#not just from the webs but in general but we stick to the onlines for now

[canmom]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, 000-012

Or, what if that mural was the heart of a web serial.

I'm reading The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, thanks largely to the enthusiasm of @azdoine and @lukore on my dash over the last few months.

This is absolutely not gonna be a liveblog in the level of detail of the great Umineko liveblog project. Rather I'm gonna be aiming at something like the comics comints series or those occasional posts on anime. Or indeed what I wrote about Worth The Candle last year. I must create a robot whose purpose is to watch to see if I start writing detailed plot summaries and hit me with a stick labelled 'remember you have a job now'.

That outta the way, let's talk flower!

No, not that flower!

I will start with an anecdote. When I was at university, I ended up attending a talk by court alchemist senescence researcher Aubrey de Grey, who at that time did not yet have a 'sexual harassment allegations' section on his Wikipedia page. The main thing that struck me at the time was his rather spectacularly long beard. But I did listen to his talk about ending aging.

de Grey's schtick is that he, like many people in the transhumanist milieu, believes that medical technology is on the cusp of being able to prevent aging sufficiently well to prolong human lifespans more or less indefinitely. He believes that the different processes of aging can be understood in terms of various forms of accumulating cellular 'damage', and that these will begin to be addressed within present human lifespans, buying time for further advancements - so that (paraphrasing from memory) 'the first immortals have already been born'. He has some pretty graphs to demonstrate this point.

At that talk, one of the audience members asked de Grey the (in my view) very obvious question about whether access to this technology would be distributed unevenly, creating in effect an immortal ruling class. de Grey scoffed at this, saying he always gets this question, and basically he didn't think it would be a big deal. I forget his exact words, but he seemed to assume the tech would trickle down sooner or later, and this was no reason not to pursue it.

I'm sure de Grey is just as tired of being reminded of how unbalanced access to medical technology is in our current world, or the differences in average life expectancy between countries.

So, I was very strongly reminded of de Grey as The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere laid out its major thematic concerns and characters. I was also put in mind of many online arguments in the transhumanist milieu about whether it would be a good thing, in principle, to end death.

In particular, of course, comes to mind transhumanist Nick Bostrom's short story The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant, in which death is likened to a huge dragon that demands to be fed trains full of humans every day. In the story, humanity's scientists secretly build a giant gun to kill the dragon. Naturally, despite all the doubters and naysayers who foolishly feel obliged to justify the existence of the dragon, the gun works. Bostrom's imagery is incredibly heavy-handed (particularly the trains à la Auschwitz), but just in case you didn't get it, he also spells out the moral explicit at the end: basically, every day not spent putting resources to abolishing death is adding up more and more bodies to the pile of people who don't get to be immortal.

So far, Flower seems to be shaping up to be a critical intervention into that milieu, with a much more grounded view of death and a much stronger model of society - admittedly not a high bar but it's going good so far!

At the time of writing this commentary, I have read the prologue and first two six-chapter arcs, namely Mankind's Shining Future (1-6) and Pilgrimage to the Deep (7-12).

the general shape of things

We are introduced - from the perspective of sardonic, introverted Su, who is going to be the protagonist of our time loop - to a group of brilliant young medical wizards, who have just been invited to visit the headquarters of a secret society whose mission is precisely to abolish death. Su's grandfather was some kind of controversial luminary who was expelled this organisation, and he also did something to her, which is giving her some kind of ulterior motive to find her way into this society.

We know pretty much from the outset that this is a time loop scenario: Su has been explicitly given the opportunity to replay the scenario in the hopes of find an alternative outcome, by some kind of presently mysterious parties. This first part is the 'control' loop, i.e. probably more or less how things went down 'originally'.

I believe Umineko is an explicit inspiration for this story, and the influence is pretty evident. But parallels with the Locked Tomb series, especially Gideon the Ninth, are also quite noticeable. @lukore spoke of it as the STEM to Locked Tomb's humanities, and I can already kinda see it, although we haven't got into the real meat of the scenario yet. This story began serialisation four years ago, making the two works roughly contemporary. The latest chapter was published in the last couple of weeks - no idea if I've arrived just in time for the ending!

Stylistically, it's generally pretty heavy on dialogue and long asides. The characters are a bunch of mega nerds who love to have big philosophical and political discussions, but their dynamics are well enough realised and their dynamics clear enough that it can double up as naturalistic characterisation. So far, the discussions have been interesting to read.

Below I'm going to make some notes and comments on various elements of the setting and story. In a followup post (because it got too long) I'm going to talk a lot about entropy. Perhaps you will find this interesting!

the world

The first few chapters are dedicated pretty hard to exposition. We find ourselves in a distant-future setting - one in which it seems reality has totally collapsed and then been rebuilt using magic, creating a somewhat oddball universe which lacks things like the element iron, and also electromagnetism. This seems like it would have pretty severe implications for just about everything!

However, the 'ironworkers' have, after producing a series of trial and error 'lower planes' that didn't quite get it right, landed on a fairly close approximation of how things used to be on the old world. Though by 'fairly close approximation' I mean like... it's a bowl-shaped world and the sun and stars are artificial lanterns. But still, there are humans, and they seem to work more or less like we're used to humans working, apart from the whole 'magic' thing.

So, an alt-physics setting. Praise Aealacreatrananda, I love that shit.

While electromagnetism might be out, the more abstract physical principles like thermodynamics still apply, and the humans of this universe have managed to find analogues to a number of things in our world. Instead of computers, they have 'logic engines' which run on magic. Horses seem to have made it in, so we get delightful blends of historical and futuristic concepts like a self-driving computer-controlled horse-drawn carriage taxi.

The biggest difference is of course that in this setting, magic - more on that in a bit - has solved most medical problems and humans routinely live to around 500. The setting is ostensibly a semi-post-scarcity one, although a form of money exists in 'luxury debt', which can be exchanged for things like taxi rides, café food and trips on the space elevator.

Politically, we are told that the world has enjoyed a few hundred years of general peace, broken in living memory by a revolution which put an end to a regime of magical secrecy. There are lots of countries, and an alliance overseeing them.

There's a few other oddities in this world. Something called a 'prosognostic event' can happen if you see someone who has the same face as you, and whatever this is, it's bad enough news that everyone is constantly reminded to veil their faces in public and there's some kind of infant 'distinction treatment' to mitigate the risk. Given that, in the regular world, nothing particularly bad would happen if you ran into a long-lost identical twin, it suggest there is probably something a little fucky about how humans work in this world!

There's evidently a fair bit of effort put into the worldbuilding of fictional countries and historical periods. The important elements seem to be roughly along the lines of:

our world is currently in what they call the 'old kingdoms' period, which is poorly remembered;

next up comes an 'imperial' period of high transhumanist shenanigans in which society was ruled by 'gerontocrats' who got exclusive access to the longevity treatment, but this all somehow led to a huge disaster which destroyed og earth;

the survivors built the Mimikos where humanity currently lives using magic and created some kind of huge iron spike that holds the universe together; there was subsequently a 'fundamentalist' period in which a strict cutoff point was put on human lifespans and a lot of the wackier magic was banned;

now we're onto a new era of openness following a small revolution, while the major political structures remain largely intact.

Writing a far-future setting is hard, because trying to deal with the weight of history without the story getting bogged down with worldbuilding details is a fiddly line to walk. The Dying Earth series of Jack Vance might be a relevant point of comparison. Vance leaves the historical details vague - there are endless old kingdoms and strange artefacts and micro-societies for Cugel and co. to stumble on. Far more important than the specifics of history is establishing the vibe of a world that's seen an unimaginable amount of events layered on top of each other and is honestly a bit tired.

Flower makes things a bit more concrete and generally manages to make this work decently well. I do appreciate the asides where Su talks about, for example, the different architectural styles that layer up to make a place, or the way a technique has been refined. It establishes both that Su is the kind of person to notice this sort of thing, and also helps the world feel lived-in.

the names

The story doesn't do a lot with language. The story is written in English, and the narration will occasionally make reference to how things are phrased (e.g. how divination predates the suffix -mancy). We can probably make the standard assumption that this is all translated from $future_language, with the notional translator making a suitable substitution of whatever linguistic forms exist in that language.

The characters are named in a variety of languages. Our main character's full name is Utsushikome of Fusai. We're told that this is "an old name from Kutuy, and means something like 'mysterious child'" - so Kutuyan is one of the languages spoken in this world. It's blatantly got the same phonotactics as Japanese, and indeed if I search up 'Utsushikome', I find an obscure historical figure called Utsushikome-no-Mikoto, wife of the Emperor Kōgen; she has no article on English Wikipedia, but she does have a brief one on Japanese wiki. Just as Su says about Kutuyan, 'Utsushikome' is written 欝色謎 in Japanese, but it relies on archaic readings of those characters and wouldn't read that way in modern Japanese. We could perhaps assume a good old translation convention is in effect where Kutuyan is replaced with Japanese.

A lot of characters have Greek names, as do various setting elements. One exception is Kamrusepa, or Kam, who is named for an ancient goddess of medicine worshipped by the Hittites and Luwians. I know basically fuck all about Hittites and Luwians but it's a cool little nod to mythology, and it won't be the only one!

I'll run down a list of characters and my comments about them in a bit. But many are named after gods or other mythological figures.

the magic

Most of the divergences come from magic existing. Certain humans are 'arcanists', who are able to use the 'Power', which is a magic system with a highly computational flavour. Thanks to Su's expositional asides, we know that an incantation is something like a short program written in cuneiform with the ability to gather information, perform maths, and manipulate particles. An example we are given is a spell called "entropy-denying", which is the following string of cuneiform:

"…(𒌍𒌷𒀭)(𒌍𒁁𒀭)𒅥𒌈𒆜𒈣𒂠, 𒋢𒀀𒅆𒌫𒃶,𒈬𒊹."

We're told that spells always start with phrases ending in 𒀭, and end in 𒊹. Beyond that, I'm not sure how far the author has actually worked out the syntax of this magic system - probably not in too much detail! Seems like the kind of thing it's better to leave vague, but also she seems like kind of nerd who would (positive). It's conceptually a reasonable magic system for a world where more or less realistic physics applies.

The use of unusual scripts for a magic system isn't that unusual - the old European occultists who wrote the [Lesser] Key of Solomon loved to write on their magic circles in Hebrew, and in modern times we could mention Yoko Taro's signature use of the Celestial Alphabet for example - but the specific use of cuneiform here seems like it might be a little more significant, because a little later in the story the characters encounter a mural depicting The Epic of Gilgamesh, which of course was recorded on cuneiform tablets. Remains to be seen exactly what these allusions will mean!

The magic system is divided into various disciplines defined by the different ways they approach doing magic, with the disciplines breaking down broadly along the same lines as the modern scientific disciplines. For example, our protagonist is a thanatomancer ("necromancer" having become unfashionable), which is the discipline dealing with death; she's specifically an entropic thanatomancer, distinguished by their framework viewing death as the cessation of processes.

Magic relies on an energy that they refer to as 'eris' (unknown relation to the Greek goddess of strife and discord). We are told that eris must be carefully apportioned across the elements of a spell or shit blows up, that it can be stored, and it accumulates gradually enough that you don't want to be wasteful with it, but so far given little information about where it comes from.

Magic in this story generally seems to act as a kind of 'sufficiently advanced technology'. It's very rules-based, and used for a lot of mundane ends like operating computers or transport. Advancement in magic is something like a combination of basic research and software development. But the thing that makes it a magic system and not merely alt-physics is that it's at least a little bit personal: it must be invoked by an individual, and only certain people can operate the magic. We're told a little about how wizards are privileged in some societies, indoctrinated in social utility in others, and expected to be inconspicuous in the present setting. It's not clear yet if you need some kind of special innate capacity to do the magic, or if it's just a matter of skill issue.

With one exception, our main characters are a gaggle of wizards, and exceptionally skilled students at that. They're at an elite institution, carrying high expectations, even if they are themselves fairly dismissive of the pomp and ceremony. They have grandiose plans: Kamrusepa in particular is the main voice of the 'death should be abolished' current.

the cast

We're entering a cloistered environment with high political stakes hanging off of it. Even if I hadn't already heard it described as a murder mystery, it would feel like someone will probably be murdered at some point, so lets round up our future suspects.

Su (Utsushikome) is our protagonist and first-person POV. She's telling this story in the first past tense, with a style calling to mind verbal narration; she'll occasionally allude to future events so we know for sure narrator!Su knows more than present!Su. She's got a sardonic streak and she likes long depressing antijokes, especially if the punchline is suicide. She will happily tell us she's a liar - so maybe her narration isn't entirely reliable, huh.

Su is more than a little judgemental; she doesn't particularly like a lot of her classmates, or people in general, and generally the first thing she'll tell you about a character is how well she gets on with them. She introduces the theme of 'wow death sucks' in the first paragraph, but she is, at least at this point, pessimistic that anyone will manage to do anything about it for good.

Her magical specialisation is entropic thanatomancy, roughly making processes go again after they working coherently.

Her name is a reference to an obscure Japanese empress, as discussed above.

Ran is Su's bestie from the same home country. She is generally pretty on the level. She likes romance novels and she is pretty sharp at analysing them. She will cheerfully team up with Su to do a bit or bait someone else when an argument gets going.

Her magical specialisation is Divination, which is sort of a more fundamental layer of magic, about gathering information by any means. In medicine it's super advanced diagnostics.

Her name is too short to pin down to a specific allusion. Could be one of a couple of disciple of Confucius such as Ran Geng, or a Norse goddess of the sea.

Kam (Kamrusepa) is the de facto class prez and spotlight lover. She's hardcore ideological, the story's main voice of the de Grey/Bostrom death-abolishing concept so far - I think she straight up calls someone a 'deathist' at some point. She loves to tell everyone what she thinks about everything, and getting the last word.

Her magical specialisation is Chronomancy, so time magic. It's described as secretive and byzantine, but also it can do stuff like (locally?) rewind time for about five minutes. No doubt it has something to do with the time loop.

As mentioned above, she's named after a fairly obscure ancient deity of healing and magic.

Theo (Theodoros) is a fairly minor character. He's scatterbrained and easily flustered, he has a similar background to our protagonist, and he's not great with people. His name is shared with a number of ancient Greek figures, so it's hard to narrow it down to one allusion. I don't think his magic school has been mentioned.

Ptolema is a cheery outgoing one, someone who Su dismisses as an airhead. And she is at least easy to bait into saying something ill-considered. Her specialisation is applying magic to surgery. As a character, she tends to act as a bit of a foil to the others. Bit of a valley girl thing going on.

'Ptolema' is presumably a feminised version of the renowned Greek philosopher Ptolemy.

Seth is the jock to Ptolema's prep, and our goth protag Su doesn't particularly like him either. ...lol maybe that's too flippant, I may be misapplying these US high school stereotypes. To be a little more precise then, he's pretty casual in demeanour, flirty, likes to play the clown. He specialises in Assistive Biomancy, which revolves around accelerating natural healing processes.

Seth is named for either the Egyptian god (domain: deserts, violence and foreigners) or an Abrahamic figure, the third son of Adam and Eve granted by God after the whole Caim killing Abel thing.

Ophelia is someone Su describes as 'traditionally feminine' - soft-spoken, demure etc. (Gender in this world appears to be constructed along broadly similar lines to ours). Indeed we get a fairly extended description of her appearance. Her specialisation is Alienist Biomancy, which means introducing foreign elements to healing (not entirely sure how that differs from the Golemancy mentioned later).

Ophelia is of course a major character in Shakespeare's Hamlet, best known for going mad and dying in a river.

Fang is the only nonbinary member of the class, noted as the most academically successful. They're not on the expedition, but the characters discuss them a little in their absence, so maybe they'll show up later. It seems like they have a bit of a rebellious streak. Their magical specialisation is not mentioned.

Fang is a regular ol' English word, but I gave it a search all the same and found there's an ancient Chinese alchemist of that name. She is the oldest recorded woman to do an alchemy in China, said to know how to turn mercury into silver.

Lilith is the teenaged prodigy in computers logic engines, and Mehit is her mother who accompanies her on the trip. They've got a big Maria and Rosa (of Umineko) dynamic going on, with Mehit constantly scolding Lilith and trying to get her to obey social norms, though in contrast to Maria, Lilith is a lot more standoffish and condescending to the rest of the gang. Lilith specialises in 'Golemancy', which means basically medical robotics - prosthetic limbs and such. She spends most of her time fiddling with her phone logic engine, and will generally tell anyone who talks to her that they're an idiot. Sort of a zoomer stereotype.

Lilith is named for the Abrahamic figure, the disobedient first wife of Adam who was banished and, according to some Jewish traditions, subsequently became a demon who attacks women at night. There may be some connection between Lilith and the lioness-headed Mesopotamian chimeric monster Lamashtu, which I mention because Mehit is an Egyptian and Nubian lion goddess.

'Golemancy' is probably playing on the popular fantasy idea of a 'golem' as a kind of magic robot, but given the Jewish allusion in Lilith's name here, I do wonder a little bit if it's going to touch on the Jewish stories of the Golem which inspired it - a protective figure with a specific religious dimension.

There are some other characters but they're not part of the main party on their way to the function, so I won't say much about them just yet. Also it's entirely possible I went and forgot an entire classmate or something, big whoops if so.

the events

In true Umineko tradition, the beginning of the story narrates in great detail how the protagonists make their way to the place where the plot is going to happen.

To be fair, there's a lot of groundwork to be laid here, and the characters' discussions do a lot to lay out the concerns of the story and sketch out the setting, not to mention establish the major character relations. A murder mystery takes a certain amount of setup after all! There's plenty of sci-fi colour to be had in the 'aetherbridge', which is a kind of space elevator that lifts you up to a high altitude teleporter network. (It's technically not teleportation but 'transposition', since teleportation magic also exists in the story, with different restrictions! But close enough for government work.)

They go to a huge space citadel, which is kind of a transport hub; some cloak and dagger shit happens to hide the route they must take to the mysterious secret organisation. They find a strange room with a missing floor and a mural of the Epic of Gilgamesh, albeit modified to render it cyclic. What does it meeaaaan?

The idea of a secret society of rationalists is one that dates back to the dawn of ratfic, in HPMOR. It was kinda dumb then, but it works a lot better here, where we're approaching the wizard circle from outside. The phrase 'Great Work' has already been dropped. I love that kind of alchemical shit so I'm well into finding out what these wizards are plotting.

the dying

A lot of the discussions revolve around the mechanics of death. Essentially the big problem for living forever is information decay. Simple cancers can be thwarted fairly easily with the magic techniques available, but more subtle genetic slippages start to emerge after the first few hundred years; later, after roughly the 500 year mark, a form of dementia becomes inevitable. It's this dementia in particular that the characters set their sights on curing.

One thing that is interesting to me is that, contra a lot of fantasy that deals with necromancy (notably the Locked Tomb series), there appears to be no notion of a soul in this world whatsoever. The body is all that there is. Indeed, despite all the occult allusions in the character names, there is very little in the way of religion for that matter. Even the 'fundamentalism' is about an idea of human biological continuity that shouldn't be messed with too much.

Su distinguishes three schools of thought on death, namely 'traditional', 'transformative' and 'entropic'. The 'traditional' form attempts to restore limited function - classic skeleton shit. 'Transformative' sees death as a process and uses dead tissues together with living in healing. Su's 'entropic' school broadens this 'process' view to consider death as any kind of loss of order - a flame going out as much as an organism dying. At the outset of the story, Su has discovered a 'negentropic' means to restore life to an organism, which she considers promising, even if for now it only works for fifteen minutes.

This is an interesting perspective, but the devil is in the details. Because processes such as life or flames, necessarily, result in a continuous increase in the thermodynamic entropy of the universe. And yet this idea of death-as-loss-of-order does make a kind of sense, at a certain level of abstraction.

Elaborating on this got rather too long for this post, and I think it can stand alone, so I'm going to extract it to a followup post.

the comments

As is probably evident by the length of this post, I am very intrigued by The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere. The setting is compelling, and it seems like it's got the willingness to bite at the chewy questions it raises instead of acting like it has all the answers, which is I think one of the most crucial elements for this kind of scifi. I like how unabashed it is at having its characters straight-up debate shit.

Of course, this all depends where they go with it. There's so many ways it could be headed at this point. I hear where it's going is 'dark yuri' and 'Umineko-inspired murder mystery', so that should be really juicy fun, but I do end up wondering what space that will leave to address the core theme it's laid out in these first few chapters.

Overall, if this and Worth the Candle are what modern ratfic is like, the genre is honestly in pretty good shape! Of course, I am reading very selectively. But this is scratching the itch of 'the thing I want out of science fiction', so I'm excited to see where the next 133 chapters will take me.

Though all that said, I ended up writing this post all day instead of reading any other chapters or working, so I may need to rein it in a bit.

#fiction #web serials #the flower that bloomed nowhere #tftbn #sff

[drdemonprince]

Regarding your “informed consent for all drugs” essay, I have a burning question I haven’t seen you address (if you have and I missed it, sorry!) What about things like antibiotics? IMO if you’re taking drugs that only affect you that’s one thing. I’m willing to give it consideration. But I honestly do think there should be some gatekeeping of community resources like abx, where use where it’s not warranted decreases the efficacy for the entire community. And I’ve heard way too many stories of people demanding abx for viral illnesses to expect that the general public will be informed enough to steward those resources wisely—a small number of people can genuinely ruin it for everybody, including very vulnerable people.

True

Informed

Consent !!!

Guided

Decision-Making

With the Help of a Doctor!

The leading cause of antibiotic overprescription is sloppy, overly 'efficient' work on the part of prescribers. I once went to an urgicare clinic with a months-long bout of laryngitis that I knew for a fact was caused by teaching 8 hours per day, not by a bacterial infection, yet the nurse practicioner prescribed me antibiotics anyway.

Because the clinic was trying to maximize profits and it was understaffed and each provider only had about fifteen minutes with each patient, if that. The provider didn't listen to me when I told him there was no way I had a bacterial infection, and he took absolutely no time to inform me about the effects of antibiotics and the massive risks of taking them when you don't need them.

Today, the average patient seeking healthcare is sorely ill informed about just about everything. Doctors disdain them for being self diagnosed on web MD and for seeking out information about their desired medications online, but what other options do they have? It takes weeks if not months to see a doctor sometimes, and they barely stop moving and interrogating you for one second to answer your questions or explain complex concepts to you once you get in their office.

Within this environment, is it any surprise that patients don't stick to their course of antibiotic treatments all the way through, hoard pills, take them for the wrong conditions, and request antibiotics when they don't need them? And considering that antibiotics are among the cheapest medications available, and most patients can't afford alternate treatments for other conditions on their own, is it any surprise they keep requesting these meds?

In order to move forward, we need a true informed consent model of accessing all drugs. Exactly like a dispensary for weed or Mexican-model pharmacy. You report to the pharmacist, explain your condition and what kind of help you are seeking, and an educated, patient, compassionate provider explains to you exactly the effects you can anticipate from the substances you are seeking -- as well as the risks and use cases.

If it were possible for people to access not only antibiotics in this fashion, but also weed, painkillers, tamiflu, and paxlovid, we would not have the scale of antibiotic overprescription and misuse that we see today.

People tend to glance over the "informed" part of the "informed consent" model that I am advancing, and that's really unfortunate. But I think it's understandable, because many of us have never experience actual informed consent basically any time in our lives. Imagine what it would be like to actually have the authority to make good decisions about what goes into your body, with a doctor seeing themselves as a support person for you, rather than an authority over you.

Imagine what it would be like to have a doctor who listens to you, who has time for you, who sits down with you and breaks down complicated topics and trusts you to make your own decisions once you've been educated and given their support.

[foxgirlmoth]

Transmisogyny looks like a lot of things, but what I see thrown around actively on tumblr is that we aren't allowed to have a space with anyone else. Kind of a 'shove them off to the side' tactic especially if we complain. Getting misgendered by random people who think dude is a gender neutral term and being so upset when we point out that we hate it, I'd say especially if someone is TME. Saying that we can't have little terms like egg, because of COURSE that means we're somehow predatory. Trying to make more trans woman in the world??? How horrible!!

Its tiring. Before I was out as a trans woman I was able to go and talk in forums and be parts of conversations, and in general exist on the internet. Now being an out and proud tgirl just means I'm an easy target for pretty much anyone. Even a simple "Hey, please don't call me a dude" is met with so much resistance and people are either too selfish or think we're too sensitive and I just want to go a day without being misgendered on the internet. This is why trans women love to stick in groups online together and engage with fandoms in our own little spaces, not because we want to, but because its the only place we're safe from the transmisogyny rampant across the web.

#This is all personal experience so it may not be 100% for everyone but just. #Damn #General courtesy just doesn't exist for us

[bracketsoffear]

The Order of the Stick: Blood Runs in the Family (Rich Burlew) "The Order heads to the Western Continent in search of Girard's Gate, only to get entangled with the Empire of Blood, a tyrannical draconian state--literally, it's ruled by a dragon. But the real power behind the throne is General Tarquin, who turns out to be the bard Elan's dad. Tarquin, being a diabolical mastermind who’s just as genre savvy as Elan, has figured out that ruling openly will only lead to being overthrown, and thus has engineered a grand scheme with his partners to take over the entire continent using their puppet states. He doesn't even mind that Elan wants to overthrow him for being an enslaving dictator--if he wins, he rules as a king, and if he loses, he goes down in history as a LEGEND. Tarquin follows the Order as they try to reach the Gate, using it as a test for his other son Nale--a scheming villain like him, who has continually dissapointed Tarquin. When the Gate is blown up, he meets up with Elan and Nale, finds out that Nale killed his best friend, confirms that Nale wants nothing more from him…and stabs his son dead right in front of Elan because he's an inconvenience. Then he decides to kill Elan's good friend Roy so Elan can be the leader of the party. Tarquin is essentially a railroading DM in charge of a nation. He's an old white guy with self-centered, old-fashioned, and implicitly misogynistic and racist ideas of how the story is "supposed" to go--he's the Big Bad, Elan is the Hero, and they're destined to have a big epic showdown. But Tarquin isn't the main villain, Elan wants to be a support player, and Roy is the leader; so when Tarquin's plans are defied, he does everything in his power to steer things back on the rails by force, to the point of threatening to kill everyone Elan loves and chop off his hand just to properly motivate him."

'The Fatalist' in A Hero of Our Time (Mikhail Lermontov) "The last chapter of A Hero of Our Time is titled 'The Fatalist' - someone who holds the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable. The characters in it are debating whether or not fatalism is a valid worldview, and Lieutenant Vulic decides to test it. he states that everything is predetermined and our actions do not matter, loads the gun, points it at his forehead and pulls the trigger. nothing happens. Later that same night Vulic gets killed by a drunk Cossack. In high school we had to write multiple essays on this chapter and argue whether or not we think free will exists and is fatalism valid. It caused me a huge existential crisis. i recommend reading this chapter if you are in mood for a crisis, as it is short, free and available online here."

#web poll #the web #poll #the magnus archives #leitner tournament #The Order of the Stick #Blood Runs in the Family #Rich Burlew #A Hero of Our Time #the Fatalist #Mikhail Lermontov

[canniju]

My alter Yami hardcore wants us to take a break from social media, at least just for a moment. It says that it doesn't enjoy most social sites, and would rather focus on friends and family. It says we need to make our own fun blog where we document both our journey and our hobbies and other fun stuff. A place where there isn't any pressure to be seen, to chase strangers approvals.

So we will be working on making a blog. We would like to eventually make a neocities site, but for right now we are gonna focus on just making a lil' simple blog/journaling space! We will link it once it's done. 💖

It's hard to describe how we both feel about social media in general. One on hand, it's a lot of fun meeting new people and getting engagement. I (Hunter) am extremely social and crave constant company. But...I also need to admit that the internet just isn't how it once was. The good ole days where everyone cared about each other and were more socialable and sought out fun are long gone, at least on these bigger platforms. Everyone has become a lot more closed off and don't want to expend any effort into making the bigger web fun again. They want to complain about it!! But none of them actually do anything.

I'm not compatible with how social media is anymore and I need to accept this instead of thinking little ol' me could change that. Especially when I already have my plate overflowing.

We all still love Tumblr. We will 100% always stick to this site. We are unsure what it is, but this site has managed to be wholly positive and relaxing for us, and we have also managed to make some really stellar friends here too. So no matter what, Tumblr is here to stay.

Every other site is questionable. They all feel boring and like a chore to check everyday. We (especially Yami) would rather just...not.

I'm thinking our biggest goals when it comes to being online is this:

⭐️Stick with Tumblr

⭐️Make a blog/journal personal site

⭐️Make a neocities site

⭐️Focus on what we have and enjoy life to the fullest right now, with your current loved ones, instead of chasing strangers for attention, and getting upset that strangers don't care about you or your talents.

And more...so yeah. Sorry for the random ramble, this is just something we have been thinking about a lot lately. We mourn the loss of how social media used to be so fun everyday. How it used to be...SOCIAL...but is now a desolate wasteland filled with greed and glorifying antisocial behaviors.

Big web is awful now. We don't fit in anymore. We need to accept this and move on to better web avenues ASAP.

#hunter #yami #ramble #vent #big web #social media

[thedsgnblog]

How Interesting Custom Illustrations Strengthen Your Brand

If you’ve looked deeply at any of the top brands, their images and designs, you’ve likely noticed that they’re customized to exemplify who they are as a company, and custom illustrations are probably a big part of that.

 In this blog, we’ll explain:

Why stock imagery isn’t the standard anymore

What custom brand illustrations are

Why illustrations are important

How it can benefit your organization

And where you can go for high-quality illustrations of your own

Why Don’t We Use Stock Imagery Anymore?

In print, custom illustration has always played a significant role. Still, in digital media, popularity is just now starting to match that demand. However, cheap stock photography became the norm in digital media, and the accessibility of stock imagery undercut custom illustrations in digital products.

Stock photography is typically forgettable and generic. You need to go through thousands of stock photos before finding the perfect image that precisely conveys your goals. 

Hiring a photographer for your brand can be expensive, and most newer companies and startups don’t have it in the budget to have one on retainer. Some photos can be great but not unique enough or evoke the wrong feelings. Web products and solutions are also challenging to find images for because they aren’t concrete items.

Custom brand illustration services can truly step and shine in this arena. Illustration in branding doesn’t have those same limitations because something can literally be created from scratch that suits your specific needs.

Why Are Custom Illustrations Important?

Thanks to social media, brands and consumers are more connected than ever. Content is created daily at lightning speeds, and businesses must find a way to stand out in that crowd of faced-paced advertising. By working with someone to create a custom illustration design that you can carry across all your assets, you’ll be able to:

Create a visual signature for your brand

Craft a brand story that’s consistent across platforms (social, print, web, etc.), and

Enhance connections with consumers by improving brand recognition

Let’s dive into the purpose of custom illustrations even more.

The Purpose Of Custom Illustration in Branding

Custom illustrations for your company are more than just decorative. They are amazing tools for communication with your target audience. In fact, it’s a significant part of modern UI thanks to its valuable ability to communicate concepts quickly and easily. They can show (or illustrate) your audience how your products or service work and enhance the written content.

Custom imagery can simplify complex ideas, which can be particularly important in tech products where it helps users understand the ins and outs of your service or software. As digital products and services become more abstract, illustrated metaphors become a more and more effective tool as they articulate what is happening in a simple way.

Illustration in business marketing enhances your brand identity, helping to create a unique, memorable style that your users can easily remember. Illustrations can capture and communicate feelings, foster strong emotional connections, and make online experiences feel more personal. They can humanize a brand and help it seem less cut off and distant.

The Mascot Effect

Nowadays, customers tend to stick with a brand once it's been drilled into their memory and they’ve had a chance to actually try it.

Brand mascots are an increasingly popular marketing strategy and help to personify your brand. A good mascot can help customers and clients strongly identify your brand with a certain product or service, creating a more memorable experience as the face of your business. 

These mascots can come in handy when you’re trying to communicate a product or service. It is especially crucial for web-based brands with no tangible product or service; here, a unique mascot gives viewers something to create that “relationship” when shopping. 

As with any other illustration, a great mascot enhances the user experience and acts as a friendly guide. It should never distract users.

How Can Custom Illustrations Help My Business?

Brand illustrations help companies stand out from the competition. They help a branding look to come together and create a seamless yet enjoyable user experience as they interact with your brand.

Instead of solely relying on a logo to do all your work, a logo/illustration combo allows your brand to create a host of assets that can work together across your marketing efforts. 

A strong, custom logo is extremely important. Still, you’ll truly kick things up a notch if you can expand on that icon with an illustration or set of illustrations.

Using custom illustrations for your website and print materials can also increase customer conversion rates. Whether selling a product or service or getting visitors to stop and read your articles or blog posts, you will likely retain more users if you use illustrative elements to break chunks of text.

What If I’m Not A Big Company? Can I Still Benefit From Custom Illustrations?

Not only do custom illustration designs benefit large companies, but they also work especially well for smaller brands and startups. Because logos, illustrations, and content can all work together to strengthen a brand, they’re valuable assets for any business. The graphics help strengthen the brand's values and connect the company to its target audience. The same thing goes for the character illustrations.

Building a strong brand foundation from the very beginning can be a huge benefit to companies just getting started and will save you the headache of trying to go back and connect everything when you’re already up and running. Add custom illustrations to your pre-launch marketing checklist.

What Is A Custom Illustration Service?

Custom brand illustration services can help you to create custom assets, from logos to mascots to illustrative umbrella designs. An important part of unlimited graphic design services, there are many companies online that offer monthly plans for a flat rate.

One of the top providers of custom illustrations is Flocksy.

How Flocksy Custom Illustrations Work

Are you looking for ways to enhance your brand’s visual presence? Need a creative mascot or a hand-drawn logo? Or even a tattoo? Flocksy’s custom illustration service can help you craft the perfect image for your needs. Just follow these simple steps!

Request a Custom Illustration Project

What type of custom illustration design and style are you looking for? Flocksy’s talented team of illustrators can bring your vision to life. If you don’t know what type of design you want, that’s fine. The artists can provide a few examples to see what you like. Look around the web and find designs you love. Your artists can use them to inform your new illustration.

Review Your Proof

When they’ve created something, your illustrator will send you a design for approval. On Flocksy, you’ll have unlimited revisions to get it right. On average, their turnaround time is about 24 to 48 hours. What’s more, Flocksy’s artists are extremely dependable when it comes to quality. You’ll never get something subpar or unprofessional.

Utilize Your Custom Illustration

Once you’ve signed off on the design, you can start using the design all over your site, in your print material, and wherever you want! The artists will be sure to provide you with the file types you need, and you’ll have full ownership over the design.

What Do Unlimited Custom Illustration Services At Flocksy Include?

Avatar Creation

Character Design

Comic illustrations

Custom Brand Illustrations

Custom Line Art

Custom Typography

Illustrated Manuals

Mascot Design

Merch Illustrations

Portrait Illustrations

Product Illustrations

Storybook Illustrations

Tattoo Design

And much more

Flocksy’s custom illustration services can help you make the most of your company branding and keep it cohesive and coordinated when you use them for all your graphic designs. Flocksy also provides content and web development services, making them more than just a design resource. They can take care of all your creative content needs under one roof. It’s like having your own in-house design and content department.

Conclusion

Custom artwork and illustrations help create a visual signature that can make your product easier to understand and more engaging. 

If you’re looking for custom illustrations for your business, look no further than the unlimited design services at Flocksy.

#thedsgnblog #design #illustration #customillustration #graphic design #digitalart #digitalillustration

[catonator]

Lol, internet

The largest imageboard in Finland, Ylilauta and its offshoot Northpole (rip in peace) had a major faux pas this week. Threads older than 2 weeks are now placed behind a paywall. Imagine if Discord set message history behind a Nitro subscription, and you have the gist of it. The latter board was just flatout killed off due to legal issues.

This majorly pissed off the users, and as a result my fringe alt-imageboard (won’t name the one, rules of the internet 1 & 2) got a surge of new users. However, the results weren’t as I feared! While Ylilauta isn’t really representative of smaller corners of the internet like it once used to be and nowadays is closer to a modern social media platform, the users who showed up were still willing to play along the rules of the smaller board, even if they ended up mostly asking stupid questions. Watching the entire thing unfold was quite fun, actually, and really reminded me of the kind of stupid shit I used to do online about 15 years ago.

The noob raid ended up reminding me of how you actually learn to be a fun part of the communities you happen to stumble upon. Observation. Lurking. You learn new things by reading the old users and seeing what this place is just about. It’s an image board, you don’t even have accounts! You can just stick around and watch!

Search engines and the internet didn’t die because of corporate greed and SEO. Well, just because of corporate greed and SEO. The internet died, because we, the users, collectively all jumped to places like Twitter, Tumblr and Discord. Especially Discord. The internet has always been a haven of user-generated stuff (for better or worse…), but sometime in the past 10 or so years we all decided to stop making it available. Twitter is a collection of barely coherent thoughts in posts that can barely encompass a full sentence. Many good posts are spread across dozens of tweets, usually out of which one at most is indexable, but often the entire thread is missing. Tumblr is a blogging site where the users stopped blogging, and the blogs aren’t visible to outsiders because fuck you. Discord is an instant messaging application meant to compete with fucking TeamSpeak that through sheer user laziness and insane overreach managed to overtake forums, and the message history is completely inaccessible unless you have an account and an invitation to the server.

The result is that all of human knowledge is now contained on like 5 sites, most of which are never going to be accessible to outsiders. For the past decade, we have unknowingly waged a war on lurkers, and in the process driven them all into extinction.

The issue is, lurkers are mostly those who aren’t newcomers. They’re the ones who have learned to keep their mouth shut and try finding a solution first and foremost. The questions they do eventually ask are also the ones that are going to be the most specialised, and also useful to other lurkers. They share personal experience and anecdotes, ideas they tried out but didn’t work for their purposes. They share abstract, multilayered concepts that simply aren’t something that can be demonstrated or proven algorithmically.

The sites that exist and rule the landscape today are practically fraud. What they sell is not funded by them, nor is it created by them. They sell the writings, media, humour, anecdotes and other forms of bizarre interactions that we, the consumers create. Without any user activity, these media megastructures would simply shrivel up and die, as there’d be nobody driving eyes onto the site. They don’t really deserve anything besides maybe being paid for the server costs, which still constitute a fraction of a fraction of the total revenue generated.

But nothing prevents you from just leaving. The internet doesn’t suddenly end when you walk out of YouTube or Instagram. Sure, you can’t just upload your data onto The Internet itself, but the way the web was constructed means that you haven’t lost your rights to obtain a small webhost and an address and setting up your own ramshackle site. You’ll just pay in discoverability.

Internet users need to be reminded that the concept of the internet isn’t just a technology that transmits data to a small number of applications, it’s an interconnected series of servers, clients, more servers and more clients. A server can be any computer you can find with a little tweaking, and as long as you have a router and an internet connection, that’s all you need. You can forward the computer’s IP address and make it behave like a website. The internet was created by users, for users, and so far there’s nothing that can take that away from you.

The change isn’t going to manifest itself overnight, and I also wouldn’t recommend jumping out headfirst into the abyss, leaving everything else behind. It’s just good to know the possibilities anyone can have at their fingertips, as I’ve seen more and more people wallow in misery over the state of current and future internet. Maybe if enough people create wacko self-hosted sites as side projects, we may one day not need sites like the one I’m publishing this text on right now. And if you’re you’re interested and are willing to dive through some tech jargon, this talk by Mr. Cory Doctorow was an incredibly fascinating listen, and provides some solutions to fixing the issues from the perspective of a higher-level operation. It still contains some tidbits of info for you, if you’re concerned about how you’ll move your userbase from one platform to another with as little compromise as possible.

Now, I’ve had enough of this wistful nostalgic hopes bullshit. Next time I’ll just write a story.

#monthly blog #internet #enshittification

[sahani55rishav]

Cloud Computing and its Systems

Online Organizations Electronic organizations grant your business to pick different web abilities instead of an endlessly out application. Using XML, UDDI open standards and various lingos over a show spine, electronic applications coordinate with various bits of your business.

For instance, you can include online organizations for straightforward money and record taking care of. These organizations license you to pick the mix of web applications for your business. You can pick individual organizations through various providers and use them close by your ongoing course of action.

SaaS Programming as an Assistance (SaaS) is the most by and large used area of disseminated processing that gives various cloud tenants permission to a particular application.

Office 365 is a kind of SaaS where anyone can open a month to month enrollment to Microsoft’s set-up of Office things. SaaS gives a complete plan guaranteed and managed by an IT organizations provider. These plans are great for end-client applications for everyday exercises.

What actuated interest for cloud well-informed authorities?

As people contributed an enormous part of their energy inside, working from a good ways, virtual joint exertion enhancements saw a rising interest. As a quick result, OTT stages like Netflix and Amazon Prime saw an inconceivable piece of endorsers during the time with the flight of people moving from inclining in the direction of the ordinary television interface model. Online Foodservice aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato too elaborate dispersed enlisting for their possible advantage in giving end-clients steady data right from ideal cleansing of their food-improvement accomplice to ensuring a sans contact food transport experience following the uncommon pandemic. This brought into the picture the adaptability of spread figuring to generally all undertakings and that it doesn’t restrict just to upgrading standard IT urging firms’ exercises. Second satisfaction and incessant association thusly different into the norm for relationship to sack committed clients and it became possible through down to earth attempts — appropriated figuring.

Cloud Sending Approaches

While considering which circled enrolling blueprint is fitting for your business, you really want to think concerning worked with, crossbreed or on-premises game-plans. IaaS, SaaS and PaaS combine the stuff programming and applications that work on the cloud. Worked with, crossbreed and on-premises are the common affiliation models of appropriated figuring. We should skip into these choices somewhat more. A worked with cloud continuum is a finished cloud sending with the applications as a whole and associations you really care about. In a worked with cloud, applications are at present open, and new applications can be made on low-or certain level foundation. Worked with cloud plans are completely made due, ensured and remained mindful of by a managed associations supplier and anticipate that month should month enlistment costs.

Cloud Computing Solutions is creating and it is basic to keep yourself invigorated with the latest examples. However, the a great deal of information on the web could leave you more overwhelmed! Simply unwind, we are here to help you out with different circulated processing resource that you should follow.

cloud continuum wraps the developments, controls, cycles, and techniques which solidify to shield your cloud-based systems, secure conveyed registering data, and establishment. It is a sub-space of PC security and all the to a greater extent, information security.

It is a typical commitment among you and your cloud expert association. You do a cloud security strategy to shield your data, stick to managerial compliance,business cloud advantages and defend your clients’ insurance. Which consequently safeguards you from the reputational, money related, and legal outcomes of data breaks and data setback.

Cloud arrangements is an essential for all affiliations. Especially with the latest investigation from (ISC)2 uncovering 93% of affiliations are modestly or exceptionally stressed over cloud security, and one of each and every four affiliations confirming a cloud security episode in the past a year. In this article, we will make an exhaustive manual for cloud security. You’ll research the security risks of moving to the cloud, grasp the justification for why cloud security is required, and find cloud solutions best practices. We’ll moreover cover subjects like how to assess a cloud expert center’s security and recognize the endorsements and getting ready to additionally foster your cloud security.

Most cloud plans fall into three classes:

Foundation collectively (IaaS), Stage-collectively (PaaS), and Programming-collectively (SaaS). Fundamentally, IaaS allows an association to lease his IT base of the association from a cloud provider. PaaS gives an on-demand environment to pushing programming.

SaaS passes applications on over the web. Relationship of all sizes are using cloud answers to aws managed services, programming and IT support costs. As cloud plans foster past IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS responsibilities, tries rely upon cloud programming headway. Server farm assets (counting cycles, stock, and progressive assets) can be virtualized and checked in transit while programming depicted pools. Cloud providers as of now offer pre-packaged cloud courses of action with the flexibility to assign risk in regards to various program assets reliant upon the circumstance. A cloud contract gives productive, on-demand induction to a typical pool of IT resources, helping relationship with achieving more conspicuous efficiencies, diminish costs, and harmony capital and working costs. Various affiliations rely upon a blend of public, private, and mixture cloud associations. OpenStack is a thing decided framework for growing new business occupations, driving DevOps, or moving customary server farms to arranged fogs.

What is Cloud Continuum and how should an alliance use Cloud Continuum?

Change is consistent. This gets a handle on why various associations are rethinking their methodologies by moving to the cloud. Again, there are people endeavoring to additionally foster data work and organizing. Basically, a couple of associations by and large need to diminish costs and augmentation efficiency. Regardless of what the goals, every accessory moves as business needs certainly create. Furthermore, Juice legitimizes the press. Numerous people are seeing the results of the advancement of the cloud plans. Despite the way that fogs expected a central part starting now and into the foreseeable future, the pandemic has given an indispensable lift to interminably cloud administrations organization. It doesn’t just figure your on-demand limit.

[archimains]

Best apk mirror for fire tv

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV HOW TO#

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV APK#

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV INSTALL#

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV GENERATOR#

Make sure both devices are connected to the same WiFi and are within roughly 30 feet of each other to ensure the best connection.

In most cases, mirroring to a Firestick can be set up in only a few minutes.

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV INSTALL#

While Android and Windows devices can mirror to Firestick right out of the box, you’ll have to install a third-party software in order to mirror from Apple devices.

With that in mind, we’re going to give you a quick guide to Fire Stick mirroring, so you can put content from your phone or laptop right onto your TV. However, sometimes the tiny screen on your portable electronics just can’t compare to watching something on a larger screen like a TV. Phones and laptops are amazing devices, and life today wouldn’t be the same without them.

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV HOW TO#

MP4 Repair: How to Fix Corrupted Video Files in 2019.

Best Choice Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery.

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV GENERATOR#

How to Create a Strong Password in 2022: Secure Password Generator & 6 Tips for Strong Passwords.How to Securely Store Passwords in 2022: Best Secure Password Storage.Best Password Manager for Small Business.How to Access the Deep Web and the Dark Net.Online Storage or Online Backup: What's The Difference?.Time Machine vs Arq vs Duplicati vs Cloudberry Backup.How to Install Firestick Apps from Amazon App Store? Top 30 Firestick Apps for Movies and TV Shows 2.4 Step 4: Open up your other Firestick apps and enjoy streaming without any risk +.2.3 Step 3: Choose the right server and turn the VPN on.2.2 Step 2: Download the ExpressVPN app to your Firestick devices.The Best Firestick App for Overall Safety If you’re looking for the real thing and want to find out how to get it, we’ve created an updated guide on how to install Sportz TV on Firestick in 2022.

#BEST APK MIRROR FOR FIRE TV APK#

Sportz TV is another great IPTV service for sports fans looking to stream all their favorite matches on their TVs – without actually having to sell the furniture to afford the subscriptions! However, many guides out there are still recommending the old APK (which no longer works) or are intentionally having readers download the wrong files.

Content Available: TV shows, Live Sports, Live TV.

Sportz TV Price: Starts at around $4 per month (for a 1-year subscription).

As the name suggests, Sportz TV prioritizes sports channels, with more than 500 channels dedicated just to sports worldwide. Sportz TV is an app you’re gonna love! Do you want to catch a football game in Venezuela then jump over to the UK for some rugby? You’ll never get bored, given the immense library of 13,000 global channels and over 25,000 VOD titles Sport TV has.

Content Available: Movies, TV shows, Games.

And then, of course, don’t forget to get yourself a Kodi VPN to guard your online privacy and security. If you haven’t downloaded Kodi on your Firestick yet, we’ve written a step-by-step tutorial here: How to Install Kodi on Firestick. Anyone looking for a reliable and always functionable entertainment platform needs to look no further. We think this makes Kodi a true ‘all-in’ app suitable for ALL tastes.įor this reason, it set itself apart as one of the best free home box office apps available for the Fire TV Stick (and Fire TV Stick 4K!). And if that wasn’t enough, Kidi even supports games. Apart from these, it has the PVR function, which allows you to record live TV and watch it at a later time. Kodi sah impressive music, movies, TV shows, and photo collections. It can do things you didn’t even know you might need. It is a free and accessible app with almost 900 addons. Kodi bills itself as ‘software built by the community for the community’.

#Best apk mirror for fire tv

[peckhermansen]

Increase Your Good results With These Marketing With Articles Tactics

If you are searching for all the basics about article marketing plus a few other ideas which you might not have been aware of, this post is for yourself. This may be a confusing subject matter with all the various thoughts and data that may be available but we certainly have managed to get easy with the following advice. Supply useful, helpful and valuable facts about your website. Take Jasper to write down up some informative evaluations then use the internet affiliate link to show the readers which place to go to obtain that particular item. Putting together randomly hyperlinks which may have nothing with regards to precisely what is on your site is certain to result in a fast exit with the guests. Publish your articles to some of the well-liked article directory sites on-line. These sites currently have a built-in audience trying to find posts just like your own property. Occasionally it's easier to employ a pre-pre-existing answer than to try to reinvent the wheel. A brief internet search for "article submission sites" provides you with several of the leading websites to get. Write the articles you write to seriously mirror who you really are. Which include aspects of your character and originality will charm a lot more for your market than the usual dryly created post forcing a product or service. Allow your truthful, person type communicate on its own within your posts. Visitors will find this and truly feel at ease with you as being a person. Similar to several on the web endeavors, article promotion is actually a progressive approach. Should you not address it as such, you can expect to never get off the ground. It is important that you generally know that to generate money via article marketing it will take some time to get going. As soon as your EzineArticle continues to be accepted, publish that post with other major article submission sites, like Buzzle, ArticleAlley, and ArticlesFactory. Most major article directory sites do not possess the adhere to label. It is actually still vital that you send them to these directories, because articles from the databases nonetheless do get ranked properly, general. If you're writing for a person else's weblog, ensure that you're nevertheless working throughout the particular market place. If you're marketing weight-decrease items, it's not the ideal strategy to advertize your blog with a software program blog site. The audience is definitely distinct and you can find yourself wasting your work with no come back. Have yourself posted in an on-line report, community forum or blog. Something that relates to your organization kind and makes use of your expertise. You can use this to link straight back to your organization site. Weblink from your site on the newsletter at the same time. This may present your customers and website visitors that you will be knowledgeable in the subject of your company. Bust your posts up by making use of bullet points or figures so visitors can grab the details in small bites. This assists help make your information more clear plus more unique. Information and facts denoted with bullet details sticks out within the mind of your readers, and they can maintain that details in the future. Your introduction will be your greatest possiblity to maintain website visitors on the site, so be sure it's anything attractive. Possess a fantastic opening up to what you distribute online. Your content should participate your readers by making use of queries, information and other things that entices them. Your reader's original views will be based on that first section. The phrase you end up picking can decide if they continue to read your site content, or maybe they exit the page and look for something else. If someone can design and style a write-up that would capable to let anyone to marketplace it as being successfully as possible regardless of where on earth it is then they are going to possess a genuinely effective marketing tool. By offering a write-up to capability to be loved by anybody this can reach a lot more people.

For the greatest article promotion impact away from your composing, stick to positive creating whenever you can. Advertising and marketing submissions are focused entirely on marketing, regardless of whether your product can be a vendor's item or perhaps your individual content material. Readers tend to be more calm, excited and able to purchase when beneficial vocabulary promotes these to be optimistic. Find a way to get and stay imaginative. Creativeness helps make your articles come alive. Many people in your competition, possess the same information and attempt to train it via article writing. Innovative strategies to discuss everything you know, get noticed, no matter how many others have published approximately the same subject. When promoting your online content articles, you must see the "most viewed" and "most posted" kinds of your competition. This will help you to observe how these experts have tried their backlinks and keyword key phrases. Doing this will offer you a benefit since you can find out if the things they are performing is operating. Should it be, you can attempt to simulate them. If it is not, you no doubt know what things to prevent doing. When endorsing your web posts, you must aim to compose an informational article that concerns your niche market matter. This will give your readers more specifics of your distinct niche, that makes it more inclined that the readers will stick with you. You need to try to always keep this informative article close to 500 terms. Don't make your articles short or very long. Any content less than 350 terms will not likely provide you the finest search results. Studies show the best word add up is 400 to 600 words, with numerous paragraphs spread out aside. On-line viewers are notorious with regard to their consideration deficit, and large disables of text will bore them. Keep the intros appealing, and arrive at the level rapidly. Develop a producing format to construction your articles and publish them quicker. Some people keep "swipe records," selections of introduction and bottom line phrases that will help them get ideas speedier after they create. Keep a collection of all the very good report-writing tips you locate and refer to it as you publish. This may induce concepts and generating content creation uncomplicated, and possibly even exciting.

As mentioned in the beginning, there is certainly a substantial amount of details in regards to article promotion. Ideally you will find these guidelines advantageous. You should now find yourself ahead of the online game in case you are attempting to come to be an expert, or maybe looking to get a certain amount of background information.

#jarvis #copywriting #writing #essay #jasper #content

[evanscurtainsandblinds1]

Curtain Designs For Your Living Room

Drape plans decisions are limitless. The number and assortment of drapes to browse are staggering. You will be really dazzled by every one of the choices accessible to you. To start with, you have a decision of purchasing your drapes either from on the web or disconnected store. With stores in reality you can contact and feel the fabric, really get to see the examples however the decisions are restricted. Online stores offer limitless decisions and in the event that you could do without the examples in a single store you can continuously snap and track down one more store without the issue of genuinely moving from one store to another. Ensure however that the store conveys in your geographic area.

With regards to picking Curtains for Living Room, you want to remember the overall stylistic layout of the room. In the event that it is conventional like in a house you could like fancy and weighty shades. In this sort of house where there are many things seeking consideration the weighty plans will basically mix in with the environmental factors. Having straightforward plans will really draw in much more consideration.

On the off chance that it is current and moderate, pick dynamic or mathematical examples. You really want to settle on the thing will be the focal point of consideration in the room. Is it will be the workmanship pieces on the wall or the furnishings or the draperies? On the off chance that the center is the craftsmanship pieces, your drapes ought to be unobtrusive and basic and not cause any to notice themselves. All that in room ought to just blur away from plain sight as the image sticks out. Assuming the costly furniture will be focal point of consideration of course the drapes ought to match the style of the furnishings or be rather than set off the furniture plan.

On the off chance that the drapes will be the concentration, by all means pick brilliant and strong subjects. On the off chance that your room is generally grave and plain, add a sprinkle of variety with your shade picks. Front rooms need part of light as we accumulate here for talking with companions, understanding papers and books, paying attention to music and messing around. This room should be light and breezy. Thus, it could be smarter to pick light materials that let in a ton of light but keep up with some measure of protection in the front room. Light cottons, engineered materials, trim are great wagers.

For more details, visit us :

Curtains for Kitchen

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#Curtains For Office #Curtains for Living Room #Curtains for Bedroom #Curtains Melbourne

[substancedigitalads]

Optimizing location pages for local SEO Services

When you're running a big company with lots of locations, making sure each spot shines on the web is super important. If you want people to easily find your places when they search online then we at Substance Digital are available for you with the best SEO services and more.

Based on this, the question arises what exactly is SEO for location pages? Well, it's all about giving the lowdown on each of your spots in a city, country, or state. This helps folks find you on search engines like Google when they're looking for something nearby. We call these pages "location pages," but some folks also call them "local landing pages."

Why local landing pages are required online?

Local landing pages are required because without these pages, it's tough for people to find you online. That's bad for business! So, let's dive into how you can make your location pages really stand out. First off, you've got to add value to these pages. That means making sure each one has unique and helpful info. If you just copy and paste the same stuff from one page to another, it won't cut it.

Sure, you can have some general info that's the same across all pages, like your company's mission or what you sell. But try to make each page special by adding details specific to that location.

Now, here's the thing: if you've got locations close to each other, they might offer similar stuff to the same folks. That's where it gets tricky. But don't worry, there's a solution! You've got a make each page stand out by giving it unique value. That means loading it up with info that's only relevant to that spot. It's like giving each location its own special flavor.

What mistakes should avoid while creating landing pages?

There are some things you should avoid when creating these pages. One big no-no is just saying the same thing in different ways. That might seem like you're adding value, but you're really not. It's like serving up the same dish with a different garnish—it might look different, but it tastes the same.

And you've gotta make sure people and search engines can actually find your pages. That means including them in sitemaps and linking to them from other parts of your site. It's like putting up signs so folks know where to go.

So, to sum it up: make each location page unique and helpful, avoid repeating yourself, and make sure people can find your pages easily. Follow these tips, and your location pages will shine bright on the web!

Conclusion

In simple terms, optimizing location pages for local SEO means making sure each spot of your business has its own special info online. This helps people find you when they're searching nearby. To do this right, you've to make each page unique and useful, avoid repeating yourself, and make sure folks can actually find your pages. Stick to these tips, and you'll be golden!

Read more- https://substancedigital.in/optimizing-location-pages-for-local-seo-services.html

#seo #smo #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing #advertisingagency

[moneyallthetime]

How To Drive more Traffic To My Website: The Definitive Guide

In the bustling world of digital marketing, driving traffic to your website is akin to finding water in a desert. It's essential for survival. Without it, your beautiful site, no matter how well-designed or content-rich, might as well be a billboard in the middle of nowhere. Today, I'm here to guide you through the mirage and into an oasis of visitors, using strategies that are tested, proven, and ready to go. And stick with me, because I've got a secret weapon up my sleeve that’s going to change the game for you entirely. The Pillars of Traffic Generation Before we unveil the ace in our pocket, it’s crucial to lay down the foundational strategies that ensure your website is a visitor magnet. Stellar Content is Non-negotiable Content is the currency of the web. High-quality, valuable content engages readers, establishes authority, and encourages shares. Blogs, videos, infographics, and podcasts are just a few formats that can captivate an audience. Remember, consistency is key. The more consistently you post, the more consistent your traffic will be. SEO: The Art and Science of Being Found Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your best friend in the digital space. It’s both an art and a science. Through keyword research, on-page optimization, and building quality backlinks, you can dramatically increase your site’s visibility and SERP rankings. The goal? Be where your audience is searching. Leverage Social Media Platforms Social media is a powerful tool to amplify your content and engage directly with your target audience. Each platform has its unique advantages and audience behaviors. Tailor your content to fit each platform, whether it’s Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and watch your traffic grow through shares and interactions. Email Marketing: The Direct Line Never underestimate the power of email marketing. It’s your direct line to your audience, bypassing algorithms and competition for attention on social platforms. Build a strong email list, provide value in every message, and watch as your click-through rates soar, driving traffic back to your site. Introducing The Game-Changer: Traffic Wave Generator Now, onto the secret weapon I promised —Traffic Generator. In an online world where getting traffic can feel like trying to squeeze water from a stone, this tool is the dynamite that breaks open the floodgates. Why Traffic Wave Generator? Simplifies the Complex Traffic generation strategies can get overwhelming. Traffic Wave Generator simplifies the process, offering an all-in-one solution that handles the heavy lifting for you. Proven Strategies at Your Fingertips No need to reinvent the wheel. Traffic Wave Generator gives you access to proven strategies that have already helped websites skyrocket their visitors. We’re talking about a tool that’s been tested in the trenches and came out victorious. Automation for Efficiency One of the biggest challenges with driving traffic is the sheer amount of time and effort it requires. Traffic Wave Generator offers automation options that save you time while maximizing results. Tailored to Fit Your Needs Whether you're a blogger, a small business owner, or running an e-commerce empire, Traffic Wave Generator can be tailored to fit your specific needs, ensuring that the traffic you receive is not just high in quantity but high in quality. Why You Need It In a nutshell, if you want to increase your website traffic without spending every waking moment on marketing strategies, Traffic Wave Generator is your solution. It’s efficient, effective, and could very well be the difference between a website that flounders and one that flourishes. Take the Leap Driving traffic doesn't have to be a battle fought uphill. With the right strategies and tools like Traffic Wave Generator, it can be a smooth ride to the top. This isn’t just about getting any visitors; it’s about getting the right visitors who engage, convert, and ultimately, drive your online success. Ready to revolutionize your traffic strategy? Discover how Traffic Wave Generator can make the difference for your website today. Because in the end, it’s not just about being seen; it’s about being remembered and revisited. Transform your trickle of visitors into a wave with Traffic Wave Generator. Your website deserves it, and so do you. Read the full article

[cfvy-shop]

How to Plan Your First Successful Website

March 20, 2024

Planning a new website can be exciting and — if you’re anything like me — a little daunting. Whether you’re an experienced freelancer, a team of hardened developers, or a small business owner, a well-structured plan is critical for success.

In this post, I’ll give you the benefit of my experience, guiding you through the essential steps of planning a web design project and ensuring that you start off on the right foot and follow through to a successful end product.

Define Your Goals and Objectives

OK, first things first: before we dive into any design or development work, it’s absolutely essential that you have a clear understanding of what success means to you. Are you looking to increase sales, improve brand awareness, or provide information to your audience?

Set SMART Goals

I find it helpful to break down objectives into SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. This approach helps you stay focused rather than drift off on flights of fancy.

Specific: Define your goals with precision. For example, “increase online sales by 20% within the next year” or “reach page 1 on Google.”

Measurable: Ensure you can track your goals with metrics or data points. Website analytics can be used to monitor traffic, and internal sales tracking can be used to monitor revenue.

Achievable: There’s no point in saying, “We want to be Amazon by the end of the year.” Your goals should be realistic and attainable, given your resources and time frame.

Relevant: Make sure your goals are aligned with your overall business objectives and are essential to your success. A fabulous website is meaningless if it doesn’t support your growth.

Timely: Set deadlines for your goals to keep the project on track and maintain momentum.

Develop a Strategy and Stick to It.

Based on your SMART goals, outline the strategies and actions needed to achieve them. This could involve improving website navigation for better UX (user experience), optimizing for SEO to increase visibility, or creating compelling content to engage visitors. In reality, it probably means all that and more.

Monitor your project’s progress against your SMART goals. When you see yourself starting to diverge, it’s time to revisit the plan.

Understand Your Audience and Your Competitors

Understanding your audience is critical to designing a website that effectively meets their needs.

Identify Your Target Audience

Determine who your primary website users will be. Consider age, gender, location, interests, education, and specific needs.

Develop detailed personas for your typical users. Include information about their demographics, behaviors, motivations, and challenges. Personas should represent the different user types that will visit your website. Personas don’t replace testing with real users, but they’re an excellent place to start when you don’t have anything to test just yet.

Conduct Competitor Analysis

Studying successful businesses in your field can sometimes tell you more about the market and how to succeed in it, as analyzing your customers.

Research Competitors: Identify and review the websites of your direct competitors.

Analyze Their Websites: Note the strengths and weaknesses of these websites. What style have they adopted? What design elements do they use? What is the tone of voice of their content? What functionality do they have? What are your general impressions of the UX?

Identify Differentiation Opportunities: Determine how your website can stand out. Look for gaps in the market that your website can fill and unique value propositions you can offer.

Using insights from your audience and competitor analysis, decide on the key features and types of content your website will offer. Prioritize these based on what will most effectively meet your users’ needs and differentiate your site in the market.

Build Your Strategy

Compile your research and decisions into a strategy document. This document will serve as a reference throughout the design process, ensuring your website meets your target audience’s needs and stands out from the competition.

Create a Content Strategy: Plan what types of content you will need, such as text, images, videos, or infographics. Consider the tone of voice that will resonate with your audience and start outlining or drafting content for your key pages.

Plan for SEO: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be considered from the start. Use keyword research to guide your content creation and ensure your website’s structure and code are optimized for search engines. This will help your site rank higher in search results and attract more visitors.

Map Out Your Site Structure: Start by creating a sitemap that outlines all the pages you plan to include and how they will be structured. Think about the journey you want visitors to take and how you can make navigation intuitive.

Design for Usability and Accessibility: Ensure that your site is easy to navigate, works well on various devices and browsers, and meets accessibility standards so that it’s usable for people with disabilities.

Choose Your Technology Stack: Decide on the technologies that will power your website. This includes choosing a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, Drupal, or a custom solution, and selecting the front-end and back-end programming languages and frameworks that best suit your project’s needs.

If you don’t know the answer to these questions, now is the time to seek professional help. Even if you’re an experienced designer, it doesn’t hurt to run your ideas past a developer — new tech hits the market all the time, and there may be a good solution that you weren’t aware of.

Set a Timeline and Budget

To streamline your project planning, ensure you’ve set a timeline and a budget.

Set realistic deadlines:

Break down the project into phases (e.g., design, development, content creation).

Assign a realistic deadline to each phase, considering the complexity and resources available.

Ensure each deadline aligns with your overall project goals for a cohesive timeline.

Create a detailed budget:

Itemize all project components, including design, development, content creation, and any necessary third-party services.

Estimate the cost for each element based on quotes, past projects, or industry standards.

Allocate funds for unexpected expenses to avoid budget overruns.

Review and adjust the budget as the project progresses to stay on track.

By focusing on these points, you’ll maintain control over your project’s timeline and finances, paving the way for a successful completion.

Conclusion

It’s easy to start a website, but starting a successful website that doesn’t chew through your budget is a little trickier. The process requires discipline to take the strategic steps necessary to create a website that aligns with your overall business goals.

Start with a clear definition of goals. Use the SMART goals approach to set a strong foundation. Although you may need some flexibility throughout the project, starting with a formal structure will get you on the right foot.

Understanding your audience and their needs is crucial in creating a website that they find helpful. Your site structure and technology stack should support delivering these insights. Get it right, and you’ll not only have new users but also retain old ones.

And, of course, meticulous planning around timelines and budgets ensures nothing gets out of hand.

This holistic approach ensures that your website looks appealing and effectively meets business goals and user needs.

Simon Sterne

Simon Sterne is a staff writer at WebdesignerDepot. He’s interested in technology, WordPress, and all things UX. In his spare time he enjoys photography.

Read more here https://upcity.com/profiles/d5-media

#wordpress #web designer

[websolutionproviderblog]

Crafting Digital Brilliance: Your Premier Web Design Agency in Singapore

Creating Online Success Stories with Every Pixel We Create: Crafting Digital Brilliance is the top web design agency in Singapore. With each project we take on, we stand for creativity, accuracy, and an unwavering quest of excellence. Our team consists of forward-thinking strategists, developers, and designers that craft engaging digital experiences by fusing new technologies with inventive flair. We create solutions that are unique to your brand and produce measurable outcomes, from dynamic e-commerce platforms to slick corporate websites.

A strong online presence is not an option, but rather a must in Singapore’s fast-paced digital environment, where innovation is king and competition is fierce. The institute for companies wishing to create or enhance their online presence is a web design company singapore. A website serves as any business’s online storefront, so it must be more than just elegant pleasing. It must also perfectly balance functionality and aesthetics while capturing the soul of the company. This is the exact situation in which the knowledge of a dependable web design company is useful.

Corporate website design is vital for any business, whether it’s a startup looking to carve out a market or an settled company looking to update its online presence. Offering your brand story, values, and distinct selling propositions in an engaging way goes beyond just listing goods and services. A professionally designed business website acts as a virtual representative, making an impression that sticks and bringing in new business from satisfied clients.

 In the world of online shopping, the risks are greater. An ecommerce web design Singapore that engages and converts visitors is crucial given the rapid rise of e-commerce. As a centre of innovation and business, Singapore requires e-commerce solutions that are not only practical but also long-lasting. Specialised agencies can help here by utilising their knowledge and experience.

The Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) programme is one of the driving forces behind Singapore’s e-commerce expansion. By lowering the cost of implementing technology to increase efficiency and competitiveness, PSG e-commerce solutions give businesses more power. By using PSG grants, companies that are entering the online retail space can invest in high-quality e-commerce web design and development services without going over budget.

It can be difficult to navigate Singapore’s PSG grant landscape, but with the right help, companies can discover a wealth of opportunities. From conception to completion, a smooth process is guaranteed when working with a web design company experienced in PSG grant applications. Businesses can stay ahead of the curve in Singapore’s rapidly changing digital economy and future-proof their e-commerce endeavours by utilising the power of PSG grants. 

In summary, the combination of a web design company, PSG grants, and Singapore’s thriving business community creates an environment that is ideal for achieving unmatched success online. Finding the right partner who shares your vision and has the know-how to make it a reality is crucial, whether you’re creating e-commerce platforms that generate income or corporate websites that radiate professionalism. 

[webdesignranchocucamonga]

Invest In The Best Rancho Cucamonga Website Design Cost For Greater Business Success

Boost Your Online Presence with a Top-notch Website Design Agency in Rancho Cucamonga!

Are you looking to take your business to new heights in the digital realm? Do you want to grab the attention of potential customers and leave a lasting impression? Look no further! Our website design agency in Rancho Cucamonga is here to help you skyrocket your online presence!

In this fast-paced, ever-evolving digital era, having a visually stunning and user-friendly website is crucial. It's your online storefront, the face of your business, and the first impression you make on potential customers. A well-designed website can be the game-changer for your business, attracting more traffic, generating leads, and increasing conversions. And guess what? We're experts in making that happen!

Oh, but I can design my own website,you might say. Sure, you can, just like I can try to fix my car when it breaks down. But let's be real here; it's always best to leave it to the professionals. Our team of skilled and experienced web designers knows all the ins and outs of creating visually stunning websites that captivate your audience from the get-go. We specialize in creating unique designs that represent your brand's personality, making you stand out from the sea of cookie-cutter websites out there.

Still not convinced? Let's delve deeper into the why behind choosing a professional website design agency like ours:

First Impressions Matter:You wouldn't show up to a high-profile meeting in sweatpants and a stained t-shirt, would you? Treat your website the same way! A professionally designed website creates an instant positive impression on your visitors, making them more likely to stay and explore.

Mobile Optimization:Did you know that the majority of internet users now access the web through mobile devices? Having a responsive website that looks great on all screen sizes is no longer an option; it's a necessity. Our website design agency in Rancho Cucamonga ensures your website is optimized for an exceptional mobile experience, boosting your chances of converting those mobile visitors into paying customers.

User-Friendly Navigation:Let's face it; no one wants to navigate through a maze-like website, desperately searching for the information they need. Our expert web designers excel in creating intuitive navigation that guides your visitors smoothly throughout your site, ensuring they find what they're looking for effortlessly.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):Ah, SEO, the holy grail of online visibility! Our website design agency in Rancho Cucamonga knows how to incorporate SEO strategies seamlessly into your website design, giving you a competitive edge in search engine rankings. Say goodbye to being buried on page 10 of Google's search results!

Speed Matters:In today's fast-paced world, people don't have the time or patience to wait for a slow website to load. Studies show that even a one-second delay in page load time can lead to a significant drop in conversions. Our web design experts optimize your website's performance, making sure your visitors stick around instead of bouncing off to your competitors.

Now, you might be wondering, why should I choose your website design agency in Rancho Cucamonga? What sets you apart from the rest?Great questions! Here's why we're the cream of the crop:

Creativity Unleashed:We don't believe in the one-size-fits-all approach. Each of our website designs is crafted with creativity and uniqueness in mind, tailored to your brand's personality and target audience. Stand out from the crowd and make a memorable impression!

Collaborative Partnership:We firmly believe that the best results come from two minds working together. That's why we prioritize open and transparent communication with our clients, involving you in every step of the design process. Your ideas and feedback matter to us!

Results-Driven Approach:Pretty designs are great, but we don't stop there. Our website design agency in Rancho Cucamonga focuses on delivering tangible results for your business. From increasing traffic and engagement to driving conversions, we're here to help you achieve your goals.

Cutting-Edge Technologies:Technology is ever-evolving, and so are we. Our web designers stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies, ensuring your website incorporates the latest bells and whistles to keep you ahead of the curve.

Ready to take the plunge and transform your online presence?Give us a call or fill out our contact form today! Let our web design Rancho Cucamonga unleash the full potential of your business. Say goodbye to lackluster websites and hello to a whole new level of digital success! We can't wait to embark on this exciting journey with you.

#WebDesignRanchoCucamonga #RanchoCucamongaWebDesign