solar-siren

[solar-siren]

I think I'm too many days in to justify posting them here individually, but fyi I am attempting a Tron themed angstpril once again this year.

#tron #tron fic #ren writes #this is like the least organized i've ever been with one of these challenges lmao #the days are all mixed up at this point #angstpril2024

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🔸 ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT TO PRE-ORDER LOST TALES: A Tron Fanzine!

🥏 LOST TALES: A TRON FANZINE is an anthology of art and writing that explores the gaps in the story of TRON. Compiling the work of twenty-one creatives, this zine serves as a celebration of the franchise’s characters, history, and lore, by expressing curious wonderment for the in-betweens of the stories we know and love.

🥏 This zine also celebrate digital preservation. All funds generated from this project will be donated to the Internet Archive, a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.

This schedule as well as more links and further information can be found at losttalestronzine.carrd.co/ !

🔸 Pre-Order your copy of the zine and all the merch to go with it at losttalestronzine.bigcartel

(Zine cover illustrated by @bononocat !) END OF LINE.

#signal boost #tron zine

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Greetings, programs! There’s just one week left to submit to the Always zine before our March 18th deadline!

The usual reminders if you plan to submit:

Please read the zine guidelines

Multiple submissions are welcome

Submissions can be works you’ve already posted

Boosts of this post are greatly appreciated! We don’t want anyone to miss out because they forgot the deadline.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask us here or at [email protected].

Thank you!!

#signal boost #tron #tron zine

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So fun fact: I had actually never seen any of the Tron movies until kinda recently. I really love the franchise now, and most especially the titular character.

I was so heartbroken to discover that the movie ended without a proper resolution to his story. We know his circuitry changed back to blue(white?), but then what? Is he still alive? Does he ever make it out of the sea of simulation?

This painting is my resolution to that question, I guess. Tron washes up on the beach as his circuitry color changes.

Tron lives!

Drawn using Procreate.

#this is so lovely #fanart #tron legacy fanart #tron

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I also want to add that AO3 is one of the safest options that remains. They’re a nonprofit. They don’t have ads. They do have lawyers for their userbase. There are options to lock your works to protect against AI scraping. Obviously you can leave comments and kudos to interact with other users and their work. And you can post more than just writing there. I know at least art and videos are welcome, too.

I don’t post a ton of my writing here at this point anyways, but if tumblr is no longer a viable option I will remain on AO3. The options above aren’t bad (and it’s good to look into other options!), but migrating to a safer site that a lot of people already use would probably be more practical since not everyone knows how to code or would feel comfortable handing out their email address.

*Not sure how much KOSA would change this, this addition is more about the latest tumblr rancidness

If KOSA passes

Or if any other form of censorship (there are many in the works!) ever succeeds at stepping in to impede our ability to communicate online:

We have to make plans.

Now, I dunno who'll even see this post. The few followers I have are TRON fans (who despite the fantasy we live in, tend to have realistically dismal views IRL about Disney and the various corporate uses of software).

And this fandom, on average, is pretty tech-savvy. It's where I've encountered the most people under 20 years old who actually know how to use a desktop or laptop computer.

So, if there's any hope for what I'm thinking about, this is prolly a good place to start with it.

(As with all my posts, I encourage reblogging and containment-breaching.)

(Gifs are clips from TRON 1982, mainly the "deleted love scene," from the DVD extras.)

Anyway.

Current society has moved online communication much too far onto major social media sites for my comfort. Whoever you communicate with over the internet, chances are you do it through a service owned by a big company: Tumblr, Twitter, Discord, Telegram, Facebook, whatever. Even TikTok (shudder).

These sites, despite their many flaws, can provide experiences that are valuable and hard to get otherwise. And once all your friends are on one site, you can't just leave and stay in touch with them all, not unless they all go the same place. It's easy to see why it's hard to abandon any social media platform.

But a backup plan is important. Because, as we've seen over and over, social media sites can't be relied on. They change their policies suddenly, without good reason-- and are inconsistent, even discriminatory, about enforcing those policies.

If they're funded by ads, the advertisers are their main customers, and your posts are the product. Their goal is that the posts most valuable to the advertisers get seen by people the advertisers consider desirable customers.

Helping you communicate-- making your posts get seen by the people you want to communicate with-- is optional to them.

Not to mention that the whole business model of an ad-funded website is generally unsustainable. Many of these sites are operating at a loss, relying on shareholders in a fragile bubble, doomed to fail soon just from lack of real profit.

And the more restrictions --like KOSA-- that the law puts on freedom of online speech, the likelier they are to go down or just become unusable. Every rule a site is required to follow is another strain on its resources, and most of them are already failing badly at even enforcing their own self-imposed rules.

If we want any control over our continued ability to stay in touch with our online friends-- we need to have a backup plan. Maybe it'll be simple at first, a bare-bones system we cobble together-- but it's gotta be something that will work. For a while at least.

There are lots of really good posts about ways to build your own website, using a service like Neocities. I VERY MUCH recommend learning this skill-- learning to make websites of the very simplest, most stable, glitch-resistant type, made of html pages-- which you can upload to a host while you store backups on your home computer. If you value the writing and art that you put online, this is probably the safest you can keep it.

But that's for making your own creative work public.

As for communicating with others-- for example, receiving and answering other people's comments on your work-- that gets more complex. I personally haven't found it worthwhile to troubleshoot the problems that come with having a system that allows visitors to comment publicly on my website.

But what we do still have-- and likely will for a long time-- is email.

Those of us who came of age before social media's current hold... well, we might take this for granted. Email was the first form of online contact we ever encountered… and thus it can seem to us like the most ordinary, the most boring.

But in the current world, it is a rare and precious thing to find a method of communicating that doesn't require everyone in the chat to be signed on with the same corporation.

Email is, as of now, still perfectly legal-- as much as social media companies have been trying to herd the populace away from it. I'm sure there are other ways to share thoughts online that are not bound by laws. But I am not going to go into that here.

Email service is provided by law-abiding companies, which will comply with subpoenas if law enforcement thinks you are emailing about doing illegal things. So, email is not a surefire way to be safe, if laws become dystopian enough to threaten your freedom to talk about your own life and identity.

But it's safer than posting on a public social media page.

For now.

Email is beautifully decentralized. You can get an email address many different ways-- some reliant on a company like Gmail, others hosted on your own domain. And different people, with all different types of email addresses, hosted in all different ways-- can all communicate together by the same method.

Of course any of these people, individually, can lose their email address for some reason or other, and have to get a new one. But as long as they still know the email addresses of their contacts, they can reconnect and recover from that loss. The structure of a group linked by email is reliant not on a single company-- but on the group itself, the friends you can actually count on.

This is why I am trying to promote the idea of forming email lists, as a backup plan to give people a way to stay in touch as mainstream social media sites prove to be unsustainable.

I'm envisioning a simple system of sending emails to several addresses at once, and making each reply visible to everyone in the chat by using "reply all" (or, if desired, editing the To field to reply to only some).

If enough people get used to using email in this way, it could fill most of the needs met by any other group chat or forum …without depending on a centralized social media company that's taking dystopian measures to try and make the business profitable.

So here are some thoughts about how I personally imagine it could work.

(Feel free to comment and bring up any thoughts I haven't addressed, or suggestions to customize how specific groups could set it up. This is meant as more of a starting point for brainstorming than a catch-all solution.)

As I see it, here are the basics of what you and your friends would each need to start out:

An email address. Any kind, hosted anywhere. You should use a dedicated email account just for this group, one that you do NOT use for other communication. Being in this group will result in things you don't want happening to your main email address-- like getting a TON of email, one for every post and reply. Or someone could get your email address that you really don't want any contact with. Use a burner email account (one that you can easily replace) and change it if needed.

The knowledge of how to "REPLY ALL" in your email. This will be necessary in order to add a comment that everyone in the group can see.

The knowledge of how to EDIT THE "TO" FIELD in your email, and remove addresses from the list of all recipients. This will be necessary if you want to CHANGE WHICH PEOPLE in the group can see your comment.

The knowledge of how to FILTER WORDS in your email. This will be necessary if a topic comes up that you don't want to see any mentions of.

The knowledge of how to BLOCK PEOPLE in your email. This will be very important. If someone joins this email group who you do not want to interact with, it will be up to you to BLOCK them so that you do NOT see their messages. (If they are bad enough to evade the block with multiple burner accounts, that's what you have a burner account for. Change it, and share the new one only with those you trust not to give it to them.)

Every person in the group will be effectively a "moderator" of the group, able to remove people from it by cutting their email addresses out of the "To" field. Members will all have equal "moderator" privileges, each able to tailor the group to their own needs.

This means the group may naturally split, over time, into other groups, each one removing some people and adding others. Some will overlap, some won't. This is good! This is, in my opinion, what online interaction SHOULD be like! There should be MANY groups like this!

In this way, we can keep online discussion alive, no matter WHAT happens to any of the social media websites.

If the dystopia got bad enough to shut down email, we could even continue with postal mail and photocopies, like they did in the days of print-zine fanfiction.

If it looks like the dystopia is gonna come for postal mail too, we'll use the connection we have to preserve whatever contacts we can with people who live near us.

Not saying it's GONNA get that bad. But these steps of preparation are good no matter exactly what kind of bad stuff happens.

As long as some organized form of communication still exists, we'll have a place where it's at least a little safer to be your true self…

to plan events and meetups…

and maybe even activities a little too risque to make the final cut of a 1982 Disney movie.

They're trying to censor us. We want a Free System. So we're gonna fight back.

For the Users. Not the corporations.

Peace out, programs. <3

#ren rambles

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tron fic recs??👀

Hi there! I have to preface this by saying I mostly read (and currently write) Sam/Tron (or Rinzler depending on the fic). While I do read a bunch of just general Tron fic, I tend to have a ship I like and stick with it.

I am really enjoying Salvage What You Can by TooManyTeeth, more so the concept then some of the ideas. (I don't ship sam and quorra), but I can get over those for the concept of Rinlzer and Tron being in the same Grid and not the Same People, and Rinlzer finding out he's the 'evil twin' as the tags put it. I'm only on chapter 14, and there have been some moments that have down right broke my heart. Lots and lots of Rinzler angst.

Want some fluff about pre movie Tron and Clu learning swear words?? No Stupid Questions by bowiesinspace is the fic series for you! It's crack (in the since that it's silly, not you know. weird). and Just an all around fun time.

While this one has a bit of of Sam/Tron in it, the pov is Alan and it's not exactly about Sam and Tron, it's about how Alan feels, seeing and being around Tron, and is very very emotional. But also my second favorite fic in the fandom. And that is Mea Culpa by 2019-2020 (EnglishLanguage).

My first favorite fic is by the same author, and that is Genesis. I don't have words for this fic honestly. It's from Sam's POV, and it's about him coming back to a completely empty Grid. There are lines in this fic that literally left me gasping for air. It's almost GEN but there's hints of the fact that there will be something more between Sam and Tron.

I'll be a bit of a silly goose, and plug my own fic here, Whatever Here (That's Left of Me) part one has no shipping besides Lora and Alan, and is about Sam fixing the Grid from the other side of the screen, having a lot of family moments with Alan, Lora and Quorra and talking with Tron. The second part will be about Sam and 'Tron' falling in love. (which knowing me and my writing, means also at least two smut scenes). So if you just want to read part one that is a-okay with me!

Lastly, in this category I am recommending every single one of Solar_Siren's fictober collections. (and one Angstpirl challenge in there as well) There is a lot of different ships in here (Mostly Tron/Yori) and a lot of Uprising stuff. A lot of REALLY good fics in here.

and now the rest of these will all be just Sam/Tron.

for T rated fics,

Sam and Tron going on a first date, and it's not going as well as Sam would like but they have a good time. Falling in Tandem by bowisinspace (I also rec all their fics. they are all very nice. The kudosbot fic??? HUh?? Why am I emotional over a little ai?? *cries*)

Late Onset Digitalism by EnglishLanguage & Lobster_Emoji is not finished, but I really enjoyed this fic, and I don't think it ended on a clif hanger? I only read it the one time though. I still think it was worth the read. another Sam fixing the Grid fics, but with some fun twists.

We Are Pilots by shirozora is a CLASSIC samtron, and just Tron in general, fic. I read this fic once a year and its just. really good. Sam goes back to the Grid to try and see if Kevin left any clues on what he meant by 'Quorra will change the world' and instead finds Tron, and a Grid in chaos. (One small note is that, even though it's rated T there is some smut towards the end.)

E rated Fics:

First two are longer fics where the smut is only a scene or two. Last one is a smutty one shot.

Someone Has To Draw First Blood by dreamlittleyo is another classic. Kevin took Sam to the Grid when he was a kid, and only luck is the reason that Sam didn't go with him that night of the coup. When Sam shows back up as an adult Tron follows him out the Grid, and then they fall in love.

One Miracle at a Time by dreamlittleyo another 'Sam goes back to the Grid' fics. I haven't read this one in a while, but I remember really liking it. I should reread it soon. Maybe I'll do it tonight.

Patience, Sam Flynn by bowiesinspace (how many of their fics have i recced haha). Short one shot, it's very nice, I love the end cause they get very snuggly.

#thank you so much!! #this is very kind #also I’m honored to be recced in the same list as bowie englishlanguage and shirozora omg #tron #fic recs

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🔸 ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT TO PRE-ORDER LOST TALES: A Tron Fanzine!

🥏 LOST TALES: A TRON FANZINE is an anthology of art and writing that explores the gaps in the story of TRON. Compiling the work of twenty-one creatives, this zine serves as a celebration of the franchise’s characters, history, and lore, by expressing curious wonderment for the in-betweens of the stories we know and love.

🥏 This zine also celebrate digital preservation. All funds generated from this project will be donated to the Internet Archive, a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.

This schedule as well as more links and further information can be found at losttalestronzine.carrd.co/ !

🔸 Pre-Order your copy of the zine and all the merch to go with it at losttalestronzine.bigcartel

(Zine cover illustrated by @bononocat !) END OF LINE.

#tronblr #tron zine #lost tales zine

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Greetings, programs! There’s only one month left to submit your work to the Always Zine! Please remember to read the guidelines carefully before submitting your final piece(s).

A few other quick things while we have your attention:

If you’ve written something for the zine and you’d like us to beta read it, please reach out to us sooner rather than later! We’re happy to help, but things are about to get much busier lol.

So far, the vast majority of submissions we’ve received have been art pieces focused on Yori. This is not a complaint! We love Yori!! But if you’re still deciding what to create, we’d love to see some love for Lora and Ma3a as well. So far we have not received any written pieces on or photos of Cindy, either. If you were lucky enough to meet Cindy and would be willing to share a photo or two, it would really mean a lot to us. We’d love for this zine to showcase how kind she was towards fans.

As usual, if you have any questions please message us here or email us at [email protected]. Thank you!

#tronblr #tron zine #always zine #cindy morgan

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My current WIP is not cooperating and I would like to shake it.

#i'm so close to the end of this fic if i could just figure out this one stupid scene #there are too many pieces #ren rambles

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This is very late, but I completed Fictober again this year! You can find all the drabbles here if you'd like to read them.

#tron #tron fanfic #fictober #fictober 2023 #ren writes

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#yeah #every day I come up with new fic ideas lol

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i love this character so much. id love to see them at the lowest point of their life

#tron

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#it me

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the bond between a girl and their favorite fictional man is both an unstoppable force and an immovable object

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"Are you okay" NO. THERE ARE LITTLE FICTIONAL BITCHES IN MY HEAD. AND THEY'RE KISSING.

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Nano failed successfully

#ren rambles #nano

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Just a reminder for fanfic authors:

Fanfiction will ALWAYS be superior to character.ai

Please don't ever stop writing!!