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nozomikei · 12 days

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Alrightyyyyyyy! I need some help from my lovely FFXIV community members!

I've finally finished up my feedback about the face changes in the graphical update, but I can't post them on the official FFXIV forums myself because of that pesky old profanity permaban. I'll post it all here, so if one of you beautiful and wonderful people could copy and paste it over to the thread I'll link below I would really, really, really appreciate it.

It's been about 8 years since I could post there so I don't know the situation for posting images, but if you need me to host them someplace so you can use the necessary html, just let me know!

This was the thread I was hoping to post my feedback in, but if you see more that it would be helpful to add parts of it to or a different one you feel it's better suited for, feel free to paste it there as well!:

Add whatever note you want at the front to clarify that this is just a post made on behalf of another player! My own character info is: Nozomi Kei on the Balmung server, Crystal DC, NA

Feedback starts under the cut~

I'm going to try to cover everything I can find wrong and pray that at least the biggest issues are addressed, otherwise I may have to retire the character I've played for almost a decade. I will be talking primarily about face 2 male Duskwight Elezen, as that is what I play. Some of these issues might be present in all Melezen faces or isolated to face 2, but I wouldn't know unless one of you here has talked about it.

First, an issue several others have mentioned: Face 2 Duskwight suddenly having the textures of a Wildwood; eyebags being especially noticable and unwanted. I chose my character to be Duskwight specifically because I didn't want the eyebags.

Actually something seems off with all of the textures on face 2 Duskwight? My previously powder-smooth, even-toned skin now has a mottled, almost artifacted appearance, same with the skin on the lips which have both mottling and oddly darkened edges on the lower lip especially. The eyelid textures seem to have just straight up been placed wrong, with part of the weights snagging a section of the eyebrow down and leaving a notch during blinks. The eyebrows also look like maaaybe they were misplaced and that's why they're thicker for some of us, because they're being stretched over a different area than intended that is bigger than their previous real estate.

The obvious texture stretching aside, the new eyelid has removed my faint eyeliner, and changed the gently pink lid to the same jaundiced beige as areas like the forehead. Eyelids are naturally pinker in real life because of the thin skin amd abundant blood vessels. This ties into the larger observation I've made about the changes to face skin textures for 7.0, which is that their color now looks unnaturally one-toned and even more lacking in the natural hue variation of living skin than the current faces.

A note on the eyebrows and lips that is more of a suspicion than confirmed, but I'm starting to feel like these features have just been outright homogenized? Perhaps in order to make applying morphs easier? Several people have made mention of their brows being straightened out and/or thickened. The elderly faced gentleman on page 12 posted by Cio had his magnificent, shapely brows reduced to mundanity. A lot of unique lip shapes are being changed in a consistent direction. The 'standard' shape is a strong cupid's bow on top with very pointed peaks, color wrapping around the corners of the mouth, a wide and shallowly curved underside to the bottom lip, and less fullness overall. Some are seeing their gently rounded peaks made pointy, others are seeing skinny-in-width bottom lips widened, folks with broad upper lips are being thinned. My little lift in the center underside of my bottom lip was flattened

My lips are also now weirdly dark by default, and trying to colorcorrect the unattractive mauvish beige leaves me looking like I'm wearing heavy lipstick. I think part of this is the change in how lips handle lighting, and part is the bad texture that was swapped in, plus the harsher edges to the liplines where previously there was a gentle, natural transition.

At first I thought I was imagining it before I imported my current settings, but now I am sure when I say my cute and small triangular ears whose shape added to the sharpness of my face have been made bigger and rounder. I made the smallest, most Tolkien elf ears I could because I wanted them to be subtle and elegant. This reshaping has added to the myriad changes that mean my character no longer looks like the same person.

While I can see changes to my beloved hook nose I will concede that at least in profile the shape is nearly identical. Like others observed there has generally been a lessening of the details that made the nose unique. Raised ridge, bigger septum, nostril shortening.

I'm going to try to list things out, starring the things that I think are issues that especially need to be changed/fixed because they are errors rather than just somewhat expected (if unwanted) differences caused by increased poly count and modelling changes.

☆☆• Face 2 Duskwight face textures have been swapped for Wildwood textures?

☆• Lips have been reshaped

☆• Eyebrows have been thickened

• Ears have been made bigger and more rounded in the middle and lobe regions

☆• Lips are darker by default which causes issues with lipstick

• The edges of lips have a hard edge instead of the previous gentle transition

☆• The bizarre 'milk mustache' above the upper lip

• My chin has been made bigger and more round in profile

• My lower lip has been plumped.

☆• Mottled skin textures, especially on my cheeks

• Very flat lip lighting/sheen

☆• Elongated dark smudges about 2cm long on either side of my mouth?

☆☆• Texture issues in eyelid region (very visible during blink animation)

• Harsher, darker eyelashes (not thicker from above though??)

• Lack of eyeshine and dark upper iris making my lids appear lower and changing my default expression

• Angular facial geometry in cheeks seems smoothed which changes the harsher look of the race (possibly just the faulty benchmark lighting)

• Hair lighting has changed; seems more matte, less hue variation between lit and shadowed areas

___

Changes I've seen in other players:

• Face skintone now seems very one-note and unalive

• Waxiness

• Harsher eye makeup that appears too dark or stark

• Removal of texture detail that was unique to individual faces, especially in eye regions

☆• Moon Miqo fangs drastically shortened

___

In seeing all of this unfold I've been dismayed to notice a lot of the unique charm of faces across the board being airbrushed away, from subtle shading in eye areas on various viera faces, to expressive and quirky default expressions being toned down and made more average in Elezen girls and Miqo girls, to wrinkles disappearing from older faces, to facial topology that created personality via cast shadows being rounded and smoothed and lightened into nonexistence. The result is consistently a more calm, mature, generic look. A lot of female characters' makeup has turned weirdly harsh, sharp-edged, and dark so that it more closely resembles stage makeup, both eye and lip. Then the awkwardly single-toned skin tops things off with me left feeling that very few looks are 'upgrades' even when the owner is happy with the result.

A couple side notes: Something odd is happening to the hairline on this style near the middle? Looks like an error. My racial gear necklaces have changed from a visible leather texture to some unidentifiable line-y texture?

#ffxiv #ffxiv graphical update #7.0 graphical update #dawntrail graphical update #ffxiv graphical update feedback #my writing #my character #feel free to translate and post in the other language forums!#the more reach #the better #we know they're listening and I appreciate that

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rocco-the2ndstormfilearchiver · 4 months

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HI I AM HERE TO TALK ABOUT SOME TBSAP !

So as probably my 0.5 fans know I am a pretty big fan of towel studios’ (Spamton’s) “The Big Shot Autos Project” (TBSAP for short) as I’ve done a ton of art and other things, it really blows me away. Anyhoo! Spamton and another very talented soundcloud user by the name Puff worked and made Property Damage 2023 edition, which adds on to the already amazing song, from Spamton’s “I think this is a holiday album” album. Now it’s a stellar track, but I noticed a few things that now makes me have a theory: Realtor or a version of him will be a future secret boss in tbsap!

Now you may be thinking why I think this, well let me lay it all out for you!

First off: Vocals, can you hear them? kinda! they are distorted but if you use a vocal isolator you can hear them better!

it’s hard to make out but what we can understand is that these aren’t just stock voices, because we can hear “Follow the royalties Spamton, However, (Have more honor??), I will kill (or hear) you in broadway”

Let’s dissect this! Follow the royalties huh? due to it being the reator the most likely explanation is he is telling Spamton that he should pay for using his space, or area, or work. note this. if spamton would follow what the Realtor does, which in a sense is most likely sales, then this could explain spamton actually becoming a salesmen in the first place.

but doesn’t the christmas album take place after tbsap most likely due to the thumbnails? well here is the thing…

“Have more honor”

I think the Realtor, in a sense is a ghost of christmas past to spamton, this fact is supported by Pipineezer Scrooge song, referring to spamton.

I think then yeah that makes sense! case closed! Realtor is a representation of a sort of christmas ghost to spamton! well… what if?

Second off: Leitmotifs

during this new run of Property Damage, tbsap might notice a piece of music hidden in the background, is that…? TBSAP FREEDOM MOTIF?!

If you’ve listened to Heaven is Calling (Storgsly’s theme) you’d know that the freedom motif is the ending motif of the song, according to a comment by Spamton on the song, and that motif reappears in Property Damage 2023, well what does this mean? let’s get back to the last part of the vocals!

“I will kill (or hear) you in broadway”

Now the obvious meaning is the legit way this is said, the Realtor will hurt or hear spamton in broad day light, possibly as a punishment, makes sense makes sense, but what if you consider the chapters of tbsap?

in a question on the tbsap tumblr page (and on their twitter with an image), it was said one of the chapters of tbsap is theater themed, now what is this have to do? well the obvious: broadway. where in new york the first big hit theater shows where showed. now this seems far fetched, but go back to the original Property Damage song, where it is talked about the history of broadway and radio transportation, so there does seem to be a theme with theater, and with a theater chapter, this feels likely.

Now with an update, spamton told me themselves that there is something important about the songs rebooted

out the songs in the album, 3 where rebooted: Oink goes the egg, Property Damage, and Snow.

Oink goes the egg to me doesn’t feel like much importance, though that could be drastically wrong, but personally idk

Snow’s original lyrics was spamton singing about snow being everywhere, like his dumpster and in his hair, this could connect with the scrooge idea, but I’m not sure…

The order of the songs! wait.. Oink goes the egg is first, while Snow is the finale song. and property damage is also a final song, right now idk exactly what to do with this info, but it could be a christmas ghosts idea.

That’s all I have right now!! I love TBSAP and everything they do!!! so go follow those suckers and yeah! once I figure out more stuff I’ll make sure to update this post, or reblog it!

EDIT: This is my theory for now..

TBSAP Tumblrs

@tbsap @towelstudios (They are so cool)

#LONG POST AHEAD #tbsap #the big shot autos project #spamton #theory #property damage #the realtor #if you wanna help brainstorm dm me!

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cindylouwho-2 · 27 days

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RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), Early April 2024

Welcome to my coverage of all the important Etsy and other ecommerce news that microbusinesses need to know! It's been a few weeks since my last update, so there is a fair amount to report.

Want to get the news more often and in a more timely fashion? Please sign up to support my Patreon site, where among other features, I will soon be starting periodical live chats on important topics. (I promise there will be one the day Etsy announces a fee increase)

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Etsy has made changes to how processing times and estimated delivery dates work; I covered everything you need to know in this post.

Etsy seems to be sending more Messages to the spam folder, so you may miss a real message. After reading that thread, I checked, and there was one from another seller needing help from just 5 hours ago. Etsy did say engineers are looking into it.

UPS has won the USPS air cargo contract, currently held by FedEx. It kicks in at the end of September. “As of May 31, 2023, FedEx counted the USPS as the largest customer of its Express unit.”

ETSY NEWS

Etsy is rolling out a new seller pricing tool, and it is just as useless as the old version. I posted some early thoughts (with screenshots).

Some shop owners are struggling to cancel Etsy coupons, while others are not having the same problem. Support says the company is aware of the issue.

If you still can't access most of the Etsy forum after the changes on Tuesday March 26, post in this Technical Issues thread so that your account can be fixed.

Periodically, some shops suddenly stop getting deposits. If your shop has recently had a security warning, you may want to check to see if your bank account is still verified with Etsy.

Looks like Etsy has an issue with misrepresenting how many items are left for each listing on the app; I wrote about it here.

Canadians getting harassed by Etsy to sign up for TurboTax should know that the company has told a seller that it doesn’t import Etsy data into your tax return for you; that is only available for Americans. [If you can’t import your info from your various platforms, my suggestion is use a free online program to file instead; I’ve used Wealthsimple for several years with no issues filing small business taxes; the T-2125 is part of the program.]

Etsy’s activist investor seems to think that the marketplace can “…add more buyers and increase the amount of money they spend on the platform”. But “monetization opportunities” were also mentioned.

Etsy is yet again called out for allowing AI-generated porn on the site. “Several of the available listings also appear to violate existing trademarks — TheStreet identified listings that sell NSFW (not safe for work) AI-generated, suggestive images that appear to mimic Rapunzel from Disney's "Tangled," Princess Jasmine from Disney's "Aladdin" and She-Hulk from Marvel's "She-Hulk."

Etsy has been talking a lot about "image quality" lately, but doesn't really define the term anywhere. While I agree with those that say it is more than image size - Etsy would not have humans curating images to train its AI if "quality" could simply be measured by pixels - note that Google Shopping Ads describe image quality as size. “The resolution of your product images determines its quality. Google considers images with more than 1024 pixels as high-resolution images.”

Apparently Etsy CEO Josh Silverman likes to make “unorthodox, downright risky career decisions” that often involve a ton of responsibility. [Link to podcast in article; I haven’t listened to it]

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

General

Patreon’s live chats are now accessible on the web (instead of just the app). A creator can assign moderators, and have chats for different categories of members.

Canadians: beware that new tax rules requiring digital platform operators to report their users’ income to the Canada Revenue Agency are expected for 2025. These laws would make Canada similar to the United States and the United Kingdom, among others.

Amazon

Amazon is struggling to verify the VAT status of many UK sellers, and the fact the company holds all funds until the process is complete means many sellers are without income.

eBay

eBay is offering 3 free “express payouts” to select US sellers by email only, available until June 30th. Money is paid to seller debit cards and can take a half hour or more to receive. (The usual cost is 1.5%.)

If you use eBay For Charity, you may want to check to see if the charity is getting paid, as some apparently are not.

If you advertise on eBay, or just list inconsistently, you may be interested in the marketing trends calendar for 2024. It shows you when certain types of searches peak.

Michaels Makerplace

The landing page for Makerplace sellers doesn’t provide a lot of hard details; some of the actual policies appear once you begin to sign up. Here’s how they define handmade:

Thanks to Bluesky user Brushfeather for the info.

Shopify

Shopify is putting more effort into large businesses these days, despite its core offerings targeting small and medium-sized businesses for years. [soft paywall; Business Insider] The company “...has made a concerted effort over the last 18 months to introduce more software solutions to win over larger merchants. It has enhanced Shopify Plus, a higher-tier subscription with more features, and launched Hydrogen, a more custom framework geared toward retailers with more complex needs...Shopify introduced Commerce Components, an offering that allows merchants to integrate parts of Shopify's software into their existing tech stack. Mattel was its first retail partner for that product, and Everlane has since adopted Shop Pay as a stand-alone component.”

CEO Tobi Lutke recently received almost $200 million CAD in Shopify stock options, “one of the largest compensation packages in Canadian history.” As company founder, he now has around $8 billion worth of Shopify stock.

CIRRO Fulfillment now integrates with Shopify.

Squarespace

Squarespace is rolling out Squarespace Payments to sellers in the United States, and they expect to add more countries later this year. Fees are in line with other payment processors.

All Other Marketplaces

Mercari is following Depop and is ending seller transaction fees while adding a buyer fee. There is now a seller earnings withdrawal fee of $2, however, plus the pricing only applies to items listed after the announcement on March 27th, and sellers now have to accept returns for any reason, within 72 hours of receipt. I suppose this fee might work for buyers if many are also sellers on Mercari or elsewhere, and are buying stock. If you see a good deal you know you can flip with a good margin, you might not mind paying a buyers fee on top of the listing price. The only other way I can see being willing to pay a buyers fee is if you are so enamoured with the platform and its culture that it is worth paying more for. Or maybe I am just out of touch… The Mercari CEO basically calls out Etsy for raising seller fees too much [soft paywall; Modern Retail]: “I’m not going to mention them by name, but you have marketplaces that have a lot of makers, a lot of people that create things, and the fees around selling on those platforms have just been going up a lot very aggressively”. [my emphasis] Mercari wants fees to remain competitive while attracting better inventory. Another article on Mercari’s announcement mentions Etsy by name when discussing seller fees.

Mercari might want to consult lawyers the next time the site makes changes, though, as many sellers were furious that their existing balances were now subject to withdrawal fees without any warning, leading some to file complaints with the FTC. That led the company to announce that “On March 27, 2024, Mercari announced that it would begin charging a $2 fee(s) (“ACH Charge”) for all ACH direct deposit requests. Effective immediately through April 3, 2024 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (“Waiver Period”), Mercari will waive the ACH Charge for ACH direct deposit requests made prior to the end of the Waiver Period for all eligible account holders.” Those who already incurred withdrawal charges will get refunds.

And because apparently you can never have enough Mercari news, they’ve introduced a listing importer for eBay and Depop. It uses AI.

AliExpress will now do livestream shopping events in the UK.

Payment Processing

PayPal users in the US will soon have only 30 days after delivery to file a significantly not described claim in most cases. Items not delivered by 180 days will still have the full 180 days.

Shipping

UPS is planning on closing about 200 facilities in the United States, and hopes to save money by instead using more automated hubs. Having fewer employees and consolidating locations is expected to save the company around $3 billion by the end of 2028.

FedEx is continuing to combine its Express and Ground pickups and deliveries, both to save money and to make pickups easier on customers.

#EtsySellerNews #etsy #ecommerce #ebay #microbusiness #cindylouwho2 #mercari

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goldenkamuyhunting · 2 years

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Quick outline of the changes in Golden Kamuy Vol 28

So I realize that I’ve fallen behind with this series, but as my liking of the story started to lower and my work instead, didn’t, I ended up neglecting it. Anyway, for who’s interested, here is a general outline of the more relevant changes that take place in Vol 28 compared to the magazine. Note that as usual I won’t dig into minor changes or redraws unless they seem to be relevant for the plot or characterization (or I really like them).

So now let’s start.

WARNING: I hadn’t had the chance to check all the dialogues yet. If I’ll find out there are changes in them that are relevant I’ll update this post as soon as I can. @piduai though, translated some of the new pages in which relevant changes took place, so I recommend checking this post. Said so, let’s start.

We spend a moment on the cover, which shows a character who has never appeared on covers in the past, Nikaidou Kouhei.

The pose is dynamic and put in evidence both his prosthetic leg (which is firing a shoot) and his prosthetic hand (which is letting chopsticks fall). Behind him there’s Arisaka with a machine gun and the unnamed guy we saw at the hospital, the implication being that Nikaidou isn’t fighting anyone but he’s still in the hospital.

We then move to the colour page.

which was used for chap 285.

A colour cover that was in the chapters included in this volume and that instead isn’t shown is the one of chap 272.

This volume includes an index page (which uses as image the one of the cover) and a 4 page summary.

This volume counts 9 chapters (normally a volume counts 10 chapters but the previous counted 11) with some changes, additions of extra pages and panels to expand scenes that already were in the magazine version so we can better understand what’s going on and of scenes that are redrawn, either to improve their quality, correct mistakes or add to the plot.

Note I’m not going to add them all but only those which are plot relevant (or that I particularly like). Also no scanlations this time.

Let’s start with chap 272.

Since originally this chapter had a color cover, Noda made for it a black and white cover with the image of the moon Kikuta and Ariko saw when they were trapped in a trench.

Noda then added Kikuta’s face, along with info on where and when the scene is taking place.

He then proceeded to expand Ariko’s tale

The image of the Makiri is also redrawn.

Noda expanded also the following scene which ends up including a flashback to when Ariko discovered the Makiri was in Tsurumi’s hands.

The result of this addition is that it seems that, in the following page, when we see Kikuta pondering, this seems to be because he remembered when Ariko found the Makiri... while in the magazine version we could hope it was because he was worried for Asirpa. As a result I’m not overly fond of the addition of this flashback as it means to add a page and a panel of scenes we’ve already seen.

A scene of Tsukishima and Koito tring to open the door alfter Sofia tossed the bench against it is added.

We also have a new panel of Asirpa, Sofia and Ariko running toward the bottlemobile which, here and there is better drawin. Ariko’s fall is a lot more dinamic and the scene in which he tells Asirpa to run is expanded and better drawn.

We continue with chap 273.

As he did in the previous volume, in this volume too Noda added the right shading to the firemen’s uniforms.

Noda enlarged the panels in the scene in which the soldiers point out how Nikaidou smelled of beer and Koito realizes due to this Tsurumi should have smelled him and Tsukishima while they were hiding under the desk.

The final page is changed so that Koito now doesn’t close the door.

Considering the idea is that, despite everything, Koito will never genuinely plan to cut ties with Tsurumi, the fact that Koito leaves the door open might remark what we will ultimately see in Vol 30, that despite everything Koito was willing to follow him and only wanted him to be sincere with him.

So no, I’ll say the idea Koito would part ways with Tsurumi as most of the fandom hoped was never on the table. Too bad.

To make up for it Noda includes a panel showing Koito under the rain outside the church, watching the door and, through it, Tsurumi.

This implies Koito is, in a way, closed out, not close to Tsurumi as he would like to believe. He doesn’t belong to Tsurumi’s little world, not him nor Tsukishima. For all his devotion, he’s just a henchman to be manipulated and, while it’ll turn out he doesn’t like this, ultimately he’ll still be at Tsurumi’s side because he’ll remain forever a Tsurumi fanboy despite everything.

It’s a pity Koito never grew out of this... but, well, since the story planned to make a leader out of it regardless, I guess it didn’t matter.

Then there’s chap 274.

Noda modified the panel in which Sofia talks with Hijikata so that now we can see her men are with her.

He also redrawn Boutarou and added an image of Hokkaido superimposed with the scenery.

Noda then moved here the scene from chap 279 in which Asirpa checks the skins in attempt to decode Wilk’s message, expanding it a little.

We move to chap 275.

Noda added 4 more pages that shows Sugimoto sleeping and then digs more into his dream/flashback of the past.

As I remember well enough this part, this flashback isn’t something I feel I needed (except for the part that shows Sugimoto wandering), but I understand others might have forgot and so Noda decided to include it.

Noda also expanded the scene in which Kikuta talks about Kaeko. I still find funny how Noda fundamentally refuses to draw Hanazawa in a position different from his death portrait.

Also he cut the part in which Kikuta said that it’s not rare for girls to search for marriage without involving their parents and placed the remaining dialogue in such a way it covered hald of Kaeko’s face.

He expanded the scene in which Sugimoto dresses up as Yuusaku.

The image of the imperial hotel is redrawn.

So we are at chap 276.

Noda adds a flashback image of Sugimoto, Umeko and Toraji...

...and expanded Kikuta’s scolding.

Then he added a scene showing where Sugimoto was standing and in which Kikuta explains the origins of his habit of loothing things.

He then drastically changes Sugimoto’s interaction with Yuusaku.

The remaining interaction goes as in the manga but now Yuusaku is sweating a lot more.

Noda changed things so that, fter receiving his hat from Tsurumi, Sugimoto doesn’t thank him with an admiring look but in a rushed manner and then escapes.

Then chap 277...

...shich is basically unchanged.

And here comes chap 278…

in which the only change seems to be that now Ogata doesn’t wear his hat when he crosses path with Yuusaku (also Yuusaku is now drawn on the right side).

We have chap 279.

In which Yuusaku’s face is heavily shaded when he opens ‘his’ eyes, the next panel basically showing Asirpa in his position, better implying Sugimoto is seeing Asirpa in Yuusaku.

Noda also added a spread showing the scenery.

As the bit of Asirpa was placed sooner, now it’s absent from this chapter and we just have Hijikata saying to wait as he seems to realize something.

And so we’ve reached chap 280.

Noda changed a little the features of the spy who should have received Kikuta’s message and added more details to the poor guy who collected it instead.

Overall scenery and characters are detailed better in the volume.

There’s even a tiny drawn of Ueji when the text in a box mentions him.

We finish with a tiny image of Kikuta and a young Sugimoto thanking the editor.

And that’s all for this volume.

I remember everyone this was a quick overview and I might have missed something, especially in the dialogues which I didn’t really check.

As usual Noda improved it in a relevant manner so, if you like “Golden Kamuy”, you might prefer buying it to the magazine version.

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claiborneart · 11 months

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Interview with The Most Famous Face in The World

Todd Smalls is a reporter for the Daily Times; specialising in celebrity news, gossip, and marketing. Article originally posted on 6/16/96; last updated on 6/24/96

When Mr. Arno Dun opened his door to let me into his tiny downtown flat, up on the twelve story and with that last-century 'one-bedroom' antique layout, even I was starstruck.

I've done interviews with everyone from CEOs to world leaders to the faces of A-list actor-musicians, but this was The. Arno. Dun. I, like most of our readers, grew up seeing his face on every box of cereal, snack bar, every ad both at home and on the street.

The face of the The Most Likeable Man, whose likeness had been leased by a a tenth of all companies in existence, lived in an apartment that was not worth the price of one minute of his own face.

The first thing he said to me, he confessed, was that he couldn't afford his own likeness either.

"I kick myself every day for letting that clause stay in the contract," he told me. "I didn't realize at the time, or I thought, or hoped, that they weren't serious about not letting me use my own face for personal use."

The room we were sitting in was nice enough, well-lit, and with family photos on a nearby desktop. While the grown children in the group photos shared close resemblance with Dun, his face was, of course, notably absent.

"I spent half my royalty money buying an old cottage out in the middle of nowhere," Dun said. "but that just made everything worse. People looked at my face, and wouldn't leave me alone. Here, at least," he gestured out the window at the city around us, "there's more people to blend in with, so I don't stand out as much. plus, most people are using ARG or some other, so I can go shopping in peace, most days."

"And," he added, smiling wryly, "at least no one asks for a photo."

Q: what made you decide to sell your likeness?

A: it seemed like a lot of money for very little effort at the time, so of course I said yes immediately.

A: Wish I had a lawyer read the the contract before signing, now, but a part of me thinks if I had asked to change anything they would have just moved on to someone dumb to sign it at that first meeting. Hah! I guess I was that dumb*** (swears have been auto-omitted, courtesy of cleanAirBroadcasting™)

There had been thousands of people who had signed similar contracts, nearly every single one for far less money than he, but it didn't seem the right time to remind him of such info.

Q: but was it a good payout, once you add in royalties?

A: Royalties…..well, some years it was enough that I didn't need to work, or only needed to work part-time, but they expired at the 50-year mark….hah! When I was young I thought 50 years was impossibly far in the future, and that getting old was for other people. Now look at me.

I did.

It was interesting, after seeing over 50 years of pre-aging for various brand and demographic-nicheing needs, how the most famous face in the world had actually ended up looking. More frown lines, and a saggier neck.

Still, a face rated most appealling to Broad Demographic Marketing aged more gracefully than most could ever hope for.

Q: so you've worked other jobs then?

A: oh for sure, sure-- whatever I found, here and there. I used to like working with people, but with my limitations, it's made that rather difficult. Nowadays I work for ******* (company name has been auto-omitted, courtesy of cleanMarketRelavance™), which is hard work, for someone of my age, but what can you do?

Q: How do you feel about the alternate-face clause, over half a century into the contract?

A: I don't mind it most of the time, to be honest. It means I don't show up in the background of stranger's videos as myself, so at least I never go viral that way. But…

at this he paused.

A: I don't like it when I want to be in a photo. with my friends. with my family. I don't like seeing a stranger's face in the middle of them, instead of me.

[The banner image, which under usual contract compliance included an ai-generated random stand-in face, was edited to a pixelated mirage on 6/24/96, at the request of Mr. Dun.]

#scifi writing #writing #flash fic friday #flash fiction #short story #ai futurism #ai #not art #scifi #prose #.....hope this story makes sense to anyone who's not me #mostly I draw comics-- so prose is always fun to try! every time it's like: wow that sure was fun......but I cannot tell if it's any good #self-critiquing art is always much simpler for me

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whalien-flags · 8 months

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intro post that will become pinned!

so besides basic info in the bio, my tag for my flag coinings will be #zac's flags. most flags i've done so far are for myself (got that ocd & bpd combo that makes me obsessive about my unstable sense of identity) but i can take requests! (I'm just awkward lol). I go back and edit flags a lot (rip) so you may wanna check my tag #check update!!! on here and on my main for posts I've edited with the updated flags (some have the updates in the reblogs which will also be mentioned in the tags for those ones).

Also I will deff be reblogging other flag coinings because I just majorly love pride flags, they are a special interest of mine.

my main on here is @boywithbear. I originally started posting some flags there and am finally making this account so my favorite ones from there will just be reblogged onto here under the new tag

I have a flag twitter account that is whalien_flags

and yeah!!! just, new blog!!!

some byf info:

i may not always be able to add image descriptions so if I don't, anybody can feel free to reblog and add some and I will reblog it. There are times the description(s) may be in the alt text. I also may end up reblogging flags from others that do not have image descriptions but I do not think that will be frequent.

for my flags themselves i don't really care about having a dni (as I can't stop anyone from using a flag anyway) but i am an inclusionist so for the blog you probably shouldn't follow if you're an exclusionist and wanna gatekeep 👍 and i'd prefer you to not interact with the blog itself unless you're 100% civil/nice. and i mean this with queer discourse as this account is mostly queer flags and any other discourse is above my pay grade.

when taking any requests, i don't necessarily have any set rules of what I wouldn't do (besides probably paras and trans-id stuff? again, above my pay grade) so if I wouldn't do something I would just respond and say so

> This is an update as of April 2024 but I have a new archival website!! The quality of images on the old one could be very bad so I finally took the time to switch it all over. I like to keep a website for them as I've had many different accounts/usernames I've posted them with throughout the years and I don't want to risk losing any (have before since some of my old accounts are gone), I haven't posted every single one I've made onto the site though! There are some I just plain don't find good enough to bother putting them on it lol. There's also flag edits and wallpapers on there too! (I usually post those on twt rather than here) <

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wutlaikalikes · 9 months

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*chirp chirp*

my new Tumblr layout just amuses me lol (just scroll past)

I don't remember when it changed but only how much it annoyed me. My previous theme is called Minimal by arturkim and I like it cause I can showcase whatever I like on the header space and the icon not only act as my blog's identifier, it also reflects on the favicon.

The main body layout is of course for my tumblr posts but it also have a side body for my profile description where here I was able to add tag links I want to highlight. Under that I can also showcase things I liked from other Tumblr users. And, though not seen on the photo below, I can also show Tumblr blogs I am following. Above the headers are more tag links to my interests.

I don't remember when I realize it but the pictures I post or reblog will always be inside a scrollable space and somehow it annoyed me. I tried to temporarily change the layout to different one and switch back but it still put the images on a scrollable space. Turns out that the layout was updated.

So I thought maybe I should just change it to close to my preference. And so I change it to a theme named Chirp by rachaels, which is based on Twitter (I still refuse to call it X).

The pictures are no longer on a scrollable space. The layout background color could also be changed (there were 5 options) and since I prefer dark mode, this new layout is just nice.

I specially like that I can still put my intended description for my tumblr under What's happening section which I don't remember ever seeing on Twitter, maybe it was a space of news highlight, idk. Then there's also that side image that I would guess was intended for an ad space on an older version of Twitter. I was also able to highlight my tumblr just for my art and projects, along with Tumblr blogs of my friends (though they are no longer active) under the Who to follow section. And my favorite part, Trends for you, I mainly add my oshi tags.

My only thing now is that the videos are cropped. I'm not sure how to fix it but I would guess this layout was made before the new wide aspect ratios where added on YouTube.

I actually can also change the favicon to whatever I want and for a moment, I customized the old Twitter logo and used it but honestly it just looks weird!

The header and profile pictures are customizable and of course I used Holostars JP as my header and to change things up I used Hatena from Dogengers: Metropolis (2023) which is voiced by Aragami Oga. These are also inpendent for the chirp layout and doesn't reflect the actual profile picture that shows when you highlight a poster's icon seen on the dashboard.

So for the favicon, I put my current profile picture which is Daidou Shinove so it wouldn't look like that you've stubled upon another tumblr blog.

Also adding this here cause I'll be removing them. I wanted to have a place for it just incase I want to use again in the future.

情報 || 日記 || 好き || アート || 設計 || 欲しい物

情報 (jōhō) - information = this page! 日記 (nikki) - diary = my blogs アート (a-to) - art = artsy stuff i posted 好き (suki) - like = my favorite thing on the internet 設計 (sekkei) = my current and past tumblr avatar and header 欲しい物 (hoshii mono) - things i want = wishlist

Well that's it, I there's really no significant info here. I'm just satisfied with this layout.

#blog #design

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singingmountainwitch · 11 months

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20 Clever Altar Usages updated 2023

Alright, so the site for the original posts is gone. So a new list and article are composed. The first half is referenced from another site. Though websites tend to come and go I'm pulling the main important info and placing it here as a copy. It was well written so it's mainly copy and paste. The list mainly consists of various sources I've encountered on the web and in real life.

Not to be confused with Clever Alatar Styles.

The original Post is here.

Getting familiar with what an altar is, and how to create and use an altar to focus and magnify spiritual practice?

An altar is a sacred space, a spiritual focal point and a reflection of your magical self

Simply put, an altar is a physical object or set of objects placed in a purposeful way, and in a purposeful place, that have spiritual significance to you, or that represent an element, archetype or energy whose influence you would like to have present in your spiritual practice. Altars are sacred spiritual spaces, however small or large.

Let's be clear right up front: these objects are not worshipped in and of themselves. They may represent spiritual entities that we revere, or gods or goddesses that we commune with, but these objects are not idols.

Altars vehicles through which you can connect more deeply with the divine

The objects on your altar represent the elements, spirits, feelings, intentions, even specific goddesses or gods that you would like to connect with in your spiritual practices. Commonly seen on my altars are small sculptures of the Mother Goddess, stones, bones and crystals, a small crystal gazing ball, snake skin, and items that represent the elements, as discussed below.

What should I put my altar on?

The sky is the limit here. Altars have been glued to dashboards and have

covered entire dining room tables. You can have one all-purpose altar, or many smaller ones throughout your home. Perhaps you have one on the top shelf in the place where you spend the most time. You can create small shrines in an apple crate turned sideways and nailed to the wall, or maybe your gratitude altar lives on your night stand. We have one in the We'Moon office atop a filing cabinet. A fireplace hearth is much-used altar space, or a living room end-table. You can also create a mobile altar on a ceramic plate or wooden tray that can be moved about where ever you want it. The image above is of the mobile altar we made during the creation of the 2022 We'Moon. Read more about mobile and traveling altars, below.

Altars can be as complex or as simple as you want them to be

In the most basic form, an alter can be a single stone or a flickering candle that serves as a focal point for your meditation practice. If your spiritual practice is earth-based, your more formal altars may want to include a nod to each of the four directions. A more elaborate altar could include many elements that bring to focus a different energy that you would like to focus on. If you are creating an altar for group ritual, perhaps each member of the group brings an object to place on the altar to represent a facet of the work you are doing together. If you have a spiritual project that spans many days or sessions, you may want to bring a new object to the altar at the beginning of each session to refresh and deepen the practice.

Candle

Flowers

Incense

Toning bowl or bell

Aromatic spices

Water

A living plant

Steaming cup of tea or water

Dried fruit or chocolate

These elements add an extra dimension such as smell, sound, touch, and they add movement, as in the case of shimmering water, flickering calendar, or vibrational sound waves. They can help bring you into focus more quickly and deeply.

Making a Basic Altar:

Gather supplies: If you will be placing your altar on an existing surface, like a table or dresser, find a piece of cloth that will define the space the altar will take up. Gather up a cup of water, a stone, a candle, and a feather.

Choose a location: This should be in a spot that is convenient, yet out of the way enough that you won't mind it being there long-term.

Identify which direction is East: This is where the sun rises from in the morning. If you are unsure, or want to be very accurate, you can use a compass.

Place the items on your altar in a sacred way: Take a deep breath and bring to focus your intention for creating this sacred space.

Place your small table or arrange your altar cloth in the place you have chosen.

Place the feather on the Eastern side of your altar, and welcome the spirits of the East: the air, intellect, gratitude for breath, intuition, etc. Your feather represents the element air.

Place your candle on the Southern edge of your altar, light it, and welcome in the spirits of the South: fire, passion, transformation, inspiration. Your candle represents the element fire.

Place your cup of water on the Western side of your altar, welcoming the spirits of the West: water, emotion, flexibility, love. Your cup of water represents the element water.

Place your stone on the Northern side of your altar and welcome the spirits of the North: the earth, nourishment, stability, grounding. Your stone represents the element earth.

Give thanks: Take a few deep breaths and smile in appreciation at the beauty you have created. Recognize the wholeness that is represented in those four simple items on your altar.

Give thanks to the spirits of each of the directions that you called and invite them to leave if they must or to stay if they wish.

That outlines a very simple, dare I say elegant, altar design for any kind of use you may want. You can add items that speak to you, or include gemstones or herbs that amplify the energies of each of the elements. You can even find images that represent the directions or elements and place them in the various corners of your altar. The magic here lies in making this your own sacred space.

How to use an altar in your daily spiritual practice

You can use this altar in many different ways. What is a daily practice that you would like to infuse with more spiritual energy? A fun daily jump start can involve something as easy and uplifting as drawing an angel or intention card. Place the deck of cards or a bowl containing them in the center of your altar, and every morning choose one at random. Bring the message you received into your day, and look for synchronicities related to your card.

1. Four directions for daily practice

Okay, let's set up a simple, small altar that you can use for an everyday practice, like morning meditation or intention setting, or an evening gratitude shrine. We'll get into some more specifics about these daily practices later on.

2. Mediation Altar helps your body, mind and emotions in countless ways.

Place an altar in your meditation space and include objects that remind you of why you choose to come here every day and spend time in deep relaxation. A lit candle is often a good focal point for dropping into a meditative state, or the sound of a resonant bell can signal to your mind "this is your time let go."

3. Kitchen or Hearth Altar

But these altars are often stealth. The candle in the middle of the table? Yes, lighting that may be all it takes to gather the energies and give gratitude to the nourishing animals, vegetables, herbs and minerals that made your meal the magical elixer of health that it is. Around that altar may be a vase of flowers, a pitcher of water or juice, a salt and pepper shaker . . . all seemingly mundane objects, but for the energies and intentions that you give them.

4. A Daily Gratitude Altar

One of the most beneficial and simple things you can do is to put a little gratitude out there into your space, every day. An altar for that purpose can remind you to give thanks, and it can also be a visual reminder of all the goodness that your are blessed with. Here are a couple of ideas that can accelerate your practice: If you already have a journal that you use to record what you are grateful for, you can create an altar, as simple or elaborate as you like, as a place to frame your journal. maybe it leans visibly against a wall, surrounded by colorful stones, shells or feathers. Perhaps you have a candle there that you light while you write. You can imagine the energies of those gratitudes floating up with the heat of the flames to imbue your surroundings, your life, with that positive energy.

Another idea is to place a glass bowl in the center of an altar. Again, make your altar as simple or elaborate as you like. Prepare a bundle of slips of paper place those on the altar. Every day use these blank slips to write what you are grateful for, and place them in the glass bowl. Over time, you can watch that bowl fill with all of the good things you have noted, and even refer back to them at random if you need to, in times of stress or hard times.

5. Remembrance or Ancestor Altar

When we loose someone we love, a way of keeping them in our daily lives is by creating an altar that we can visit as often as we want, to remind us of their presence in our lives, past, present and future. Photographs bring those smiles back to life, and symbols of what they loved, how they impacted the world or touched our lives bring more nuance to those memories. Do you have a note or card that they wrote to you? This is a beautiful and meaningful addition.

Ancestor altars are often created for memorials or funerals to honor the one who has passed for that day, for those attending. If you are designing a memorial for a beloved, you can ask attendees to bring an item to add to the altar for the day's event.

In some traditions, elaborate altars are built to honor ancestors on a particular day, like Dia de los Muertos. Some people choose to have an altar to one who has passed for a specified amount of time, and still others keep an ongoing, permanent altar for all of the gone-befores in their lives. This can be a way to touch in with those who are on the other side when in need of insight, advice or just to reminisce.

6. Travel Altar

The good ole pack up and leave altar. The travel altar is convenient for the witch on the go. There are plenty of ideas out there for Travel Altars and many have kits you can already set up and purchase. Travel altars can be as small as a pouch or mint box or large as a suitcase. The size varies but it usually consists of items that you can at least carry around that helps you or reminds you to connect to the divine.

7. Garden Altar

Own a house or a piece of land. Garden altars are one of my favorite types of altars. These type of altars usually consists of items that can withstand the pressures of extreme weather but not always so. Garden altars can consist of herbs, flowerbeds, statues, rocks, certain crystals, firepits, and anything that helps you and your garden grow. Elemental and fae altars are good ideas for Garden Altars.

8. Religious Altar

Not all witches are religious some are secular many eclectic witches pull from various sources and religions. Though some witches do adhere to and follow a religion of their choice. ( Usually ) Some religions are more open to having altars in their daily lives. Many old pagan religions like Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Norse, and Hellenistic are usually open about the idea. Others are tentative and frown upon it.

Catholics for example is a Judeo-Christian religion that usually are open to the idea of praying to specific saints who is the middleman to God. You'll find that many Catholics have a patron saint and have a shrine devoted to them, even though some Catholics and most Christians frown upon the idea.

Oddly enough I have even seen Shrines devoted to Jesus Christ and most people usually do not have beef with the idea. Who said you have to go to church to devote yourself to Jesus? Heh maybe some Catholics actually.

9. Patron God or Goddess Altar

This is probably the oldest and most common use for an altar. Ancient shrines devoted to patron gods are still being found today. This altar is exactly how it sounds a devotional space to help you connect with that specific deity. A patron altar is usually decorated with offerings and items that the deity represents is partial to. Just remember that certain food items shouldn't be left unattended for too long.

10. Closet Altar

Now you see it. Now you don't. The Closet Altar is the perfect example as being the Broom Closet. These altars are altars that are usually small enough to fit inside a small space or closet. The Closet altar usually requires a table or a shelf devoted to your altar that you can quite literally close the door on. Most guests and housemates tend to ignore or not browse through other people's closets. It's a great idea when you're in an unsure environment.

11. Specific Spell Usage Altar

Do you always find yourself casting certain types of spells? Prefer casting Love Spell or Healing Spell over all others? These types of altars or sacred spaces are usually permanent or at least semi-permanent altars that are devoted to a specific part of your craft or spellcraft. These altars are usually already set up with the right tools to get you in the mood and the job done in a faster time.

12. Room Altar

Who said altars need to be small or obvious, devoting a room to an altar gives a wider perspective on sacred space. You can use a whole room, perhaps spread your four corners North, South, East, and West to each furthest wall. Create smaller altars in each corner or location. Create a labyrinth walk pattern or set up for multiple guests to participate. Devoting a room as a sacred space can spur countless ideas.

13. Stealth Altar or Broom Closet Altar

Sometimes even the slightest item or object can trigger those around you. Similar to the closet idea, the stealth altar is an altar that mostly consists of mundane things or effigies that represent an idea or object. These altars may be big or small as you want.

14. Sacred Location Altar

Got a place that you always go to when you're down or want to be alone? Always find yourself at certain locations where you just feel peace or the opposite a bliss of certain energy. These are locations that hold meaning to you. Sometimes it isn't wise to keep an altar at home period. Perhaps there is a spot in a forest or a place at the mall, or park that helps you feel more connected to the spiritual energies. An altar doesn't necessarily have to be at home. Like many Catholics who visit churches and leave offerings and pray to their saints. You can perhaps create an altar out in nature. *Please note that it is unwise to create an altar in public places. Though I did have a friend who had a stealth altar at the mall that never seemed to be touched often. So it is possible. A travel altar is usually recommended.

15. The Hobby Altar AKA Hobby Shrine

Who said altars have to be strictly religious or fully spiritual? When one dabbles in hobbies, may it be writing, painting, sewing, or anything to do with creating. It usually helps relax or puts the artist in an altered state of mind. Some may call the phrase in the zone or spurred by the muse. Though these types of altars work similarly to pinboards. Even if you aren't exactly the artistic, creating type, collectors even get some type of resonance by admiring their collections as well.

The Hobby Altar is one for admiration of the art or collection. It's a place that helps you get into that creative mood, it's a place of relaxation and inspiration. Depending on your hobby or hobbies anything can go here. These altars consist of objects or ideas sacred to your craft.

16. Attraction Altar

Not all altars are strictly devotional. Some altars could be designed to attract certain energies, spirits, or living creatures. Feng Shui is all about altering your space to maximize abundance. Creating an altar to attract energies, spirits, or guides is a great use for a space or an altar.

Perhaps your want to show gratitude to your spirit guides and create a place for them to energize or say thank you. Perhaps you want a space to attract wandering spirits to commune. Perhaps elementals are more your thing. Maybe your altar is devoted to attracting nature, like birds, insects, or certain types of rodents. An attraction altar is just exactly that.

17. Tech Altar

We are living in modern times and even though many altars are created to pull us away from our cellphones, pcs, and game consoles, a tech altar might just be the thing needed for a more tech-junkie witch. Tech Altars can be used for cellphones, pc, and even the most up-to-date gaming consoles. A variety of reasons can be used, some tech altars are created for pop culture deities or reasons.

Examples of Tech Altars include. Desktop altar. Reorganizing, re-iconing, and changing your desktop background to that similar to a basic altar.

Pop Culture Deities, Tech Craft, Ghosts in the Shell, Tulpa Spirits, Spirit Craft, and even some older deities don't mind your electronic patronage.

18. Glamour Altar

Glamour Altar is a combination of different Altars. Though its main reason or source is to work with glamour spell craft, transformation, and deception. The Glamour Altar is a combination altar. Specific Spell Types, Hobby, and even Devotional energies and items can be placed here. Most modern-day witches use Make Up for Glamour spells. Having a vanity or makeup set up is an altar in itself. Though a glamour altar can also have items devoted to goddesses, flowers, and fae, which can help with the items of glamorizing oneself.

19. The Altered State Altar or The Alternative Altar

To those who are more introverted, daydreamy, experienced, in meditation, spiritual work, or astral, even out-of-body work. Your altar may not even have to exist in the material plane. An altar might be a place in your mind, a memory, a place you can get through meditation or the spiritual plane. Those who have the gift of leaving their body could travel to places where altars exist out of their reach or visit sacred spaces in another plane.

Perhaps your altar is a place you visit before bedtime? Can't be achieved through material means. This altar can only be achieved or reached by alternative an alternative state.

20. The Combination Altar

Tables, Tools, Statues, and most altars end up making your altar appear the same. Though an altar can exist for various reasons and exist for more than one reason. An altar doesn't have to only be used for one reason. Cohesiveness is usually key. Perhaps your altar changes with the seasons and with each season a deity to work with.

Perhaps you have an altar devoted to more than one deity. ( Note certain deities don't mesh well if you decided to work with multiple deities in one space. Do your research first. )

Perhaps your altar is a combination of the list above. Most people tend to use their altar for very specific reasons and that's okay. Sometimes we need a place to devote to that space and mindset. Others can afford to be more open.

Nothing is stopping you from creating an altar other than your lack of creativity.

#altar ideas #altar useage #altar lists

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just6f · 1 year

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flightless-rising · 3 years

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Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D

Iceberg explanation

( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)

EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!

The Sky

Naomi

Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.

On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.

It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.

It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.

What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.

Missing Tidelord

In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.

In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.

Emperors

Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.

Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.

An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.

The Surface

Old color wheel

Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.

When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.

Imperial breed scrolls

Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.

At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.

There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.

Baldwin breed change

When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.

In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.

Trans Fiona

When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.

Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.

Boolean

Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.

Plaguebringer coli team

On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.

As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.

Boston & Hope

This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.

So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.

In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.

The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.

If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.

I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.

Shallow Waters

Eyepocalypse

On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.

Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.

A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.

Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.

EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.

Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.

Courier Breed

The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.

Multiaccounting

According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.

Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.

The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling” which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.

Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.

Purble

“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.

In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.

I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.

Tert Picking

This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.

Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.

Swiftwings

Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.

The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.

“Real” Lore dragons

Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.

All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.

The Middle ground

True deity names

When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.

The names are the following:

Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver

As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.

No leg coatls

On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.

The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.

Dress slot unlocking

A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.

This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.

Clanbound scatterscrolls

I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:

“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”

Beta Mirrors

Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?

According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.

This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.

Dragons are evil

If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.

Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.

The Depths

Scroll of Divorce

In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.

If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.

First Festival

The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.

Offsite drama

Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).

Egg rot

Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.

It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.

Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.

Pablo

From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.

I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.

Latest News

On November 12, 2014, a glitch(?) occurred that let anyone post in the Announcements thread. Anything that was posted went directly to the front page, which resulted in quite a bit of chaos.

This was fixed only half an hour later, but the screenshots people have from that time are extremely funny.

Lameforger

On the 2014 Flameforger’s festival announcement Undel accidentally misspelled “Flameforger” as “Lameforger”, which prompted the official account of the Flamecaller to respond aggressively. Lameforger is still jokingly used by users, even after the typo was fixed.

Festival of one (1)

On the first day of the 2014 Greenskeeper Gathering a glitch occurred which switched the site banner for the Starfall celebration banner instead of the Greenskeeper one.

It didn’t end there, in the coliseum Magical shards dropped instead of Bladed Flatleaves, even though skin chests dropped as normal(?).

The weirdest thing about it all was Joxar’s Space inventory, which didn’t display any items at all and had glitched dialogue.

The event was nicknamed by the fanbase “Festival of 1” and even the deity’s official accounts acknowledged the incident.

Vape Juice

As far as I know the original forum thread as been lost, but the vape juice fiasco will always remain cemented in Flight Rising History.

A company called Vape Daugz was making vape juice with Flight Rising dragons plastered on their packaging, completely violating the site’s policy.

The company’s site still exists, and browsing through their products I found that the products that previously had Flight Rising dragons on them still exist, but now feature completely different packaging.

I have no idea whether they changed the packaging spontaneously or staff did something about it.

I think there’s a potentially interesting story buried down there, but we’ll likely never the truth behind the Flight Rising vape juice.

The Abyss

Humans

There’s been some speculation over the years as to whether or not humans are canon in the Flight Rising universe. Some people believe that the “Mages” of the second age in the official lore are actually humans, but we can’t be sure because they are depicted with long robes that cover their whole bodies.

The idea of humans existing in canon has spawned a couple of memes, most infamously Thomas.

Plague healers

Again, I think the wiki explains this one better:

“According to Aequorin, Plague healers are an interesting bunch because rather than administer treatments that counter illness, they use a mixture of magic and contagion that stress the affected dragon further, allowing them to reach a stronger, healed, and resistant state faster than other elements. Plague healers will treat physical injuries with sutures, bandages, and braces, but they won't clean the wounds or apply ointments."

Akitla

As described in the original thread, Akitla was a dragon that user “qunii” saw on the front page, but noticed that she wasn’t accompanied by the username of the person owning them.

After clicking on her, an error page loaded. It was discovered that putting her color combination or ID in the search bar would result in an error page. This was later fixed, and both Akitla and her mate were now displayed as being exalted to the Arcanist. T

here are some theories as to what happened to the Akitla’s user, some think that she belonged to a deleted account, others that it was the result of an incomplete account creation.

As with a lot of things on this iceberg, it will likely remain a mystery forever.

Arcane sprite book

“what is the arcane sprite reading??” is probably one of the oldest still active threads on the forums.

On September 25, 2013 user “Kaadashi” started a joke thread were they wondered what exactly is the arcane sprite reading, and playfully suggested that it could be erotic fanfiction. People went crazy of course, and started to wonder what kind of juicy secrets were hidden within the pages of that book.

I don’t want to say too much because I really don’t want to spoil the experience of reading through this very cursed tread.

Sunshine

Sunshine is one of the most… interesting lairs on the site, and certainly one of the most well-known.

They(?) have a lair (almost) completely full of triple basic sunshine dragons, most of which are Tundras. So far they have collected about 320 triple hundred Sunshine dragons, almost all of which are also named “Sunshine”. They’re not all the same, some of them have apparel, some of them are gened and some have unique art and descriptions.

They’re dedicated and I respect that.

EDIT 28/06: Apparently some people seem to think that the sunshine-dedicated lair is based on a meme concerning the announcement of the color wheel expansion, which became so discussed that the itself site broke. The two things are unrelated however, as the Sunshine lair has been around for much longer.

The announcement of the color wheel expansion was cryptic, with only a few post showing off differently colored coatls and then 3 pages of reserved posts, with no explanation whatsoever.

Simple Farmer

Another very famous thread is the “I am but a simple farmer” thread started by user “someKindOfGenius”. It’s not really about anything specific, it’s just a rather silly thread were people photoshop flight rising dragons onto various crops.

Still, this thread is iconic so I had to include it.

Dragon Deaths

Way back in 2014 former flight rising programmer Thrage revealed on a forum thread that way back before the beta, dragons could actually starve to death if left unfed.

Yep.

Obviously they had to remove this mechanic because it would have been extremely harsh to casual players and make people frustrated with the game.

Zalvador

User “manojalpa” became fairly well-known for the extremely dark lore they(?) had written for their Clan, it was so dark in fact that every single one of their dragon’s bios had to moved to their tumblr where they couldn’t be easily seen by the site’s mainly underage usebase.

Their lore centered around their progen dragon, a tundra named Zalvador, which behaved and had the same powers as a flight rising user: buying dragons off of the action house, having “breeding projects”, exalting dragons, etc.

These things seem pretty normal when done by a player, but when taking them as actual real things that happen in universe… yeah, it was way too morbid for the site.

The Pit

Black linen neck wraps

For some weird reason, the apparel piece “Black linen neck wrap” when put on a male pose Coatl wraps around the dragon’s throat instead of it’s neck. It’s kind of subtle and hard to see, but if you compare it with the female pose the difference is clear. This is probably just an art error, although it’s weird that it hasn’t been fixed yet, since linen wraps are a very old piece of apparel.

Another weird thing about linen wraps in general is that the wing wraps just sort of… go through the membrane? This is not possible. These dragons are in pain.

Icewarden ears

Another very remarkably popular thread is the Icewarden ears thread.

In 2014 user “Llanai” simply makes note of the fact that the Icewarden has teeny tiny ears.

As we have come to expect from these threads, it quickly devolved into nonsense.

Forbidden Snapper lore

Snappers used to have a way different lore section that was changed because it deemed too similar to the lore of another petsite.

This is what the original section read:

"Snapper dragons do not sleep, but exist in a constant state of reverie. They receive and catalogue all experiences and stories told within their dreams. This persistent state of awakened dreaming awards them the longest memory of any dragon species. They are living encyclopedias, and any dragon who is seeking difficult-to-obtain information will have the most luck unearthing it from a Snapper clan - provided they have the patience for it. If you want two dozen quick answers, talk to a spiral. If you want a fully developed answer, camp out around a Snapper. These dreamers move at their own pace, which varies from dragon to dragon. For some, the awakened dream can prove to be more interesting than their surroundings. This leads to a focus upon the dream, and the waking world as filtered background noise. Interacting with these sleepwalkers can be a trying and repetitive task. Other Snappers may be fairly lucid, with a focus upon their surroundings and the constant hum of the dream pushed aside."

Bee movie script

I’ve seen this story around the forums a few times but I’ve never been able to learn the details.

From what I’ve heard someone copy pasted the entire bee movie script into their clan bio in a drop down text format, which completely broke the page for anyone who visited it. This was fixed, apparently, although I have no clue as to who this user is.

EDIT 28/06: Zeus

Zeus is an XXX gold g1 permababy imperial that used to belong to user "happywing".

Their account is now locked because Zeus was created with the use of a duplication glitch on an imperial breed change scroll, which is obviously not allowed (although I've heard some people say that the dragon was hacked in altogether). Before the account was locked, people speculated that Zeus was the most valuable dragon on the site, because an XXX g1 imperial is impossibly rare.

Wegg shaming

On July 2017 user “Dreamnorn” made a thread were they(?) claimed to have a dream where everything was the same except people used the term “wegged” when two dragons would lay only one egg in a nest.

Ex. Aw man! I’ve been wegged again! = Aw man! I bred two dragons and they only had one egg!

The dream ended up being prophetic, as the term catched on and people started to use it unironically.

The practice of “Wegg shaming” I think refers to the trend of people posting pictures of the dragons that “wegged” them in order to “shame” them.

Plague nest skull

The site art of the plague nest features an unique dragon skull that doesn’t match with any currently existing dragon breed or creature: It appears to have two sets of eyes, like a mirror, but also long and curled horns.

It’s probably just for decoration and it likely doesn’t have any significance whatsoever, but personally I believe it would be pretty cool if when they eventually release plague ancient it at least somewhat resembled this skull.

EDIT 28/06: On second thought, the skull doesn’t seem to have two pairs of eyes, It just has the generic shape of a carnivore.

Rock bottom

CAPTAINPLANET

…this is CAPTAINPLANET. Somehow, user “Decres”' managed to overlay a Fae skin on top of a Tundra, creating this horrifyingly fascinating abomination.

I have no idea how she did this, and she seems pretty adamant to tell.

EDIT 28/06: People have pointed out that this skin overlay glitch was actually somewhat common (although I still haven't found another dragon like CAPTAINPLANET). What you had to do was breed change a dragon while attaching a skin to them in another tab.

This glitch has been patched and such thing is no longer possible.

Lair 46264

A cursed lair.

Dreams

I’ve seen a lot of people, both on forums and on Tumblr, sharing dreams they had about Flight Rising.

A lot of people dream of just being on the site, while occasionally weird things happen.

I’ve read of people who dreamed the distribution of a new breed, buying an exclusive item, a new Fiona feat or Swipp trade, or just browsing the forums.

The most common type of Flight rising-associated dream I’ve seen however is being caught multiaccounting and having their account banned.

I’m no psychoanalyst, but I think it’s pretty clear that these nightmares stem from the paranoia of being banned from their beloved petsite instead of showing any actual intention of doing the “crime” in question.

Anyways, I think it’s fascinating how so many people dream about this site, and it reminds me of the dreams people claimed to have about Mario 64 where completely new levels were added or a scary monster appeared.

Dragon Slime

Dragon Slime was an infamous thread which was supposed to be start off point for an ARG.

It was deleted because it was considered too “spammy” and also because ARGs are banned from the forums. The thread has been lost, unfortunately.

EDIT 28/06: Thanks to @randompurple-fr for providing screenshots of the dragon slime tutorial! You can find them here

Cucumber

Cucumber is the only dragon ever to have been exalted with a skin, which is something that should not be possible. This raises some questions as to what exactly did the person that exalted them do to achieve this, but we have no way of knowing who Cucumber belonged to.

EDIT 28/06: Actually, we do know who used to Cucumber belonged to! Its owner was Osiem: an official flight rising artist. I couldn’t find the thread where they(?) acknowledged the glitch though, if someone has it please let me know!

#flight rising #fr #flight rising meme #iceberg meme

846 notes · View notes

mittensmorgul · 3 years

Text

For anyone interested in long-term residence in the supernatural fandom, please have some observations I’ve made over the decade I’ve been here. Take it or leave it as you will, but I’ve found all of this info useful over the years I’ve been here.

I wrote this yesterday, and it achieved its mission of identifying the sort of folks who would react negatively to it (i.e. a lot of block lists have been updated), so now that it’s been edited for content, it’s going under a cut (because that is how we do things on tumblr in general, unless we have a deliberate purpose for annoying readers with excessively long text posts) for the sake of people who actually do care about the fandom and its history. If that’s not you or your reason for being here, then keep on keeping on with your own thing, I guess. For those who are interested, there’s a lot of fandom resources some of us have been building for years that you might enjoy knowing about.

First off, I’ve been informed by a few friends who’ve read through this for coherency’s sake that it sort of reads like a *shakes cane from porch* fandom grandma complaint, but honestly... I earned this rocking chair and goshdangit imma rock now. So apologies for any “back in my day” vibes or faint aroma of tiger balm this post might give off. Then again, it’s loosely based on a similar post from 2012 so like... time is a flat circle anyway I guess.

1. There is no such thing as “tumblr famous,” unless you’re referring to the hilarious and delightful fic of the same name (please go read it, you will cackle). Posting Hot Takes for imaginary Clout™ on this site is kind of pointless in the long run. Sure you can post solely for the sake of stirring shit and getting notes, but the majority of the folks who do aren’t long term residents of the fandom. They’re just tourists moving through our little beach town for spring break. If you’re actually intent on moving to this corner of the fandom for an extended stay, please bother to really feel out the permanent residents and understand the culture and general mood of the neighborhood. It bears no resemblance to whatever’s going on across town where all the bars and beach parities are happening, and those loud, drunken revelers are, again, gonna disappear back to their regular lives or on to the next party eventually. That doesn’t mean the fandom is dying, it’s just evolving.

(funny how I had several comments implying that I’m just trying to keep the fandom from evolving with this post, because I sincerely do want the fandom to continue on for years to come, and that is impossible without evolution. We can evolve without self-immolating, though. mostly i included point 1 for an excuse to push ancient but hilarious fanfic on you.)

2. Once you post something here, it’s been unleashed to the fandom winds. You never know where it will end up, or who will comment on it or add to it. Remember that time Misha tweeted the link to the Epic Cockles Love Story post? No? It was wild. That was 2012. They all know we’re here, and how to find us if they want to. Please don’t take it to their doorsteps.

Obviously if someone is being a dick on your posts, please feel free to block them, but the whole entire point of this site is to engage people with your posts. Being big mad that someone reblogged your post with comments or supporting evidence, or happy headcanons or “HECK THIS IS GREAT BECAUSE (insert personal story about their experience or whatever else made them Feel Things about your post)” is frankly ridiculous. If your goal is to avoid any sort of engagement with your posts, then maybe try instagram instead. From what I understand, there is a SPN fandom presence there, and nobody can tarnish your original posts with unwanted commentary. But the ability to reblog with additional commentary is a FEATURE of tumblr that builds community through conversation. Otherwise we’re all just talking to ourselves in a vacuum, and that’s what actually kills fandoms.

(and for the folks who just want to blog how they want to blog and don’t want people to engage on their posts at all, please feel free to block anyone you want, as well... nobody wants to step on your toes, but most of us also don’t want to walk on eggshells wondering if this post is one of the “do not add comments for any reason” sorts of posts, either. This is a huge fandom and most people can’t even begin to keep track of every creator and their url du jour, and what their personal rules might be regarding interaction with their content. Including a “please don’t add comments” note at the bottom of your posts-- and not in your tags that won’t even show up on reblogs, but in the actual body of the post-- would sincerely help avoid any awkward or unwanted interactions, too. At the end of the day, you are in control of your own fandom experience and the block button exists.

For the record, I block zero fandom blogs (which is why I posted this, I wanted it to reach a wide scope... refer to the opening paragraphs as to why).

3. Since this post was partly inspired by a tag I left on that post going around about how “previous tags” mean fuckall on this site (which you can read here), just a reminder that if you like someone’s tags or feel they add value to the post, part of the Peer Review structure of tumblr encourages you to PASTE THEM INTO A REBLOG. If you do this, then at least credit the person who actually wrote the tags! Don’t just copy someone else’s tags into your tags on your reblog of the post without credit either. They were not YOUR tags. (I have had this happen to tag rambles I wrote and someone else got credited with them on a subsequent reblog and it is FRUSTRATING). Just... don’t even bother to write “previous tags” because WHAT PREVIOUS TAGS?! Nobody is gonna bother to chase back the chain of reblogs trying to find where the mystery tags came from, friendos. That way lies madness.

(for the record, since some folks seemed to focus on this point solely, writing “previous tags” on a post isn’t inherently a BAD thing, but for anyone who actually is here for more than one-off shitposting, then it’s sort of a pointless thing in the long run. This wasn’t intended to suggest people who ARE here for one-off shitposting are bad or “doing it wrong,” but for people who might actually want to preserve that hilarious joke or insightful comment. People delete posts and entire blogs all the time around here. Links break. I get that the upcoming generation just shrugs at that and moves on with their lives, but heck... you don’t have to accept that all entertainment is disposable if you don’t want to. There’s a bizarre sort of nihilism plaguing us all about the impermanence of pretty much everything that feels like something we should be fighting against rather than buying into wholesale, even in our escapist entertainment. I’m just exhausted by the complete loss of joy in community.

*shouts from the peanut gallery* IT AIN’T THAT DEEP, JUST GET SOME FRESH AIR AND LOOK AT A PUPPY OR SOMETHING

Yes... yes it isn’t really that deep, but bigger picture in the state of reality we’re all entirely disillusioned with, are we supposed to just give up on everything, including the things we cling to because they bring us a tiny spark of hope that we’re not all just trapped in this dystopian nightmare and things might actually be worth living for?

*peanut gallery clinging to burnt husks of peanuts in a barren peanut field* but this is how we have chosen to cope

Okay... you do you... I feel bad for you but if that’s the case then this post is NOT FOR YOU. AND THAT’S FINE. I honestly do not care if you don’t care! I mean, I’m sorry anyone has to live in a world that drives them to that mindset, but I understand. This post is for anyone who might look at their lives and their choices and think “no wait, I unironically enjoy this and want more from the experience of that enjoyment than I’m currently feeling.” Everyone else can continue with their lives as usual.)

4. CONTENT THEFT IS NEVER OKAY. PERIOD. Things like “credit to the artist” or tagging gifs or images you found on pinterest as “not mine” isn’t actually credit. If you can’t source an image or gif set, DO NOT POST IT! We don’t REPOST (i.e. save an image and then create a new post with it as if it was our own creation). We REBLOG (click the little square arrows and reblog from the actual creator). That goes for gif sets, fanvids, screencaps, meta, fic... everything.

(hopefully everyone here already understands this one, but I felt compelled to include some “these are stupidly obvious” reminders anyway, since this is ostensibly some sort of advice column. This is the equivalent of the warning label on your toaster reminding you not to use it in the bath. Like... duh...)

5. Close kin of item 4 is SOURCE YOUR SHIT.

(for 100% disclosure purposes, I specifically discussed this one in this specific way because of an influx of anon ask messages I received in the wake of the finale. Literally the inciting incident for creating this entire post was what I can only assume was a joking ask about a comment Misha made at a con years ago. Someone actually bothered to take the time to type out those sentences to me. I have no idea what they were expecting in reply, or what could possibly motivate them to send this comment about something so entirely random from, again, several years ago. Just a joke? No idea, but whatever... it got me thinking that there might actually be people who are new to the fandom who MIGHT actually care about the fandom history, and maybe they just don’t know where to go for that info, or how to even begin searching through 16 years of history for things they might actually find enjoyment in, rather than just hauling random out of context garbage out on main and pointing and laughing about it now. People are actually allowed to care about things. It’s not cringeworthy to actually care about things, and you are not alone in actually caring, and there’s this whole big room over here full of people who are thrilled to share in that with you. This post is intended FOR THOSE PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY, so if that is not you, please just continue walking by.)

Yes, I know lots of y’all are new around here right now, but dredging up stuff from years ago that fandom has completely debunked and presenting it as TRU FAX again is just exhausting. We’re not trying to be party poopers, but seriously, we have seen it all and are mostly done with extinguishing bags of flaming dog poop on our front porches for the umpteenth year in a row. I’ve seen a lot of posts that have the same tone as “I saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil” or “I heard kylo ren has an eight pack” and just... the information is there for anyone who cares enough to find it.

This goes double for “why is nobody talking about this thing I just discovered while watching the show for the first time?!” And, oh hon, we have talked it all into the ground over the last fifteen years. We’re happy you’re discovering it again, but I promise we talked about it plenty when the episodes originally aired. We have such a rich meta history that lots of us have worked really hard to preserve. I encourage you to seek it out, if nothing else than as historical artifacts. The way we have discussed the show has been a 16-year evolution. People have written literal doctoral dissertations on this show. Your shitposts are fun! We love reliving our own experience through fresh eyes, and seeing your wonder at experiencing it all again for the first time! But y’all didn’t invent this fandom in the last six months, either.

Meta Sources and Minerals provided by our friendly neighborhood fandom archivist, @lets-steal-an-archive

Academic books and articles about SPN

A collection of Meta Essays going back to s1 and organized by topic (all of this has happened before, all of it will happen again)

SPN Heavy Meta Archive (s1-3)

Mel’s Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-12)

Oranges8hands Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-15, with many similar entries to Mel’s... though ymmv on viewpoint in a lot of these too)

Anyone remember Fandom Wank? Not the concept but the actual LJ... No? Okay have a link to SPN topics that ended up there. Through 2013. We have seen so much... including several fandom containment breaches.

for all your art sourcing needs, please see @theroadsofararchive, the repository for so much fandom art.

need to find a gif of something? canonspngifs is a vast repository of gifsets of the entire series. If the gif you want to use in your post happens to be the first gif in the gifset, in the tumblr gif finder thingy just paste the permalink to that post from canonspngifs (which is easily searchable by episode, character, location, situation, quotes, and sometimes even color and clothing items the actors are wearing... it’s really well organized, especially for tumblr >.>) and the first gif will be automatically linked with credit to the gif creator attached. It makes life easy that way. It’s also convenient when trying to remember something specific but can’t remember what episode it’s from. I’ve used the site to jog my memory before going to the superwiki armed with more specific search results to find episode quotes and references. Or sometimes I just scroll through all the nice gifs for fun, too.

Need a screencap of something and know exactly which episode it’s from? Try Home of the Nutty. You might not find the exact screencap you’re looking for, but they have a complete set of caps of every episode, and it’s an incredibly useful resource for quick reference checks and the like. Just give pages a chance to fully load before clicking on the next one. The site is easily overloaded, but it’s still free to use (and again, with credit... Pretty much every screencap on my entire blog is from HotN unless otherwise credited).

As you can see, this is a fandom built on preserving our history. You absolutely are not required to engage with any of this if that’s not of interest to you, but I can only assume that there are people who would be interested in it if only they knew it existed and how to find it. Well, now they do.

6. A few more notes on tags, and how they work on tumblr. The first 20 tags on your ORIGINAL posts are searchable sitewide, so if you want to be able to find something again, tag that thing first before going on general tag rambles. The only place tags on reblogs are searchable is on your own blog. So you don’t have to put 50 tags trying to get a post seen if it’s a reblog. You’re just spitting into the wind at that point. If you have a filing system for finding things again, then by all means add those tags (again, in the first 20, so they’re searchable), but you don’t need to tag a reblog “destiel” and “deancas” and “dean” and “cas” and “dean x cas” or whatever. Pick one for your personal blog’s filing system, that’s all you need.

(this was only added because tagging and searching on this site is so very broken... I get that a lot of folks don’t care about ever searching their own blogs again for anything, so this one only really applies if you do often find yourself trying to find old posts. If not, then it’s not really relevant. It took me years to work out a decent tagging system, and at the beginning of my time here I never thought I’d end up camping out here for a decade and falling this deep into the fandom, and I regretted my lack of consistent tags only years later when I realized I actually wanted to be able to go back and find specific old posts again. So... for anyone who wants to err on the side of caution, working out a sensible tagging system really helps if you’re here for the long term. I personally tag content by episode, because some of my other general tags are so large as to be practically useless as a search term. But whatever system you choose to file stuff on your own blog, it really only has to make sense to you. And again, if this is pointless advice for someone who has no intention of settling here for the long term. Please feel free to ignore it. I just wish someone had explained it this way to me ten years ago and saved me the hassle of retroactively tagging something like 30k posts... especially now that using the mass tag replacer is the fastest way to get your entire blog deleted... oops? so yeah, don’t use the mass tag replacer either >.>)

7. Tags on Tumblr DO NOT WORK LIKE TAGS ON TWITTER. If you @ someone in the body of the post, it will show up in their notifications (if they’re the sort of person who even checks their notifications... not all of us do. For the record, I generally don’t...), but putting actor or ship names in the tags on a tumblr post does absolutely nothing. It’s not the same as tagging the actor’s twitter account in a tweet. Nobody’s getting notifications about you tagging a post about Jensen here as “Jensen Ackles.” There is a difference. Please learn it. (and don’t take headcanons and ESPECIALLY RPF or otherwise explicit art or fic from tumblr to twitter and tag the actors in it. That’s just... not okay.)

(I have seen the pearl clutchers getting all in a huff about the mere existence of RPF or even explicit content of fictional characters if it doesn’t meet their purity standards, but tagging those things allows people who don’t want to see it to actively avoid that content here. Nobody has a right to tell people their fictional content shouldn’t exist at all, or that creators of that fictional content somehow deserve harassment or threats for having dared to create such “immoral” content, won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children... and no... you do not do that here. Don’t be the problematic behavior you wish to ban from the world. Learn to use tags to protect yourself from, as i have attempted to emphasize here, fictional content you are personally upset by. That’s a you problem, not a problem for the creators of potentially upsetting content that they tag appropriately for.)

8. General formatting stuff: If you’re writing long text posts, visually break them up so people aren’t faced with one long wall of text. The enter key is your friend. Also, if you put long text posts under a Read More break and send people to your blog to finish reading, please ensure that your blog is actually visually accessible (tiny text, or light grey text on a dark grey background, or a visually busy background might be aesthetically pleasing to you but nobody can actually read it. Loads of folks won’t even try. Which is great if you don’t actually care whether people are able to appreciate your content or not, but something to at least consider if you *do* actively want to encourage engagement with your work. Confirm how your blog looks on both mobile and desktop and make sure it’s actually functional in both, too).

And since I mentioned that most of my experience on fandom tumblr has been in the SPN fandom, here’s a bit of a reminder for folks who are new around here. With the reminder that I have been here more than a decade and still feel like a newbie myself sometimes...

This is an OLD FANDOM. There are many, many people who have been at this longer than some of you have been alive. The average age for creators in this fandom is older than you think (I think of my friends in their 30′s as young’ins okay? okay). With that understood, you are responsible for the content you consume and are exposed to. Curate your experience. Ship and let ship. YKINMKATOK. Don’t deliberately expose yourself to content you find upsetting for whatever reason. Tags and warnings are your friends, not targets for you to attack in some sort of purity war. People will ship things you do not like (or in specific ways you do not like), will say things you do not agree with, and will find their happiness in things you abhor. That is not your concern. Find what you do like, and support and engage with it, and ignore (or block, or unfollow) the rest. Tumblr has a feature that lets you blacklist tags so the content you’re trying to avoid won’t appear on your dash.

Remember the paradox of tolerance.

It is not your job in fandom to police how other people enjoy the fandom. It’s not *my* job to police how *you* enjoy the fandom, UNLESS your enjoyment is in actively harming other real human beings in the fandom. If you don’t like their take on the character or the show or the plotlines or their ships or anything else, you don’t need to engage with their posts at all! The necessary corollary to this is that clarifying misunderstandings or correcting factual misinformation is not “policing.”

(this is where the peanut gallery reminds me it ain’t that deep, and I plead with them to put down the social media and find just one (1) thing to actually believe in in this godforsaken life, find something other than disdain and cynicism and spite to live for. If those things motivate you to find a larger cause for yourself, then great, use them to your advantage, but use them to find something that makes you a better person or brings you a modicum of joy and connection to your fellow human beings despite living in a dystopian hellscape of a world)

I have seen a lot of posts lately that are founded on the sort of authority that comes with “I watched through tumblr for a few months and then watched the last three episodes of the series” and as such are just... missing the larger context of the entire show, and are unfounded entirely in canon. I 100% appreciate the new enthusiasm for the fandom that we’ve been living in here for years, and it’s wonderful to see new people enjoying the thing we love. Your headcanons are valid, you are valid, but recognize that your headcanons aren’t canon. All of us finale denialists have accepted this in some measure, so we feel you. We truly, truly feel you. But regarding actual canon, we have a resource for that: the Superwiki. Learn it, live it, love it, as Metatron would say.

(which you could discover he said in 10.17 Inside Man, thanks to the superwiki! accept no substitutes!)

(and again, there have been people who have been involved in fandom for years who haven’t engaged with canon in years, either! You can play in this universe however you choose, BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT CANON AT ALL, WHICH I AM AGAIN POINTEDLY SAYING MIGHT NOT BE YOU, READER, AND I’M NOT SUGGESTING YOU ARE WRONG FOR NOT WANTING TO ACTUALLY ENGAGE WITH CANON, but if you DO want to engage with canon, please have some useful resources. Why do people feel personally attacked by being presented a list of helpful resources? Absolutely baffling.)

(also: words have definitions. “Canon” is a specific thing, meaning in this case “the finished media product that aired on television.” Anything beyond those limits is secondary canon (think: john’s journal, which is not canon but canon adjacent at best...), word of god (i.e stuff said by the writers and showrunners), or headcanon (which includes actor commentary-- they may have helped create the show with their acting choices and whatever, but they are not in control of the story overall). If there’s something you dislike about actual canon, you can reject it and supplement it with your own theories or preferred outcomes-- that’s basically what fanfic is-- but that doesn’t make your theories canon (much to all our dismay, that’s just not how any of this works. This is not to invalidate how anyone engages with the show or the fandom, just trying to clarify what seems to have been a source of unintentional misunderstandings. Your theories do not have to be “canon” to be legitimate interpretations.)

***I am setting this section apart, and did make a separate post of just this following information, because this is where we go from being relatively chill about different parts of fandom choosing to interact in different ways and you do you and blog however you want, to “hey can everybody please understand that the way you are interacting with this specific material might be harmful for specific legal reasons, and stating that you do not care about the consequences of your actions does actively make you the asshole here...” Okay, now that we have that understood:

The spnscripthunt collective has been steadily acquiring new scripts (which are posted in full on the superwiki for everyone to enjoy, for free). The language around how some folks are talking about these scripts is... concerning. For very real legal reasons, actually, and not because we’re feeling precious about the collection and don’t wike it when meanies use them in shitposts.

-First off, these scripts are not “leaks.” They are all verified and legally purchased (or gifted, in some cases, but still acquired entirely above board. we didn’t whack anyone over the head in a back alley for these scripts, or swipe them out of someone’s trailer on set).

(in case anyone was unaware, these scripts are the copywritten protected property of Warner Brothers. So yes, how we use them and share them with the fandom could have legal repercussions. We present them as a collected resource of fandom history which SHOULD fall under Fair Use doctrine, but this is untested legal water. Insinuating that the scripts are somehow not entirely legally obtained, or that posting them for public access involved less than 100% transparent and entirely legal transactions is incredibly concerning.

Once again for the peanut gallery, if you don’t care about any of that and are just having a good time with it, at least be mindful of the work and expense a large group of people have gone through to acquire and present the content you’re all too eager to exploit for cheap thrills. Some of us do actually care and are not exactly comfortable with the fact that others don’t seem to care about burning it all to the ground. We can’t force you to listen or behave as we’d hope you might, but at least be aware of the potential consequences of your actions. All we’re asking is for you to not be the douchebag who sets the whole neighborhood on fire with your illegal fireworks display. Is that too much to ask for? more on that in a second, first... a psa)

-If you see a script for sale and are unsure if it’s legit (or believe it might already be freely available in our collection), please feel free to ask us for advice. Our goal is to make as much of our fandom history available to the entire fandom, and we absolutely do not want anyone shelling out money for stuff you can already find for free.

(seriously, we’ve seen a bunch of resellers cropping up selling printed versions of the scripts we bought and uploaded for everyone to enjoy free of charge, or scripts that are otherwise of dubious origin. We’ve been at this for years now and know what’s actually out there. We don’t want anyone to fall for a scam if we can help it)

-Also, the usual reminder that the scripts we acquire ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE FINAL SHOOTING DRAFTS. In fact, the majority of scripts in our collection are NOT. Changes are made daily to scripts, even during filming. Comparing a Production Draft (white pages, effectively the first “final draft” of what usually becomes a series of drafts before filming wraps) to a much later revision (say... green or goldenrod revisions, several of which we DO have in our collection for comparison) and how those earlier drafts often differ wildly from the aired version versus how similar a much later green draft is to the aired version, for example, can teach you a lot about the television writing process. The link above to the superwiki scripts page has a nice little explainer about how this process works.

Differences between our posted scripts (many of which are white drafts, aka FIRST complete drafts, which will likely go through multiple rounds of revisions before filming even begins) and the aired version of the show are not all “acting choices” or a director or editor just cutting whole scenes on a whim. It’s insulting to everyone involved in production to suggest that’s the case.

(and yeah, fine... whatever, make any sort of posts you like regarding how those changes came about, but at the very least understand that it’s not actually the truth about how any of this works. Don’t care that that’s not the truth and want to make the posts anyway because shitposting is fun and that’s the extent of your sense of humor? FINE! You’re entitled to do that! But at least you DO know the truth now, and hopefully so do the people who engage with your posts. Deliberate ignorance isn’t cute, smooth lions notwithstanding)

There’s probably a whole other post to be made on fandom tagging etiquette, but again I don’t really use the tags enough to know what’s going on with that whole situation. I’ve also probably left a lot of stuff out, so please feel free to add things I’ve overlooked.

Thanks also to @trisscar368 and @thayerkerbasy for help compiling this, too. They were kind enough to escort me through the park to feed these pigeons. Now I need to take them out for ice cream. :’D

So I guess welcome to the neighborhood. Make yourself at home, but like... try not to trash the place while you’re here. Some of us live here by choice, lol.

#this blue hellsite (affectionate)#fandom problems #kinda wish i'd made this post six months ago but here we are i guess lol #long post #now edited for the people who are actually personally invested in the fandom #thanks for participating in this little experiment and I hope this version is actually informative to those who are interested #meaning there's a lot more links to stuff and explainers and whatnot...#and one last reminder that for folks just swinging through for laughs absolutely none of this applies to you #if you are legit interested in fandom history and preservation as we move to the post-canon world then hopefully this is useful to you

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thedudewiththedragontattoos · 3 years

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Genetically Correct Pleasantview with Scripted Events CC FREE

Hey people! Welcome to my latest project - A genetically correct Pleasantview with scripted events!

When I first found out (a while ago) that the playables we all know and love in Pleasantview aren’t actually genetically related to their ancestors, it totally broke immersion for me. For some reason it really bothered me and that kept me from really getting into a playthrough of the hoods that Eaxis shipped with the game. Then I discovered this crazy cool thing that people did which involved extracting the appearances of the first ancestors from each family, and breeding them in CAS from generation to generation, eventually creating Genetically Correct versions of the sims we all know. This is where I began this exhausting journey - there was a lot of learning but I am really happy with how it turned out!

There have been a ton of various Pleasantview makeovers - all of which are super awesome! However, I was unable to find a Pleasantview that not only already had all the sims genetically correct, but still had their relationships, biographies, personalities, and most importantly, scripted events...because let’s face it - who the hell wants to start a new Pleasantview if they can’t play through the cool ass scripted events in the beginning? I know I don’t. And that’s why I made this hood.

What is this? This is a Pleasantview in which I have made all the playable sims (and their ancestors) genetically correct. It contains no cc and was built on top of a clean template Pleasantview as well. Below are pics of the premades:

More Info, pics, and download below the cut!

My main goal for this was to make the premades genetically correct while still keeping them actually recognizable. I know there are some GC versions that are totally different, and I absolutely respect that, but I still wanted to look at Daniel Pleasant and say “Yep, that’s Daniel”.

IMPORTANT: After taking the pictures I realized the skin I use (No longer after this), which I will link below drastically whitewashes the sims. Some sims with skin 3 look super light, such as Daniel Pleasant and Jennifer Burb. They still have the correct skin, it just may appear lighter in my images. I didn’t realize this until after I made the sims and took their pictures. Also note that the eyes may look like different colors. People have said the light blue looks grey, so if you see a strange eye color on a sim it doesn’t match with, be aware it’s likely just the defaults I used.

Notice: I used a mod, equal genetics while creating these sims. I do not claim to be anything but a simpleton when it comes to genetics, and I know that some of these sims’ genetics aren’t realistic - Like a blond and brunette having a blond kid. I don’t claim to know anything about genetics, so before you genetic purists come at me just know - I know this and don’t care.

My general notion was that if one of their ancestors had a gene, then they could too.

With that being said, all living premades with the exception of Coral Oldie, Herb Oldie, Mortimer Goth, and Bella Goth have the same eye and hair colors as they did originally. Some ancestors or dead spouses (like Michael Bachelor and Skip Broke) have had a few changes as well. More on that at the very end, for those interested.

TLDR - General Information

I ramble, I know. The main idea is that ALL of the sims are the same exact sims as you’re used to. They all have the same personalities, zodiac signs, hobbies, jobs, aspirations, relationships, memories, etc...They just have corrected appearances. Scripted events still work, and Brandi Broke’s baby is also now going to be genetically correct and related to both her and Skip.

A few things to note:

- I used a default skin and eyes when taking the pictures. The sims will not come with these. I used Pitstop Skinblend and Poppet Clear Eyes

- Yes, I know Michael Bachelor’s eyes aren’t right. That is fixed in the game.

- This is CC FREE!!

- Brandi’s pregnancy may be a couple hours behind

- All sims have just about the same dominant and recessive traits as they do in the original clean templates from meetme. No sim is homozygous unless intended by meetme/eaxis.

- Sims may get some wants or fears of their ancestors or dead relatives becoming zombies or resurrected, this is just because of the way I did this, their deaths are fresh in the playables minds.

- This hood was build on a clean template Pleasantview, all ancestors and dead sims are safe to resurrect

- This was made with Ultimate Collection, so unfortunately you will need this or all packs for this to work.

- The versions without townies still include Bella Goth, Kaylynn Langerak, and Gordon King.

- When you add the subhood version with townies, you’ll notice that the townie and NPC names get randomized and aren’t their original names. Though annoying, this is normal and you will have to rename them all yourself.

Update:

It seems that some mods can break the scripted events, it was unclear exactly which mods in my folder did it. To circumvent this issue I would recommend that when you initially install and play the scripted events in the hood, take out all of your non essential mods (leave in mods like no unlink on delete, no townie regen, things that are essential) from your mods folder (just mods, cc is fine to stay in) and put it in a safe folder while you just play through the SE - then when they're done, put the mods back in. This seems like a random occurrence - as they only broke 1 out of every 5 times I tested it.

More Pics:

Link to imgur album of individual sims and all (or most) ancestors.

Link to imgur album of individual families

Download Instructions:

This comes in 4 versions:

GC Main Hood Pleasantview with Townies

GC Main Hood Pleasantview without Townies

GC Subhood (Shopping district) Pleasantview with Townies

GC Subhood (Shopping district) Pleasantview without Townies

Download the version you want.

For Main Hoods, place the folder in the following location:

Ultimate Collection:

Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Neighborhoods

Disk Version:

Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods

For Subhoods, place the folder in the following location:

Ultimate Collection:

Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Best of Business\EP3\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Disk Version:

:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Open for Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Credits:

meemetotheriver for the clean templates

Carrit for the ancestral sims

Special thanks to:

Sabrina from PleasantSims discord and @isabella-goth for their patience and help with my idiocy throughout this project - I couldn’t have figured it out without your help specifically!!

Download:

Genetically Correct Pleasantview with Townies

Genetically Correct Pleasantview without Townies (Still includes Bella, Kaylynn, and Gordon King)

I hope you all enjoy this! As usual, let me know if you run into any issues! Tag me in pics or posts of what you do with the sims if you’d like!

Till’ next time

-Mike

P.S. Changes to premades/dead spouses:

Bella Goth - Hair changed to brown

Mortimer Goth - Hair changed to black

Coral Oldie - Hair changed to blond

Herb Oldie - Eyes changed to dark blue

Skip Broke - Eyes changed to dark blue

Michael Bachelor - Given blond hair, medium skin, and dark blue eyes

That should be the only changes to premades and/or their spouses. Some ancestors have been adjusted too!

#sims 2 #ts2 #ts2 hood #pleasantview #dwtdtpleasantviewgc #sims 2 neighborhood #ts2cc #sims 2 build #sims #simblr #the sims 2 #the sims 2 cc #the sims 2 hood #dwtdt

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nim-lock · 3 years

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Art Career Tips, 2021 Edition

Here’s an edited version of my 2019 answered ask, because... this feels relevant.

It is a problem of capitalism that folks equate their income as a judgement of their value as people; and let me preface. You are worth so much. You have inherent value in this world. Your income is not a judgement on who you are (plenty of billionaires are actively making the world worse). LARPing self-confidence will go a long way to helping you get paid more for your work, because clients will believe that you know what you are doing, and are a professional.

& real quick—my own background is that I’ve been living off my art since 2018. I went to art school (Pratt Institute). I work in a publishing/educational materials sphere, and a quarter of my income is my shop. Not all of this information may apply to you, so it is up to you to look through everything with a critical eye, and spot pick what is relevant.

So there are multiple ways of getting income as an artist;

Working freelance or full-time on projects

Selling your stuff on a shop

Licensing (charging other companies to use your designs)

This post primarily covers the freelance part; if you’re interested in the other bits there is absolutely info out there on the internet.

IF you are just starting (skip to next section if not applicable) dream big, draw often (practice helps you get better/more efficient), do your best to take "a bad piece” lightly. You’re gonna RNG this shit. At some point your rate of “good” works will get higher. Watch tutorial videos & read books. A base understanding of “the rules”; anatomy, perspective, composition, color helps you know what the rules are to break them. This adds sophistication to your work. One way you can learn this stuff is by doing “studies”—you’re picking apart things from life, or things other people have done, to see what works, and how it works.

Trying to turn your interests into a viable career means that you are now a SMALL BUSINESS; it really helps to learn some basic marketing, graphic design, figure out how to write polite customer service emails; etc. You can learn some of this by looking it up, or taking skillshare (not sponsored) classes by qualified folks. Eventually some people may get agents to take care of this for them—however, I do recommend y’all get a basic understanding of what it takes to do it on your own, just so you can know if your agent is doing a good job.

Making sure your portfolio fits the work you want to get

Here is a beginner portfolio post.

Research the field you’d like to get into. The amount people work, the time commitment, the process of making the thing, the companies & people who work for them.

Create work that could fit in to the industry you’re breaking into. For example, if you want to do book cover illustration, you draw a bunch of mockup book covers, that can either be stuff you make up, or redesigns of existing books. If you’re not 100% sure what sort of work is needed for the industry, loop back into the portfolios of artists in a similar line of work as whatever you’re interested in, and analyze the things they have in common. If something looks to be a common project (like a sequence of action images for storyboard artists), then it’s probably something useful for the job.

CLIENTS HIRE BASED ON HOW WELL THEY THINK YOUR WORK FITS WHAT THEY WANT. If they’re hiring for picture books, they’re gonna want to see picture book art in your portfolio, otherwise they may not want to risk hiring you. Doesn’t have to be 100% the project, but stuff similar enough. If you aren’t hired, it doesn’t mean your work is bad, it just wasn’t the right fit for that specific client.

If you have many interests, make a different section of your portfolio for each!

Making sure you’re relevant

Have a social media that’s a little more public-facing, and follow people in the career field you’re interested in. Fellow artists, art directors, editors, social media managers; whoever. Post on your own schedule.

Interact with their posts every so often, in a non-creepy way.

If you’ve made any contacts, great! Email these artists, art directors, editors, former professors, etc occasional updates on your work to stay in touch AND make sure that they think about you every so often.

Show up to general art events every once in a while! If you keep showing up to ones in your area (when... not dying from a sneeze is a thing), folks will eventually start to remember you.

Industry events & conferences can be pricey, so attend/save up for what makes sense for you. Industry meetups are important for networking in person! In addition to meeting people with hiring power, you also connect with your peers in the community. Always bring a portfolio & hand out business cards like candy.

Active job hunting

Apply to job postings online.

If interested in working with specific people at specific companies, you could send an email “I’d love to work with you, here’s my portfolio/relevant experience”, even if they aren’t actively looking for new hires. Be concise, and include a link to your work AND attached images so the person reading the email can get a quick preview before clicking for more.

Twitter job postings can be pretty underpaid! Get a copy of the Graphic Artists’ Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines to know your rate. I once had a twitter post job listing email me back saying that other illustrators were charging less, and I quote, “primarily because they’re less experienced and looking for their first commission”. This was not okay! For reference, this was a 64-illustration book. The industry rate of a children’s book (~36 pages) is $10k+, and this company’s budget was apparently $1k. For all of it.

Congrats you got a job! Now what?

Ask for like, 10% more than they initially offer and see if they say yes. If they do, great! If not, and the price is still OK, great! Often company budgets are slightly higher than they first tell you, and if you get this extra secret money, all the better for you.

Make sure you sign a contract and the terms aren’t terrible (re: GO GET THE Graphic Artists’ Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines)

Be pleasant and easy to work with (Think ‘do no harm but take no shit’)

Communicate with them as much as needed! If something’s going to be late, tell them as soon as you know so they aren’t left wondering or worse, reaching out to ask what’s up.

And if all goes well, they’ll contact you about more jobs down the line, or refer you to other folks who may need an artist, etc.

Quick note about online shops/licensing and why they’re so good

It’s work that you do once, that you continuously make money off of. Different products do well in different situations (conventions vs. online, and then further, based on how you market/the specific groups you are marketing to), so products that may not do well initially may get a surge later on.

Start with things that have low minimum order quantity and are relatively cheap to produce, like prints and stickers.

If you are not breaking even, go back to some of the earlier portions of this and think about how you could tweak things as a small business. Ease of access is also very important with this; for example, if you only take orders through direct messages, that immediately shuts off all customers who don’t like talking to strangers.

Quick resource that you could look through; it’s the spreadsheet of project organizing that I made a while back

Licensing is when people pay you for the right to use your work on stuff they need to make, like textbooks or greeting cards. This is generally work you’ve already made that they are paying the right to use for a specified time or limited run of products. This is great because you’ve already done the work. I am not the expert on this. Go find someone else’s info.

“I am not physically capable of working much”/ “I need to pay the bills”

Guess who got a hand injury Sept 2020 that messed me up that entire month! I had a couple jobs going at the time that I was terrified of losing, but they were quite understanding when I told them I needed to heal. So: Express your needs as early as you know you need them. Also do lots of stretches and rest your hands whenever you feel anything off; this will save your health later. Like, the potential of a couple months of no income was preferable over losing use of my hands for the rest of my life.

This continues to apply if you have any other life situation. Ask for extra time. Ask for clarification. If you tell people ahead of time, folks are often quite understanding. Know how much you are capable of working and do your best not to overdo it. (I am.. bad at this)

Do what MAKES SENSE for your situation. If doing art currently earns you less money than organizing spreadsheets, then do that for now, and whenever you have the energy, break down some of the tips above into actionable tiny chunks, and slowly work at em.

The original ask I got in 2019 mentioned ‘knowing you’re not good enough yet’. Most artists experience imposter syndrome & self-doubt—the important thing is to do your best, and if anything, attempt to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man. If he can apply to this job/charge hella money for Not Much, then so can you!

Check out this Art Director tumblr for more advice!

Danichuatico’s Literary Agent guide

Kikidoodle’s Shop Shipping Tutorial

Best of luck!

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Once again disclaimer this post is just the ramblings of a man procrastinating on other things that need to be done. I’ve Long Posted my own post so that it turns into mush in my brain if I try to read it, but I wrote this so I should know this content. If you got down here, congrats. Here’s a shrimp drawing.

Yee Ha.

My reference post tag My tip jar

#reference #artist information #UHHHHH I don't know man

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