#it's the only device I'm logged into tumblr on

[katy-l-wood]

Delete your Threads account. You know what Meta as a company has done, you know the kind of person Mark Zuckerberg is. You've lived through Gamergate, the elections, covid, the fucking lot of it, and yet you're still willingly making an account on Threads. How can you possibly justify that?

Second ask: Scratch that, I hadn't read your most recent posts. Sorry for being so rude.

Third ask: "Still going to keep an eye on it" For what exactly? For it not to be as bad as it is? For it to get even worse before you decide it is wrong? You know who Mark Zuckerberg is. You know what Facebook is. Be up front: you don't actually care or stand for anything, you're only afraid of losing business. Have some dignity.

So you decided to be rude as fuck, "apologize," and then come back and be more rude?

I was incredibly clear in that post of why I am going to keep an eye on Threads, despite the concerns: Twitter was a valuable source of live news, especially during natural disasters, and Threads is the first potentially viable replacement for that. IDK if you actually follow me, but if you do you'll know I do a lot of work around natural disaster communication. Twitter was invaluable as a communication source during natural disasters. Full stop. It is not up for debate. But hey, if you want a source with more authority than a random tumblr blog, here, have a nice shiny research paper:

Mind you, that was written in 2010 and the importance of Twitter as a communications tool during natural disasters has only increased since then. There is no other tool out there, no other website--news or otherwise, that can provide such granular, specific updates when shit hits the fan as Twitter did. The only better, quicker source of information I have found during natural disasters is listening to actual radio chatter from the departments involved in whatever problem, and that can be very tricky to do if you don't know where to look or have the right equipment. There is no other site where I can go specifically follow so many of my local fire departments, my local emergency services, my local National Weather System stations, and get live pushed updates from them every single time they post.

When Twitter DDOSed itself last week and put a limit on the amount of tweets people could view and forced people to be logged in to view anything at all, the effect was immediate and BAD. People suddenly couldn't view things like missing person alerts, or weather alerts. I had people messaging me because they were trying to check the National Weather System autoalerts for their area on Twitter due to being caught in a sudden storm, but they couldn't get on to check.

Love it or hate it, Twitter had an immense amount of value and it got that value--at least in the case of natural disaster communication--because the stubborn ass government decided it was big enough to be trusted with official lines of information. Very, very few other social media sites have ever had that trust from the government. Look at how they banned TikTok on all government devices. But they DO trust Facebook, and Instagram, and Meta. Which means their chances of trusting Threads and migrating over there when Twitter finally takes its last breath are ASTRONOMICALLY higher than expecting them to go anywhere else.

We can debate the privacy and moral issues of the Metaverse and those involved until the cows come home, but it does not change the fact that if my mountain is on fire I'm gonna get information about where that fire is from wherever the fuck I can. I'm not going to wait around for it to maybe show up in a "live" updates news article from CNN from some reporter half a continent away in New York who doesn't know anything about where I live and gets the roads wrong because they just don't know. I'm going to go to the website full of my neighbors and local firefighters and see what's happening right that second.

Do we need to fix the privacy and moral issues? Yes. But we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater either. Not using Threads or any other Meta product isn't the answer here. Using them with extreme caution and only for very specific needs, for the time being, is. Long term, we need to be focusing on privacy based legislation that would finally put these companies in their place. But until then, again, I'm going to keep following my local fire departments wherever they go.

P.S.: If you're going to keep the shitty attitude, fuck right off and unfollow+block. You're not wanted here.

#Threads #I was honestly going to make this post anyway due to how some people are tagging the original post #So here #I could honestly debate this all day #lol #But I have shit to do today and right now that is breakfast #Natural Disaster Communication #Twitter #Death of Twitter

[idrellegames]

As an IF author that does this with a "this is my job" mindset I find it hard to do other things in my day to day because whenever I pick up my phone I feel like I am at work and I feel like I constantly think about my story.

Do you have any tips or advice on how to separate myself from my work and stop thinking about it 24/7?

Thank you!

Having a clear division between work and regular life is really important. I think it can be a little harder to do if developing an IF isn't your full-time gig. If you're working a job or are in school and you're packing IF development on top of it, then it can get really tricky to balance.

I also think that if you're working on a large, long-term project, it's a good and normal part of the writing process to think a lot about your story. Not all writing is done when you are actively writing. Daydreaming about your characters and your story lets you work out different kinks and make new discoveries.

So, you have a couple of choices here. You can reframe IF as your hobby, the thing you do in your free time for fun. Take away the pressure of thinking about it like work. You can pick away at it when the mood strikes, write on your own terms, and if you stop having fun with it, it's okay to slam on the breaks and put it aside until you're ready to come back to it.

But if you want to continue treating it as work or if it is already is your job, then you need to set some boundaries for yourself. This is going to be different for everyone; what works for me might not necessarily work for you. But here are a few things you can try:

Set a schedule. Try to contain the times when you are actively working on your project to within certain regular hours. Set different times for different parts of your job. For example, I only do social media management (tumblr inbox and notifications, Patreon, email, itch etc) during the first couple hours of my morning and then the rest of my work day is for writing and/or coding. I don't get through everything, but it's okay. It's really important for online creators not to fall into the trap of feeling like they have to answer everyone immediately, otherwise you will not get anything done.

If you manage social media for your IF, have separate accounts for your personal stuff and work stuff. I have two tumblr accounts, one that manages this sideblog and the other for personal fandom things. Logging out of my work account and into my personal one means that I'm not seeing notifications from this blog and I'm not tracking Wayfarer stuff. It really helps me keep work as work and downtime as downtime.

Separate your work and downtime spaces. Sometimes it's just as simple as working in one room and relaxing in another. This can be a bit tricky if you only have one device that you work from. I have a PC so I can't move it around, so if I'm using it to game later I try to change up my space (by getting a different chair or changing something else about my set up) so I have some kind of physical difference to trick my brain into going from "work mode" to "relax mode". Sometimes I have to get out of my office entirely in order to get that sense of separation, otherwise I feel like I am constantly at work.

If you're on your phone a lot and you don't really use it to make your IF or have alternatives for writing, get rid of the apps that put you in a work headspace. I got rid of the tumblr mobile app a couple years ago and it was probably the best decision in terms of actually keeping me out of work mode.

Take time off. Give yourself a weekend. Pursue other hobbies, play other games, write things other than your IF. IFs take a very long time to make, you can't go at it 24/7 or you will burn out.

#coding in twine #interactive fiction #interactive novel #twine #resources #answered

[iambutahumblememe]

Log update: The figurative wall remains vast and thick, despite my attempts presumably going past the halfway point. Nevertheless, there's been a small change, as the infernal device I've opted into using has begun asking me "PLZ WHY". The pixel cat in the corner stares into my eyes, as if seeking an answer. But I cannot provide one, for I have no answer. I do not know why I'm still here. Has is not been enough to earn these badges, to make a furry joke about them and to show that I already broke the machine? Must I break myself too, all for the right to what? Brag? About completing this pointless task? One that not one person dared me to take on?

There's little feeling left in me, apart from the tired ache of my fingers, second only to the one in my soul. I know whether I continue pushing against the immovable object for nothing at all or give up for good, I will never be the same again. Not a chance. Because every second I push that button to boop someone, it's a reminder that the real joke of the day is me, along with those who shared the same mind I did when I made my personal hell. Thinking about throwing hands with others for a laugh, a website wide practical joke. I've long reached the point of swinging at myself above all else, knowing that others will only provide so much on the journey towards "becoming Tumblr". Five hundred boops changes the score none, yet every one is a gut punch that crushes the life out of me.

And I know I can't leave. Because as I'm writing this, I've figured out the answer to why I'm doing this. Shame. Shame in doing all this for nothing at all (as if I wasn't already) and having to live with that for the rest of my life. So I press on. Even this message is only a temporary relief, one that loses its benefits as I remember that time marches on, with or without me.

I must continue now. I cannot lose this pointless achievement or I will have achieved even less and I'm not sure how I'll handle that. This is my burden I've saddled myself with and I will see it through until the end. Even if I end up never making it out again. I have no one to blame but myself. And I shall forever and ever. Godspeed everyone.

Boop.

#April Fools Day #Boop #Boop o Meter

[samijami]

I'm in deep shit and everything i own might be looked through by CPS so i need to log out of my side emails for a bit and shit and omfg why did life do this to me

That night I got high, my friend decided to tell the office 'one of her friends' (who they guessed was me) said a various amount of things in snap messages, which she read most of them out loud and played the audio from that video of my parents arguing

She said she didn't intend for it to go too far, and that she only wanted them to get a gist of what was happening and not guess who it was (just incase they did need to step in or if I actually really badly hurt or killed myself). But they called me in for the counselor, and now CPS is involved since my friend read one of our messages where i said i didn't feel safe in my home

So CPS came to my house today after telling me they would at my school, and now they're coming here AGAIN later to LOOK THROUGH MY ROOM AND EVEN MY DEVICES TO SEE SHIT ON MY SOCIALS AND IF I POSE A DANGER TO MYSELF

they all know i lied to my parents and said that the person who reported me reported a couple other people, and were trying to start drama. Idk if the principal knows all of this but I'm gonna try to lie to him because:

My father called the school to know who called CPS and the principal told him i had a trans bf, and that i said i was in the LGBTQ

THE PRINCIPAL OUTED ME FFS I WAS AVOIDING THIS ALL YEAR

HE HAS NO FUCKING RIGHT TO OUT ME HE HAS NO FUCKING RIGHT

CPS is coming back and idk when, but i have a plan and it's my only hope..it's such a small hope and the chances of it working need a fucking miracle, but if this doesn't work? I will literally kill myself. If CPS doesn't take me away at that point, life would be miserable. My father is convinced that I'm only wanting to attend that vocational school next year because my 'sick girlfriend' is going and I want to be with 'her'. So if he gets in, then my father said that I can't attend it. He literally told me to go and tell my bf to call off attending the vocational school and if he doesn't, then he'd be ruining my dreams of a career

MY FATHER IS GOING TO RUIN MY WHOLE FUCKING FUTURE IF SOME TRANS GUY GETS INTO THE SCHOOL I WANT TO ATTEND AND HES TRYING TO MAKE ME BLAME HIM

TO. HIS. FACE.

But thankfully, my little inkling of hope has appeared and I might be able to cover this all up. But, after all of this, me and my bf will have to hide in public, and I won't be able to be out at school at all.

I'm not going through my plan here, I'm just telling you guys your part. I need this or else my life is on the line. Quite literally, it's fucking scary.

First, I'm logging out of all of my secrets Gmails, and making a new Tumblr account. I need the people who I'm writing stories with to make alt accounts (@oatsynalliums and @technicolor-chocolate) that pretend to be either indiscrete or just blatantly not LGBTQ, and pretend like we've been talking about our stories for a while in our messages

Second, never ever interact with any accounts that might link back to my main, or yours. And try to avoid LGBTQ content so that it won't pop up on my dashboard due to you interacting with it

Three, someone TRUSTWORTHY keep track of my Gmail passwords and write them down to tell me later so that they won't get found on anything I own, so I can log back into them later

Four, someone who's smart and knows a lot about the internet and how sites work, answer me some questions in messages

This is DIRE. I could DIE. I am begging you guys to go alon with this part of the plan, and don't question anything since I am scrambling like crazy to put this whole thing into motion I EVEN INTERRUPTED MY FRIEND IN THE MIDDLE OF HER JOB TO CALL HER ON SNAP AND SHE NEEDED TO GET AN EXCUSE FROM HER MANAGER SO I CAN TALK TO HER CUZ ITS THIS URGENT I COULDNT EVEN WAIT UNTIL SHE WAS OFF OF WORK

PLEASE FUCKING HELP IM BEGGING YOU PLEASE

#tw caps #tw child abuse

[para-dweller]

Privacy is in a terrible situation right now.

Especially on the internet. You know, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter(X), Apple, and even Tumblr all collect information about you to show you scarily accurate advertisements among other things.

Why does this matter?

This isn't about hiding information, it's about protecting information. You wouldn't let me know your entire life, your diary, all your photos and text messages, so why do you let random companies do the same?

Privacy Guides - Why Privacy Matters

So how do you stop this?

You can't. But you can lessen this. So I'm going to show you a non-exhaustive list of what I've used and what I know of that may help your privacy. I would recommend you go to privacyguides.org after if you want a better explanation. I'm just here to show you cool things.

Disclaimer

I am not a library on this sort of information and this is what I choose to use. I may be incorrect and you may have differing opinions. Also, this may be too extreme for everybody. Use what works for you. Again, I would recommend you go to privacyguides.org after you read this for a more in-depth and better explanation.

VPNs

You know what a VPN is. You've seen the sponsorships. VPNs are one of the most popular privacy tools, but know that they are not the only tool that you'd need. This list is evidence of that.

I would recommend Proton VPN, Mullvad, and IVPN for most users, as they provide a far better amount of privacy and features than VPNs such as Nord VPN, Surfshark, and Express VPN. If you really want unlimited devices go with Windscribe.

I personally use Proton VPN due to the fact that I use their other services.

Browsers

You should probably know that Google Chrome is basically spyware at this point. The issue here is, almost all Chromium-based browsers are. These include, Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. The only real exception would be Brave, but they've got leadership issues, which may not be a deal breaker for you.

So what do you use? A Firefox-based browser. This obviously includes Firefox, but most Firefox-based browsers are privacy-focused. The browsers that I recommend are Firefox, Librewolf, the Mullvad Browser, Waterfox, and Brave.

There is also the Tor Browser, but that is a whole 'nother can of worms that I will not go into. All I will say is that if you are in a high-risk environment(such as an oppressive regime) or you need absolutely no one to know that you searched that one thing, you may want to use the browser for anonymity.

I use Firefox as my main browser, with Brave as the browser that I use if something doesn't work on Firefox. I also use Tor if it is a high-risk situation.

Search Engines

Google, Bing, and Yahoo! all log your searches, you need alternatives. This is relatively straight-forward.

I recommend, Qwant, DuckDuckGo, SearXNG, Brave Search, and Startpage. Both Qwant and DuckDuckGo are fairly similar as they both use Bing search results and say that they don't track you. SearXNG is more complex, and I will not go into detail here. If you really want Google search results, use Startpage. And if you don't want your search to rely on Bing or Google, use Brave Search.

I use Qwant, mainly just cause its European.

Passwords

Passwords are the keys to your digital life. And most of the time they're not that great. You know the drill here, make passwords like this- XmaE7PEj2hq9ed$w - but you can't really remember them. For that you need a password manager.

I recommend Bitwarden, Proton Pass, and KeepassXC. Bitwarden and Proton Pass are more convenient, but you are trusting a single entity, reputable ones, but still. KeepassXC isn't as convienent, but you have near full control over what happens to it.

I use Proton Pass, as I use other Proton services.

Email

Email is identity, you almost always use your email in order to register for sites like Tumblr, and sites that aren't anything like Tumblr. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! all use your email inbox in order to gain more information about you for their companies. There are quite a few email providers, but I've only used and recommend two.

I recommend Proton Mail and Tuta Mail. Both are good email providers, although Proton would be better if you use other Proton services, like I do.

I use both Proton Mail and Tuta Mail for separate email addresses.

Aliases

Email Aliases are also very important for private email. Your email is your name, if you want to private, you'd go under pseudonyms. That's what email aliases are.

I recommend and have used Simplelogin and Firefox Relay. Email providers like Proton and Tuta also give you aliases when you pay. I don't know how well these work, but I assume that they work the Same as Simplelogin and Firefox Relay.

I use Simplelogin.

Devices/OSes

Phones

Now let's turn up the extremity to 11 as we look at your devices. Phone-wise, avoid Apple, they say that they care about your privacy, but they don't. Apple is better than Google, but I'd only recommend using an iPhone if you already have one, and it still has support left. If that's the case, then follow privacy guides like this one by Techlore(His channel is also really great for privacy guides). You should probably use a Google Pixel. Sounds weird as it's owned by GOOGLE, one of the companies that we don't want to be tracked by, but if we go with the Pixels we can use custom ROMs.

Most ROMs exist for your privacy, they are based on the Android Open Source Project(AOSP) which means they can run most of your favourite Android apps without messing them up with Google. In order to run most of your apps however, you're going to need some way of running Google Play Services. This is a backbone black-box that Google forces most of your apps to use in order to function. CalyxOS and LineageOS with MicroG both have MicroG, an open source implementation of Google Play Services. GrapheneOS just straight up uses Google Play Services but sandboxes it so that it can't get its tentacles all up in your phone.

I recommend going like this:

You have a modern-ish Google Pixel phone, go with GrapheneOS.

You don't have a Google Pixel, but your phone is still supported by CalyxOS, go with CalyxOS.

Your phone isn't supported by either of these but still is supported by LineageOS with MicroG, go with LineageOS.

Your phone isn't supported by any of these, you can do as much degoogling as you can.

Techlore also has a fantastic guide on Android Privacy.

Desktops/Laptops

Apple isn't actually that bad here, its better than Windows at least. But Linux is KING when it comes to privacy and security. There is definitely a learning curve here. Pin the terminal, you're going to use it a LOT. Also be aware that on Linux you won't have every single app that you're used to. If you don't really want that hassle, just go with Mac.

Linux distros that I recommend(for beginners) are: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, and Elementary OS.

I use Ubuntu as it's the only one that I could get working on my computer.

Other Pieces of Advice

Use an Ad-blocker! Ads are terrible for privacy as companies can get their trackers in completely unrelated sites via their ads. I use and recommend uBlock Origin.

Don't use any personally identifying information online. Don't use your real name, a picture of you, your voice. The less you give to the internet, the more private you are.

Mix and Match! Explore what works for you. You might be okay with changing OSes but you might be a bit too reliant on GMail. That's fine! Just use what works.

Again, please go to privacyguides.org after this. This did not even scratch the surface but I hope this was useful to you in some way.

#original #internet privacy #internet #google #microsoft #facebook #meta #twitter #privacy #search engines #browsers #duckduckgo #linux #adblocking #adblock #vpn #proton #simplelogin #tuta #tutanota #apple #hope this helped!

[coveredinmetaldust]

If you are following me from TikTok:

Yes, my account was banned.

No, I do not know why, because they will not tell me.

It's truly a Kafkaesque situation, and I do mean that in every sense of the word. There was no email, no notification, nothing. I only found out because my girlfriend asked me why she couldn't find my account. When I opened the app, it just said I was banned and did not elaborate--it was just a popup saying the account is banned.

All I know is that it is permanent, and they have taken the nuclear approach of banning my actual phone at the device ID level. (As in, my phone literally can never open the app ever again. Trying to do so will result in a popup covering the screen saying that I'm banned. It will not let me log in, create an account, etc.) They made it clear that they don't want me to ever make another account or use their platform again. But even if I could, I don't know what not to do.

TikTok Support immediately responds to any inquiries with a canned response (most likely from a bot) but refuses to tell me what I actually did beyond "violating community guidelines", which is an unbelievably vague, nebulous, catch-all non-answer. I have read their guidelines, and my only guess is that they viewed my content as "promoting dangerous acts" since I am a silversmith and I use fire to melt/join metal. The same content is on my Instagram if you wanted to see for yourself. But again, that's just a guess--I don't have any way to prove or confirm that suspicion.

I only suspect this because, in the 2.8 years on the platform, I had exactly one minor violation: a video where I melted metal in a very safe/controlled manner that was flagged for "dangerous acts." It was silly, but I didn't fight them on it or try to reupload it. If another video I made had a similar issue, I would expect them to do the same thing--not nuke the account with zero warning. Meanwhile I'm seeing DIY channels that literally tell you to take a lamp cord, tie the two leads to bolts you've attached to a wooden board, plug it into the wall, and then touch a lightbulb to the bolts to make it turn on. I've even seen people complain about getting banned after 15+ violations!

In researching this, it seems like this is not uncommon; TikTok's moderation bots will just nuke your account with zero explanation or recourse. There is also a chance that the account was mass reported by someone who just really didn't like me. I don't know why that would happen; I didn't post any of my unhinged anti-capitalism content there yet. (I am still editing that.) If I entertained that possibility, my only thought is that I used the same handle for TikTok, Tumblr, and Reddit--and of those, Reddit is notable for being a platform where I have gotten some truly vitriolic private messages as a direct result of my leftist views. (Several even made it a point to call me an "SJW" somewhere within their missives.)

It was nice having a 175k follower-count and an audience to watch the educational videos I make, but I guess that's it. It was the one time I ever really had a strong reaction to the things I make/post online. It didn't even last 3 years; it was incredibly fucking stupid of me to ever think that would ever go anywhere.

The thing that probably hurts the most, is that the content mills who steal/reupload my videos and get millions of views without crediting me largely go unpunished. (The thought that they are somehow making money off that content feels gross in a way that's hard to verbalize right now... I have made no money off any of this as I was doing it for fun.)

At some point next week I will be re-uploading the content I posted there to my YouTube channel so it's not lost forever: https://www.youtube.com/@wmvmetalsmithing

At least now this probably means the content creation bots will stop flooding my email asking me to review stuff.

#tiktok #content creation #I dont have any funny tags to add to this right now #kafkaesque

[killerqueenofficial]

I feel like Tumblr is taking away the only social media I could still bear to be on. It fucking sucks and it pains me to see the internet being controlled by corporations that have destroyed all the good things about the internet.

I'm so exhausted and there is really no end in sight, I'm sure in 10 years I'll look back and nostalgically yearn for this era of the internet to return because it just keeps going further and further down the fucking drain. A year ago I genuinely believed that the future of the internet would turn back to the way things used to be, but now I see every site optimize exclusively for mobile devices, where 3/4 of your desktop screen is empty because their website is only designed to work in portrait aspect ratios, i see fewer and fewer people willing to leave the dread inducing giants like twitter and instagram.

Hell, kids 10 years younger than me barely ever use an actual computer (and why would they when they were given tablets as toddlers so their parents wouldn't have to waste what little energy they have from working insane hours just to feed their family) and haven't been taught proper internet safety so now even more laws are going to be enacted to "keep the children safe" all the while destroying the usability of the internet for anyone over the age of 18 who isn't a straight white christian mom or dad.

My heart is breaks every day upon reading or hearing yet another news story about how Google is planning to further shitify the web as a whole... or I log on to what was once my refuge to find that they have taken yet another step towards becoming something they were never meant to or designed to be...

Google is unusable, Youtube's algorithm has quickly become the actual fucking worst for both creators and fans, and they know young people especially have nothing outside of the internet so they'll do whatever the fuck they want because they know we have no where else to go and don't have the social skills, or time, or money, or energy, to make connections in real life spaces. I feel like walls are closing in on me, does anyone else feel it?

#late stage capitalism #tumblr #tumblr wip #tumblr changes #tumblr update #tumblr ui #google #youtube #idk... im just sad i have nothing left in me but disappointment and gut wrenching sadness at what was stolen from us

[sootonthecarpet]

hate how just looking at things online is like an inherently loaded economic and political choice now. do I want to familiarize myself with what the bigots that endanger my country are saying by checking out primary sources? I'm giving them 'clicks', boosting their ratings and potentially encouraging an algorithm to share their content more widely.

if I go to watch them speak on youtube they may make money directly off of this. if I download an ad blocker to get around this, I am taking away money from small time marginalized creators if I watch any of their videos without disabling it. if I want to read a news article that implies people like me are less than human, I have to accept that I am giving them the positive feedback of my engagement JUST by clicking on the link. depending how I am serviced this link (such as through an automated rec feed that came bundled with a default web browser) I run the risk of reinforcing to my personal device that I would like to be served more links from news sites that run stories implying people like me are less than human, rather than that every few months I will grudgingly observe bigotry with the intention of better guarding myself against it in the future.

every decision I make to look at or avoid something on most major websites, especially news, video platforms, and any social media site but tumblr, has to take into account not just "do I want to have seen this" but "do I want to concretely make this thing more popular and/or leave a trail of stored information registering me as somebody who wants to observe this thing?" I'm not on tiktok (I don't even log in to youtube) but the way the algorithm there works, prioritizing content you spend the most time looking at (or perhaps unable to look away from?) rather than content you mark yourself as 'liking', is something right out of one of my paranoid delusions.

the push for a more profitable internet is one of the driving forces behind our online panopticon and I've seen very little discussion about how this like. automatically makes the very basic act of trying to get context on the way bigots who want you dead are drumming up support into an action of direct support for bigots. yes, I know there are adblocks and archived page versions and all kinds of clever little workarounds. but when did we need a workaround to be able to see with our eyes without funding nazis? I could, let's say, walk into a library and pull a copy of mein kampf off the shelf and skim through it where I stood without having at any point provided money, validation, or a 'boost' in publicity to nazis active in my country, and potentially without anyone else becoming aware that I am reading a copy of mein kampf. if I wanna read a fox article because I know they're a wildly popular news network that has been on the cutting edge of american bigotry my whole life? I have validated fox news's siterunners with my pageview, left an enormous digital paper trail, potentially encouraged my device to show me more fox news articles, and potentially provided fox news with ad revenue they can use to more efficiently spread their dangerous lies and half-truths.

faced with meaningful and legitimate calls to de-platform hateful voices on an immediate interpersonal level, and sentiments like 'here are screenshots/wayback links, please don't give them the clicks' as the only pushback against this constant tracking and leveraging of our viewership (to say nothing of how often content creators rely on widespread outrage and hatewatching to gain engagement that their fans alone could never provide, and the subsequent pleas to avoid watching any bigoted content whatsoever lest you fall prey to their outrage marketing), the logical choice in the absence of someone else offering an easy workaround begins to look like self imposed ignorance and isolation; unless we have a great degree of computer literacy, or hacker friends with the same who can handhold us through our entire online presence, we are forced to either resort to knowingly funding bigots (and potentially marking ourselves as one), or to refusing to arm ourselves with knowledge altogether. YEAUGHHH 💢

[elizabethrobertajones]

hmmm tumblr tags are not working like they used to... if you dismiss a suggested post from your phone or another device, they still show up on anything else you log in to and start scrolling, I guess swapping to storing locally rather than centrally somewhere. Likewise, if something's tagged with more than 1 tag you follow, it could be recommended to you more than once, when "dismiss" used to remove it from sight forever no matter how many tags you follow it had.

Not really a HUGE issue but it never used to be that way and I'm used to dealing with suggested posts as and when I see them (dismiss, post/queue or save for later) and having to dismiss the same post 2-4 times is getting a bit hysterical while I'm scrolling 6 browser tabs I opened over the last 2 weeks (after also browsing sporadically on my phone concurrently) so I'm adding in the fact half the tabs have the same suggested post on all of them if you hop through them.

Never mind that I added a half dozen locked tomb tags to my followed tags list after finally finishing Nona.

Going from a max efficiency poster to wading through a swamp, and tumblr has decided to become Worse with impeccable timing.

(People who only follow people and not tags don't need to relate to this, I trawl them so you don't have to :P)

[thistransient]

- I managed to log out of tumblr for a grand 24 hours or so. I wish I could say it made me more productive, but I tend to just look at reddit instead. To my credit I did do some reading before bed in place of scrolling, and actually attempted to work on my CV today... before the program crashed and everything was lost 🙄

- I finally bought a new phone, after my old one had gotten to a truly unendurable level of dysfunction (I told myself I simply could not go to job interviews with such a device, which for the past few months has been held together with tape and good fortune, taking at least five attempts to coax the screen on, refusing to run even two apps at once, and freezing at a rate the polar ice caps would envy...) The only benefit of waiting so long is that the regardless of what model I acquire, I'm always blown away by the most basic functionality, much less whatever technological advances have manifested in the past couple years (I am pleased this thing takes tolerable photos in low(er) light though).

- Today I met up with a new language exchange buddy I met while volunteering for the LGBT nonprofit. She picked a cafe I'd coincidentally been recommended by someone else because they used to host linocut classes (indeed the walls were full of interesting art). The reviews, though, suggested the baristas had an attitude, and thus I was a little apprehensive when the door was affixed with multiple signs proclaiming "Full, do not come in" in Chinese (my acquaintance had already staked out a table inside). I sustained some dubious looks upon entry before hastily explaining I was here to meet someone. I am quite sure the exorbitant price for a tiny sandwich was more of a fee for enjoying the atmosphere (and being graced with the presence of the intimidatingly aloof, attractive staff) than a reflection of the ingredients...

- Of course the one day I didn't bring an umbrella it started pouring as I was on the train, and while in theory I knew there was some sort of underground bookstore near Zhongshan Station, I'd never actually been in there, nor known how far the complex extended- it's huge! I was able to pop out of an exit quite near the café and make a swift dash for it. Later on I decided to go for a walk before getting on at a farther stop, and was treated to the sight of a middle aged man dressed all in black with a long ponytail and the wispiest of pompadours still arising proudly from his scalp mount a ludicrously large cruiser and rev it, the very picture of washed up motorcycle gangster...

- In totally unrelated news, the avocado pit I have been trying to sprout has put forth a root 🎉

- I may try to log out of tumblr more often, but never fear, the queue will go on for months even if I meet an untimely end crossing the road or something (as one does in Taiwan).

#to be fair it was a tolerable sandwich i just expected more of it #i need to go back to the Zhongshan underworld now #this language exchange was actually really fruitful cause i got some proper correction of my terrible tones #she was not afraid to go huh??? what are you trying to say?? at me

[argothiathedreamer]

So now I'm getting the Tumblr error I got on mobile a couple days ago on my desktop.

It logged me out and keeps throwing a 'cannot post /login' error at me.

This has happened twice on different devices with and without extensions turned on.

Basically the only thing I can do is wait it out.

If this is a 'you can use Firefox or you can use Tumblr' issue know that I will pick Firefox. It was here first and I like it more.

Anyhow, I've got access on my phone for now. If ya'll need me.

But until this passes I'll probably just be hanging out on Pillowfort.

#argothia's being weird again

[ultimateinferno]

Hi! Sorry if this is rude but, I saw that you said you use an adblock on your phone. How do you do that?

Thanks!

Sure. First things first, my advice only applies to android, so if you're apple I can't help you much. If you want an adblock for Youtube specifically that is so thorough it can automatically skip sponsor-segments within individual videos: ReVanced is for you. (If you have questions subreddit is here)

Now what I use is Rethink. It's a DNS manager and VPN (I think). It can do a lot of things but in short, it will reveal what's going on under the hood of your phone's internet. Note, because it will be doing a lot of work playing door keeper for your internet, it may slow things down. If you want you can have it ignore certain apps and just let everything through. For example an app that doesn't have ads like Discord. You can turn it off momentarily if it's slowing things down too much or just give Discord permissions to just bypass it.

So. Let's take a look at the home page of Rethink. (below is a decently big wall of text, but i just want to be thorough. I'm willing to elaborate further if asked)

Only thing cropped out is a menu bar along the bottom and the button that turns the app functions on and off.

So top left under apps lets you manage specific Applications and what IPs/Domains they can call.

Top right is universal Rules for domains and IPs phone-wide.

Bottom left DNS lets you pick which DNS you want to use. These can do a lot of heavylifting with website management. It can block a lot of ads already (although it won't catch everything) and even block other websites such as porn should you wish. (I'll explain what a DNS is at the end of the post, but for now, pick one that describes what you want).

Bottom Middle lets you set up firewalls that can be really vigilant on what gets sent to your phone. If you want to fully quarantine the device you totally can.

Bottom right is logs. It lets you see every IP and Domain that communicates with your phone and what app is responsible for it.

So, how do you block ads? Depends. If you want to block ads for a specific app (which is easier) you can do either Logs or Apps. Let's start with Apps.

Here, it shows all apps on your phone, even one's built in and not downloaded by you. You can use the search function and various filters to find what you want. I'll use tumblr for example.

This is what it looks like when you click on the app. Here, it shows every internet domain/IP tumblr has ever contacted in the pass... whenever you used it since you either cleared your logs or downloaded the app and turned it on. Click on a domain and this little page is brought up

You are shown the exact domain and ip the call entails. You can select or deselect Trust or Block. Trust lets the call through no matter what. Block prevents it no matter what. As you can see, you can identify this is an ad domain because it says ad in it. If you don't know if it's an ad you can google look it up and google will tell you if its an ad. As you go through this you'll discover just how many ad services exist. Anyways, I blocked both the domain and the IP. And just scroll through the list given to you and pick and choose.

But what if you keep getting ads phone wide that the DNS nor the pre-existing block list doesn't catch?

Well there's the universal rules. Unfortunately for this app, I don't think there's a quick way to universally block a domain just from the nodes.

This is what it looks like. If you click the little plus button you can add more universal rules to your phone to block (or allow). You can do a specific IP or Domain, or you can wildcard it.

In most computer spaces the character * is the wildcard to be used. if your messing around with funky computer stuff, that is like the universal code for "give me anything and everything." So for these examples, my rules are "block all domains that end with .adsrvr.org or .adsbynimbus.com" These wildcards are important because these domains begin with different things.

Here *.adsbynimbus.com blocks both of these domains.

Of course, you don't need to do this from the outset. My experiences with finicky computer things is that you do as much as you can at the beginning, and then live it with for a certain period of time until it annoys you and you want to make changes, and then you do a little more to clean things up.

To start with, pick an adblock based DNS, and see where the rest of things will take you from there.

*DNS stands for Domain Name Server. It's basically the yellowpages for the internet. Instead of your computer keeping track of every possible Domain to IP combo on the internet, which is absurd, a DNS manages it for you and you only have to remember one IP address. So when you type in something like tumblr.com into your browser, your computer will ask the DNS "give me the IP address for tumblr.com please!" and then the DNS will say "tumblr.com is located here at [32 bit number]" and then your computer will go "Thankyou!" and go to that IP Address.

These DNS that your picking from will look at the domain your computer or phone is asking for and say "Wait a minute! These domains are all ads! I'm not giving this to you!" and send a 403 error to which the app using the ads will go "Oh damn" and move on with its life. This is imperfect because ads are fucking everywhere, but that's the short of it. This isn't getting into other shit like caching. I'm just using this post as an excuse to neglect homework.

#long post #adblock #idk what else to put this #important #???? #i guess

[destinyc1020]

phone addiction is real and normalized and i haaaate it. i feel like so many of us are on some level addicted to screens, and i just absolutely hate the feeling of it. like i love coming on here, seeing content, catching up, but when i'm away too long i honestly get really restless and feel like i 'have' to check to see whats up in the entertainment world. i've been working on this for years, too, trying to figure out ways to just chill and maybe log off of things for a few days, but i struggle to even manage that. what i want is just a nice balance of checking up on fandom stuff casually, not feeling like i need to do it or that i'm missing something if i'm away for a few days. it's baaad!! and then you go out and see people glued to their screens in restaurants, with their kids, in every situation possible. theres so many advantages to phones but i feel like their disadvantages aren't talked about enough. i love how tom has spoken up about stepping back from checking social media, i hope z for her own health does the same sometimes cause whew,cannot imagine being famous and having social media convo being about myself!

Yea girl....I feel you lol.

I think society has kind of normalized this behavior of "Phubbing" in public also. However, if you look back to old movies, or even old photographs, you'll see images or pictures of people casually enjoying one another's company at a restaurant and giving everyone their full attention.

But if you go out to eat in 2023, and look around a crowded restaurant, you're guaranteed to notice at least more than a few people phubbing the ppl they're with at the same table because they're deep into their phones. I've even seen a group of friends (not mine) all at the same table, and EVERY SINGLE ONE of them had their heads bent into their phones.... nobody talking to each other... 😑

I'm like, what's the point in even going out as a group of friends if all you're going to be doing is ignoring each other the entire night? Rofl 😆 🤣

Anyway, I totally agree with what Tom says about giving yourself a BREAK from social media, and just your devices in general!!🥰 That's just wise advice imo. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I know it sounds super crazy, but I guarantee you that if you were to delete all of your social media apps from your phone and stay away from them for two weeks, you will realize that you feel SO MUCH BETTER, and your addiction will subside. 😊

***You are addicted BECAUSE you keep going on these sites lol. If you stay away from them, the less you will be addicted, believe me. 💯

It will be tough, but that's why it's called an ADDICTION. That's classic addiction symptoms if you can't stop doing smthg, or you feel anxious or uneasy when you remove the addiction from your life.

However, it DOES get easier with every passing day that you don't give in to your addiction.

You're only feeding your addiction the more you go on it and can't stay stay away from it for many days.

Just like Tom noticed that he had a problem with alcohol and started to stay away from it, you can find (just like he did) that it gets easier the longer you stay away from it! 😊 The first step however is (as you've already done) recognizing that you have an addiction.

I know for me personally, I stop craving it when I get off of even Tumblr for a few days lol 😆 I highly recommend it. I also think that a lot of fans will STOP feeling so anxious about Tomdaya every two seconds when you're not following their every move every second of the day. 👀🤷🏾‍♀️

I'm telling you, NOT being addicted to your phone is a wonderful thing! 😊

You can even try a "Living in the 90s" Challenge by driving someplace close to home (maybe the grocery store or smthg) and actually *gasp*! leaving your cellphone at HOME!! 😳🤯😲

I'm getting anxiety just even thinking about doing that rofl 🤣, but I've actually contemplated doing that just as a challenge for myself to see if I can actually do it, and not break out in a cold sweat wondering where my phone is, what I'm missing, or whether someone has tried to reach me at some point lol 😅

I think what we will find when/if we do this, however, is that we're way more PRESENT in our lives, we make more conversations with ppl in public, and we will probably notice so many more things in our life when we leave the phone at home, or just leave it in our purse. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[ajcrwl]

my coding adventures

So, I'm making a user and commenting system for my website. From scratch. Because I didn't like any existing comment systems, and most of them couldn't be linked to a customisable user system.

I kinda want to share some cool bits (most of which I have already shared in my discord, so pls join if you're curious, link in bio).

---

i am making all sorts of forms, and they need names for actions associated with them. so, login form's action is called log, registration form is reg. but then i needed a name for "forgot password" and it naturally became fog. now i'm making "change password" form, and it's going to be, that's right, pog. what's next? change display name? dog. change avatar? userpog. change email? dogog? .... wait what ok, so in russian @ sign is called "little dog". potentially this could be sobakog bc (female) dog is "sobaka" (haha i just typoed it as femail).

yeah, or that.

---

an insane amount of tryharding has happened here

i am still testing only on my local machine, but BUT, if all goes well, this means you will be able to login from different devices independently, securely, and will be able to see what other sessions have been saved elsewhere.

profile tab will be for userinfo, kind of like this

but i haven't worked properly on it yet, this is just a bunch of non-editable info.

yes, that is the default avatar style.

---

there is something in the Settings tab

(spoiler: we already had eyes in the server)

later i made the switch look like an actual eye. it does VERY BAD THINGS.

---

I am planning to add a whole reaction system. Kind of like on Discord, or like Tumblr's April Fools thingy. Yes, also written from scratch. And with custom emotes. And emoji.

But for now there is only the heart button. Baby steps! It can be used anonymously. When you login all those likes will be saved in your account. Anons can add only hearts, they can't remove them from the server though, but can clear cookies and add more hearts 😏😎

---

I also started building my art gallery, but I haven't added any new art recently. I will after I roll out the next update for users, so peeps could properly sign up and like stuffs.

---

If you'd like to see more snippets from my coding adventures, pls like this post.

#mine #codeitkarl #software development #coding

[phantomposter1412]

Hi! what are you up to these days? Did you find a new fandom to hyperfixate on?

I'm partially, but not only curious because you haven't updated Red Tinted Night since January, so I was wondering if anything's come up. If you want to talk about anything, feel free to do so! :D

Hi there! To answer your question, I'm still as obsessed with Magic Kaito as ever - I just haven't been able to get on Tumblr or AO3!

There is a slightly more detailed explanation on the newest chapter of Red Tinted Night, but the device I use to log in to my accounts completely crashed. It took a month and a half to resolve, and I ultimately had to get a new device. I just got it working yesterday, and logged into Tumblr for the first time since January.

I'll be working on catching up on everything this month, and I'm excited to see what I missed! I hope to resume posting regularly as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for your kind words! I apologize for the wait, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter of Red Tinted Night! :D

#asks and replies

[dhaaruni]

I can’t remember if you’ve talked about the “pointy vs round” thing on your tumblr or just on your twitter, but I just wanted you to know that I brought it up with some of my extended family while we were discussing astrology and we all spent an entertaining 20min trying to identify where on the pointy-to-round spectrum everybody in the family fell 😊 (also sorry for some reason my browser won’t let me be logged in on mobile, but only for your blog)

I've talked about it everywhere haha.

But that's so sweet, I'm glad it was a bonding device for you guys!!!!

#answered #anonymous #nice things