shoving their babies out of the nest; then we held our breath and waited to see if anyone cared enough to make a comment before our stories slipped into the depths of the pit, never to be seen or read again. And the tingle we felt in our chests when someone did finally comment left us on a high for hours or even days.
There were annual fanfiction awards for some fandoms, and if you won any category at all you would wear that award proudly... a badge of honor to be displayed in your forum signature or FFnet profile. But really, the ultimate honor was when someone did fan art of your stories and posted it on DeviantArt or LJ, and you would hold on to that picture like a child clinging to a favorite teddy bear.
More often than not, the people you knew in real life weren't aware of what you did with your spare time, and you would have died of embarrassment if they ever found out. In general, you stayed in your lane, keeping other fandoms out of your business, except for the occasional crossover (which came with the added complication of having to choose which fandom to post them under on FFnet). We didn't have beta readers... hell, sometimes we didn't edit at all. Grammar and spelling mattered less than your passion for the subject, and research was conducted somewhat haphazardly, to the point where any anachronisms were shrugged off. Still, OOC characters were raked thoroughly across the coals; questioned and poked until the author explained why they had written them that way.
The tropes and cliches that people now cringe at were created then, embraced wholeheartedly. Mary Sues and self-inserts and songfics were everywhere… and we loved it. Authors would interrupt their own stories in the middle to add notes, sometimes presented as the characters themselves giving you information about what was going on in the story or what led the author to add this or that small detail.
We were afraid of being copyright claimed, we were afraid of being ridiculed, we were afraid of being sued by Anne Rice (even if we didn't write anything that took place in her universe). We felt rebellious, accomplished, and maybe a little guilty about what we wrote; but we wrote it because we loved it, and that was enough.
As I said, I really do love AO3… but there was just such a culture surrounding fanfic back then… a kinship and a sisterhood. I wish that those who have never gotten to experience it could have the chance to go back for a while, feel the way it felt… same as I wish my own kids could have experienced the freedom of summer vacation back when summer vacation meant freedom.
The world is just too fast now, the internet too loud; you have to run to catch up, scream to be heard... when sometimes all you want to do is whisper, "Hey… I wrote something… does anyone want to take a look?" and to have someone whisper back, "Yes! Send it to me and I'll print it out to read in bed tonight!"
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sempercredens · 2 months
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Post about fannicalcascade part 2 because sigh.
Here's a link to my first post from the middle of December about them where I go over their takes on the s3 finale and their take that the love between Hannigram is unrequited from Will's side. At this point I also immediately want to say that I don't necessarily disagree with that they have a different opinion on the season finale, I just found it very poorly argued and gave counterarguments.
Not a lot of new talking points came up but that isn't the point of this post now. In the first one, I already broached the topic of their behaviour in the ending paragraphs because I found some of it very odd. For example, that they were sending anons to bigger Hannibal/Hannigram blogs in a clear attempt to bait them into discourse, how they claim not to be anti-Hannigram but tag their posts as such, and how I personally perceive the undertone of their posts as very condescending towards shippers.
This post here is basically just about expanding on that.
Disclaimer though: this is a silly internet ship war on a large irrelevant website, with no real world implications about anyone's morals. While I'm gonna say straight out that I find them annoying (and I will get into the reasons in the following), they have done no actual moral wrongs. Don't go insult or harass them (or the other two people running the blog. If you absolutely must seek them out, stay polite or get eaten. That includes refraining from using ableist language (e.g. calling them "delusional" or something). Thanks!
List of contents:
1. Shipping goggles 2. Cherrypicking 3. How they talk about Hannigram shippers and handle criticism 3.5. Middle school-isms 4. Arguments (or lack thereof) 5. General conclusion 6. "Fandom critique"
Let's get into it:
1. Shipping goggles
The fannibalcascade blog has stated in their introductory post already that they want to view the s3 finale without shipper goggles. So far, so good. However in this post they reveal the existence of a sideblog they have. It's been edited out by now and I'm unlucky not to be able to provide that evidence but said sideblog was revealed to be @/lecterlure. lecterlure has also been participating in replying to other blogger's responses to baiting anons, basically giving the typical fannibalcascade takes. As a benefit of the doubt I will also say however that according to themself the fannibalcascade blog is run by three people and lecterlure could be either of them. It adds up timewise for me since the first content on the lecterlure blog is from the beginning of January.
I'm bringing up lecterlure in the context of shipping goggles because as of me writing this there are just over 60 posts on the lecterlure blog which focuses on the book and Hopkins film version of the Hannibal canon. Half of the posts on that blog are unambiguously about Clannibal. (Yes, I counted.)
Nothing wrong with Clannibal, of course! You do you. The reason I'm pointing it out is just because it seems that the Hannigram faction is not the only one with shipping goggles. Considering they claim that they ship "neither", I just find that very untransparent.
EDIT: in the notes of this post lecterlure said that she is one of the three but NOT the one mainly running the fannibalcascade blog. My assumption that the two are the same people is therefore null and they are to be regarded as two people! She is only little involved in the blog's postings, merely sharing theories with thel and reading over the posts. Nevertheless, I'll bring her up again in some points since she is associated with the fc blog and whether that is her intention or not her interactions do reflect back on the fannibalcascade blog.
2. Cherrypicking
When they were called out for cherrypicking metas, they replied they didn't. The metas they've reblogged are from bonearenaofmyskull and mendelsohnben respectively. Said metas had been posted in the years 2015 and 2016. You'd have to do some digging to find them to reblog them straight from the ops.
Not to mention that there is a huge amount of Hannibal meta posts around when you search the tag for it. So to claim that out of those many, many meta posts, you organically found metas from over 8 years ago that apparently agree with your viewpoint - the view point of a minority in the fandom - does not come across to me as very believable. You've got to have searched for those.
3. How they talk about Hannigram shippers and handle criticism
Most of the criticism they received for their bahaviour around sending anons, cherrypicking, and reblogging ship posts to exercise "fandom critique" was, admittedly worded quite harshly and I don't endorse that. That said, it's not entirely unfounded.
There is two posts I'd like to highlight for this point. In this one they refer to the people who criticise them on anon as "pathetic teenagers" or "teenage conspirators" with "delusional takes". The "delusional" take being that fannibalcascade is behind the anons that people have received. While I can't 100% make the claim that fannibalcascade is in fact behind those anons - and I don't actually think they are behind all of them - I find it suspicious how the anon activity coincides with the activity of the fannibalcascade blog and how you can find the lecterlure account participating in the notes. The only other clue I can offer is how this anon highlighted the blog name in red, which is a very fannibalcascade thing to do since they like to highlight things in red in their posts.
The other post I want to highlight in this regard is this one where they mock shippers for thinking that getting validation from a bigger blog means they're right, and "How naive does one have to be to rely on someone else to stand for their points?" Which is rich coming from someone who reblogs the (old) metas of other bigger blogs to validate their own point, and are incapable of forming their own meta since their original meta posts are basically just repetitions of those they've reblogged. This is, for example, is just repeating this one by bonearenaofmyskull, but cherrypicked, reblogged only hours earlier.
In this same second post, they also point out how contradictory the statements of Hannigram shippers are, as if that was some big "gotcha". It's very likely that the people they mean here are, well, different people with different view points about the same thing. This is only a "gotcha" if it was the same person.
So my point here is: I find their handling of criticism and stance on shippers condescending, devaluing and not indicative of someone who's interested in a discussion on equal footing.
3.5. Middle school-isms
This is only a minor point but I wanted to point out how very middle schoolish their "arguments" sometimes are. They act all innocent when called out about adding their "shippers are delusional" takes to joke posts, the anon thing, and their down-talking tone. Examples: [x] [x]. Especially the whole thing about "my blog, my opinion" and "So I can't share my opinions now?" are such lackluster takes at this point. You're talking like a boomer who gets called out for a misogynistic take on Cpt. Marvel, like come on now, do better.
Also since I'm assuming they're the person behind this ask (linked above already)
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I'm perplexed at this appeal to authority. "I'm older than you, therefore I'm right". Again: come on now, is that really the take here? This is some kindergarten level of arguing. By that logic every Hannigram shipper older than them would actually be right. As crimsondinnerparty correctly says: that's not how it works.
That's the post I saw that made me "wow, that's cringe, I'm gonna write this big ass post".
4. Arguments (or lack thereof)
As alluded to above, they barely make points of their own that aren't noticeable inspired by the metas they've reblogged from other people before. Nothing wrong with reblogging posts you agree with, per sé, but that is very much not the same thing as leading a discussion with someone. On this post they proudly announce "Here I debunked another theory" when they've had no input on the post that was originally made by youweresoafraid with an actual worthwhile addition from bonearena. You didn't debunk anything. You just reblogged a post.
I find that case worth mentioning because some anon went to crimsondinnerparty's inbox to say that "Fannibalcascade also debunked the sailing thing" when evidently, fannibalcascade didn't add anything to it.
Another post that stuck out to me in terms of leading an argument was this one about whether or not Will is a murderer.
The answer:
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For a blog that promises deep metas and values the nuance of the show, I personally find this a very shallow take. If this is the promised deep meta and nuance, then I'm sorry but good night.
Not to constantly bring her up but bonearena also expressed frustration with how fannibalcascade is only capable of circular arguing [x] and their lack of evidence to support their claims. Despite fannibalcascade (or rather lecterlure in the notes) constantly crying for proof themself.
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Taken from this post's notes.
Edit again: While, as noted, lecterlure is not the same person as fannibalcascade, my argument remains that the members of the blog don't actually provide evidence of their own but constantly demand it from others.
So general conclusion to this point:
I personally think that fannibalcascade is just pretty annoying. Really, what else is new here on the interwebs? There's annoying people, wow, big revelation. They're not capable of properly debating and I don't think that they even want a proper debate. I find their approach to opening a debate insufferable, especially when they go "oh, I'm just asking questions? What's wrong with asking questions? Can't I have an opinion anymore? If you've got proof, why don't you bring it up? Oh, that means, you don't have any after all. Checkmate." entirely childish. People don't wanna talk to you because nothing you've said or done indicates a genuine openness for a debate on eye-level. The sheer audacity of calling themself "the only logical person available in the fandom now" - assuming that anon is them, even if not my point is still supported by their other posts - absolutely flabbergasts me. It's this condescending tone, the implied sneering of "you're all illiterate but I've eaten wisdom with spoons and I'm your logical saviour" that absolutely rubs me the wrong way.
That their blog also focuses entirely on the s3 finale is another thing I find very counterproductive to any genuine debate because the s3 finale is their only reference for anything. The majority of their meta posts (reblogged and original) focus only on Will pushing Hannibal and himself off the cliff. That is the only thing that is ever "debated" on the blog, and especially in regards to the whole "does Will love Hannibal back?" question is an extremely narrow frame of reference.
The entire "debate" they want to introduce is also entirely pointless as, as I said, focuses on the s3 finale and whatever could possibly happen in s4. The reason I find this a pointless debate is because s4 doesn't exist and every meta or theory or what have you is only fanfiction. We're all getting upset here over each other's fanfiction, like jfc. For all we know the fall transported them into some anime Isekai world.
"Fandom critique"
According to their tagging system, fannibalcascade is also motivated by offering critique to the fandom. Which I'm not against in the slightest conceptually. Personally, I think there are many things that can be criticised about fandom, any fandom. Just to give examples, two problems I see within fandoms is 1) the lowkey misogyny is fandoms dominated by m/m pairings or 2) the everpresent problem of people reposting other people's fanworks without permission. I think tackling such issues could actually improve a fandom.
What doesn't improve a fandom is telling shippers that they're delusional teenagers for shipping the main characters of a show that is explicitly centered around their relationship. Even while making their silly little posts, Hannigram shippers are entirely aware that in a real life context that relationship would of course be toxic and terrible. The reason it's such a big ship stems largely from an actual acknowledgement of the show's nuances. It's precisely those nuances and their engaging character dynamics that make them such a compelling ship.
Here's the point where I want to acknowledge all the beautiful metas people (who ship Hannigram) have actually written. You can find something about everything in the show. You can find meta about the religious symbolisms. Meta about the character's clothing styles and what they represent in which scenes. Meta about the most inconspicuous things in the background. Meta about shot compositions. It's there.
So why limit yourself to the last three minutes of 39 episodes worth of television? Like c'mon, step up your meta game.
Coming back to the point of fandom critique, both sides are just fighting windmills. We're already biased in our approachs, we're not going to change each other's minds like this. So why not employ some standard internet/tumblr etiquette and leave people be? What people ship is not a value judgment of their irl morals.
So again, I want to clarify:
I don't think fannibalcascade is a bad, immoral person. Despite all the things I've listed in this post, I don't hate them. I don't want to encourage any harassment against them. I don't mind at all that they're presumably partial towards Clannibal. Couldn't care less, really. They're allowed to dislike Hannigram. Couldn't care less. I'd even say it's a valid take, just badly argued.
Genuinely, this is very much just about how I find it annoying to see their takes (or their takes being repeated by people who agree with them) interrupt my peaceful scrolling through Hannigram posts. And I hereby challenge them to write posts about the things they like (about the show, about the books or the Hopkins films, doesn't matter to me).
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mama-qwerty · 9 days
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Warning, AI rant ahead. Gonna get long.
So I read this post about how people using AI software don't want to use the thing to make art, they want to avoid all the hard work and effort that goes into actually improving your own craft and making it yourself. They want to AVOID making art--just sprinting straight to the finish line for some computer vomited image, created by splicing together the pieces from an untold number of real images out there from actual artists, who have, you know, put the time and effort into honing their craft and making it themselves.
Same thing goes for writing. Put in a few prompts, the chatbot spits out an 'original' story just for you, pieced together from who knows how many other stories and bits of writing out there written by actual human beings who've worked hard to hone their craft. Slap your name on it and sit back for the attention and backpats.
Now, this post isn't about that. I think most people--creatives in particular--agree that this new fad of using a computer to steal from others to 'create' something you can slap your name on is bad, and only further dehumanizes the people who actually put their heart and soul into the things they create. You didn't steal from others, the AI made it! Totally different.
"But I'm not posting it anywhere!"
No, but you're still feeding the AI superbot, which will continue to scrape the internet, stealing anything it can to regurgitate whatever art or writing you asked for. The thing's not pulling words out of thin air, creating on the fly. It's copy and pasting bits and pieces from countless other creative works based on your prompts, and getting people used to these bland, soulless creations made in seconds.
Okay, so maybe there was a teeny rant about it.
Anyway, back to the aforementioned post, I made the mistake of skimming through the comments, and they were . . . depressing.
Many of them dismissed the danger AI poses to real artists. Claimed that learning the skill of art or writing is "behind a paywall" (?? you know you don't HAVE to go to college to learn this stuff, right?) and that AI is simply a "new tool" for creating. Some jumped to "Old man yells at cloud" mindset, likening it to "That's what they said when digital photography became a thing," and other examples of "new thing appears, old people freak out".
This isn't about a new technology that artists are using to help them create something. A word processing program helps a writer get words down faster, and edit easier than using a typewriter, or pad and pencil. Digital art programs help artists sketch out and finish their vision faster and easier than using pencils and erasers or paints or whatever.
Yes, there are digital tools and programs that help an artist or writer. But it's still the artist or writer actually doing the work. They're still getting their idea, their vision, down 'on paper' so to speak, the computer is simply a tool they use to do it better.
No, what this is about is people just plugging words into a website or program, and the computer does all the work. You can argue with me until you're blue in the face about how that's just how they get their 'vision' down, but it's absolutely not the same. Those people are essentially commissioning a computer to spit something out for them, and the computer is scraping the internet to give them what they want.
If someone commissioned me to write them a story, and they gave me the premise and what they want to happen, they are prompting me, a human being, to use my brain to give them a story they're looking for. They prompted me, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY WROTE THE STORY. It would be no more ethical for them to slap their name on what was MY hard work, that came directly from MY HEAD and not picked from a hundred other stories out there, simply because they gave me a few prompts.
And ya know what? This isn't about people using AI to create images or writing they personally enjoy at home and no one's the wiser. Magazines are having a really hard time with submissions right now, because the number of AI generated writing is skyrocketing. Companies are relying on AI images for their advertising instead of commissioning actual artists or photographers. These things are putting REAL PEOPLE out of work, and devaluing the hard work and talent and effort REAL PEOPLE put into their craft.
"Why should I pay someone to take days or weeks to create something for me when I can just use AI to make it? Why should I wait for a writer to update that fanfic I've been enjoying when I can just plug the whole thing into AI and get an ending now?"
Because you're being an impatient, selfish little shit, and should respect the work and talent of others. AI isn't 'just another tool'--it's a shortcut for those who aren't interested in actually working to improve their own skills, and it actively steals from other hardworking creatives to do it.
"But I can't draw/write and I have this idea!!"
Then you work at it. You practice. You be bad for a while, but you work harder and improve. You ask others for tips, you study your craft, you put in the hours and the blood, sweat, and tears and you get better.
"But that'll take so looooong!"
THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT! You think I immediately wrote something worth reading the first time I tried? You think your favorite artist just drew something amazing the first time they picked up a pencil? It takes a lot of practice and work to get good.
"But I love the way [insert name] draws/writes!"
Then commission them. Or keep supporting them so they'll keep creating. I guarantee if you use their art or writing to train an AI to make 'new' stuff for you, they will not be happy about it.
This laissez-faire attitude regarding the actual harm AI does to artists and writers is maddening and disheartening. This isn't digital photography vs film, this is actual creative people being pushed aside in favor of a computer spitting out a regurgitated mish-mash of already created works and claiming it as 'new'.
AI is NOT simply a new tool for creatives. It's the lazy way to fuel your entitled attitude, your greed for content. It's the cookie cutter, corporate-encouraged vomit created to make them money, and push real human beings out the door.
We artists and writers are already seeing a very steep decline in the engagement with our creations--in this mindset of "that's nice, what's next?" in consumption--so we are sensitive to this kind of thing. If AI can 'create' exactly what you want, why bother following and encouraging these slow humans?
And if enough people think this, why should these slow humans even bother to spend time and effort creating at all?
Yeah, yeah, 'old lady yells at cloud'.
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ferahntics · 4 months
Note
Hey guys, it's me my new account,
Today I will would like to apologize for mistake and hateful anything okay, here some story about Why send of Death Threat for not drawing dragon fire Kirby sleeping and not taking request,
Here some story
On June 2, 2023. I sent the Request dragon fire Kirby sleeping at inbox as anon to ferahntics.
Moment Hours later, Ferahntics didn't draw dragon fire Kirby sleeping and not taking request. Ferahntics said "I'm sorry anon, I will not taking request, if I do I will post on future"
Five Months Later On Nov 30, 2023. He was so angry for not drawing dragon fire Kirby and not taking request since five months ago, I used on phone and sent to death threat as anon,
Moments Later. Ferahntics is saw the death threat and hateful message for not drawing dragon fire Kirby sleeping and not taking request, and then ferahntics is posted said "What is Happening"
2 hours later. Ferahntics is Blocked me for sending death threat and Hateful Message.
And Later, I used on another account on Computer, I using Website and Pixlr E, then I Edit on profile picture, these are Photos like Michael de Santa from GTA V, and Unknown Hanging image, and I send to inbox and hateful message as anon,
And moment later Ferahntics is posted and said "To anons sending me death threats, and gore images and wishing I get killed or s'xually assaulted"
7 Hours Later Ferahntics are Posted and repost two times and then Hundreds of User are Blocking Me,
8 Hours Later on Dec 1, 2023.
I Tried to Apologize like a childish or Logan Paul like saint, or something? And I posted and tried to apologize three times,
5 hours later, Ferahntics has reposted said "I'd love to leave this post alone, but they had the guts to make another account and send me the most insincere, most childish, most ridiculous '''apologies''' that make Logan Paul look like a saint. New account is sleepinglovers293return so block that for ya'll safety too."
And then Hundred of User are Blocking me Again,
That's all of story.
Ferahntics must be proud and support
Thanks to all of support and I'm appreciated for Blocked by Hundred of User.
And I'm sorry for sending hateful message and death threat and g*re image.
I Promise I will not sending death threat, g*re image, and Hateful Message,
Hope you like some story
So I was gonna ignore this but this just pisses me off an unbelievable amount, so a lot of swearing incoming.
You sent me endless messages wishing I die, how you'll kill me, how you'll SA me, how you'll torture me all because I didn't want to draw your request because my requests were closed.
And you know what? If my requests would've been open, I PROBABLY would've done it! Cause I didn't think anything of it, I didn't know it was a fetish thing, I learned that later. And after all of this, absolutely won't do it.
And now you have the fucking audacity to spam me once again with the worst apologies with fucking gifs of Homer from Simpsons begging, still use the false identities as to apologize - as if that somehow undoes anything??
Do you think I'm just gonna ignore this and pretend like nothing happened and let bygones be bygones? After all of these disgusting messages about actual things that can impact people VERY badly and cause them spiral? Or go through a traumatic episode just because you got a little bit mad cause I didn't indulge in your fetish which I didn't even know about?
You wanna know what would be the best thing for you to do right now? Stop making new accounts, quit spamming me and anyone else, and take a long-ass pause and reevaluate yourself and how you go about it, because none of this should be thrown around so freely. I don't care 'its the internet, who cares' - because no matter how many times you say that, there will always be people who will get scarred very badly just because you can't handle your hissy fits.
And if there is anything I can do about it, I WILL make this shit known, because I'm lucky enough to not be mentally affected by your nonsense. Someone else, however, might take it extremely badly. That being said, I WILL mention all of your account names, because I REFUSE to let someone else have this shit spammed.
Until you can prove you've changed and matured, I will not accept any apologies - I don't owe it to you - and I WILL keep updating with your account names.
Sincerely, get the fuck off of my page.
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evtraininguniversity · 8 months
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Let It Simmer Ch. 1 - Homemade Castelia Cones
Having returned to the future, Ingo finds himself stumped on just who he was before Hisui as his memories still haven't returned. As such, until he can find his way back to his home station he must spend some time in the modern-day Sinnoh. Left sitting around for the most part while the investigators do their work, he decides to put a gift given to him by his friends in the past to good use by making a food recipe blog of traditional Hisuian dishes.
It's by complete happenstance that Emmet stumbles upon his blog, having taken on cooking as a hobby during Ingo's absence.
As I said I would, I have now edited and crossposted the Submas Recipe Lore AU Snippet I posted here onto AO3 - I have also added an additional scene toward the end to connect it with the idea expanded upon on this anon ask I got! I'll continue to post all further snippets onto this series name. Please enjoy (again lol)!
Word Length: 1,163 Relevant Tags: Amnesiac Ingo, cooking, social media, texting, memories, Ingo and Emmet are internet friends, fluff and hurt/comfort, comedy, comedy of errors
Do not tag as ship. Doing so will incur an automatic and swift block.
Read it on AO3! Or below the cut. Enjoy!
Warden I was curious though, I noticed that you don't post any recipes on your own blog. Is there a particular reason? I simply ask because I find myself curious about what dishes you enjoy, and wish to maybe try and make them as you have made the ones I've shared.
SitrusPieCrustle Ah. That.  I do not make recipes. I just like cooking them.  So I have nothing to share.
Warden I see. We are similar in this aspect then too.
SitrusPieCrustle How? You have shared many recipes.
Warden True, but please understand, they were gifted to me by friends that I can no longer visit. As a going away present of sorts I suppose would be the best way to put it. They often cooked most of these recipes during our time together so I am grateful that they provided me succinct instructions on how to recreate them whenever I wish. My sharing them with the rest of the Internet was a fleeting desire, as I was hoping to, in part, share Hisuian culture with the modern-day palette.
SitrusPieCrustle The inherited cookbook, right? I presume they have passed then. From your wording. sorry if wrong
Warden They have.
SitrusPieCrustle Sorry for your loss. Very sorry.
Warden No apologies necessary, it is a wound that has long since scabbed over.
SitrusPieCrustle Still. Sorry.
[What Emmet couldn't have known was this: Ingo had spent a long day sitting and waiting for a promised phone call that never came. He had been told in advance by his case workers that they might have found a lead to his forgotten identity, but when the cellular device never rang it became clear that Ingo should retire his hopes for the night. It was incredibly late in the day, but just in time to have an active conversation with his newfound friend that he made from his recipe blog.
Their chats often took place hours in between each message due to the time zone difference, but he found it entirely soothing to talk about… literally anything other than the fact that he still hadn't found the people his heart longed for. He needed a distraction, and he hoped that Sitrus needed one too.]
SitrusPieCrustle I have one recipe.  if you want to hear it
Warden I would be delighted to.
[What Ingo couldn't have known was this: Emmet was verrry grateful that the website hosting their Private Messages didn't have a function to show when someone was typing. Otherwise, the minutes in-between while he failed and failed again to type: 'when me and Ingo-' backspace 'as kids my twin and I-' backspace 'something I loved to do with my brother-' backspace would have had him stressing about how his online pal was interpreting it.
Even now, after all this time, it still smarted to talk about his memories of Ingo. Some days were better than most, and on this day he settled.]
SitrusPieCrustle Have you ever made homemade Castelia Cones?
Warden I don't think I know what that is. We do not have it here at least.  Care to inform me, please?
SitrusPieCrustle It's ice cream. Safe for Pokémon to eat.  And incredibly easy to make from home.  Not as tasty though.  I'll teach you. It will be fun. Promise :^)
Warden I believe you and am excited to learn!
(Ingo had always found it difficult to focus on the face of strangers. It wasn't something that impeded his ability to go about his duties as a warden, but left him struggling to remember the features of a merchant he had spoken to days prior when confronted with them again or even some of his fellow Pearls during the early days of his stay in Hisui; something he had ultimately chalked up to a lingering aftereffect of whatever had impacted his memories.
"Aw, man." A young boy with a hazy face spoke up, staring dismayed down at the ground. A mess of white ice and an uneaten waffle cone lay on the concrete as a casualty of untied sneakers, the boy having tripped forward moments before and losing his grip on his treat.
Ingo, who was much younger than he had ever been in his life stared down at the catastrophe too. It was an unexpected loss of the allowance money they had saved up for weeks in advance but more than that it was the source of the building sadness in the one beside him. The two had been looking forward to buying the ice cream, but none were more excited than the boy in white overalls.
Without another second passing, Ingo extended his own twin cone. The boy might have blinked, but expressions and features were a blur in the leftovers of this moment, but Ingo's next actions showed that the other was indeed befuddled by the gesture.
"Here," Ingo's small hand pushed the cone closer as he explained. "For you."
"Ingo... that one is yours."
He shook his head. "Take it." He wanted him to have it, really he did. That was what a good older... was supposed to do, looking after the other.
The fuzzy edges where a mouth would be moved, extending upwards. The boy reached for the cone, gratitude oozing out of the painted wash that remained an unfinished layer on the canvas of Ingo's past.
But instead of taking the cone out of his hands, to Ingo's surprise his... held onto the cone with his hand wrapped around above his own.
"Let's share it instead! Yup!" he said to Ingo with a smile as bright as the stars in the sky, "There's more than enough for the both of us.")
As Ingo slowly lowered his spoon from his mouth, he didn't relinquish it before wiping away at his teary eyes with the sleeve of his sweater. The images—no, the memories—brought forth from the taste of vanilla lingering on his tongue were small and faded but it was so much more than he had started the day with. And that alone made it more precious than any jewel mined from the Sinnoh Underground to Ingo.
Freeing his hand by settling the spoon against the inside of the bowl housing the currently softening frozen cream, Ingo pulled his laptop closer to his spot at the table. He pried the lid open, carefully inputting the password set up for him (with a sticky note on the side frame in case he forgot), and went straight for the chat log he shared with his friend.
By now, Sitrus was probably on his way to or already at work and thus wouldn't see his message until later that evening—morning, from Ingo's perspective. But Ingo needed to let him know immediately what gift he had granted him.
Warden Thank you for sharing this with me. Because of you, I was able to remember faintly a moment from my childhood which is something I couldn't have said yesterday. This means more than you could possibly imagine.
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frogizzhc · 8 months
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Soul Eater Headcanons: Social Media Edition!
Maka: She only uses social media if she needs to, like posting important events like birthdays or celebrating an A on a test. She doesn't like taking photos, so most of her usage on apps are text posts (so she most likely doesn't have Snapchat or Instagram).
Soul: He's a lurker on every app/website. He has a "main" account on every app that shows his "cool kid" life and then he has a lurker account that has no profile picture, a simple description, and has a name that he got from an online username generator.
Blackstar: He doesn't use social media that much but when he does, he goes down a rabbit hole of internet arguments and is stopped by Tsubaki after some amount of time. All of his social media profiles are centered around a ninja aesthetic and he vague posts about the weirdest things.
Tsubaki: She is only on Tumblr and Instagram. She posts mundane things like what tea she tried or how much fun she had hanging out with friends. Although, her most frequented searched tags are filled with stuff related to a favorite book of hers (I think she's secretly a fandom girl).
Kid: He doesn't like most social media apps simply because of their logos. So, he doesn't really have accounts on anything.
Liz: She's on every app posting about anything and everything. She almost shares too much, which she's been trying to work on (Kid found it annoying).
Patty: She is only on Snapchat and posts streaks to everyone in her list or plays games.
Crona: They're only on Tumblr and posts about things they like. They don't really interact with many other people though, so they're like a poster lurker (???).
Spirit: He tries to check up on Maka and even her mom through social media but since Maka doesn't use social media much, he doesn't get anywhere. Maka's mom has Spirit blocked on every social media, so that goes no where either. He vague posts about the struggles of being a father and the dating world on Twitter (I'm not calling it X) and Instagram with the most unflattering photos.
Stein: He lurks on Reddit.
Lord Death: He's a Facebook Mom. Enough said.
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shizucheese · 1 month
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Hello everyone! Welcome to this week's edition of "Shizu's Red String Board Madness Corner," where I once again embrace the Eye in all it's glory! As always, if you want to see my descent into madness in full all in one place, you can find the weekly reblogged post here. All Hail the All Seeing, All Knowing!
Today is 2/12/2024. Episode 5 came out 4 days ago, I just didn't have time to listen until today.
“Talkers”
Norris (Voice: Martin?/ Alex)
Episode 1: “Reanimation (Partial) -/- Regret [Email]”. The Stranger? The End? The Dark? The Lonely? The Flesh? Arthur (Nolan?).
Episode 3: "Infection (full body" -/- Arboreal [Journal entry]". The Spiral? (Paranoia? Auditory, visual and olfactory hallucinations) The Lonely? The Corruption. The Flesh? (Callbacks to the Flesh Garden from S5)
Common Themes: Hearing the voice of a dead/ missing loved one?
Chester (Voice: John?/ Jonny)
Episode 1: “Transformation (eyes) -/- Tresspass [chat log]”. Magnus Institute, The Eye. (Involves a forum; the Web?).
Episode 5: "Disappearance (undetermined) -/- Invitation [Internet blog]". The Eye (Movies. Movie name: "Voyeur" "Must be seen to be believed"...). The Web? (Another website?). (Very reminiscent of Mag 110: Creature Feature.) The "poor old guy" at the theater is totally an Eye avatar, right? Kinda gives me "Simon Fairchild when he was first introduced" vibes.
Agustus: (rare?)
Episode 4: “Collection (blood) -/- musical [letter]” The End. The Lonely? The Slaughter.
Letter writer thinks passing on his violin might allow a part of himself to live on in his nephew. Very Jonah Magnus of him.
Music teacher hears “faraway music”, then goes crazy and throws himself out of the carriage and dies. Reminiscent of Mag7 and the Piper? The merchant’s wares include dice (Mag 29?). Got the violin from him (took his blood?). Effect of the violin reminiscent to Grifter’s Bone (Mag 42).
(Oliver Bardwell lol very funny guys)
Non-Talkers (?)
Episode 2: "Transformation (full) -/- dysmorphic [video call]". The Spiral? The Flesh. The Stranger. Ink 5oul (avatar/ entity?)
Notes and Thoughts:
So, so far both of the Norris statements have involved someone missing a loved one and tentatively some Lonely themes. Both of the Chester statements have been very Eye themed, and both involved websites; possibly some Web action going on as well (if this is actually John, that'd make sense given his history with the Web...). Between that and the fact that while they always start off sounding more robotic, Alex is definitely slipping more into his "Martin" voice and Jonny into his "John" voice as they get further into a statement whenever they read one, I think we can officially safely say at this point that it's not just Alex and Jonny playing Norris and Chester just to fuck with us. That being said: is this actually John and Martin? A portion of them that got trapped while the rest of them is somewhere out there, incomplete? Or is Something Else using their voices?
Idk if I've ever shared this theory on Tumblr before but until I'm told otherwise, I'm going to remain convinced that the Mangus Institute in this world burned down because Martin's Suggestion was Fire.
Is it just me or, when Alice was trying to stop Sam from filling out the forms, was there some level of desperation to her voice? Is her constant dismissal of the paperwork Sam fills out really just because they have so much work to do? Or is there something else going on? What is she hiding?
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da12thkind · 9 months
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Tumblr and The Old Internet Re-Awakens, An Opinion Essay
This is going to be a super long post about my thoughts on the current state of the internet, with a chunk of what I'm about to say having been stuff I've already said elsewhere on other sites. To save your dash, I'll be putting a READ MORE break.
The fact that Twitter and Reddit have basically been destroyed by their own hubris is both hilarious and sad. It's funny because "ha ha rich man's hubris" but also sad because this is very emblematic of the current direction many social media companies that have been at the top for too long are going.
Ever since the muskrat purchased Twitter, it was clear from the beginning that something seriously wrong had happened, with worse decisions to follow. Something I hadn't realized was just how extensive the ripple effects of this would be. Reddit is now being destroyed by their leader's desire for more and more money, as if they needed any more.
I've been having this conversation with my friends via Discord and with strangers on the Starmen dot net forums. The writing is on the walls. The internet is moving towards a future that caters to advertisers more than its users. If there's even the slightest hint of getting more money by screwing over users, the higher ups of a given site will be chomping at the bit.
Where does that leave us?
Well, with Reddit and Twitter both now in a state of complete and total self-destruction, albeit rather slowly, we have seen an influx of new and returning users. Fantastic! I love when an old place gets new life breathed into it.
That being said, I don't believe that Tumblr is the bastion of The Old Internet, far from it, and many of you would agree.
Instead, I think that the resurgence in Tumblr's popularity could be just the first step towards the return of The Old Internet. We have the power to go back to the days of making our own websites. Information on web design and web programming are available online for free, in addition to many places offering free hosting services for a basic website or blog that don't need many bells or whistles (just don't go to GoDaddy).
Tumblr, in my opinion, once you know how to use the advanced editing tools, can make for a great "Baby's First Web Blog." There are some users on here that have made GORGEOUS blogs that will absolutely blow you away.
What about peer-to-peer communications?
We've seen that Discord has been another victim to the plague that is internet gentrification. They've removed the discriminators for usernames, had a store put in, and so many other little changes that have consistently annoyed the end users.
That being said... Discord is not going to be falling apart anytime soon. It's still a fantastic way to connect with many people at once and have quick access to all your different communities.
However, you could make the case, and I certainly try to, that internet forums fulfill the same thing. It is true that forums for many topics have drifted into the void of internet history, but is that not simply the nature of the internet? Communities sprout up, thrive, have an internal way, break apart, and start anew. We've seen that with many Discord servers, albeit rather small ones.
I will still hold my ground that forums should be revitalized if we truly want to go back to the days of old.
What does the future hold?
I... don't know. Despite my vast horde of opinions, research, and second-hand accounts of what The Old Internet was like and how The Current Internet is becoming, I cannot say for absolute certainty that we will see a total collapse of these tech empires. At the very least, however, I do believe that they will become hollowed shells of their former selves.
I have yet to talk about YouTube and its history, and, to be quite frank with you all, I simply must avoid that topic for now. All I will say is that I implore my fellow content creators, specifically those that create Video On-Demand content for YouTube and TikTok, to look into creating your own websites to host your content in the event that something happens to these empires, too. If you don't have offline copies of your videos, do so when you can.
That will be it for now. Thank you for reading this essay. I love your faces. Stay safe.
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grimmywrites · 10 months
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DO NOT POST MY WORK TO GOODREADS OR ANYWHERE ELSE
I’m fuming. I do not care how much anyone likes my work and I cannot believe I have to say this: DO NOT STEAL MY WORK AND POST IT ELSEWHERE! Luckily, Goodreads took my stories down after I proved they were mine, but only three of the works! The fourth they put as “invalid” and I’ll post the response I got:
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“Thanks for your email. Unfortunately, we have a strict policy against deleting books from the database. Goodreads is striving to be a complete database of all published works, including works that are out-of-print. We like our members to be able to add the exact edition of their books to their virtual shelves. However, a one time exception was granted and your three books were set as deleted and one as invalid (the system did not allow me the record, because it was the last in the catalogue).” Under the ‘invalid’ link, they state that they DO list long, finished fanfiction as books. However, this should be only when you are the actual author. I do NOT post my work anywhere but here, ao3, and there are some remnants on deviantart. I certainly have never posted it to goodreads.
If you see my work elsewhere, please contact me so I can report it. (And maybe you could report it too, after you’ve notified me, if you feel so inclined.) Ultimately, I find it distasteful to even refer to fanfiction, especially my own, as books. I said as much in my response:
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My response: “Thanks for the deletion but I have a problem with your phrasing. These pieces are not *books*, they're fanfiction. They were not published, they were *posted* to a free website for fanfic writers. Books are created primarily for profit and with original characters. You cannot write a book about someone else's characters, that is plagiarism. Saying that fanfiction is a book or even implying that there was any sort of monetary gain around it could result in legal trouble for me (and I would assume for you). I suggest you take that under advisement because if I see my work there again I will continue messaging you until it is all removed. That's my work, I decide where it goes, not you and not random people on the internet stealing it to post to your site.” I’m livid, and I know a lot of people are. Between this, AI being allowed to write stories for people to be posted on ao3, allowing AI to trawl our work, and the overall lack of engagement in fan spaces, I’m inching closer and closer to deleting everything I ever posted.
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corvidry · 1 year
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Hi! I am working on an assignment for school, and I am trying to find information on how animal crossing is styled. Through my scrounging of the internet I saw a link that lead me to your website that was a "Animal Crossing Style Guide" but it no longer exists. I was wondering if you might have some pointers that I could learn from for my project?
Hi there,
You're about 2 weeks shy of that link working. I just changed web hosts and rebuilt my website and ended up taking down the blog section, which is where that content lived. The Animal Crossing Style Guide was an article / blog post I wrote a few years ago around the time New Horizons came out discussing the topic of animal crossing character designs for artists. While the post no longer exists online, I did archive it to hopefully host again in the future, but I havent gotten around to remaking the blog yet. In the meantime here's literally the entire thing in a tumblr post, and if I remember, I'll try to update whatever links I can. Sorry if it reads or is formatted a little weird on tumblr, but rest assured it's identical except for some shopping / sponsor links that dont need to be on this version. No idea if this is the sort of thing you need for your project, but good luck and enjoy!
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Animal Crossing Style Guide: Artist Tips for Drawing Your Favorite Characters
Apr 24 | Written By Birdy
Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Fandom Friday. If you’re like every Nintendo Switch owner  right now, you’ve been playing Animal Crossing nonstop for the last month.  And who can blame you? This irresistible chore simulator has no trouble winning the hearts of the masses by helping us fall in love all over again with our favorite animal neighbors. Nintendo found a way to make tedium fun by implementing a fun reward system and fully embracing the rule of cool, or rather, the rule of cute if there is such a thing. Why do I like it? I don’t know, man!! It’s adorable! It turns my brain chemicals into a relaxed, happy soup.
If you’re an artist it’s possible you’ve seen these cute character designs and thought “I want a piece of that for myself.” I know I have. If you love to draw the Animal Crossing cast or have some OCs of your own who you want to mesh with the AC universe, read on for some mini tips for drawing in the Animal Crossing style. I’ve been studying the style for the past few weeks and this guide is a pretty compact version of what I’ve learned, but feel free to let me know if you guys want more.  It was fun to study these characters and I’d love to expand upon this with a more definitive guide or deep dive into more specific aspects of the style!
On to the basics!
Villager Bodies
In the graphic below I describe that most animals are a little over 2 heads tall. That’s because the characters in animal crossing tend to have very large, bulbous heads as part of their appeal. You’ll find that certain species, such as eagles and gorillas, do break this convention slightly, often appearing with their anatomical midpoint lower on the chest than most smaller animals.
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That said, this isn’t a hard and fast rule necessarily. While the height and shape of AC bodies is generally in the neighborhood of what’s stated above, there is some variation between installments of AC. Compare the following images and you’ll see what I mean.
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As you can see, Bob’s shape and proportions vary between Wild World and New Leaf, as do many of the other characters. While many current players likely think of New Horizons as the definitive style for now, I would encourage my fellow artists to experiment here. Play around with height in the 2 to 3 heads tall range and see what you like. Stylize the torsos to your taste. It’s entirely possible to remain within the AC style of drawing while still making some details your own.
Heads
Heads of AC characters are a bit of a complex subject because there are literally so many different species of animals who all have their own goofy, lovable little faces. I’ve done my best to break them down to the basics without getting too specific about one species or another.
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As you can see, even the the more complicated animals can be broken down into these simplistic, bulbous shapes that Animal Crossing loves so well. When designing a new character, it’s wise to plan their head and body using basic shapes before you tack on any other extraneous features. By doing this you can ensure that your character has the round, soft features that are key to Animal Crossing before you ever have to decide what their face looks like or what their personality should be. When in doubt, round it out. You’ll be drowning in the cute in no time.
Speaking of faces, feel free to let me know on social media if you’d like me to expand upon this guide in terms of facial features and placement. I avoided the topic in this case because I wanted to focus more on foundational elements, and animal faces felt it a bit broad for that scope. The sheer expanse of animal individuality in this game allows for quite a lot of different faces with quite varied placement. And that’s not even including the human character options!
Limbs
Arms are perhaps the simplest section of this guide because there are so few styles of arm in Animal Crossing. The vast majority of characters you encounter will have the cylindrical arm style, or something close to it. At that point, all you’ll have to do is vary the length to suit the character.
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Birds and octopi are one exception to this rule, with birds in particular being the more complex of the two. In most instances, bird characters will have those flattened out oar shapes for forearms with a simple texture stretched over the shape, but on occasion some birds will have distinct feathering as part of their model, which can at times distort the underlying shape for the artist trying to make sense of it. Our owl friends, Celeste and Blathers, are good examples of this.
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With birds and octopi in particular, don’t be afraid to experiment a bit with the design of the limb. Some birds, like Blathers and Celeste, have wider forearms, and many octopi have interesting textures for their suckers. In addition, don’t be afraid of extending or shortening the standard cylindrical arm shape, as this shape can be applied to all different sized animals, from cats to hamsters and beyond. Some animals will have very short stumpy arms while others will have longer ones. Some villagers have slender, delicate arms, while others have bulkier ones. You can adjust the proportions of the shape to suit the character you’re drawing.
Legs on the other hand….those are a different can of worms. I’d like to preface this by saying that legs are another topic I’d love to go into greater detail on if there is interest because this graphic could afford to do the topic a bit more justice.
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As with arms, most animals have the same simple cylinder that can be widened and extended as needed to suit the body of the animal. Birds once again have a unique trait in this department, but beyond that, leg styles vary widely. Mostly in the foot department, I should say. When starting off you’ll find that most animals maintain a cylindrical leg even if they have a unique foot, and in most cases the foot can be constructed out of a dome shape attached to the cylinder. Not unlike a plunger, if for some reason the stick was on one side of the plunger rather than in the center. On top of that, human characters can now wear a large variety of shoes, making this a second topic that I felt went beyond the scope of this exercise. If you’re interested in a more thorough explanation of Animal Crossing legs and feet, feel free to let me know. I just might write about it in more detail in a future installment.
But never fear! Feet, like most unique animal traits, do share similar design elements across the entire game even when they don’t look particularly alike.
Designing Unique Features
So you’re an artist who wants to draw a specific character, or maybe you want to design a brand new character. You can construct a simple animal body, but then what? What makes this character Your Character™ rather than Bob or Molly or Flora?
Despite how similar these animals all are in basic constructions, each animal and human has their own unique design elements that set them apart from one another. It is nigh impossible to cover every single interesting design element of every single animal in every single game, so here are some tips that will aid you in drawing any element you decide to apply to a character while still keeping them cute as a button.
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Just like up top, I reiterate. Big, round, soft shapes. Even the most hardcore animals in Animal Crossing look soft and huggable to some degree.
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Take for example, these animals who all should be at least a little bit scary.  Animal Crossing’s art style keeps them appealing even with their rougher traits on display. Alfonso the alligator should logically be among the most feared of reptiles, yet his sleepy eyes, gently sloping snout, chubby cheeks, and tubby belly give him all the charm of a stuffed animal. His pointy teeth feel more like a clumsy after thought than a mechanism for killing prey.
Coco the bunny is designed to look like a haniwa figure, an item commonly buried with the dead  during the Yayoi period of Japanese history. Coco’s Japanese name is, in fact, Yayoi. In addition, many items in her house are reminiscent of Japanese funeral decor.  She’s supposed to be a little unsettling. Her facial expression does not change like those of other villagers, so she can’t smile at you or put you at ease the way other characters can. Indeed, Coco wears a permanent somber appearance, but even so, she looks sweet and pleasant to touch. Her face is completely curved and she is given the body of a bunny villager.  Her huge, round ears and tiny, dainty paws evoke the charm of a little rabbit even from a villager whose whole design is meant to remind one of death.
Rasher the pig and Spike the rhino have similar charm. Both of them don scars all over their bodies and in some cases wear aggressive looking shirts in their rough or rustic homes. Still, with Rasher’s big sleepy eyes and friendly round belly, he could almost give you a Winnie the Pooh vibe if you squint hard enough. Spike, meanwhile, has had his horns rounded ever so slightly at the tips and his curved hooves and short tail make him seem far from threatening. Even the most edgy creatures in the Animal Crossing universe can appear somehow friendly by making use of these softening design elements.
Go Forth and Draw
And that, in essence, has been my broad overview of Animal Crossing’s art style. I consider that last tidbit to be the most valuable tip of all. By closely studying the way Animal Crossing characters use round bodies, gradual slopes, and pleasant curves, you can make even the most threatening of animal characters look cute and perfectly cuddly for your town, village, or island.
Once again, please let me know if there are particular elements of the Animal Crossing style you’d like me to look into more closely. This has been a very broad and very general overview of the character designs, but I would absolutely love to dive deeper into this art style. If you use this guide to improve your Animal Crossing drawings, feel free to tag me on Instagram, Deviantart, or Tumblr, so I can see what cool art you’ve made!
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Have a great weekend, The Internet! Can’t wait to see you again for the next Fandom Friday. If you need me, I’ll be waterscaping a moat around Raymond’s house.
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