#I also posted this on reddit if you saw it there

[waywardmillennial]

watchergate & where we go from here...

To start at the end, I purchased my annual Watcher TV subscription on April 20th because I wanted to support them when it felt like so many others were not. I'm cancelling another subscription to make this work with my budget, and I'm very happy with this!

Watcher has always made high quality, entertaining content that I love, and I'm happy to support them as they try to grow like they've always wanted to so they can bring on more creators and give us more diverse art.

So, moving forward, I'm going to be posting about Watcher TV when it comes out - spoiler parties with the sexy moots! - and I'll be blocking any and all haters I see. 💜💜💜

(read more bc ofc this got long)

To walk this back and give a little history/context, *ahem* [sotto Byron voice]

April 12, 2024: Watcher announced they had a surprise coming for us in a week's time. The news came in the form of a very spirited ad-read in the Mystery Files s2 finale. And afterwards there were a few blogs posting about it, but I commented to a friend that my dash had been devoid of Watcher posts (oh, how that sweet summer child would grow to long for a day such as that).

There were some corkboard theories, and I broke down the new logo design, but nothing big happened until the following Thursday.

April 18, 2024: I saw the leak for the announcement. It was on reddit and a sock tumblr blog was made sending the link out to people. I didn't post it or share it because it wasn't my news to share. I wanted to wait to see how they were going to explain it.

Maybe I should have said at the time (but it's fine if you don't believe me now I guess) but I was hoping Watcher TV would become like their enhanced Patreon replacement, where the new shows like "Puppet History Karaoke" and "Road Files" would be exclusive, and some other perks like early access. [note: if Apollo is laughing at him right now, I'd kindly request he stuff that red ball somewhere Helios doesn't shine]

I imagined some people would be mad at the streaming news but it didn't prepare me for how bad it would get...

April 19, 2024: Most of us know what happened. The announcement was not well received. Watcher's silence right after wasn't helping, but I don't think many people were willing to give them any grace for their pre-planned trip to the UK and instead demanded answers immediately.

Do I think maybe their announcement could have been timed better? Or maybe given a different tone? Perhaps. But either way what they were trying to communicate was not what people chose to hear, and the response from many viewers was, to choose a very formal phrase here, absolute bonker banana balls insane.

The main anti-streamer "arguments" I saw basically boiled down into these categories:

"high production tv quality content is what they want to make, but we don't want that - we only want them to sit in a blank room and talk to each other with blue and yellow text like the bfu days!!"

"Steven's the one behind all this bc he's rich and greedy and only eats gold"

"they already make enough money off their patreon why are they doing this?? they should have consulted [insert other yt-er here]"

"they've become the capitalist elite that we swore to destroy! so we have to tear them down from their thrones!!"

Even now, feeling better than I have in days, I don't have the energy to say why each of those takes completely misses the point of who they are as a company, as creators, and as human beings. But there are some eloquent posts in my #watchergate tag, or my other post, if you're interested.

April 22, 2024: We got the Watcher update - giving people access to all videos after a month on the new streamer - and that seemed to placate a lot of viewers and those on the fence. But it was also the day I learned about that horrible petition against Steven, and I'd been following all this drama for several days (foregoing some self-care) and so I had a little meltdown...

Even though the new setup is closer to what I'd hoped for like 10 days ago, I hate how we arrived at it. It's shown people that they can bully creators to get them to compromise on their company. In fact, I've seen accounts celebrating this.

Opinions like this have given me trust issues when it comes to the Watcher fandom at large now. As many of my beloved mutuals have said, I'm going to be wary of accounts that follow me and be applying that blocking feature liberally.

I can also only imagine how things like this must have broken some of the trust that the Watcher crew feels for us - fightingfuries really said it best. If they do start distancing themselves on socials and things, I wouldn't really blame them.

I don't have more to say, other than I'm going to support them as much as I can, for as long as they continue to make content. I'm going to send the team a care package. And I hope in time we'll earn back their trust.

Now I'll let Ryan Bergara play me out...

As for the question of why we decided to launch our own platform, when we started Watcher in 2020, we wanted to create shows that we were proud of, that we had ownership over, and that would provide you the caliber of content that we felt you deserved. However, we were finding it harder and harder to stay relevant to advertisers and the constantly changing YouTube landscape. We faced some incredibly challenging decisions. We didn't want to compromise our content to ensure they met advertising requirements. And we definitely did not want to lay people off that have brought Watcher to life behind the scenes. And we didn't want to bring Watcher to a close, which would have happened if we stayed solely on YouTube. - An Update, April 22, 2024

#watchergate #I needed to wrap up some feelings #but closing the tag now #onto posting about happier things! #and I have a little idea/project I want to work on next for any of you who are watcher tv members #vi rants #we now return to my normally scheduled queue

[iamthepulta]

"Geology is 90% vocabulary" feels like such a poor description of such a large, important topic, but it feels like it would solve so much if people just... had the words to describe the world.

It's so unfair to everyone that the majority of the population's understanding of the world stops at "tectonic plates", "ring of fire", and "rock cycle". It's so unfair.

Everyone deserves to go on a hike, and when the rock changes colors, wonder "what is that?" and be able to answer the question themselves. Everyone deserves to be able to fulfill their curiosity and it is such a disservice that they cannot.

#I saw a reddit post of someone asking why the rock was flaking that way and it /hurt/ that they had to go to reddit to learn the word shale. #And that there are maps that will tell them the rock type wherever they go! It's such a joy they know now! And they were so happy when ppl #told them! But so sad they didn't know. #geology #This is also the struggle talking to non-geologists because they ask something like 'why is the hill shaped like that?' and you can't say #'graben'. You have to translate the lingo into the rock's previous physical movement - but in words.

[skunkes]

might sound weird to say as a person with a couple ocs who have Big Horrible Event(s) in their backstories or as a person who has like 3 ocs total bc he sucks at writing and as a person who hopes their ocs arent too Boring with [the thing im about to mention] but the thing about writing [characters] and [people] is that like.

any little thing a person experiences can take up their whole existence... its actually something "fun" to experience as i meet new ppl and do more things. My friend had something happen that she'll be talking about forever. I had several things happen last year that ill never stop talking about, some of which other ppl think werent that bad actually. In the same way I'll forever remember about the way my sister accidentally insulted me almost 10 years ago, it's really interesting and Fun to find and assign smaller things like that to characters...its really Real. some people's dealbreakers are other people's solvable problems etc etc

#(as well as the opposite: Big Event that maybe shocks everyone around em but they genuinely werent shaken by) #though this one is more common and leads to those ''ohh i didnt know that was normal oops'' moments #talkys #inspired by recent me and friend events #and also recent events where i told sum ppl more stuff about Thing and they responded as if it wasnt a big deal. but it was to me. #and also how i thought a part of al's childhood backstory was kind of maybe dumb and not realistically as impactful as id expect #but i saw someone on reddit almost word for word write that as their experience and how its shaped em as a person #and thats it like... the small things are boring and hard to keep track of sometimes #its not like you'll include every single little event your oc was shaped by in their bio #but idk. its like Fun to piece together for fun. to mold a human being #ykwim? wld be silly to tell everyone ''oh my oc struggles with self image due to many instances like... when their sister called em ugly'' #or write it anywhere but it is fun to Know and have in your head. and its real ! #just like if a friend told you about something that happened to em #long post #delete later #sorry i keep saying stupid obvious shit lately ive always been bad at oc making AND socializing so im learning everything late #but anyway yes. idk even as i keep making ocs that are ''similar'' its like. every person so different #people can react to anything in any way for any reason. i love people #this is why i struggle a bit with keeping ocs to archetypes i guess bc like. what is ooc for an oc. people contain contradictions all the #time. you can change yourself at any time. #ok nobody will read this far so ill go to the real insane rambling #part of this has been a part of my chats with talon while trying to get him to share more info #like. yeah ok you're 400+ years old the things that happened to you were such a comparatively small part of your life #but humans dont live as long and think about small things until they die. i dont think time would heal all wounds actually. not all of em #some thoughts just always come to gnaw at your brain. its ok to not be over things. i feel ill never be over some things #and also complainerism can be fun but thats something else entirely wee hee ^_^

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

I'm sorry W H A T

#9-1-1 #911 #oasis's 9-1-1 chatter #911 spoilers #911 abc #911 on abc #911abc #UMMM??? #I was looking something up and saw a reddit post talking about tommy in the results so even though it was unrelated I checked it out anyway #and then went to the 9-1-1 subreddit from there just to see what was happening #checked the discussion for this episode etcetera #AND THEN I SAW IT #SOMEONE MENTIONED IT #and I was #HAUGAHUAGHUAHH W H A T #also saw it mentioned a couple of times in the tag when I went through it but it took surprisingly long to see it #I just. sir. what the heck xD #JAIL!! #PR JAIL FOR LOU!! #PR JAIL FOR A THOUSAND EPISODES!!! #xD I'm kidding I'm living lol #also wow that entire interview is insane #go read it I swear #you will die it's wild xD #also is he gonna fly in with chimney or something like slfkjd??? the freak??? xDD #tommy kinard #lou ferrigno jr #wow #gosh #this man is insane xdd love him he'll fit right in lol

[trueblueboygenius]

say it with me now...REAL LIFE PEOPLE CAN'T QUEERBAIT! REAL LIFE PEOPLE CAN'T QUEERBAIT! REAL LIFE PEOPLE CAN'T QUEERBAIT!

#learn the definition of things before you use them for fucks sake #also saying that a band of queer women are queerbaiting or pandering by expressing queer joy on stage is the most braindead take ever made #saw some posts on twitter and reddit that have really pissed me off today #also have seen so much biphobia towards pheebs today and i will not stand for it

[redjukebox]

Bro I watched the this or that Smosh vid with the cheating question for the first time today

I’m actually fucking devastated about Keith, Angela, Amanda, and Olivia literally talking over and laughing at Damien for literally just saying you should hold your friends accountable

Like wtf do you mean he’s holding his standards too high????? For saying he’d hold cheaters accountable????? What????? You’re saying that if your friend told you they cheated you wouldn’t see them differently and want to hold them accountable????

Also Keith saying he has friends that have cheated and his response was “don’t do that. stay funky” bro what the hell do you mean?????

Idk why I keep getting attached to creators like I do bro I can’t keep going through this

Didn’t think it’d bother me this much but it actually really does idk

#smosh #smosh pit #damien haas #keith leak jr #amanda lehan canto #angela giarratana #olivia sui #random rant but wanted to post anyways #I know it was last year but I’m still gonna be sad idc #I can’t believe it brooooo #also Amanda and Olivia’s takes about the splitting bill one gave me an ick #broo I can’t keep doing this #I feel like their takes on the Reddit stories are usually good but then they say shit like this??? #huh???? #saw some comments bringing this up to #like it’s ok to want to hold strangers accountable but not ur own friends????? #ok ig #I’ve never really thought about the topic of cheating but when I do it boils my blood bro #if you’re in a committed relationship and you wanna have sex with someone else #fucking break up #it’s called a committed relationship for a reason #also cheating can be rlly dangerous #cause of stds and shit #I feel like that should be a no brainer but guess not💀💀💀

[kylarsobsession]

me minding my own business getting ready for bed when I realize one of the newer things added to dol was losing noncon encounters after fighting back has a chance of the person pissing on you......oh Whitney. Whitney when I. Whitney when I Get you. Whitney look at me.

#talking doll #“when I get you” I say as if it's me doing the pissing #I haven't encountered this except for once #And I can't even remember if that was me or a reddit post I saw #PLEASE tell me it's with Anyone ..... #If I don't get ANY Whitney piss I'll be so sad #whitney the bully #degrees of lewdity #Like look at him you KNOW!!!! he would piss on you #Bro would probably- ok actually like most definitely do it even if you're dating if you ask him nicely... #Aka he says he'll entertain your gross fantasy if you beg him enough 🤤 #Sorry. My thoughts. My demons. #Anyways he should piss On me and In my mouth and also make me piss myself and and and #Red dot appears on my forehead

[intofree]

i know it’s like a parallel world or whatever supposedly but I don’t know who tf the pathfinder is still so my crackpot idea is that the ending of dd1 is canon (killing yourself as the seneschal) is high gave this baldy pathfinder dude the freedom to do weird brine shit

#dd2 spoilers #I’m going insane #i don’t like the pathfinder why are they so mean to me #even before I figured out how to get the true ending #‘why do you pursue me idiot’ idk man you’re at MY coronation #freak #don’t talk to me like that #actually nvm just saw a Reddit post that told me rothais actually is (was?) a seneschal so now I’m also more confused!

[sarcastic-clapping]

as a taxpaying grown adult who is child-free by choice and can confidently say i will be for the rest of my life, it’s absolutely batshit insane to me when child-free people complain about paying taxes to fund education. like “why should i pay for YOUR child? having a child was YOUR choice 🙄”

of all the things tax dollars support, the hill you’ve chosen to die on is EDUCATION????? THAT’S what’s got you steamed???

guess that tracks since you’d have to be ignorant and uneducated to not see the value in providing a good education to children, regardless of whether or not you have any of your own lmao

#i can’t even list all the reasons bc this post would turn into a novel #but just saw a post abt this (on reddit ofc) and lost my mind #like i don’t know how to tell you that kids are just small people #and all people deserve a good education #and that it’s important for future generations to be educated #in order to handle the complete clusterfuck that we’re leaving them with in regards to the state of the world #but on an even more basic level #did y’all just never have a good teacher who made an impact on your life??? #who deserved to be compensated better or at least FAIRLY for the work they do??? #and if not don’t you wish you had? and that there were more good teachers out there sticking to a career in education?? #great way to accomplish that: pay them more! #also if you’re against funding education…..ur classist luv ❤️

[transvampireboyfriend]

i dreamt there was a trans girl who had 28 boyfriends and she had a subreddit to like coordinate their relationship but the boyfriends also made regular posts about her, like inside jokes with her or memes or like aita posts where everyone would dunk on the boyfriend no matter what and like other posts were just praise for her and ig she was a doctor? or studying medicine or smth bc they'd sometimes answer to requests by her like "you got it doc!" or like "doctor's orders!" kinda thing and yeah, that was it. shout out to them ig

#there was a joke to be made there about them being 28 and like she cycled them? but they never made it #at least in the few posts i saw #which also #i NEVER go on reddit so wtf #like I don't even have an account. do you need an account there? idk #dreams #the trans girl and her 28 boyfriends #. #microblogging

[batemanofficial]

why is every piece of online literature about weed so fearmongery. i mean i know why but still it's like i'll google 'thc zoloft contraindications' and get a ton of articles with headlines like "WHY WEED WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE" and "THE DEVIL'S LETTUCE? HOW MARIJUANA MADE MY WIFE TAKE THE KIDS" and its like. thank you to the ghost of ronald reagan for that insightful info but i just wanna know if i can smoke on my antidepressants

#speak friend and enter #i saw an article that deadass said 'if you smoke weed on antidepressants you likely also have a gambling problem' and like ????? #like sorry but i didn't know every medical journal was run by fucking losers!! live a little!!! god #meanwhile if i go over to reddit or quora it's nothing but people saying 'yeah it's fine. made me a little dizzy but overall it's fine' #i did see a quora post from this guy who was deathly afraid that he'd given himself serotonin syndrome when in reality he'd just greened ou #and like. i'm a wimp anyway so i'm gonna get a cart of a strain that's got a low concentration and see how i feel #and if i green out that's on me

[wavernot4love]

time 4 yet another wavernot4love gig recap, gloomtown rochester edition (aka my seventh time seeing idkhow, fourth in rochester, & third at the montage music hall, the latter two a feat i cannot say for many bands) (note this was typed primarily at three am last night so once again there is probably incoherent rambling):

- gonna start this off with this clip of sunnyside since 1. i think that is becoming my favorite song off gloom division and 2. the ending gives me a chuckle

- boring live finally came back 2 me after four long years!!!!

- (dallon neurodivergency mention when talking about the themes of gloom division) (crowd erupts in cheers)

- return of the mormon tabernacle choir comparison arrived post- a letter, with dallon saying the next song (what love) wasn't something they tell you about in church, in typical cheeky fashion

- somewhat related, bro was wearing a gold sparkly grandma cardigan and randomly ripped it off and threw it CLEAN through the doorway of the like, green room at montage mid- what love. speaking of he said people at the vip earlier apparently planned his outfit

- dallon straight up grabbed a kid by the hand mid song and yanked them out of the crowd & onstage so they could do a lil jig together? good for them!!!

- going to leave the dallon quote "this isn't a frat house!" here w/o context

- someone handed him a giant american flag with a picture of him printed on it. god bless america

- ALL OF THE BRACELETS/KEYCHAINS WENT? after the show maybe 40 of us camped outside in case dallon came out and at one point someone who had reached out about them came over & so did a BUNCH of other folks who realized there were, in fact, bracelets. my cousin referred to it as the "meet & greet" since there were barricades set up along the sidewalk which gave me a bit of a laugh. guess i'm making more for buffalo yippee!!!! possibly may make stickers too later if i have time. i'll probably post em, but otherwise look for the person w curly hair & a baggy black thought reform hoodie w bracelets on a carabiner!

- so while we were waiting my cousin and i were sat RIGHT next to the main entrance of montage, right? basically the start of a sort of line of people sat down going down the sidewalk.

anyways, at one point only maybe 45 minutes after the show, out of said main entrance strolls dallon. collective whiplash moment as bro took one look, stopped dead in his tracks, we all collectively looked at each other like

and dallon (who i think was truly surprised so many of us were out waiting in the cold) goes, lightheartedly but genuinely, "what are you guys doing all out here? it's freezing outside!"

and then proceeds to kinda frolick around for a couple minutes laughing w people or whatever. we didn't really approach him since i think he was a bit overwhelmed but it was still just a funny moment and we'll see what happens in buffalo! maybe less people will hang after so it'll be less intimidating for him.

- i do feel the need to mention i heard this one kid we were talking to bring up video games to him & dallon said he's not a huge video games person he just plays the last of us & spiderman really which is funny to me but fitting

- i did bring my point & shoot so once i edit those maybe i'll post some!

anyways, stoked on tomorrow's show yay!!!

#idkhow #gloomtown tour #dallon weekes #i dont know how but they found me #oh i am so excited for the idkhow biennual tour de upstate ny to continue 2morrow #i went from last weekend thinking “how am i going to adjust to idkhow tour THIS soon after 2ourdust?” #and not knowing any of gloomtown yet really besides a couple singles somewhat #to memorizing that entire record nearly and entirely living back in idkhow world #i knew this would happen like i've said before i am just impulsive and need to do it at the last minute RIGHT before a show #also i must say the only uhhh Thing about idkhow shows is i am convinced idkhowies do not know how to move during a show #only show i go to where everyone straight up just kinda stands there bobbing their heads #i saw a /hj post on reddit a while back about this where people brought up the idea of moshing to spkothdvl #and while that was being a bit facetious of course #people did bring up the point that uhh... some more jumping & such would be nice #buffalo i believe in you let's bring some energy to this thing #but regardless gr8 show it is always a good time at the idkhow show #first time i saw idkhow was in fact in rochester in 2018 #dallon & i sure did yodel directly at each other for the entirety of that bit of visitation #hence why the entirety of that bit is fully cemented into my memory #wavernot4love gets 2 the gig #idkhowposting

[bikmui]

.watching this youtuber making sure everyone knew where his sources were located reminded me of when i wrote essay-style headcanon posts (sometimes in apa if you're lucky!)

#.ooc #//i miss when i had the energy to do that shjsdgksa #//i also used to do genshin theory / lore posts on reddit #//and some dude was like you should write less like it's an essay #//no! writing essays is fun! i don't want to be conversational i want you to know how gd seriously i am taking shit! #//cut to my random piles of research about weird topics that never saw the light of day bc my interest died before i could finish the essay

[mystacoceti]

I still don't know if I'm using usted/tu at the right times cos everyone out here just seems like they're using tu. except for that one guy who was really polite with the one older dude

#would you make fun if me if I said I realized this because I saw that reddit post about #''do I use tu or usted for flirting with older women?'' #also my neighbor refers to me with tu. is this like Japanese where she can be less formal with me but I have to be formal with her

[babisawyer]

the gang now that kristen/crystal is dead

#🐇 #yellowjackets #as soon as I saw the cliff and those two wackadoos were sharing secrets I knew what was gonna happen lmfao #it's so funny I bring up misty destroying the flight recorder ALL THE TIME and I feel like no one else cares about it #it's LITERALLY her fault all of this is happening and people on reddit were like um I don't really think the girls would care at this point #tell that to dead kristen/crystal #me and my friends would have killed misty with hammers I can tell you that much #also be nice to friggin javi mari!!!!! how tf has no one knocked her out at least once yet he's been through a lot!!! #I also love the girls that are constantly like lottie is insane! lottie is a schizophrenic she has delusions! #and she's like uh yeah??? and you're still hanging onto my every word???? #so funny #also it's still a very slim chance but you know this kinda does provide a chance that jackie is the antler queen #I know people think it's javi but honestly that's misogynistic I won't stand for it he said she was his FRIEND #but really though it does lend to my theory that the antler queen is not like a physical being so. #this post has gotten away from me idk what else to add goodbye

[wonderhoy-dump]

Prosekai is officially my new cross stitch obsession. Cross stitched Mizuki anyone?

#I made this cross stitched Mizuki for my cousin last month. #then I managed to get them hooked on cross stitch too #so now she’s making all of nightcord lol #currently making the kagamines together! #unofficial merch #project sekai #mizuki akiyama #niigo #glissando’s prosekai brainrot #I also posted this earlier on Reddit so if you saw me there no you didn’t 😌 #mizuki supremacy