#and they’re all likes from other spam bots | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sofasoap · 8 months

Note

I would like to apologize for the spam liking but I couldn’t help myself. Once I started reading the Lastochka series, I couldn’t stop until I read everything! I think that you single-handedly made me fall in love with Nikolai and I thank you for it!!

Like playing with Russian roulette, even Lady Fortuna's luck runs out.

This is hands down one of the best lines I’ve ever read anywhere! I was literally frothing at the mouth after reading it!

Nikolai screaming “SHE IS MY WIFE!!” will forever be seared into my brain.

"My brother in law."

"I am not your fucken brother in law."

"Yes you are."

"I didn't agree for you to be in my family. grabbing the glass of vodka Sergio offered to him, he sniffed it before taking a sip. " Steaming Jesus, this is some strong stuff.?

"Best Russian Vodka you can get out there".

"Hm. still a bit short compared to the best Scotch whisky." Soap remarked.

Awww, they’re bonding!!

"I am sure my Russian charm will win them over very quickly." Nikolai laughed.You rolled your eyes, his optimism and ego never cease to amaze you.

His charm will win me over any day.

The crack fics literally made me fall over laughing! Like she was more worried about her floors than marrying him. And the “don’t worry, I’m from Russia” taxi meme had me struggling to breathe. 😂😂😂

Also his nicknames for her…..if anyone calls me those I will marry them on the spot!!!

Your Russian was pretty spot on, coming from someone who is part Russian, so you have nothing to worry about on that end! Side note off of that: Anya is also one of my nicknames so it was fun to see it pop up in your story!

I cannot wait for the rest of your Lastochka-Raging Waves series and more Nikolai stuff from you!! Thank you so much for introducing me to this!!! 💕💕💕

First of all… let me give you a hug *hug hug hug* spam reads are always welcome here on this blog ( unless you are a bot lol )

Second.. * deep breath in *

@siilvan @nrdmssgs @gamergirlbones @roosterr @homicidal-slvt we have another victim for the club!!!

Welcome to Nikolai club, or we have another sub-branch, Slavic man club. * handing out brochures * here you will find Nikolai, Makarov, Yuri, and my secret love, Sobieslaw "Gromsko" Kościuszko

I am so happy I have another tick of approval from another Russian speaking person!!

Oh Nik and Soap has this love hate relationship with each other. Poor Mini is the one to keep the equilibrium, keeping the Russian Bear and Scottish Unicorn in check.

As for crack fics… dont ask me what I have in my brain as well when i started it lol. I have a lot of fun throwing crack ideas in, i just want to share my wacky ideas with you peeps out there 😝

Seriously when I started this series I didnt even think too much of it, until middle of it I started to notice there’s other Nik lovers out there slowly crawling out. And to you guys, thank you so much for the support!

Ill try my hardest to make Raging waves a decent series, even if it burns my brain and souls out…,

And again, thank you so much, you have no idea how happy I was waking up to this ask *hug again *

#ask and answer #asks #call of duty #nikolai cod #lastochka series #sofasoap writes #thank you so much

41 notes · View notes

pebiejeebies · 4 months

Text

And the moment you’ve all been waiting for. A CABLOON SCREENSHOT COLLECTION!

(Okay but seriously, even if you don’t like this ship, give me a chance, PLEASE— There’s so much things I didn’t expect from them both and.. just.. trust me <3)/gen /srs /nf

Now, if you’re easily overwhelmed by spamming letters or long paragraphs, this is a BIG WARNING!! Ilysm btw/p /p <3

Please don’t attack/harass me or anyone that likes this ship, if you like nickloon or any other ship with balloon, don’t hurt others for it.

Now. Let’s begin. A cabloon rarepair analysis, made by me, for my hyper fixated self and @saltythesaltshakerfrfr (Cause ur a cabloonie too!! :D)

First time they see each other/stand beside each other

E7! At exactly… *looks at video* 2:57!

The new pinkers!!

How ironic? Cabby and Balloon look concerningly at the silly spoon! Pretty cute if I do say so myself <3

And let’s not mention that they’re standing beside each other <33

and WOAH! The final three first meeting in the same team?! Pretty cool if I do say so myself.

“Uhhh.. mile high pie..?” — Clover

LOOK LOOK!! THEY BOTH HAVE A CONCERNED LOOK! THE SAME EYEBROW AND REACTION WHEN THEY WERE SHOCKED!! AAAAHHHH MY BELOVEDS <33

ARMS RAISED, AND CONCERNED LOOK!! WOOWJAJJSJHEHH

(It’s close enough in my eyes okay? Plus,, they all have completely different reactions, and they were the closest <33)

also yinyang and goo my beloveds omfg <33

Wait, I didn’t mention that I’d screenshot EVERY SINGLE TIME THEYRE BESIDE EACH OTHER? oh I’m DESPERATE. (Sigh, past me, thinking that these two wouldn’t have that much between them.. hmm)

Call me ridiculous but these two are my babies <33 and I’ll capture every single moment they walk, talk, and laugh with each other <3

(At least enough to please my stupid hyper fixation on them)

JUST. LOOK AT THEIR REACTION WHEN THEY SEE SILVER SPOON, LITERALLY A COPY AND PASTE

SHARING THE SAME HATE TOWARDS SILVER SPOON, AAAANND HAVING THE SAME FACE AGAIN?! SOULMATES SOULMATES SOULMATESSSSS!!! YOU CANT PROVE ME WRONG!!

Don’t forget to mention their first face to face interaction, and OF COURSE it had to be the flower incident 😭‼️‼️

You say you’re angry Cabby, but why do I see you beside him so much..?/vpos

They love each other guys, you just don’t understand

You guys just don’t see it yet, it will start showing up with patience. Wait for it.

No.. this.. ugh, GIVE ME A CHANCE I PROMISE!!

(Man I hate this episode so much,, my heart still aches from cabby’s reaction to this.. I feel ya girlie, been there, done that..)

IM NOT DELUSIONAL!! HE WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY ONE WHO STOOD UP FOR HER!! IM NORMAL GUYS AAAAHH!!

Test Tube you’re so frustrating this episode but I’m happy you’re changed

Look at him :( he feels so bad for her 😭‼️‼️

Haha taking a small break to see how much Me and Cabby act, and me reading people by their flaws was always the reason I missed out on so many friendships, and seeing Cabby struggle and get tips from Test Tube was really heartwarming to me (Do keep in mind, I literally kin Cabby)

And woah woah woah! Found out that Test Tube could be mouth wash! E10! At 18:00 <3

Alrighty let’s get back on track! (Ironic, past me, watching a whole episode with no interaction between them was actually unbearable)

Okay I’m desperate again,, does this count as anything? Not much, but seeing the final four together is pretty cool (E12)

SOULMATES!! I TELL YOU!! THATS THE.. 3RD TIME! THEY STILL HAVE THE SAME FACE!! THEYRE SOULMATES! ITS OFFICIAL!! (Oops, didn’t notice bot in this when I wrote this 😞 do I still count it..? Eh—)

(Part 2 here)

11 notes · View notes

captain-cathers · 1 year

Text

What’s happening to Reddit, and why should I care?

TL;DR: An unreasonable API price increase is going to kill third-party Reddit apps, destroying important moderator and accessibility tools. Many popular apps have announced they're shutting down on June 30. The admins/site leadership aren't backing down. Most of Reddit is going private on June 12-14 in protest.

Unreasonably dense explanation under the cut:

What is Reddit?

Reddit is a social news aggregation site that is made up of millions of individual boards/forums, called “subreddits.”

Each of these subreddits has a topic (baking, Borderlands, hentai, pictures of cats wearing hats, etc.) and users can submit related posts to these subreddits (images, text, videos, links, etc.).

Every subreddit is moderated by a team of unpaid volunteers, and can have anywhere from 10 to 10,000,000+ members.

The current CEO of Reddit is Steve Huffman, or spez. He was one of the original co-founders in 2005, left in 2009, and returned to Reddit in 2015 following the Ellen Pao fiasco. (TL;DR: she was the scapegoat for several unpopular changes made to Reddit and site policy.)

What’s going on?

Reddit announced that they are going to start charging money for their API, when API access had previously been free, à la Twitter. Also like Twitter, they’re charging an exorbitant amount for it, which will essentially drive all of the third-party apps and tools using it out of business.

Reddit did not have an official app for a long time, but it did have a free API, which allowed developers to access Reddit data and posts and make their own Reddit apps. Several of these third-party apps became extremely popular. (AlienBlue was the most popular iPhone Reddit client, before it was bought by Reddit in 2014 and then shut down and replaced with the official Reddit app in 2016.) To this day, millions of Reddit users use these third-party apps, accessibility tools, and moderation suites that rely on the Reddit API.

What’s an API?

An API (Application Programming Interface) is essentially a toolkit that allows different apps and websites to interact with each other. A third-party Reddit App, for example, uses Reddit’s API to allow its users to view subreddits, post comments, upvote posts, etc. For a non-technical explanation, see this comment.

The bullshit that’s happening (in no particular order)

The new API prices were announced on May 31 and are going to take effect on July 1. That gives developers 30 days to figure out what they’re going to do with their apps – nowhere near enough time to rework an entire monetization scheme and get it approved. In addition, the new API prices are completely outrageous. Everyone clowned on Twitter for setting an absurdly-high price for their API, and then Reddit went and did the exact same thing. (Keep in mind these third-party app dev teams are extremely small – Apollo, which has millions of users, is developed by one person.)

Blind people cannot use Reddit without third-party apps. (Reddit is claiming they’re going to make an exception for accessibility tools, but there has been no communication on how they define accessibility-focused apps or how they would get approved.)

Moderators cannot effectively moderate their subreddits without third-party apps. All subreddits are managed by an unpaid, volunteer mod team, who keep posts on-topic and fight spam and abuse. Many of the tools and bots they use to keep subreddits running smoothly are at risk with the new API changes, and historical promises from Reddit that new moderation tools are coming have always been fruitless. Many subs are moderated by just one or two people, and this change will be the final nail in the coffin.

The new API blocks NSFW content – while this is a bummer for NSFW content creators/viewers who use third-party apps, more significantly it makes it difficult for moderators to effectively police NSFW content and spam. (This could also point towards a future Tumblr-esque porn ban, but Reddit recently expanded desktop support for NSFW uploads so this is unlikely.)

The CEO of Reddit, Steve Huffman (spez) accused the developer of Apollo of blackmailing/extorting Reddit. Good thing the Apollo dev recorded the phone call and revealed that spez was lying. (Fun fact: spez was caught editing users’ comments without their knowledge back in 2016.)

Reddit claims these changes aren’t intended to kill competing apps, but they’re also testing turning off the mobile website and directing users to their app instead. It seems like Reddit’s moving towards the official app being the only way to access Reddit on mobile.

Reddit’s trying to go public and is laying off about 5% of their workforce.

Reddit admins are inviting users to newly-created German-language subreddits full of badly-translated content stolen from English subs for… some reason? (Maybe to make their site look like it has more of a global presence ahead of a potential IPO? Or to replace old and established non-English-language subs with new ones and new mods?)

Spez is hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) tomorrow, June 9 (but no time is listed in the post…)

Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync (among others) have all announced that they will be shutting down their apps on June 30th.

(Fun side note, Apollo was actually namedropped and shown multiple times by Apple at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this past week.)

To protest the impending API pricing changes, hundreds of subreddits are taking their subs private from June 12-14 (some indefinitely). Reddit has said they’re “open to postponing the API timeline to launch mod tooling, if [mods] agree to keep their subreddits open.” The mods aren't backing down, and as of 6/8 the protest is going forward as planned.

Why should I care?

Reddit is a mixed bag of a website, only as good as its individual subreddits. On one hand, the site is a breeding ground for hate, amplifying movements like Gamergate and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. On the other hand, Reddit is home to countless communities, works of art, hobbies, support groups, and political movements that provide both knowledge and support that can’t be found elsewhere. There’s a reason why searching anything + “reddit” is an effective search query – Reddit’s one of the few indexed and searchable places left on the Internet that hasn’t been completely enshittified yet – a place where you can get a question answered by real people.

The Internet is increasingly driving toward individual walled gardens, where genuine connection and information is harder and harder to find. (Remember when all the wikis got eaten by Fandom? Or how every website destroyed the chronological feed and added stories to become the same? Or just everything about Twitter?)

Anyway, there’s no call to action here, just general despair. At the very least, we’ll be eating well on Reddit drama for the next couple weeks.

#reddit #news #current events #internet #twitter #psa #long post #please for the love of god if i got something wrong tell me and i'll fix it asap #reddit blackout

26 notes · View notes

lavendershowcase · 2 years

Text

NEW: The Lavender Showcase

The Lavender Showcase is a blog dedicated to reblogging and cataloging original works of LGBT writers on Tumblr.

The blog was created as a way for people to easily find queer and trans writers--especially if they prefer to stay out of tags that may contain spam, bots, and/or discourse. It was also created to help writers get visibility if tagging their writing with popular tags like #queer or #lgbt makes them a target for weird spam messages and bots.

This blog does not post works for people or accept submissions but essentially functions as a library. When a writer wishes to be reblogged, they can simply @ this blog or send in a DM and it will be reblogged. The Lavender Showcase uses simple but consistent tags to catalog reblogged stories, making finding new works easy!

The primary goal for this blog is to try to help LGBT writers connect with each other and with readers.

How do I get reblogged, exactly?

All that is really asked is that the OP of the story tag this blog @lavendershowcase somewhere in a post containing their story or in a post with a link to their story (if you cross-post stories from other websites like Tapas or Wattpad or AO3) or send the post through a DM! Anything will be reblogged regardless of genre, rating, etc.

Please do not send in ask messages with your story links. Asks do not always send if they include links.

There is more information on how you can help make cataloging easier, if you wish to do an extra step or two or if you have specific requests for how you’d like the story tagged. You can find that information on the “How to get Featured” page linked here.

You can also find more info on the FAQ page linked here. And if you have any other questions, you can always send an ask!

What if I want to find a story about character who is bi or a what if I’m really craving a fake dating story?

There is a handy-dandy tags page! Using the tag page can have two functions. The first being that each link will take you directly to that tag. The second is knowing what is currently on the blog.

You can search multiple tags on the blog’s search function. So, if you see that there is a tag for bisexual characters and a tag for pirates, and you want to know if there are bi pirate stories, you can manually search both of those tags in the search bar as “#bi charactes, #pirates”

What are future plans for this blog?

Hopefully, someday, there will be writing and reading events. These could be writing weeks where the blog posts themed prompts or ask events where readers are encouraged to share their favorite LGBT authors/books/stories.

One of the main, future goals of this blog is to create a directory of LGBT indie writers. It would be a simple list or spreadsheet for anyone to look at. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, and I will be communicating future plans as they’re made, but it is a major goal for this blog.

It would also be nice if there could be resources compiled for LGBT writers such as lit magazines, advice columns, etc. But those would be very far off into the future.

How can you support this blog? Follow and interact and reblog this post! If you have any writer friends, let them know about this blog. If you’re looking to read more indie stuff, give us a follow! It really means so much.

I know what some of you are thinking. Blogs like this come and go. Tumblr isn’t an active place anymore. I’m aware of all of this. But I really do want to try to make this a sustainable project. I’ve been on Tumblr for 10 years. I’m a librarian. I know my way around this place and around catalogs.

I’ve thought about a blog like this for years now. I have a lot of faith of what can become of it. But if it never gets more than 50 followers, if it never takes off and fails, then so be it. At least I gave it a try.

#writeblr #writblr #writing community #writing #queer writers

119 notes · View notes

fire-rose · 1 year

Text

Give it up for round four of spam/p0rn bot invasion. They’re coming in waves again. Made even less fun when already in an art burnout.

Friendly reminder

To all new users to please change the icon (do not use a real person photo that shows a face even if that is you). Post something that is not just an embedded link or a photo of a person. Please follow the TOS when you post something by tagging it as what it actually is.

A post can be anything from a simple introduction, to a reblog or even or own art/photography. If you don’t want to post or change your icon and don’t want to be mistaken for a bot, then at least put down, in the description of your blog, that you’re a real person who wants to lurk. Or write the name of a side blog where you do post if you have one. Something to indicate being a human.

Also a friendly reminder that simply liking a post or several does not spread attention like on other sites. That’s what the reblog is for (for the Twitter users, it’s like a retweet. You’re sharing a thing). Bots now leave likes and comments, reblog p0rn and posts from other bots, and even directly message (DM) users, so the above paragraphs are still very important to follow. I know this from personal experience. Bots have been advancing for quite a while.

Genuinely hope all you lovely people have a wonderful day, and please be careful.

#psa #rebloggable

18 notes · View notes

canyouhearthelight · 1 year

Text

The Miys, Ch. 218

Eeep, my buffer of chapters is dwindling, and it’s a bit scary. Kind of like 2022 has been, if we are being honest. Major life goals to get that built back up, at least until the end of the story.

Major spoilers are laced throughout this entire chapter... but not for this story. Cue eerie mystery musiiiiic!

Props go out to @baelpenrose and @werewolf2578 on this chapter. I triple pinky promise to catch up on reader shoutouts next Tuesday. I just need to wade through the army of bots that recently decided to follow me (I even accidentally reported a new follower as spam in the bot-weeding, and genuinely cannot apologize to @thornsilver enough for any trouble that has caused them).

In my office two days later, no amount of blueberry corn muffins could completely lift the solemn mood. I had finally managed to sum up the communication between Charly and the S’crirs, and the summary had been released to the entire population of the Ark midway through Gamma shift. Already, I had received just under three thousand requests to release the full audio, and more were piling in as Alpha shift got under way.

“It isn’t anything new,” Tyche scolded gently to the somber room. “She literally just asked Ix’al and Brol to do exactly what she said in the Council meeting: destroy at least a big chunk of the Eko’mari fleet.”

“By killing them,” Parvati reminded. Her tone wasn’t quite judgemental, but there was a definite undercurrent of nausea.

Tapping the top of my muffin, appetite wholly gone, I nodded. “An explosion big enough to scare off the GeeCee is inevitably going to have some casualties.”

“Innocent casualties, that’s what we’re okay with?” she argued. “I get that they are assholes, but their plan was to play the long game. We’re wily, persistent creatures - we can take the time to out play them.”

Tyche glowered from beneath her brows, biting her lips in the distinct way that told me she was keeping quiet for someone else’s benefit.

Hannah spoke, her voice barely audible. “They were planning to actively suppress our self-development. Did we really have time to find another way? How long would we give them: years? A generation or three? We have evidence in our own history that two generations is enough to cause a century or more of cultural decline. Especially when you have the threat of a definitely-not-hypothetical outside force working against us.”

“They wouldn’t even need to be as overt as they’re being now,” Tyche pointed out. “Change a few facts here or there, just enough to be misleading instead of outright wrong. Misinformation grows faster than any weed, and it’s even harder to get rid of.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Alistair beat me to it. “This is all academic,” he stated loudly.

“There’s nothing academic about it!” Parvati cried. “We’re talking about killing a fleet of living beings who, albeit obnoxious, pose no violent threat to us! We know they are there and what they plan to do, we can take measures to combat it.”

“You say that on the supposition that these beings are innocent,” he responded. A part of my mind took note of how clear but unemotional his statement was. He wasn’t guessing, he knew. “They are not.”

“They aren’t violent - “

“They are military, Miss Fletcher. Enlisted, voluntarily. Councilor Kalloe, along with thousands upon thousands of others on this vessel can confirm that enlisting in a military organization immediately removes your status as ‘innocent’ when it comes to acts of war. Especially among Terrans.”

A loud click accompanied Parvati’s jaw snapping immediately closed. She blinked a couple times before turning towards me. “They’re military? You didn’t include that in the communication.”

“It was a judgment call,” I sighed, forcing myself to sit up straight. “The fact that the Eko’mari fleet is military is public and known information, always has been. We even included it in the first twenty or so communications to the Ark, remember?”

She glanced at Hannah, who nodded.

I continued. “Given every other reason that everyone has to be afraid, angry, and stressed right now, I didn’t think it was a great idea to give anyone the idea that the Eko’mari could possibly attack us at any second. The FAQ that we’re going to put together this week and triple check to confirm we didn’t miss anything will start out with a reminder, including necessary file directories to all those early communications.”

She nodded, clearly still objecting but accepting that her arguments had been addressed.

That meant it was Alistair’s turn. “The funny thing is,” I drew out questioningly, “You just repeated nearly verbatim what Ix’al said, Alistair. I can believe that you remembered that the Eko’mari are military. I can even believe that you did enough research on them to know that the Eko’mari do not accept conscript soldiers and are therefore volunteer only.” Gently, I tapped the top of my yet-uneaten muffin. “But nothing you say is going to convince me that your thought patterns worked the same way as a twenty-five foot fanged squid who also happens to be a pirate queen.”

Irritatingly, he shrugged in response. “Miss Harper contacted Farro for assurance that she had made the right call. She knew you would support her, no matter what, but also that he would suggest any ideas she had missed. She sent him her recording of the conversation, which he later allowed me to listen to with her permission. Provided I do not speak on it until the official briefing was sent to the Ark, of course.”

UGH, I groaned internally. I couldn’t even be mad at him, since I had done the exact same thing with Conor and Maverick. “Did he at least agree with her recommendation?”

Parvati snorted. “Of course he did. I am certain that Xiomara does as well.”

I held up a finger and raised an eyebrow. “You would be surprised. Arthur’s pragmatic enough to agree with it, but Charly asked him because he thinks strategically. What’s most pragmatic isn’t always the best strategy.”

Alistair nodded towards me. “Thank you, Sophia. As a matter of fact, he did not entirely agree with Miss Harper.”

Parvati and stared at each other while Hannah sputtered. “He what? I would think he would be all for it.”

“Oh, he quite agrees with the no-survivors-no-prisoners approach,” he waved off. “The concern was rather more in regard to the timing of the act.”

Tensions were already high, and Alistair’s tendency to use as many words as possible when he was stressed wasn’t helping matters. I was clenching my teeth to keep from snapping at him, but Parvati clearly had fewer compunctions. “Oh, just spit it out, Alistair! We’re all friends here, even if we don’t agree about this!”

“He advised we should be planetside before the fleet is destroyed,” he glared back at her. “Otherwise it could be interpreted as the same pirate activity that they are citing to justify their request.”

“I mean….” Tyche drew out. “That wouldn’t be wrong.”

“Unfortunately,” I groaned. “Which means Arthur is right, and therefore will be impossible to live with for the next two weeks.”

She rocked her head side to side. “You could take one for the team and break his jaw again?”

Bracelets clattered as Parvati threw her hands in the air. “More violence! People being a nuisance is not justification for violence!”

“One, when I broke his jaw it was an accident. Two, I am sure that Hannah was joking - “

“Mostly,” my sister grumbled.

“THIRDLY!” I raised my voice in vain hope that Parvati hadn’t heard the comment from directly across the table. “Space. Nazis.”

She stood, resting her fingertips gently on the table. “Sophia, I am begging you - I have seen the results of drastic actions like these. I don’t just mean the End, either. I was there for the NorthAm blackout. I lost friends and family when the global economy went offline. And they were caused by the same thing: people who thought they had the right taking drastic action instead of thinking rationally.”

Hannah gasped and covered her mouth. Tyche stood and started pacing as far away as she could get without leaving the room. It was all I could do repeatedly try closing my jaw while I wrapped my mind around what I was hearing. “Parvati, are you comparing us to Nils Andover? The Meltdown Messiah, King of Nothing?”

A hand flew up to rub her temple. “No. And yes. It’s complicated.”

I leaned back in my hair, resisting the urge to cross my arms defensively. “Complicated is what I do. What we - “ I waved at everyone in my office “do.”

She closed her eyes and whispered. Whatever it was elicited another gasp from Hannah, but no one else could tell what it was. Once she glanced around and realized this, she dropped her hand, grit her teeth, and repeated it.

“I was a Queen’s Pawn when I was thirteen.”

What followed was a three second flurry of action. Hannah flung herself back from the table, while Alistair planted himself between me and Parvati. All I could see over his back were the palms of her hands, both of which were held over her head and open. I was confused until I looked over to Tyche.

She held knives in both hands, the left ready to throw.

“Stop it, everyone,” I stated firmly, doing everything in my power not to yell and set my sister off by accident. “Tyche, put the knives up. This room isn’t large enough to need them, and if Parvati hasn’t poisoned me yet, I doubt she’s going to kill me now that we know exactly who the suspect is.”

No one so much as twitched.

“All of you. Sit. The fuck. Down. Before something horrible happens.” Without even waiting for a response, I did exactly what I asked them to do. “Queen’s Pawns turned on Andover, which I’m sure you were about to explain, Vati?”

“Right.” No fear could be heard in her voice, only a very deep exhaustion and shame. “And no one on this ship is anything like Nils Andover the person, thankfully. But killing everyone on those ships to save our own arses is entirely too close to the ideals he created. We’re talking about destroying them with no chance of defending themselves!”

“I would like to remind you that this, in fact, an unarmed medical vessel,” Alistair pointed out. “And I am not sure how you believe the S’crirs is going to destroy those vessels, but I doubt it involves magically creating antimatter in their drives.”

“Right, it’s got to get there somehow, which means the crew of the S’crirs is taking a huge risk on our behalf,” I added. “Which they are doing because they blame themselves for the fact that the Eko’mari have actual grounds to hang around after we land.”

“That’s idiotic.” Hannah shook her head as she carefully took her seat at the table.

“I agree, but I’m also not suicidal enough to argue with someone who could eat me.”

Tyche kept her knives at hand, but at least shifted to a position that wasn’t as immediately threatening. “The way I see it, we are acting in self defense.” When every eye in the roomed turned toward her, she shrugged. “What they plan to do is effectively an act of war. They want to prevent us from developing our own knowledge and technology, potentially using an infohazard campaign. Misinformation causes scarcity, which causes wars.”

“Alistair?” I asked for confirmation.

“She is quite correct, unfortunately. Scarcity does not bring out the best in humanity, despite what some would try to have us believe.”

He had shifted just enough that I could see Parvati’s face, and the emotional journey it was going through at that moment told me she was rapidly changing her stance. Patiently, I waited her out. “It’s the rich and the Baconists all over again, isn’t it?”

“Possibly,” Alistair confirmed. “Only instead of glittering starships, the ‘haves’ have food, or water.”

I still wanted to reassure her, even though there was only so much I could say. “You don’t have to like it. Hell, I hate the idea. I just go to sleep at night reminding myself that there are no good options, only even worse ones. I’m sure Xiomara knows better than I ever will how to handle that.”

She lifted a shaking hand to her face, shaking her head. “I - I need to take the day. Maybe two. This is… It’s all too much. I feel like it’s happening all over again - “

“Vati,” Hannah murmured, reaching a hand across the table.

“No!” she cried, jerking away. “For the second time in my life, I am listening to my friends talk about sabotaging the FTL drives of over a dozen ships and killing everyone on board. You don’t - none of you know what that’s like! And I’m begging, again, that my friends don’t do this. That you find another way. And now I am realizing that there isn’t - I can’t.”

Before we could say anything, she turned and fled from the room, hand over her mouth to prevent any other sound from coming out.

<<Prev Masterlist Next>>

#the miys #found family #humans are weird #tw: violence #tw: trauma #humans are space orcs #haw #original science fiction #original fiction #my writing

28 notes · View notes

ravencincaide · 2 months

Note

hi, i don’t normally comment on things like this— kind of nervous it’ll make you uncomfy but i hope you know how genuinely phenomenal your writing is. i read the anon ask that was like “where are the fics” and like i recognize it’s cause they’re excited to read what you want but some part of me is sad when people treat writers like that. idk… i don’t want to step on any boundaries, i don’t know you as a person, i have no right to decide what’s hurtful for you. i just hope you don’t feel pressured into writing anything, i would hate to witness someone’s hobby become more of a job. once again, i don't know you personally so i could be blowing things out of proportion 😭😭

Hey Anon! Goodness you're so sweet and I would just love to give you a hug and say thank you so much and just show you how appreciated your words are. Honestly you remind me of the old fanfic community and its a breath of fresh air! You did not make me uncomfortable or cross any boundaries what-so-ever (if anything I think you've read me and my self-estreem issues very well haha XD)! That being said I think, unfortunately, that's kinda the way fanfic community is at the moment; not only on tumblr but on other bigger sites (FF.net, AO3..). Fics are taken, translated, read aloud, unique writers styles, prompts and expressions shamelessly copied. There's also a demand from writers to share, produce, provide, be efficient, have a schedule, take requests etc etc while they get threatened with AI, hate, insults, trolls, demands, being reported, get buried/not have any engagement at all and I could go on. Fact of the matter is, there's very little wiggle room as a writer for what you can do 'back' so to speak. Sure you can create a DNI. Or more precisely a " All fics are unique works by ©ravencincaide 2024. Do not copy/repost/translate or spread my work(s) without my explicit permission. If you see any of my work(s) reposted/copied anywhere else without my consent, please inform me! " text to every fic- but does anyone listen? Not really. Sometimes it's still nice to see it though so I'm definitely starting with that even if it is essentiella pointless. You can spend valuable time on playing 'monitor police' on all those who take your work for granted and manually block spam-like, monitoring age/minors & bot-like blogs etc etc while repeatedly reminding about reblogs, comments and such. But ultimately it's not a fun activity; it would entail me blocking basically 90% of my followers. It would also take what little time i have to spare away from writing. And finally, I could just put this blog on hiatus and keep my writing to myself or find a site where I can hide it behind paywalls. Seeing as I write for anime/small fandoms/BSD rather than big fandoms such as Supernatural, Harry Potter etc the chances of doing that and making a name are rather.. well limited to say the least.

So fact of the matter is, independently whether I get hurt or writing becomes a job, if I want my fics out there. And if I want 'Raven Cincaide' to become a penname- a trademark that I could one day use for when I publish an original buyable book, then all the shit that comes with writing- it's just something I have to take with a smile on my face.

Thank you so much for reaching out to me and giving me a small space to vent. <3 Much love Raven

#raven cincaide #raven cincaide asks #writer asks #ask away #asks answered #ask answered #honestly being a writer is an ungrateful task #and I must really hate myself to still keep doing it XD #but hey at least a handful of people enjoy my stuff #and I get a chance to share my thoughts every now and then with an amazing ask!

6 notes · View notes

larcenywrites · 1 year

Note

Tony (young and older) would probably have so much fun and would love seeing you interact with his bots! He loves that you treat them as more than just machines, just like he does. He loves seeing you play with them and whatnot. He always fondly rolls his eyes when he hears you whispering to DUM-E after he's scolded it and threatened to turn him into a coat rack "your daddy is a very silly man, don't worry I won't let him turn you into a coat rack". He absolutely loves seeing you talk to Jarvis and have like full on conversations with him. And of course he'll be asking Jarvis "has she ya know ever complimented me to you?" "does she still think I'm hot and handsome?" "has she ever said anything about marriage to you?" and JARVIS either says something like "I don't think I should answer because it will most definitely go to your head, sir" or he decides to mess with Tony and is like "oh, let me ask her, sir." and says extremely loudly so Tony can hear it "miss, Mr. Stark wants to know if you still find him hot and handsome. Do you?" And you can hear Tony screaming from the lab "SHUT UP JARVIS, I'LL BURN YOUR MOTHERBOARD!!!"

I didn’t wanna spam the tl too much so I was gonna wait until tomorrow to answer more of y’all, but I do love this one! Exploring the idea of all the bots and interacting with them is super cute and fun! But you brought up the “treats them like more than just machines." I have this weird hc that he, or young Tony at least, has sort of affinity for the inanimate things in his environment. Anything from keeping his tools clean to making sure he puts a scrap he doesn't need right back in its original spot. If I could, ya know, get to writing that series, I was gonna touch on it, even! After all, he probably spends more time with with 'em than people. And also touching on that, dum-e was a robotic arm, nothing more nothing less. Until he started developing AI chips and improving on them! And eventually JARVIS too. I think it would be really neat to be around for that development. And while one could argue that he’s simply just building onto better when he’s developing dum-e and U (of whom I don’t know much about other than they’re…the camera that follows and records his progress and stuff?), I like to think he was genuinely giving them life(?) because he saw more in them and wanted to give them more, and, well, they were kinda his only friends so maybe he needed more from them :,)

Kinda Off topic… I wrote a good portion of a fic months ago and gave up on it bc I didn’t know if there’d be interest and I had zig zagged it through so many things and started it over so many times and I just kinda left it alone lol. But! There was a sort of break up- boo hoo whatever! But JARVIS was gonna be a key player in getting them back together. Here are some dialogue exchanges just if you’re curious lol

“Welcome home, Miss (Y/L/N).”

“I see you haven’t wrote that one out yet,”

“I did.”

“But surely you still love him.”

“Who’s asking?”

“I am,” “In fact, I think it’s why you left.”

“JARVIS, you don’t even know what love is,”

“I know enough about it to know that this hurts you as much as it hurts him,” “And I don’t like seeing either of you hurt.” “Perhaps I love the two of you.”

“I don’t mean to pressure you or sound biased, miss (y/l/n),” “but I’m not sure I could stand to watch him break for a third time.” “But I will because I must.”

“I always expect Mr. Stark to be stubborn, but I expect better from you.”

“Don’t patronize me, JARVIS,”

“It’s part of my programming, miss (y/l/n).” “It is Mr. Stark’s preferred tone to convince him with when I need to intervene.”

“So that’s why he never listens to me,”

“He does listen to you,”

#anon #anonymous #answered #larstalks

10 notes · View notes

cottonpuffmouse · 10 months

Text

A Short (Humorous) Essay on the current state of Tumblr, the site’s current owners, and Crab Day from a Tumblr Native. Source: Trust Me Bro.

TLDR: Crab day is a bad idea because it incentivizes staff. Automattic, Tumblr’s owner, can find their own ways to raise funds; paying to stop ads and the store is enough on our part. We should also be organizing more protests against staff. They’re trying to change Tumblr into something it’s not. They’re collecting more of our data. And they’re censoring more issues into an attempt to seem advertiser friendly.

I’ve been here 11 unfortunate years. I’ve seen many many owners come and go. And the user base is usually hostile to their governors. This is how Tumblr has stayed that safe haven Reddit and Twitter users rest in now.

We CANNOT do crab day. I say this as someone who was eager for it.

Site holidays are always fun, seeing people with tons of crabs would be fun!! I wanna buy my internet friends three dollar trinkets to express my love!! But that goes against everything we have always stood for here. This is not a site that repairs the holes of its financial ship.

We. Drill. More.

The sites has made numerous changes the userbase vocally disagrees with. A few being: Adding Tumblr Live, Continued Censorship Surrounding Queer Issues, as well threatening to introduce THE ALGORITHM.

pardon the scare tactic.

They’ve also been neglecting the mobile app(as every iteration of Tumblr’s government does). And We are all STILL suffering from the spam bot plague.

This is unacceptable. It is an attempt to make this site more hospitable to users of other sites like Tiktok and Twitter. And as a consequences, draw in money.

That is not Tumblr.

That is very important because Tumblr is unique in the online ecosystem. It has continued to be a ‘blogging platform’ in a sea of look likes trying to mirror each other. It matters that Tumblr stays unique and even unprofitable to some extent. We’re all learned the consequence of letting Tumblr behave like Tiktok or Twitter means Less Privacy and More Data Collecting. Remember that post that went around about Tumblr Lives’ terms and conditions?

It has stayed moderately the same as it was ten years ago because we held the site hostage. We need to draw the line at paying to get rid of ads and the store.

We cannot have Crab Day.

We must find ways to punch holes in this ship.

We can swim.

They can’t.

#mouse mumbles #tumblr discourse #crab day #um I guess I just had thoughts #no plan of action 😅#but you know how it is!

7 notes · View notes

dragoncxv360 · 2 years

Text

Aight, makin a new pinned post

I'm sorry for the lack of image IDs on most of my art, I just don't really have the spoons to write them most of the time

Any nsfw posts will now go on a sideblog. Suggestive stuff will still go here (with tags of course)

Comissions are open

Here is the commission sheets

(Drawing requests are closed unless I specifically ask for requests)

You can find my art on here under the tags my art or ellery's art

Also also, asks are welcome! I'd love to chat about stuff! Keep it sfw and free of gore tho please (also I usually have anon asks off in case of harrassment so sorry about that for the people who get anxious off anon)

Update 2/7/24, asks are going to be off until further notice because of the fucking spam bots

Any fnafics I post will be on my ao3 (I will list them under the cut) Sadly due to ai bullshit I have locked them to registered users only. (Sunflowers and Stardust is cross posted on ffn but it is the only one I have cross posted for the time being so if you see any of my other stories on there, they were not posted by me and are therefore stolen)

Currently looking into other options for my stickers since I’ve decided I don’t wanna use teespring anymore. You can support me on kofi

Also I have a few poems and stuff posted here under the my writing tag (also under the ellery's writing tag)

Info post on my security sun au

Info post on You're Everything I'm Not

I have my ocs tagged by their name (eg. All my art of Pinky is tagged as Pinky Roth) so it's easier to find other art of them. I also have the tag you're everything I'm not for ocs from that story

Do not repost, trace, or edit my art. Do not repost or edit my writing. This includes translations and dubbing/narrating my art or fics. I especially do not want reposts with all this AI bullshit data scraping.

Please ask before using my art as a pfp or banner or anything like that

(if it was made for you you can use it as a pfp or banner)

Using my art as a phone/tablet/computer wallpaper is totally ok though

Do not fucking feed my art or writing to ai, you will be blocked and blacklisted from my comissions and anything else involving me on sight. This includes using my art, writing, and/or characters in chat ai bots, it's not ok and never will be.

Do not roleplay my ocs or use my character art and/or writing/worldbuilding for your own story or dnd character or campaign.

Also I don't currently feel comfortable with other people writing fics for my aus (or ocs). I know most people are ok with that but I just currently am not quite 100% ok with it

Making fanart of my aus and/or ocs/stories is totally ok, just please keep it sfw and free of heavy gore. I am aware my fics and/or art often includes such topics but I'm not currently comfortable with other people drawing those things for me. If you would like more specific rules for my characters, you can check my artfight

If you are heavily inspired by my story/stories for one of your own fics (by heavily inspired I don't mean stuff like wanting to write a genderfluid Sun too or even wanting to write a fic with a similar plot such as a fic with Sun dying and Moon dealing with the grief of that loss, I mean stuff that copies multiple and very specific aspects of my stories) please send an ask or a dm to me, I'd be happy to discuss what is and isn't comfortable so that we can work something out. Please note though that I may say something is too heavily inspired to be comfortable for me. I'd most likely be happy to help give you pointers on changes you can make so it's comfortable for me though.

Fics are listed in the order they’ve been posted (based on the first chapter for multichapter fics). Please look to ao3 for reference to which au each fic belongs to and what order they’re in (they’re listed in chronological order unless specified otherwise but you don’t need to read them in that order or read all the fics in the series)

Blood and Oil

Explicit

Major character death, graphic depictions of violence

Sun x Moon (past, sort of), Moon x Monty (there are other background ships but these are the main ones)

Incomplete, ongoing

This fic deals with or eventually will deal with: death, murder, grief, ptsd, trauma, nightmares, hallucinations, self harm, dissisociation, and toxic relationships and coping habits. It will also deal with sex and sexual themes, including sexual hallucinations. While this fic will deal with complicated feelings around sex and self worth in relation to sex, it will NOT deal with rape/non con. Please use caution when reading this story

Moon is patrolling one night when he comes across an intruder with more violent intentions. Things go downhill fast and just when he thinks he's going to die and this is the end, Sun sacrifices herself and saves Moon. Now left in a world without his lifelong partner and other half, Moon must figure out how to survive alone.

Good Girl

Explicit

No archive warnings apply

Sun x Moon, Sun x Moon x Monty

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 5,081

Sun accidentally calls Moon a good girl during daycare hours and Moon likes it more than he thought he would

Don't Cry, Firefly

Explicit

No archieve warnings apply

Sun x Moon

Complete, 3/3 chapters

Wordcount: 10,904

He felt his face heat up as he realized what was going on. He was about to walk away to give Sun some privacy when he heard them whimper, "M-Moonlight, I need you."

Moon froze. It wasn't the first time he'd walked in on Sun masturbating, but it was the first time he'd ever heard them say his name during it.

Claws and Teeth

Explicit

No archive warnings apply

Sundrop x Moondrop x Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 4,447

Eclipse couldn't believe how he'd ended up in this position. Everything had started as a normal night with his partners, watching a movie and playing games, and now they were making out with him on the couch and biting him.

Eclipse has a fun night with his partners in a role he doesn't normally take, the sub

Stitch Me Up

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 1,565

After being sent to the hospital for a bad panic attack that resulted in self harm, Nova comforts Eclipse with some soft sex

This fic mentions depression, anxiety, and self harm. Please don’t read it if you are sensitive to those topics

Sunflowers and Stardust

Mature

Graphic depictions of violence

Sun x Moon, other relationships to be added

Incomplete, ongoing

The main fic for my security Sun au

Starting a few months after the virus has been fixed, this fic will explore Sun and Moon's future over the next 11 years, and delve into what the prior 10 years were like for them. There will be lots of shenanigans and lots of self discovery as they grow and heal. The glamrocks, Foxy, and DJ will be in the fic but won't be focused on as much as Sun and Moon. There will also be lots of relationships explored in this fic as most of the characters are poly in some way. I will update the relationship tags as needed.

Any smut will be contained to separate fics so that people who don't like that stuff don't have to read it. However, there are discussions of Moon’s sex repulsion and Sun’s lack thereof, meaning there are vague mentions of how Sun feels. There will not be any explicit sex or masturbation scenes in the fic though, merely discussions of boundaries on these sorts of things.

Making Starlings

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Sundrop x Moondrop x Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 3 chapters

Wordcount: 9,941

Moondrop plans a fun night of movies and sex with their other partners, Nova and Eclipse, for Sundrop, but gets worked up before the movies even begin.

This fic will deal with the begining of pregnancy in later chapters so be aware of that

Why Am I So Hot?

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon x Monty, Sun x Moon

Complete, Chapters 3/3

Wordcount: 6,747

Sun goes into heat and Moon and Monty help him

Chapter 2 is Moon's heat, chapter 3 is Monty's heat

Sometimes Things Start With Love And All We Get Is What's Left Over

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon, Sun and Moon and reader (platonic, not romantic or sexual)

Incomplete, ongoing

Fantasy au where Sun and Moon run an odds and ends shop and meet y/n when they come in looking for lavender. Moon is instantly smitten and Sun teases his partner endlessly about it.

Lune and Moon

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon, Moon x Monty, Moon x Moon

Chapters 2/3

Warning: contains spoilers for the end of Blood and Oil

Completely non canon thing where the two different versions of the security sun au cast meet and both Moons fall for each other

Lune is the Moon from Blood and Oil, she's transitioned and changed her name

Language, Darling

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon, Sun x Moon x Eclipse

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 3,011

Eclipse gets worked up after Sun and Moon tickle it and they end up fucking it

Wreck and Recovery

Explicit

Graphic Depictions of Violence, Rape/Non-Con

Eclipse x Nova (oc), past Eclipse x Monty

Complete, 2 chapters

Wordcount: 4,633

The first chapter does not deal with rape, the second chapter does. Please heed the tags as the second chapter is violent.

A prequel of sorts to the Organic/Recovery au's current fics, explaining Eclipse's past with Monty and initial relationship with Nova

(Also, I shouldn't really have to say this but no I don't condone this shit, and this is likely the only time I'll write it actually happening instead of it being an attempt and being stopped)

Aftermath

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 2,460

I wanted to write a bit more detail about the aftermath of Wreck and Recovery so I wrote this

CW: mentions of past abuse and mentions of past rape

Set 3 or so months after Wreck and Recovery, Eclipse and Nova are working through the complex emotions they're both feeling and trying to talk to each other about new boundaries

And I'll Love You Softly

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Eclipse x Nova (oc) x Sundrop x Moondrop

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 9,148

“Did you wake up like this?” he repeated his question from earlier.

They nodded. “Y-yeah. I was really hot and—ohhh,” they moaned as their clit slid at the perfect angle across his thigh, “a-and really horny,” they finished. “Nngh, just wanna be bred,” they whined, wiggling their hips in circles.

He frowned, brows furrowed in a mix of confusion and concern. “It's almost like you're in—” he cut off, eyes going wide. “Oh…” he said quietly. “I…didn't know that would happen.”

“Th-that what would happen?” they asked, unable to stop the whining building up in their throat at the spike of anxiety and confusion coursing through them.

He bit his lip, blushing and looking away. “Y-you're in heat,” he finally said, cupping their cheek in his hand as he glanced back up at them.

...

Eclipse goes into a pseudo heat

I also have a handful of short stories that I wrote in like 2019 on there

#pinned post #ao3 link #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #ao3 stuff #links #art links #idk #i never know what to tag pinned posts as #taking commisions #comissions #commissions #digital commissions open #old pinned post

41 notes · View notes

miloscat · 1 year

Text

[Review] Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (Wii)

The waggle is what gives a Jedi her power.

I’m looking forward to Jedi Survivor, so I thought I’d knock a few other Star Wars games off my backlog before it releases. Starting with this, the final game based on the Clone Wars animated shows that I haven’t played yet (apart from an old MMO that is long since shut down, a mobile game that I couldn’t find a non-crashing version of, a handful of Flash games, and Disney Infinity... hmm). I’ve previously played Lego Star Wars III on both console and handheld, Republic Heroes on console and DS, plus the other DS game Jedi Alliance. The latter was actually the companion release to Lightsaber Duels, although they’re in totally different genres. This one is a one-on-one fighting game, mostly centred around the no-brainer concept of translating Wii Remote swings to lightsaber strikes. And, it was made by beloved Aussie studio Krome!

The game was in development at the same time as the show, so it’s only able to pull from first season episodes and the movie. The story mode is fairly brief but adapts certain fights that were seen on screen, with framing cutscenes made up of footage along with new narration by Tom Kane’s narrator. All the characters are voiced by their show counterparts in fact, and the graphics match the show’s 3D animation as well, so it’s nice and authentic. I would have liked to see more new content, but there is one unique scenario at least, with the final battle featuring an advanced dual-saber-wielding droid.

The cast plays pretty safe with the main saber-compatible heroes and villains from the show. Mace Windu, Plo Koon, and Kit Fisto are unlockable by engaging with the Challenge mode, but I couldn’t be arsed. The stages are fun with dynamic layouts and events happening, like droids popping out to ineffectually shoot at you, or bits and pieces exploding and such.

It’s really the core gameplay that lets this down, as waving the wiimote and nunchuck around just never translates to a satisfying and deep gameplay experience. There are combos you can do if you can somehow get the correct directional waggles in sequence, and there are technically dodges, force fling powers, and so forth, but in practice I got through the fights by flailing madly and spamming force attacks while hoping the bot player didn’t just block everything.

Let me pull out a few choice tidbits before wrapping up. I was amused by the tutorial, where Anakin is training Ahsoka on the basics; his fully modelled hands appear on screen holding a Wii Remote and nunchuck to demonstrate the controls, which of course establishes that they exist in the Star Wars universe. The characters pepper quips throughout each duel, which are sometimes surprisingly crass insults, and can be pretty silly when a character is versing themself. Finally I recommend inputting cheats to unlock the concept art gallery, as there’s some good work in there; I wouldn’t mind seeing a comic illustrated by the Krome artists in fact!

Lightsaber Duels works in theory and Krome did a decent job filling the game out in certain areas. But relying too much on motion controls is sadly a fundamental flaw to any game design. As part of the Clone Wars project they could have gone further in the game’s content, but it seems this was compromised by the schedule and even supposedly not wanting to spoil the events of then-upcoming episodes! An absurd concern 15 years later. Still, as a fan of the show I enjoyed the character interactions and how well the game fits the show’s style, even if it’s just a bit of waggly fluff.

#star wars #The Clone Wars #star wars the clone wars #star wars the clone wars lightsaber duels #Krome Studios #review #wii

8 notes · View notes

greyias · 1 year

Note

lemme guess, something about ai?

Yes.

Like I get and respect that people don’t like it for various reasons. It is the technological bogeyman of the day, sometimes for extremely valid reasons, some of them less so, but that’s not really my issue here, or what I’m annoyed about. Hate “AI” all you want, your opinion doesn’t negatively impact my life one way or the other.

And like, just so I’m not vagueposting, the TL;DR situation is someone has written a script to leave troll comments on AO3 fics that they’re fic was “flagged as written by ChatGPT” (let’s put a pin in that, I’ll get back to it). I have seen at least one of my friends receive that comment a few days ago. According to this post, this has evolved into them inserting a link to paste your work to check it against some website that can check the level of AI written words vs human written words. While I haven’t personally seen that evolution, I absolutely believe that report because it follows the typical pattern of mass deployed bots both on AO3, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. They’re suggesting to not click on the link and report the comment as spam. Absolutely, you should not click on that link, and you should absolutely report that comment as the spam that it is.

Basic Internet 101: You should never click on sketchy links. Regardless of the device* you’re using. Period. It is playing with fire, for many reasons, including malware, viruses, ransomware, social engineering, identity theft, compromising your social accounts and/or financial data, and a slew of other things that have actual real world consequences

* If you are that curious to where it leads, you need to understand your devices and internet security, and set up a playground in a proper environment that you understand (ie: a virtual machine that doesn’t have any personal information and can be safely isolated from your actual network, etc). I do not understand mechanisms and potentials for failures, so I’ve never done this, as it’s a waste of resources in my opinion about 99% of the time.

No, what I’m taking issue with is them talking about “we shouldn’t click on malicious link from spam comments” because “they might be tricking you into helping train an new AI system”. Because maybe the person reading that statement hates AI and doesn’t want to train a system (and would somehow click this link otherwise). Or maybe it’s the opposite, and they don’t mind, so they would click the link then? The reasons we don’t click sketchy links on the internet isn’t because we all hate “AI” and want it to die, the reason is we don’t want to get malware installed on our machines or possibly our fucking identity stolen.

Accidentally training an AI dataset is not the same level of threat as the actual reason bad actors want you to click on sketchy links. It’s not the reason they send you social engineering e-mails. It’s not the reason they try and infect you with ransomware sometimes used to try and cripple real world infrastructure or systems (that hey, also sometimes leads to bomb threats in real life totally don’t know of this happening in real life noooope 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃). Yes, there’s a lot of ethical concerns and some potential for harm with certain arms of this technology — but your fanfic on AO3 is not on the same level as why we don’t click on sketchy links.

It’s just not.

I mean this in the nicest, kindest possible way, but someone doing this? Doesn’t care about your fanfic. I’m sorry, but no matter the scenario, they just don’t. Even if it is the most beautifully written masterpiece to grace AO3, someone who is writing and deploying a script to write spam comments, and spam comments that involve sketchy links to websites? That is someone who is already engaging in unethical behavior. It’s hitting up any story on AO3, regardless if the story itself was first handwritten on paper and then typed up, or (extremely improbable if you’ve ever even used the system) ChatGPT. So you have a few options of what clicking that link will lead to, and I’ll start with most likely, to least likely.

Most likely: you’re being redirected to a malware ridden website, designed to either capture your personal data or install something on your web browser and/or system.

Less likely, but still more than what’s said on that post: It’s some sort of social engineering scam, although without me knowing the link and going to the website, I can’t see what credentials it would be trying to trick you into passing over.

Even less likely: Someone has set up one of these “AI writing checking websites” (another thing I need to circle back to at the bottom), and is trying to drum up usership and/or are using the AO3 links to try and boost their Google SEO rating (ala the same method as Tumblr porn bots). The usership boost is less likely because they start off by insulting the writer, so if anything, if the website link is to an actual “AI writing checker” deploying a script like this would be for artificially inflating its Google ranking, at the most innocent. However, knowing what we do of people who deploy bots of that nature, then it likely originated from the Dark Web, as quite a few (but not all) of these malicious bot scripts come from. Also extremely sketchy. Circle back to the malware likelihood above.

Potential Maybe: Some very sad person who hangs out at whatever website the 4chan/8chan/etc crowd has migrated to. Has an unreasonable hatred of the typical AO3 user and wants to make them fear a comment in their inbox. Maybe set up a website to troll them to tell them every time they submit a piece of text it returns a result that they’re SUCH a bad writer they look like a chat bot. Seems like a waste of resources and time to me, but what do I know?

The absolute most least likely, because COME ON: Someone would like to train a new AI dataset, but for some reason they want this data either user submitted (again, they can easily capture this data without this step), so therefore it’s opt-in and I guess “ethically” sourced? (Although not really because the initial link you clicked to get there is deployed via a bot with a lie that you didn’t write what you wrote). But let’s roll with this, they for some reason want you to submit this text, rather than just get it on their own. Somehow they’ve buried in the TOS that everything you submit via the website is permission to use to train this AI dataset. And if anyone objects later, well, they just didn’t read the TOS. And they’re going to use it to build some new sparkly dataset, or somehow improve their AI checker. Or make some new writer bot. And it needs this user submitted, opt-in data. Except… uh… here’s the thing: with datasets like these, quality does matter some, but quantity is what builds the more sophisticated systems. So for them to capture enough of this user submitted data, they would need to get enough submitted words numbering at the very least in the millions in order to get enough needed to make this effort worth it. ChatGPT and Bing’s system use, I believe, GPT-4, which I may be misremembering this number in a largely astronomical scale, is at least 4 billion? Or possibly an insanely high number. They literally scanned the entire gd English internet to build those, so. You know.

There’s probably other scenarios I haven’t outlined above, but I don’t really believe any of them would lead to anything positive and sparkly. So no. I’m sorry, but that link is not being used to somehow trick you into submitting your fic to give up your words via some weird scheme to train a laughably bad AI dataset. Like, regardless of your feelings on “AI” (and I do use those air quotes loosely, because it’s not actually AI as we understand, but that’s another tangent and this has already gotten stupid long), it’s at best a further attempt to troll a fic writer, or at worst, something that’s going to infect your system.

So I said I would circle back to two things: ChatGPT, and these websites set up to supposedly “detect AI written text”. Right now, ChatGPT as a phrase is a marketing buzzword. The service itself went viral near the end of 2022/beginning of 2023, so everyone is talking about it. Even my technologically less-inclined colleagues at work are either starry eyed about it, or clutching pearls that somehow it’s going to steal their job (it’s not). AI is a buzzword right now, and it’s one that has a lot of emotion built up around it, both positive and negative. Some people love it, some people hate it, but everyone has an opinion, and a large majority of it is polarized. Scammers, fraudsters, and grifters like to tap into people being irrationally emotional (positive or negative) about things, because it has more potential to bypass your internal voice that makes you stop and think a little and engage in critical thinking. The message as written is intended to kick you into a panic mode, so you will go and prove it wrong. This is grifter 101. And also why it’s always a good idea to be very aware of your hot button issues, and the ways they can be potentially used against you. And why when you get extremely emotional about something online (especially something that makes you scared or angry), you should take a step back before engaging without thinking critically about it.

And finally, these websites that supposedly detect if any given set of text is actually generated by AI. In short: they all suck, and none of the ones I’ve seen actually tested work on any degree where they can be deployed to generate an accurate result. Including the one set up by OpenAI, the company who runs ChatGPT. Several people have run several tests with both generated text and genuinely written human text, and way more than half the time the generated text comes up as written by a human. And then human written text will sometimes gets flagged as generated content. Right now, all they amount to is basically a random number generator. Because either these engines have to be programmed by a human person who has to know what patterns to look for, or be written or augmented by these neural networks (aka what every single thing marketed as “AI” really are, because it has nothing to do with what we understand as intelligence, artificial or otherwise, it’s a type of programming not a being or Skynet or anything other than 1s and 0s that look for and recognize patterns). And either way, they have to know what is positive and negative. If you alter text in anyway, (ironically, by using a rephrasing service also built off neural net/this same technology), it can throw of the system. OpenAI even flirted with the possibility of trying to embed some sort of text watermark in their generations to be able to track it. But again, the moment you rephrase it, that gets broken. So, it’s useless at actually catching anyone doing this a large portion of the time, and not sophisticated enough to deployed at a large scale without causing harm.

But yeah. To circle back to my point. I wanted to reblog the original post in question, because I want to let people know about the potential for people getting these comments and knowing to report them as spam, but also being aware to not click on the links. Sure, I could have reblogged the version with them acting like the bad part was training an AI dataset, and put the ACTUAL reasons we don’t do that in the tags. But sometimes I just get annoyed and stubborn about stupid things (in this case, me reblogging something I don’t find accurate). I think most of us already knew at least the basic strokes of a lot of the above, so I’m probably preaching to the choir.

But seriously, if you want to criticize the technology, please, do so. It is currently a black box filled with potential for both good and harm. But at least do your research to understand why a thing is bad, that way it’s an informed discussion that educates people about the actual harms being perpetrated and how they can be mitigated. Instead of just like, making shit up. Because the more myths and misinformation you create about something (even innocently), the more it can be used against you later in ways that are actively malicious. Because I can guarantee you, some bad actor will eventually recognize how unreasonably angry this subject makes people, and they will find a way to turn that anger against you. Education is your best defense.

#Sorry but this got long #TLDR OBVIOUSLY DON’T CLICK ON SPAMMY LINKS #It leads to bad things #But your fanfic being used in a dataset is not one of them

8 notes · View notes

writtenwolves · 10 months

Text

Gotta hate the AO3 spam comments era.

I rarely get comments from unfamiliar usernames (including spam; I’ve only gotten one as far as I remember) so when I got a comment this morning that was stylized like a scalping AI trying to create a legitimate history, I spent several minutes trying to figure out if the bots were evolving. It did have actual, true details about the fic. Yet they were vague, and (probably) could have been filled in based on the fandom/tags/number of comments. This was from an actual account, though (i don’t know of examples of AO3 bots that aren’t guests, but it’s the whole ‘what if they’re evolving’ thing), which didn’t have any bookmarks, works, or gifts, but did have a profile picture of a character from the fandom, and a creation date from June. Being so new to AO3 explains why they sounded so different from other commenters, so with all that taken together I’m now like 95% sure they are a real person.

Idk, in a world where I routinely have to prove my humanity to robots so I can log into a website, I don’t want neat writing. That person didn’t do anything wrong, but far as commenting goes, it makes me want to leave in typos on purpose and use excessive emoticons.

#adventures in writing #ao3

2 notes · View notes

shadow-says-hello · 2 years

Text

MY MASTERPOST ✏️

🐉 About me! 🐉

Hello there! I’m Shadow!You can read my bio above, this account is pretty self explanatory hehe 😜 I write fics and headcanons, I also like talking about MY singing monsters, so there will be a lot about that here!

Posssible sign off?:

Im thinking of doing a sign off (maybe like a Therian thing), so my sign off is -💕🐉

My Fics:

🐉 There’s not that many now but I’m working on writing more! :) 🐉

☆ Stranger things:

-This SUCKS!

-Hisssssss

-“I’m gonna find you!”

-There would be no retreating from Eddie the tickle monster

☆ Lightyear fics:

-He’s purring, it means he likes it!

☆ Hocus Pocus fics:

-Let’s Work Our Magic

☆ Encanto fics:

-Runaway

☆ Wednesday fics:

-Turn it down

-All lights are off

☆ Msm fics:

-WUB UP THE VOLUME!

-“Where did my staff go?”

-Tickles out of boredom

-Vulnerable Wubbox

-The Mess On Air Island -Part 1

-The Mess On Air Island -Part 2

-Common VS Rare

-That Was Mine

☆ Marvel Fics:

-Is the Hawkeye ticklish?

☆ Lorax Drabble ☆

(Headcanons are not posted here, they’re just let loose and free roamed right now :P. The fics have to be locked up in their cages 😈)

What I do

🐉 I write tickle headcanons,tickle fanfics, I post random stuff Im a Norwegian forest cat Therian and raccoon Therian!

Fandoms:

🐉 So I mainly write for Whatever I’m currently interested in, here’s my fandom list. Also, if you want, you may ask about other fandoms and I’ll tell you if I’m in them and if I can do something for them

-Hazbin hotel

-My singing monsters

-The Lorax

-Wednesday

-Stranger things

-Helluva Boss

-Marvel

(There’s more I can’t remember)

Current Focus (fandom)

🐉I am currently workin on nothing specific, hazbin hotel ig?? But if you want headcanons for another fandom I am in then I’ll do it

Ask Rules:

🐉 SFW ONLY!!!

🐉 please give me a specific prompt, pair and sentence starter!it’ll help a lot! <3

🐉 I’m more into younger characters, not really older people or an older person tickling a younger person (with a huge age difference, if that makes sense)

🐉 if asking for marvel, I only do headcanons and please do the avengers because I just enjoy them (you can request other characters too though I don’t mind actually)

🐉 I also write for any my singing monster characters! Not really the celestials but any monster especially werdos and wubboxes I will write for!

🐉 please only ask for fandoms I am in thanks

🐉 and you only need to ask once I promise I do get your request in my inbox I just might take a bit to get to it

🐉 and please pay attention to if I open or close my inbox. If I’m taking something specific only then request that

DNI:

🐉 I’m just putting it out there, I don’t mind interacting with anyone as long as you’re not racist, homophobic, etc…

🐉 please leave my blog NOW if you want to do something sexual. I don’t mind NSFW bloggers here, as long as you respect these boundaries

🐉 please don’t be creepy. Simple as that. No sexual stuff PLEASE.

🐉 also please don’t spam my inbox and keep bothering me and trying to dm me because then I’m just gonna block you

🐉 like they’re gonna see this but I hate porn bots 😭

🐉 if you’re gonna hate on me think twice and keep your opinions to yourself. Most hate will be deleted or blocked

🐉Requests are closed 🐉

If I ask you to give me a prompt specifically in a post then you can go for it, otherwise no

🐉 (this is for when requests are open): please read my current fandoms list before asking for anything!🐉

(/-3-)/ \(-_-\)

15 notes · View notes