#will reblog this with the rest of them but I’m at mobile image limit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cafeleningrad · 4 years

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bengalaas a réagi à votre billet “US-Pivilegien sind, dass die gaze Welt gegen die Polizeigewalt eines...”

Yeah, I'm also not enjoying tumblr lately. Like, I can't really object to people organizing, posting, reblogging things that are important and that matter to them, but... it's so increasingly US-centric right now that I just don't feel welcome or relevant :/

at the moment there's so much to unpack: Beginning with the assumption that social media is directly a real life platform instead of a leisure time one, then that Bush-y attitude of "if you're not with us you're against us", and in the end only caring about the US events, demanding authentic action but this “authentic action” should be expressed by blogging? The problem with this is that the question is where genuine concern ends and peer pressure begins. Perhaps this is just a biased view of mine but I tend to be sceptic when statements flare up on the internet of it possibly being virtue signaling - We, including me, should be careful to take internet posts at face value. I don’t mean it in a manner that would easily brush off responsibility from educating oneself but we circle back to the question how we handle social media personally. Is at a politically active platform, or a leisure time escape where we can curate and limit our willingness to engage in conflict? Further, is there such a need to constantly post about the same topic over and over again to signal consideration online - online image and what we do in the material world is not equivalent.

And also not everyone is from the damn US so non-US citizens can also care about the US for five seconds.

And consider that with the fact that there’s still a global pandemic going on still impacting many people gravely! Man people are still struggling with Corona regulations, it’’s consequences and aftermath. (Lately talked to m family in Venezuela and they pray to not fall gravely ill any time soon because going into the hospital atm was already a high risk before Corona but no any scrape of functionality in an already beaten down health care system is exhausted...). The US is in a heated state, yet the rest of the world grabbles with another pressing issue, also wearing us out.

I wrote this post after I heard how in my study town people organized a BLM protest. Against police brutality in the US. Okay, solidarity can boost moral. But I really, really got pissed off that people, despite Corona, mobilized for a country’s issue which we have here as well. In the recent years, and passed over the run of two decades neo-facist groups in Germany mobilized, the AfD-representatives came out openly facist, xenophobic, a high number of rightwing terrorism acts were badly investigated or prevented. Only after the horrific terror act in Hanau the German government suddenly became aware of an increasing threat from right wing groups, suddenly realizing that the police is barely equipped to investigate and prevent criminal acts effectively. That’s not to leave out how elements in the police force and military are racist, and act according to it.

Except for a few newspapers keeping the topic of racism and the blind eye of the German population about that topic alive but suddenly after George Flyod’s death, the majority becomes aware that racism is suddenly a global problem. Oh news.

What really, really, really rubbed me hard the wrong way it takes the US for people to mobilize against a flawed, discriminatory governmental structure. And still people internationally mostly care about what happens in the US first, no matter what horrific proofs of to similar flaws are demonstrated in the same country.

Even in times of dire crisis the US has a privilege of international attention attention about which they take for granted. I’m just tired that rampant antisemitism and xenophobia here makes my aunt, my uncle, and grandmother be too aware that they look Latin-American (TM) but that only brings up a public shocked gasp but these people will go out, during a pandemic, to protest for events in the US.

#bengalaas #Lewis ranting

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clownd-a · 4 years

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MOBILE RULES

Call me Tea. I’m 28. They/Them

DISCLAIMER.

*** Follow at your own discretion. This blog will contain highly triggering content which includes but is not limited to murder, violence, bloodshed, torture... the list goes on, really.***

Gogol is a newer character for me, so be patient while I develop him and get comfortable with his portrayal.

Mun =/= muse. As a writer, exploring themes outside of my own moral values is interesting and part of being a writer. However, this does not mean I agree with what my muse says or does, nor do I align my own moral values with Gogol’s. We are two separate entities.

If I follow you, it means i’m interested in interacting! If I don’t receive a follow back after a few weeks, i’ll take it that you don’t wish to interact and will unfollow (unless I really like your content). No hard feelings.

You must have a rules page and a mun name visible and easily accessible on your blog. I will not follow you if I cannot find one or both of these things.

I don’t send in rules passwords, but rest assured I have read them.

While I will dwell into darker subjects and triggering themes, I will not under any circumstance write the following: sexual acts of NSFW, pedophilia, zoophilia, noncon, dubcon, etc. I’ll add more as they come up, but you get the gist.

Yes, Gogol will attack your muse if provoked. He is insane and isn’t exactly someone who can be reasoned with. But he will not fatally injure or kill your muse without your explicit consent. I expect the same courtesy in return.

If a thread begins to become too uncomfortable for you, please let me know. We can drop it. My feelings wont be hurt, your comfort comes first. I always try to communicate closely when writing darker content.

If I unfollow or block you, it’s usually done so for my own comfort. I don’t generally approach people before doing these things unless I know you pretty well, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t confront me to ask why I unfollowed or blocked.

Please don’t bug me for threads. I’m very busy and I work a lot, so more often than not i’m pretty stressed out. I’ll reply when I have muse and energy. The more you bug me about a reply the less i’ll wanna respond... I don’t mind if we talk about the thread, but don’t press me into replying. I am here to unwind and relax.

I do not participate in callout culture. I understand some callouts are necessary, but I would still like you to tag them if you do post or reblog any. Drama of any kind present on the dash makes me physically and mentally unwell.

On drama. If I see you vague post on dash I will block you on sight. Please do not vague post, don’t put that stuff on the dash. It gives the dash bad vibes and triggers my anxiety and paranoia. I don’t care if it’s tagged or not.

Don’t come near me if you romanticize mentall illness / are a yandere stan. I do have BPD, and this will affect my ability to reply and insert myself ooc and ic. Please be patient with me.

DISCORD IS AVAILABLE TO MUTUALS UPON REQUEST.

Triggers: irl images of gore / severe injuries, child abuse, alcohol, irl religion, irl politics

#mobile rules #mobile law #rules #law

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frogocado · 5 years

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A Golden Labyrinth of Noise Part 4 (Damien Haas au)

can someone pls remind me that sometimes on tumblr mobile I accidentally just delete entire posts thank you. Begin the series here. Please message me if you want to be on my tag list!

tag list @star-mum, @latenlghtdevil, @weirdlywonderful, @thegigglehutsbonkyjilliams

I’m gonna try to be more consistent about word counts so this is 2.3k. Let me know what you think! Reblogs help a lot!

4. Walls of a Different Kind

“Twelve… thirteen… fourteen…” Courtney finished counting out small coins and passed them to you. You examined the pile—far few golds this time and only a small handful of bronze pieces. Right as Courtney resumed her count; a bruised and dirty hand brushed them off of the bar and into a change purse.

“Hey!” You exclaimed, wheeling with your first at the ready. Even with the small possibility that it could be anyone other than who it always is, your instincts kicked in fast and hard. David flashed you a wicked grin as he hid behind Courtney.

“You guys!” She whined, combining the piles again as she restarted.

“Blame Y/N, the damned rent is due.”

You rolled your eyes, catching Courtney’s pointed look in your own. The damned rent was always due. David slipped into the back room to gather the rest of his things for the night. Courtney slipped three coins to you across the bar— two extra silver pieces and a solid, glinting gold. You gasped before quickly sweeping the three extra coins into the folds of your apron. You mouthed a “thank you” to your friend. Courtney put her finger to her lips as David rounded the corner again.

“I can still perform tomorrow night, right?” You asked your boss, following behind him. He had swiftly grabbed one of the oil lanterns and headed for the staircase. He grunted an answer in return halfway up the flight. Your time was going to be cut short and without the extra tips, you wouldn’t be able to afford the special loaf the baker had been saving for you all week. “Come on, David, it’s the second Thursday of the month. Remember what you said—“

Even with the limited light, you could still see him rolling his eyes. “Yes, yes, fine, fine,” he answered dully. He pulled the door open and slammed it straight into your face. “Don’t burn the bar down with me inside,” he called, just as he did every night. “I’ll know!”

Courtney followed up the stairs soon after, holding a second oil lamp in one hand and candelabra in the other. She gave you a sheepish grin, casually handing the candelabra to you. You and Courtney had once, indeed, tried down to burn the tavern down with David inside. You thought maybe that would end your three year servitude of serving drinks and singing once a month, that maybe you’d be able to escape the dull kingdom and your awful boss. If only the Fates were kinder. While the candelabra had taken the curtains easily, it was almost as if David had always expected his staff to try to murder him. Even though minutes before, he was passed out drunk on his cot, he was up with a pail of water. They were doused faster than you and Courtney could realize what was happening. He docked your pay for a month.

Courtney followed you down the small hallway to your small room. “Did you see that guy that was with Shayne?” She asked, leaning against the frame as you worked on getting your door unstuck from its broken lock. A jiggle to the left, a push to the right… “Think he was a prisoner?”

You made a face, shaking your head as the door finally wretched itself open. “I still don’t know who Shayne is.”

“That guard that’s always at Matt Raub’s,” Courtney pushed past you, sitting on your small bunk in the middle of the room. You hadn’t remembered inviting her in.

You placed the candelabra on the window sill. “Oh,” you said, though you still weren’t a hundred percent sure who she meant. You leaned down and pulled a small, black box out from underneath your cot and deposited the coins inside. Your friend was still talking, laying back on your cot now as your fingers lightly traced over the images on the coins. Five golds, ten silvers, two bronze. It was a start.

“You ever think about how easy things would be if we had more coin?” You ask her absentmindedly as you push the box back under your cot. When you look up, Courtney is asleep, curled around your pillow with her boots still on.

You sighed and pulled the torn blanket around your friend before returning to the window. You sat on your traveling trunk and watched the candle light dance against the glass of the window. You wondered when you would ever feel like you belonged somewhere. Your eyes drifted past the flame and out the yards and yards to where the seagulls patrolled the river waters outside of the kingdom. “Take me back,” you whispered, bringing your finger up to tap on the glass of the window. “Take me back.”

Your eyes drifted to your dresser where a single, faded image sat in a patched frame. It was the only photo of your life before, a handmaiden standing over your shoulder. Her hand was resting on your shoulder, both sets of eyes focused on the photographer. You hummed as you crossed the room to the image, folding the frame so it lay face down against your dresser. You weren’t sure if you could handle drifting in your own memories tonight.

Right as you considered fighting with your door again to go back downstairs into the main tavern, a small, black head poked itself out from around the travel trunk. When you met your cat’s eyes, you gave her a small, soft smile. “Want to come with me?” You asked, the door giving way much more easily when pulled rather than pushed.

It was one of the things David had told you when you had first considered living above the tavern. “If you need to make a quick escape for some reason… guards chasing you or someone coming for money… it’s a lot easier to get out than it is to get in. Like life, really, if you think about it.”

Zelda gave a soft purr in response and stretched before following close behind your heels. Even in the dark, your cat was still blacker than the darkest shadow and you marveled as she twined her tail around the bannister, feet quiet until the bottom of the steps. You hummed once your feet landed on the hardwood floors of the bar, letting the tone of your breath fill the space.

Zelda hopped up onto the bar as you dug underneath next day’s cleaning rags for your torn, tattered, notebook. “Come on,” you coaxed your animal friend, carefully tiptoeing halfway up the stairwell again. She didn’t follow until you shimmied the window on the stairwell’s landing open. Wood ground against wood, the building sighing as it let in the night air. Before you could even swing your leg out onto the roof, Zelda was leaping ahead of you, off to chase the pigeons that often roosted near the chimney.

The two of you stayed on the roof until the sun began to crest the rooftops of the village around you, and then a little bit longer after that, too. Even when your voice wasn’t being carried in the air, you were still trying to connect with your music, the songs from your time beyond the kingdom. You missed the sighs and exhales of wood in water. You missed birds overhead and the rocking that moved through your stomach and your head. You missed the smell of musk and salt, the callouses that grew into small mountains and valleys on your hands and fingers from work. You missed feeling important, like so much more than a woman, a singer, a fucking maid.

A knock on the window sill jarred you from your thoughts and you jumped, turning back around to the sound. David had his hands bracing the sides of the sill, glaring out the window at you and Zelda. “Let’s go, I need you downstairs.” His voice was gruff and the additional tone caused Zelda’s hair to stand on end. She glanced over at him from her spot curled on the shingles and hissed. “And shut that cursed thing up.”

You sighed as the bell tower chimed to eight. Ducking back into the building, you followed David downstairs. “You never have me work this early,” you grumbled as you grabbed your apron.

“Yeah, well,” David griped as he began to set the chairs down. “If I’m losing my best waitress tonight she better put her work in now. Your rent doesn’t pay itself, you know. You’re lucky I don’t charge you for your roommate, too.” His eyes traveled back up the stairs where Zelda was watching the two of you, her black and white face resting between the spaces of the railing.

You waited until David was turned away from you to roll your eyes. The hardest part of dealing with David was the way you couldn’t do shit about it. He was unfair and manipulative, but he was also the only decent option in a village so small and far from neighbors. As you help David prepare for the evening, you find yourself hoping that by the time that dumb royal kid is old enough his parents will have enough sense to marry him off to someone important. It didn’t matter that King Haas used to have metal experience or that his family used to bring the village commerce and visitors alike. What good were royalty if all they did was sit surrounded by their own walls? You wondered if there had always been such separation between the village and the royal family, or what had made it switch? Most days, it felt like you weren’t being led by a king at all, just watched like ants in glass.

David slamming two glasses onto the bar pulled you out of your thoughts. “Your boss sucks,” he was grumbling to the two patrons seated in front of him. After having you work the entire morning and afternoon, your set began in a little over half an hour and you were exhausted. The mug of honey tea Courtney had given you an hour ago had gone cold wrapped in your hand. All you wanted to do was slink upstairs and rest.

The woman on the left, a small Asian woman that seemed to be drowning in the folds of clothes around her, shook her head. “You shouldn’t talk about the King that way. Someone might do something about it.” She brought her hands up, punching her fist into her palm. You had seen this woman around the bar a few times in the past month or so. When she wasn’t drinking at the Lion, she was often shouting in the street to anyone that passed her. She and David couldn’t seem to stand each other, but they also complained about the very same people. That’s the only reason they got along, you realized.

Master Healer Johnson put a hand on his companion’s shoulder, his silver hair in a high bun. There was always something shifty about him, like his fingers would make light work of anything shiny. “Mari, relax. Think about it from David’s perspective,” Johnson said, his voice soft and close to a sing-song. “A lazy man who’s forced to pay his taxes when all he wants to do is rip off travelers. King Haas hasn’t been on an expedition in years.”

You nearly choked from the cold tea in your mouth and coughed. David turned on you quickly as you rose to your feet, heading for the small, makeshift stage before he could scream. Courtney was rushing between tables, trying to balance two trays while still being able to move freely.

You moved away from your lute on the stage and held out your hands in an attempted offer of help. Even with her dizzy movements, she came to a halt in front of you. “I’ve got it, Y/N! This is your one night a month to be free of this job. Don’t waste the opportunity, please.” Immediately, her movements began again and you watched, hoping her clumsy feet wouldn’t trip her up. You could only imagine how David would react.

You climbed begrudgingly back onto the stage and tuned your lute. Once you were ready, you hopped down and approached a table, pointing to a stool between the two men. “Are you using this?” You asked, looking between a man beneath a brown cloak and his companion, a regular whose name you could never quite place.

“It’s yours.”

They passed it to you and you grinned towards them, tucking it beneath your arm as you approached the stage again. As you adjusted everything you needed, you glanced back to the two men, wondering with curiosity why both men seemed to be familiar to you, like a song forgotten since youth.

#damien haas #smosh #smosh fic #smosh au #damien haas fic #damien haas au #damien haas x reader #damien is barely in this I am s o r r y #damien haas imagine #fic #glon #mine #prince!damien au

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charlicpace · 5 years

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GIF PACK POLL RESULTS !

so, as you’ve probably seen over the last few days if you follow me, i posted a survey a few days ago about gif packs and people’s relationships with reblogging them. i mostly posted it out of curiosity, as i’d noticed a few patterns over the years and wanted to see what some actual, physical data would look like, and the lovely @stevienick pointed out that the results would be useful for fellow gif makers, so here we are ! i wasn’t sure if anybody would respond, so thank you to everybody who did & a very big thank you to everybody who boosted the post ! i’m very grateful ♡

quick note:

it might be easier to view the results if you add /mobile to the end of the url, as i know a contained theme can squish things sometimes ! i’m gonna talk about the results of each question a little, but of course you are more than free to ignore my ramblings and just observe for yourself, and you can ctrl +f to the questions if you’re looking for results for a specific one !

the results:

DO YOU REBLOG GIF PACKS?

i looked at how the results were doing whenever i had a free moment when the survey was up, and i think i ended up checking on it about eight or so times in that time, and in the first twelve hours or so, ‘i will like but not reblog’ had no votes, so it’s very interesting to me that as time went on and more people responded, this changed ! while the other questions are helped by the poll only being taken by people that do interact with gif packs in terms of notes, i do wish maybe a couple of people who won’t like, reblog, etc no matter what, had responded, but i’m glad they didn’t as that means that people ( or at least those people who filled out the survey ) are following gif makers’ rules, and that’s fantastic.

WHY WOULD YOU REBLOG A GIF PACK?

i feel like i want to start everything with ‘this was really interesting, because...’ but it all was ! i found everything really interesting, especially watching the majorities change over time, but something specifically that i found myself thinking Hmm,,, Inch Resting™ while observing, was the most popular responses shifting and changing over time. admittedly, for some reason, i wasn’t expecting so many people to admit to reblogging a gif pack of a person they’ve never seen before just because they’re attractive, and i don’t know why, as there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that ! it just surprised me ! but, unsurprisingly, the results show that the vast majority of people are more likely to reblog a gif pack of a fc they like, and that makes nothing but sense to me. i do love, though, that the vast majority of people just want to show appreciation for the work put into gif packs.

the ‘other’ responses:

the ‘i wouldn’t’ confused me for half a second, but i’m assuming it came from one of the people who said they like the gif packs but don’t reblog them -- in hindsight, i definitely should’ve included an ‘n/a’ option ! to find later is a very valid answer, and i think i should’ve included that in ‘because i want to use the gifs’ -- i think those responses are similar enough to be included in the same umbrella, so i’d just image the yellow bar being a little bit longer, and the percentages going up a smidgen, if you’re wanting to use this data to your advantage. to spread awareness of more fc’s is definitely an option i should’ve included in hindsight ! lots of gif makers make wonderful gifs of people the rpc may not know all that much about, so signal boosting them and letting the world know they have resources is a great reason to reblog a pack, and works nicely as a ‘hey there’s no excuse for not having diversity in your rp, look at this cute person with nice gifs’ and i definitely hadn’t thought of that when typing up the questions !

WHERE DO YOU FIND THE GIF PACKS YOU REBLOG?

i should’ve worded this better, by acknowledging that ‘likes’ also count here, but it seems as though those who said they like but don’t reblog got the gist of what i was going for, and answered that way for me anyway. basically, what i meant by this one was ‘if you’re interacting with a gif pack, where did you find it?’

anyway, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people find gif packs either on their dash, or in the tags, and i feel like a lot of us take this into consideration when posting our packs. more people are going to see the post if it’s posted on a friday or saturday evening, than 11am on a tuesday, even with timzeones taken into consideration, and we use that knowledge to our advantage already.

the ‘other’ responses:

makes sense, but it does make me wonder where the original posts were found in the first place !

the end result was nothing surprising, i don’t think. i think the limit of having five functioning tags is a little limiting when trying to get packs out there. i usually tag ‘#fc name gif hunt #fc name gif pack #gif pack #rph’ and then a wildcard. sometimes it’s the fc’s name, and i try and make an educated-guess-type-of-judgement on whether that one’s a good idea. sometimes it’s another one of the rpc tags. this question is one of the ones that i was really glad i included an ‘other’ option, as i think they’re very useful for the most part.

the ‘other’ responses:

tags like gmcentral and gifpackshq are great because they can be used by anybody, and after seeing the results, i’m wondering if i personally might swap out some of my usual tags in favour of them ! tags such as tasksweekly and gifpacknetwork are wonderful, and we know to use them when applicable. i do love that all four of those tags are being used even by the people who aren’t running those blogs associated with them, in favour of finding more resources. i didn’t know that people still actively searched for faces and gif packs in tags like ‘underused fc’ -- and any tags like that -- so that one was super interesting, and definitely something i’m going to think about ! and while i like that people are using icons ( i love me a good rp icon, don’t get me wrong ) this poll is specifically about gif packs, so do with that data what you will.

WHAT INFORMATION TO FIND YOU FIND HELPFUL WHEN INCLUDED IN THE POST?

i know i said i’d practically be saying this for every one, but this was really interesting. it’s also another time when i think that hindsight is wonderful, because i think now i should’ve included a question asking how often someone will click the link to view the gifs, and if it’s only if they plan on using them, or they might click the link to see what the others look like beyond the preview before reblogging, but close the page after a few have loaded and they can see that everything looks fine, etc. the reason i say this now, is because i know that some people include this information on the page the gifs are stored on, but not in the post, and i’m wondering if it makes a difference. however, the question did ask what information is helpful in the post, so i’m going to keep that in mind when looking at the results. i think this is one of the questions hat i found most helpful to me personally, as i don’t include the the three most popular results in the post. the second and third most popular, i include on the gif page, but i don’t put any of the top three in the post, and i should think about changing that.

the ‘other’ responses:

it was when the ‘others’ started rolling in that i realised that i should’ve worded the question better. it should’ve been ‘what extra information do you find helpful...’ and i’m glad some folks pointed it out, as i deem trigger/content warnings to be a necessity. to me, the basic information would be name of the fc, how any gifs are in the pack, the source material, and then any content warnings, and anything else is just extra information, but i didn’t say that, so i’m very glad people mentioned trigger warnings and the number of gifs in a pack - thank you !

WHAT’S YOUR PREFERRED METHOD OF ACCESSING THE GIFS IN A PACK?

for quite a while, a download link had absolutely no votes -- in the end, it only got four, but it’s nice to know that people do still use them ! other than that, i don’t think this one was at all surprising, but still helpful to see it written down.

PLEASE SELECT ALL STATEMENTS YOU AGREE WITH...

this one was fascinating. nearly half of people only reblog gif packs of fcs they like, lots of people care more about bumping faces of colour and nb and/or trans fcs than plus sizes or disabled ones, lots more people admitted to being more inclined to reblog a gif pack if they find the fc attractive than i thought would, and the number of people saying that they’re not more likely to reblog younger fcs than older was a lot less than i thought --- i’m sure i’m not the only one who’s noticed that gif packs of younger faces tend to get more notes than those of older, even if you take out any other variables that could skew that number. all very interesting results, and results i think we’ll all find useful. it’s also nice to see that people tend to care more about accessibility than about aesthetics, with more people having an ‘upper size limit’ for gifs than having a lower one, and it’s nice that 93% of people are fine with reblogging gifs of people they’ve never heard of and opening themselves up to new faces !

DO YOU MAKE GIF PACKS?

so i added this one on the end to see if the results would differ based on whether the person responding makes gifs ( in my head, i was wondering if gif makers are more likely to seek out other people’s gifs to reblog to support other gif makers, and things like that ! ) so it’s very interesting and helpful to know that, while not equal, there’s a good chunk on both ends of the spectrum, and some folks in the middle who make gifs but not packs, or edit gifs into gif icons.

end of results ! if anybody wants to talk about anything to do with the above info, or has any questions, i’m more than happy to chat ! i think i’m going to use some of this information in the future, and hopefully it’s helpful to fellow gif makers out there ! i don’t want to be too ‘in conclusion...’ about all of this, but i do just want to say that it’s very interesting to see written down, with actual evidence, that there are a lot of factors into why someone may or may not reblog a gif pack, and why some packs do better than others ( obviously, a gif pack posted by someone with 1000 followers will do better than someone with 100, even if it’s of the same quality and posted at the same time; more people are going to see it. but i mean more stripping it back to the things we can control like tags used and the layout of the post etc ) and i think if i were to do this again, there are things i’d add ( maybe preference for number of gifs previewed on the post, size/dimensions preference, and things like that ? ) and things i’d clarify, but in general i’m really pleased with how insightful this has been, and if i say interesting one more time i think i may combust, but it legitimately has all been very interesting. again, thank you very much to everyone who responded, and i hope others find this helpful or at least interesting !

#rph #rpc #rpt #rpcha #rpa #survey results #mine #nobody not a soul literally no one:#me: HMM INTERESTING!!!!#join us next time on studies with pace when she tackles the question that doesn't even matter but she wonders anyway:#does binge-viewing have an effect on the popularity of gif packs and fcs over your classic Once A Week viewing

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fatphobiabusters · 5 years

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Updates:

RE: Blog Description

I know mobile users will not see this right away, but I have written a new description for the blog!

Notably, the big change with the new descriptions is that I removed the section about the moderators.

Why? Because the original description was long and difficult to read, and the section about the moderators being as long as it was was a huge part of why. Especially for mobile users, the blog description was ridiculously challenging to read, and probably took more mental energy than a lot of people had.

If you’re worried about this change because you’re not sure how you are supposed to know what pronouns to use, who is an active mod on this blog, who could best address your questions, etc., I completely understand. However, there is no reason to be concerned.

We are working on creating an About the Mods page so that all that information is available to you in a neater, more organized way that will be easier to read.

For mobile users, I realize this causes some difficulty. You cannot access pages on mobile which is a problem. You might be able to see them on your phone’s browser, although I’m not sure if that’s the case. And I realize that getting to a computer may not be easy for all of you.

Having said that, I fully intend on making a post for mobile users to access that will allow you to get a general sense of what the page says. It may not be as detailed as the page is, but it will help.

Re: Pages

Speaking of pages, the next big change is that I updated our Ask and Submission Guidelines!

Instead of being one long page, these guidelines are now divided into two pages: an Ask Policy page and a Submissions Policy page!

Again, because I realize mobile users cannot access these pages, I will make a post available to you that will have the same information.

Most of the rules in the policy are the same; however, a few new ones have been added, particularly in the Submissions Policy.

Moreover, a lot of the guidelines in the Ask Policy also apply to submissions, but instead of repeating myself a bunch in both pages, I am asking users to read both pages if they intend on sending submissions.

Re: Submissions

Since we are already on the topic of submissions, we have something we would like to say.

The ask box is still really full, and we haven’t had as much time and energy to answer asks as we wanted. Therefore, asks and submissions will continue to be closed until March 1st, so we have time to finish addressing all of the current asks and submissions you have sent.

If we have to keep things closed longer, we will.

Re: Fatspo Friday

Fatspo Fridays are still happening. Since you can’t submit to us, you can always tag us in a post instead. Also feel free to tag us in posts of other beautiful fat people who cross your dashboard; you don’t only have to share selfies of yourself!

Remember, though, that Fatspo Friday is not intended as a NSFW, sexual event. So if you tag us in a picture of someone else, please make sure that you keep that in mind. I’m not saying we are against semi-nudity, but please make sure you’re paying attention to the content of the post and how the OP tagged and captioned it.

Also, while we appreciate you and your eagerness to participate, I personally would appreciate it if we did not have a single person spamming us with images of themselves for one Friday. So if you tag us in, say, 3 or more selfies of yourself, I probably would set them to be reblogged on different Fridays, instead of all the same Friday.

When submissions turn back on, please try to limit how many selfies you send us per Friday. If we feel like one person is sending their image a lot, we will try to spread out their selfies so that we aren’t posting the same face 4 or more times in a single day. But it would be easier on us if you chose not to send more than 1 or 2, and sent the rest to us on another Friday.

Also, if you cannot send us an image on Friday specifically, you could always send it earlier; we just won’t post it until Friday.

These are all the big updates we have for you at this time. However, please be aware that many more are coming, and you should pay close attention.

- Mod Bella

#Update #Ask Guidelines #Submission Guidelines #Ask and Submission Policy #Ask and Submission Guidelines #Fatspo Friday #About the Mods #Important Notice #Formerly Mod Bella #Formerly Mod V #Aria Announces

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inky-thoughts · 6 years

Text

How to Organize a Zine 101 #3

Hello~

I already talked about figuring out your zine and the zine’s schedule as well as what you should bring with you to successfully manage a zine.

I think the next step should be building up

Web Presence

I already talked a wee lil bit about it in Part 1 but I think I should elaborate a bit more on it as it’s basically the backbone of almost every fanzine nowadays.

A small disclaimer: Please take everything with a certain grain of salt as I am not a professional when it comes to social media managment. These are just some pointers I consider useful/helpful as they worked for me or other zines I had a brief overview of.

Where to post?

First of all, think about what platforms you want to use, and get familiar with them if you aren’t already. Learn “the way” of it to know which rules/guidelines to follow, because not every platform is the same in tonality or which kind of content spreads fastest.

The most common platforms that I’ve found to work with zines pretty well are Twitter and Tumblr. As both are available as apps for practically almost every phone, it’s also easy to check and keep updated with when you’re on your way.

Tumblr is quite interesting because it’s bascially like a website (and yes, you should keep in mind that the mobile version doesn’t support tumblr sites) and you can conveniently store all info to your zine, answer questions in public, and reblog post e.g. previews of zine entries. It’s easy to spread information quickly if you use the correct tags and post them in the best time frames for your audience.

Twitter is kind of like a news ticker, or gets used by many like this. It’s easier to engage with people and “spread the word” by tagging people who might be interested in the zine.

Also, think about where you as a manager have the bigger following so you can forward e.g. tweets or posts or make your own announcements about the zine to your following and potential customers.

What to post?

Obvious things are announcements like schedules, FAQ, details on the zine, application progress, previews, contributor lists, links to online shops, etc. This is kind of basic together with updates like if important e-mails to the contributors went out etc.

However, this isn’t everything at all. What I found great in other zines (which we completely ignored for our zine and I think that’s a very sad thing actually) was having specific dates (in fandoms stuff like characters’ birthdays, anniversaries etc.) or more general things like widespread holidays, or “event dates” (? - like world women’s day, labour day, you get the twist) that somehow correlate to your zine. For example, one zine I participated in was about the girls of a certain fandom, so they chose the Day of the Girl to start previews to kickstart the preorder phase - and I really loved that! It brings everything in another perspective because it’s not just a zine for a few little nerds to enjoy, but it conveys a much more pronounced message that way. Including those kind of dates, whether it’s just a small post like “Happy New Year” with a small update on the zine progress, or a special sale because it’s xy character’s birthday and it happens to also fall perfectly into your schedule, it just makes your zine feel more honest and considerate of their passion for the zine’s content. It isn’t mendatory, but it definitely has a more lasting impression.

Also, you might want to think about what medium you want to choose - photos/pictures generally get more attention as it is highly visual (plus it’s easier to find on a twitter accound for example) and can be a nice addition to your text. This is where you definitely should think about some kind of corporate design for your zine that is eye-catching enough to get attention from a lot of people and still matches tone and intention of the zine. Gifs may give a post a bit more animated, funny, or simply emotional expression, so having a few sets of gifs/images (perhaps from the source material if it’s a fan zine) handy isn’t such a bad idea. It’s something we didn’t have and I basically have only regret about it.

How?

You also might think about the tonality of how you appear on the zine’s social media. Generally, fandoms are a rather friendly and casual place to be, so you can slip a small joke or something like that into your posts, however, you shouldn’t go all “LOLZ dat boi xDDDDDD” because you still want people to take you seriously and (if it’s a for-buy zine) pay real money for your zine. Keep a certain level of professionalism but don’t have a complete stick up your butt is all I’m saying as you don’t want to alienate people because of one thing or the other.

If you’re modding the zine with several mods (which I highly recommend!), also add signatures at the end of each post (we did it with -Mod [our name]) so it’s easier to clear up misunderstandings etc. as people know who they’re talking to and maybe one mod just didn’t read the memo or something. With tweets it’s just wasting precious characters but on tumblr you aren’t limited at all.

Also remember tagging: It feels like a science itself, and partly it is. First, tag what it’s about. You need to reach the fans, so if it’s about a certain ship or characters, tag those. Tag the fandom, and, very important, tag that it’s a zine. having those covered at first makes you pop up in e.g. tumblr search more as tumblr had changed that only the first 5 tags will be where you’ll appear. Some blogs which collect zine posts have a specific tag they’re tracking, so including some of these comes in quite handy. The rest is mainly to maintain a system on your blog, which everyone needs to figure out themselves. Tagging on twitter is kind of different as you have a limit, I would always go with ships/content first, then perhaps fandom, and zine only if you’ve got some characters to kill. Also please don’t use completely unrelated tags only because they’re currently trending - this is just plain annoying and it’s more likely that people will ignore you instead of gaining some interest in your project.

When?

Do your research on what times are the best to post your content to get your target audience, especially as shipping can be very expensive so you want to have national interest in first place. Every social media has their own specific timeframes where content goes viral the fastest. There is no 100% correct formular, but some tendencies at least, so you can help your luck out a little bit.

Grooming Your Media

To most social media, the key to success is consistency, so you definitely shouldn’t sleep on this. Luckily, social media are (except for most forums but then again your phone usually also has a web browser) usually available as app version, meaning you’re quick to responst or check in. - That’s what you usually think but truth be told, apps also don’t always work perfectly, and especially the tumblr app is known to be rather wonky. I also (this is a personal preference, though) find it easier to compose posts and pick the right pictures on my computer, so if you’re the same way as I, I would advise you to calculate half an hour up to maybe 3 per day/every two days to check in on all your zine’s accounts. It depends a bit on how active the current phase is and how many questions/inquiries people are sending your way.

Tumblr luckily has the queue option, and it definitely saves you a lot of time when you need to bring up an important post regularly. Through the queue, the blog also stays more active, thus has likely more traffic or is simply more noticible as it stays fresh in mind.

Twitter, however, doesn’t have this function (or I’m definitely not aware of it), and, truth be told, also isn’t concipated for this kind of thing. There aren’t really many updates you can post during certain phases of the zine, but there might help the above mentioned dates you might want to keep in mind. Tweeting about the occassion and connecting it with your zine might raise interest and more traffic on your account. And yes, then there are the really busy phases where you simply can’t keep up with social media as the zine demands all your attention. However, sometimes people just want to know how busy you are, so tweet it! A sentence or two are probably enough, and then you’re basically good to go for the day. Just remember to retweet your tweet during your breaks.

And, again, checking on your media should be a regular thing because waiting for an answer for 1-2 days is a different thing than a month or so later (this accidentally happened to us because we didn’t get a notification), so don’t just check “does the system signal me that there are new messages” but actually go into all possible messaging systems directly to check because sometimes tech is a bit wonky. (Also check the message requests!!!)

To maintain a certain level of activity can be a pretty tough job and by now I’m actually inclined to believe that one of the mods should be responsible solely for the social media management while the others work on the actual zine. However, I can’t say I’ve had experience with handling stuff like this that way. It definitely would have gotten a lot of pressure off my shoulders (I mean there’s a reason why companies have a special department handling all this stuff.)

Also, when I say “post regularly,” you can determine what is regular. This can be 24/7, every other day, or once a week, maybe also every two weeks but I suppose no less than that or people might forget you even exist. It’s just important to keep that schedule up so people can build a habit of expecting and getting to see a new post at a certain time.

It feels a bit hypocritic for me to talk about this topic because I think I’m not doing a very great job at it myseld simply because I easily neglect stuff like this, but again this small series is about learning from our/my mistakes so you don’t have to make them with your zines.

Thank you for reading, I hope I’ll find the time to write the next installment soon!

<< last | next >>

Masterpost

#inky rambles #zines #fanzines #fandom zines #how to organize a zine 101 #fan zines #long post #advice #art advice

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craniumaniac-moved · 6 years

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PLEASE REBLOG TO SPREAD THE WORD !!

LIKE MOST YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, I DESPERATELY NEED MONEY FOR RENT, UPCOMING HOLIDAY SEASONS, & THE REST OF MY LIFE. I’ve been intending to insert myself into a freelance design career for awhile, and though I’ve yet to do so “professionally,” I am eager to test the waters with my favorite hobby—the Tumblr roleplay community.

Below are descriptions of what I offer. Prices depend on the complexity of what I will be creating for you. I may be able to predict what the exact price will be before I start designing, but that is subject to change within the given range.

THEME GRAPHIC: $10-20 My theme graphics consist of an image (can be fanart with permission, your original artwork, or official franchise images) that are edited to fit the aesthetic you want / leave me to interpret. Your URL and any other text you want incorporated into it will be included as well.

THEME GRAPHIC + CODING: $20-35 You will get the kind of graphic described above, plus the coding to go with it. I use a code made by me from scratch and I will edit it to your liking however obscurely. Contained themes are what I make for myself, but I will take it out of the box for you if you prefer.

THEME CODING: $10-20 Do you already have a theme graphic and just need some coding? No problem, I’ll work with whatever image you already have! The same description as above applies. Need more theme examples? Ask me!

PROMO/MOBILE BANNER: $10-15 Includes the same elements as a theme graphic, just typically simpler and/or not intended to fit a whole page. I can make a promo, mobile banner, or graphic that acts as both. The latter two will be a specific size. Promo graphics alone may come out larger in height. MORE EXAMPLES ››

ICON PSD: $3 (+ $1 per 10 icons) This is what makes icons appear uniform and unique to a blog. Despite my examples I’ll create any effect or add-on you ask for, and I’ll make them any shape or size you prefer. The multiple icon-making can be left up to you, or to me for an additional cost. MORE EXAMPLES ››

FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW THE READMORE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, & THEN PLEASE SUBMIT IT HERE !!

MAIN URL: url of the blog you’re most active on, for communication purposes COMMISSION URL: url of the blog the commission is for GRAPHICS COMMISSIONING: which of the above do you want me to create for you? DO YOU HAVE IMAGES IN MIND?: yes/no - i’ll come to you to ask for/discuss these, it will be easier this way DESCRIBE THE AESTHETIC: this includes color schemes, fonts (specific or not), and any words you want to provide me with to get an idea of the mood you want the graphic to convey INSPIRATIONS?: link me to graphics you’ve seen before that particularly resonate with you that you’d like me to draw some inspiration from ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: anything else you feel is important to mention right now! i will actively discuss your commission with you as i go, however, so it’s ok if you can’t fill this out

SUBMIT HERE ››

ADDITONAL INFO! (the equivalent of fine print, i guess)

I WILL NOT...

discriminate between fandoms/followers. I’m mostly with the Pokemon RPC, but I’ve created graphics in all sorts of communities thus far and will not limit myself, even if I am unfamiliar with a fandom. It also does not matter to me if we’re mutuals; if you’re willing to pay me, I’ll do it!

work with any fanart images without permission from the artist to work with and charge you for. Any image you request I use must have permission, must be your own art, OR an official image (such as official artwork, or caps from manga, anime, etc). If you don’t have an image in mind, I will find an official one. But if you’re just asking for theme coding, I honestly don’t care where your image is from.

work with sexually NSFW images or make anything appear explicitly NSFW. Images depicting blood, violence, injury, or other mature themes are okay with me.

edit an existing theme code for you. You can certainly send me links to other themes you like and I’ll try to make something inspired by them, but I only work with my own coding I make from scratch.

make obvious “replicas” of other people’s work. This goes along with the above. You can show me things to draw inspiration from, but I’m not about to remake someone’s exact graphic and just put your information on it.

discount anything unless I feel it is necessary (such as if I personally feel I have taken much too long to finish your commission for what it is, or if I just couldn’t get it to look as perfect as I intended despite my best efforts).

use any animation unless it’s extremely simple, something I can make myself, and is not pre-made. Animation will automatically bump the price to the highest of the range, and may call for higher depending on the complexity of the rest of the graphic.

#graphic commissions #roleplay commissions #rp commissions #theme commissions #icon commissions #banner commissions #【ｓｅｌｆｇｒａｔｉｔｕｄｅ . 】✘ self promo #【ｓｈｏｕｔｏｕｔ . 】✘ promo #【ｔｈｅｒｅａｌｂｏｓｓ . 】✘ mun #【ｏｕｔｏｆｄｅｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｏｎ . 】✘ ooc

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winterdeepelegy · 6 years

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I have a humble request. Let me preface this by saying this isn’t an attack on anyone, but if you are someone who posts (just as an example) 8-12 (or more) posts in a single sitting, whether it’s mostly aesthetics, reblogs, art, or just general shitposts, I ask that you please consider the following: 1. Your followers follow you because we want to see your content. 2. We follow a lot of other people because we also want to see their content. 3. Making massive amounts of posts in one sitting in rapid succession means one of two things: We have to skim over/bypass your content when we would probably rather take the time to enjoy it because we also want to see other peoples’ posts, or we end up taking the time to enjoy yours and missing things other people are putting out there. If we’re on break at work, we simply don’t have the kind of time to do both. 4. It effectively drowns out other content we are looking for in favor of your own. Remember the “Best Stuff First” thing Tumblr just put in and people are in a tizzy about? What you’re doing is not much different. 5. When you follow multiple people who do this, it makes it very difficult, and tedious to see anything else. 6. We don’t want to unfollow you. Again, we follow you because we enjoy your content, whether it’s art, writing, aesthetics, or general shitposting, but as far as I’m aware, options to blacklist specific tags are very limited on mobile. 7. Please take the people following you into consideration so you can keep them following you, and so they can enjoy your posts and everyone else’s. The image at the top of this post gives you your options on both PC (top) and mobile (bottom) for putting your posts in queue, and alternatively scheduling them to go up at specific times. That way you can still submit all of your posts at once, but the rest of us get it a little bit at a time instead of getting flooded. 8. We love you. Please love us back by remembering this.

#ooc #out of ice #tumblr queue #post scheduling #post courtesy

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stimtoybox · 7 years

Note

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to start a stim/fidget toy review blog? I think it will give me a good outlet to talk about them instead of bothering my friends every time I get a new stimmy thing. I just don't know where to start. :(

I am flattered, anon, that you think we can offer advice on this point!

To be honest, I don’t think it’s that much different from starting any creative project, and these are all things folks should consider if they’re doing anything new. So ask yourself these questions, as they’ll guide you, I think, towards what you do next and how you do it.

I apologise for writing … well, an essay on blogging. It’s probably a great deal more than what you’ve asked for, but I’ve learnt a great deal in running this blog, and it all came flooding out on the page.

The main points, I think, I’ll summarise here before going into everything under the cut:

Know what it is you want to do and why you want to do it. It’s very hard to keep going with anything if you’re not sure why you’re doing it.

Hold close to your heart everything you think you can bring to your blog and reviews, because cherishing your own uniqueness keeps you going.

Practice self-care in determining what is possible for you and how much time you can devote to a blog. Look after yourself first. Your followers will wait even longer for responses if you have a mental breakdown.

Blog only if it makes you happy, because blogging is a lot of work!

Regular and consistent updates do result in regular followers and interactions, but the expectation that one updates regularly and consistently is based on ableist assumptions of ability, so you are allowed to be inconsistent.

Practice gratitude for the people who interact with you.

Don’t feel you ever have to take hate or abuse: you are allowed to use the block button.

Do not ever feel as though you need to know everything about your subject before blogging, because your followers like being able to help you.

If you’re comfortable sharing your blog with us, anon, when you have it ready to go, I’d love to see it. No such thing as too much stimmy information or too many stim blogs; we’re all part of a much greater (and fabulous) community working together to help and share information and discussion about a special interest/hyperfixation/passion. That’s a fabulously awesome thing, and I love all the connections with others - something I’m generally terrible at - I’ve made through this blog.

So, if you’re comfortable, come join us in our little network of stimmers, because we want you to be part of it!

What is it you want to do? What is it you don’t want to do?

Do you just want to post your own reviews? Do you want to post/reblog links to cool toys you’ve found? Do you just want to post/reblog photos of toy collections without reviews or listing information? Do you want to do a mix of toys and online stimming videos/GIFs/ASMR? Tutorials? For example, I don’t enjoy videos or GIFs, so I knew this blog would be about toys, and as I like making things, tutorials just happened naturally. Have a think about the kind of content you want to include and focus on that.

You can always widen your focus afterwards, but having a focus in the beginning helps give you direction, and direction is important.

(Additionally, as your blow grows, your followers might push your blog in all sorts of different directions!)

Why is it you want to do it?

Just wanting somewhere to put your thoughts is a good and valid reason! In the case of this blog, I wanted that, but I also wanted to discuss stim toys with a greater international focus. I know it seems odd now, but when I started this blog few stim toy bloggers were listing currencies, discussing shipping costs or providing image descriptions. There were few listings that weren’t focused on US webstores and absolutely nothing about Australian resources. I saw a gap in what was being covered by others, based on my own needs as a stimmer, and jumped right in.

Knowing why you want to do something helps tailor your approach: it gives you that little bit of uniqueness that separates your blog from other blogs. It erases that doubt that surfaces when you wonder why you’re doing this when everyone else is doing this already. There will be something you’re doing that the rest of us aren’t, and if you find that and hold onto it, it’s a lot easier to keep going.

What makes you happy?

What do you enjoy doing? Writing? Photography? Talking about little details? Making GIFs? Collecting listings of cool items you’ve seen online?

Find out what it is you think you’ll enjoy most and focus, at least in the beginning, on that. Happiness is incredibly motivating.

What lies within your ability?

Anon, take it from someone who repeatedly and reliably fails at this point: figure out what it is you can’t do in the matter of a stim blog and push it aside. You do not have to do everything on your blog. If there is something you genuinely cannot do, don’t do it. This is especially important for disabled bloggers, as we generally have limitations in what we can do and how much. Don’t be like me, trying to do everything because it’s good to do without any awareness of how much Trying To Do Everything is breaking me.

There’s a line between Things That Are Good To Do and Things I Can Actually Do, and you’ll be saner and happier (as someone who is regularly driving myself up the wall with my habit of overestimating my ability to function) if you stay on the “actually possible” side of the line.

Things to look at here include physical ability and time for working on this blog, both of which are super important to evaluate. Always underestimate your ability to do things - you’d rather have extra time and spoons than not enough of it!

I’ll acknowledge that regular, consistent updates are probably the biggest thing when it comes to growing a following, but for disabled people this is a very hard thing to do, and all the “how to blog” advice posts never mention this. The goal of consistency is deeply ableist. If you can do this, great. If you can’t? Don’t bother about it. Updating sporadically is better than being burnt out and not updating at all for six months because you’ve set yourself a punishing schedule your life and body won’t allow you to manage.

How are you going to do it?

You know what you want to say and why; the next step is how. How are you going to format your blog? Possible questions to consider include:

Do you want to write short or long reviews?

Do you want to include photos, videos, GIFs?

Do you want to casually talk about your purchases or aim to be a resource?

Do you want to tag everything as an archive? (This is so the thing where I have bitten off more than I can chew, ye gods.)

Do you want to make your content as accessible as you can?

Do you want to accept asks and user submissions?

Do you want to have a moderated/shared blog?

Do you want to be an informative resource versus just talking casually about your stim experiences?

Do you want your blog to be an informative resource versus a blend of stim posts and your own personal content?

Do you want to cultivate connections with other stim bloggers?

This step is thinking about the minutia of how you’re going to do whatever it is you want to do. In my case, it was deciding that this blog is a resource blog, that I’d focus on tags and archiving, that I want to put a lot of detail in my reviews and that I’d be as accessible as is possible for me.

By the way, while personal review blogs and broader resource blogs are different, one isn’t necessarily better than the other. General stim toy blogs that just post and reblog collection photos get a great following because people just want to enjoy the pretty and get to know the collator. They’re also much easier to run in terms of workload, especially for folks on mobile.

How are you going to approach the community?

This is where you think about who your audience is, who you wish to be following you and how you’re going to approach your interactions with others. Tumblr is a curious space in the sense that various flavours of activism often end up in spaces that aren’t really about activism, and that can be a tricky thing to deal with. I’m not always sure that I deal with it well, but I think at the end of the day that if you try to be true to who you are, that’s a good thing, even if others disagree with your approach.

(It’s okay if people do disagree. The number of stim blogs that exist means there’s a space for most of us.)

Things to consider include:

Who don’t you wish to follow? It is absolutely within your right as a blogger to dictate whom it is you wish to follow and interact with you, or what behaviours will result in blocking. My opinion is that it’s good to be polite about expressing it, though, especially if you’re asking blogs that feature behaviour that doesn’t cause harm to vulnerable populations to not follow you/not engage. You’re allowed to put your comfort first, but politeness is good.

Is your blog for a wider community or a section of it? Are you for anyone who stims, for disabled people who stim, ND people who stim or a targeted group like anxious stimmers or autistic stimmers?

How exclusive are you in your community building? Some blogs are completely inclusive, some blogs are largely inclusive, some are very exclusive. Stim blogs often end up being little communities of their own, so it pays to take some time to think about the kind of space you want to build.

Are you bringing other politics or modes of activism to this blog? It often pays to put this somewhere if you are or aren’t. I know that I’ve felt very uncomfortable when I’ve followed a blog only to discover a week later that the owner/mods are exclusionists. By the way, it is absolutely okay to not reveal your beliefs on any of these issues if you keep it entirely off the blog. It is also okay to be open about who you are and what you believe but not make the blog primarily about those beliefs. It is also okay to make the blog all about those beliefs.

How will you approach drama? For example, I have a block policy for hate messages: I block and never discuss the content on this blog, because I feel this is not the place to discuss people who feel the need to tell me how much they hate me for differing activism/identity approaches. I’ve got better things to do than to waste my spoons on that. Other bloggers respond to those messages and discuss them.

How will you keep your followers safe? You can do the AO3 approach of choosing not to tag - as long as you mention this on your blog description, this is entirely valid. You can tag. You can advise that there are certain things you can’t advise for and tag for the rest. You can say that this isn’t a space for discussing politics, activism or problematic content. You can say that you do discuss it. I’ve realised that I need to go back and make my approach to discussion content - that while we won’t discuss abuse or ableism or other awful things that happen to ND people in explicit detail, we won’t pretend they don’t exist or happen to us - more clear. (It’s part of the evolution from stim toy review blog to stim toy and ND blog, and I’m still playing catch-up in a lot of ways.)

I admit that my philosophy in general is to be as inclusive as possible whilst still centering stimming on ND and disabled people, and I personally will never have enough blogs to follow that do this. I am all for community building that is as accepting and non-judgemental as is possible. But this is not the only way to blog, and in the end, you do you, anon. There’s space in the world for people to have differing opinions, and the benefit of a blog is that one can make a community that suits one’s needs and philosophy.

I’ll also note that autistics and issues relating to autism (Autism $peaks, for example) have more of a presence in stim spaces, but if you are not autistic, you absolutely do not have to make your blog about autism. I believe there’s a real need for more allistic stimmers to make blogs that focus on the stimming needs of ADHD and/or anxious stimmers without autism discussions creeping in.

What do you need to do?

This step is for considering all the things you need to do to make the blog go from an idea to a thing.

Please note that this is often more professional in focus than many bloggers consider: I’m a writer, and so it’s habit for me to try and make even my non-writing blogs of a semi-professional standard.

If this feels way too much, pick and choose (remember: you don’t have to do everything).

The name of your blog. Do you have a name? Is it still available? Go and grab it now if so, even if you don’t make your blog for days, weeks or months. I sat on @stimtoybox for about three months before I finally made the blog.

The layout of your blog. There’s a lot of custom Tumblr designs out there, but, to be brutally honest, most of them are not user-friendly in terms of accessible and easy-to-read design. Pick a clean theme that’s easy to modify, as that will give non-Tumblr users access to your content. I know everyone thinks we only access blogs via dashboard these days, but if you get big enough, some of your anons may not be registered Tumblr users, and giving them access to your blog via an easy-to-read webpage layout matters a lot.

The avatar/icon and headers of your blog. Many layouts let you custom design these, and this helps give you a little individuality (especially on your webpage layout). You can get lots of royalty-free graphics on sites like Pixabay with no attribution required (although it’s a decent thing to put said attribution on a page). Additionally, your own photos of stim toys work great for this. Having icons and headers that are unique to you is well worth the time it takes to create them.

Bio and blog description. You don’t want an essay for this, but a little information about what you’re doing and why is great.

HTML. If you can add a few HTML links to said blog description, including links to everything people can’t access on mobile (about page, BYF page, submissions info) you’ve made your blog that much easier to use. I am more than happy to write a tutorial on the code I use here on Tumblr if anyone wants it.

Links to your other internet presences. Don’t be ashamed about doing this. You’re providing content, which is a lot of work, so it’s absolutely fair to use it as a way to direct people towards your other work (personal blog, art, writing, whatever).

Before You Follow and Submission information. If you’re allowing asks and submissions, tell people want you want - make a page for this information. (Unfortunately, you’re still going to get people who don’t read before submitting - I’ve had a few submissions that are just GIF images with no informative content, for example, even though we’re a resource blog.) It really does help, though. Likewise with the BYF, if you have folks you’d rather not follow for whatever reason.

Lastly,

You don’t have to know everything about your subject matter. If you don’t know and can’t find it out, admit it. Ask people for their input, because folks genuinely like helping each other out. They like participating; they like offering up information. The majority of your followers are going to be pretty awesome people, and they’re going to want to help, if they can. We have this massive passion in common, and we’re all here, following each other, helping each other, because we like learning and sharing.

In my opinion, there’s also a lot to be gained by being thankful and expressing gratitude to followers’ interactions. (It maybe sounds manipulative put that way, but expressing everything as a social rule makes it sound manipulative, to be honest, and for me everything is a social rule, something I’ve learnt the hard way, not a natural understanding.) Thank you is a pretty powerful word; being grateful is a pretty powerful thing. If there is anything I’ve learnt from this blog, it is that being and expressing gratitude has brought me an awful lot of good will, patience and acceptance, even when I’m absent, screwing up, making mistakes, in too much pain to be helpful or tolerant, being far too emotional or just being too overwhelmed by a blog and inbox that’s gotten bigger than I can often manage.

Be grateful for those who interact with you. You don’t have to accept hate (that gets the block button) but being grateful helps so much.

Good luck, anon. I’m pretty sure this is many more words than what you’re after, and I hope it isn’t too overwhelming for you. We’re all very much looking forward to your unique reviews and insights on stim toys!

- Mod K.A.

#ask #text #anon #discussion post #community discussion #mod K.A.#long post #very long post

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hxglnn · 7 years

Text

For Mobile Users

THREAD TRACKER

RULES

GENERAL

I am semi-selective, but we do not have to be mutuals for you to drop into my inbox. Personals may follow and reblog any posts they wish save for roleplay threads - please instead like if you enjoy it enough. I am open to most types of characters since Huginn lends himself easily to interaction.

GODMODING AND METAGAMING

The usual rules apply here - please don’t godmode or metagame unless you have a very good reason to. Granted that Huginn is a minor deity he still has limitations and I would appreciate it if you showed some restraint also. Check his biography for more details.

IC VS OOC

In Character is not Out of Character. Huginn does stupid shit I don’t agree with sometimes. Talk to me if you’re concerned; you are just as responsible as I could be for your experience.

But mostly I am pretty laid back and just here to have a good time, I don’t sweat minor violations of my rules and will probably just talk to you if it bothers me.

SEMI-SELECTIVE

I will follow you back once I have read your rules and biography and figured out if our characters would be a good fit or not. If you don’t have those that may be why I haven’t followed you back yet. For the most part I’m going to be threading with mutuals. Feel free to drop into my ask box if you like in the meantime.

I don’t really do welcome starters due to time constraints, so please let me know if you would like one.

SQUICKS

MUN AND MUSE

I am really leery of themes of suicide and choking/strangulation, personally. They aren’t triggers, per se, but I do strongly avoid them. I am okay with mild gore but do not seek it out.

Huginn has phobias which you can read more about in his biography.

YOU

If you have squicks or triggers that require tagging please let me know so that I can accomodate you. You may see themes of violence and abuse in some threads, so if that bothers you you may want to blacklist those threads in particular.

SHIPPING AND SMUT

IN GENERAL

If it happens, it happens. I tend to ship chemistry above all else, but Huginn is more prone to one-night stands and the like just for fun. Huginn is also every bit a Raven and can be flighty for lack of a better term. A relationship with him may or may not last just based on who he is.

SMUT

I will not smut with a known minor. It is illegal and I will not go to jail so some kid can get their jollies. By approaching me for smut you are assuring me that you are over the age of 18 regardless of your country of origin.

If I find out you are a minor and approach me for smut I will block you immediately. I take this very seriously and out of consideration for your partners you should too. You may ask for threads that are non-sexual in nature, but please don’t put me in the difficult position of having to block you.

STYLE

My personal preference is multi-paragraph, third person, and present tense. This is mostly due to having a limited number of icons. I am willing to be flexible for my partners though.

MUN

Mun is in her early 30s, uses she/her/they pronouns, works full time, and is married + has a girlfriend. May be sporadic in activity due to aforementioned life things.

ART CREDITS

Icons and background images are by Koda and Tara specifically of Huginn. Please do not reuse these images.

——————————–

BIOGRAPHY

GENERAL

A creature born of the World Tree Yggdrasil, Huginn is a raven daemon - one of four familiars - of the Allfather, Odinn. He is not really a raven as in the animal, rather he is the embodiment of thought in a physical form.

He is tasked with flying over the Earth each day to seek out information for his Master. Sometimes he chafes at the restrictions of being confined to the job during 12 of the daylight hours. His brother takes the night shift with the remaining 12 hours.

He is in indentured servitude, yes, but the Allfather also raised him from a fledgling alongside his brother, Muninn, which gives him an equally worshipful and hateful relationship with Odinn.

He has a very long history of mixing with humankind and has grown very affectionate towards them. He has had many wives and husbands over the years.

SKILLS AND HOBBIES

SKILLS - Huginn is very good at spear fighting, bareknuckle boxing, & Capoeira. He can easily gather information due to his nature. He might know things about your character, but this will be discussed OOC in the interest of better storytelling.

HOBBIES - He enjoys frequenting bars and concerts, starting fights, and generally using physical tasks to shut out the mental noise. He also likes to paint.

SUPERNATURAL POWERS - He can gather almost any information so long as it is written or spoken. He can also become incorporeal, omnipotent, & can change his shape. He is effectively immortal and is incredibly fast. He can grant boons to persons in his Favor, though those are often him using his network of contacts and information to get them what they want. He can use Yggdrasil to travel to other realms or locations within a realm. He has the limited ability to teleport objects to and from his home is Asgaard - this is mostly restricted to his spear, his tie, & objects that can fit into a pocket or the palm of your hand.

WEAKNESSES AND PHOBIAS

WEAKNESSES - He does not have a physical form between 7 am and 7 pm. From 7 pm to 7 am he cannot use most of his thought based abilities. He often forgets things, since he is thought and not memory. His head is always a buzz of discarded ideas that might not be his just from his day job being what it is. He can die temporarily.

He is cursed so that in his human form he will show the scars from any supernatural weapon. He hates it, being very vain.

PHOBIAS - Being bound or constrained in any way is likely to cause him to panic. He has spent so much time being a servant that the physical reminder of restriction is too much for him. Put him in a cage he cannot escape and he will lose his mind.

POWERS RESTRICTIONS - He has only very limited access to his abilities during the night time hours. At best he can appear to teleport using his speed and dodge more effectively due to his incorporeal ability. But that does not last long. If he is “killed” he will cease to exist on the mortal plane, dissipating into ash and reappearing in Asgaard. It will take him nearly a day to recover and he likely won’t be seen again until after his next shift on the job.

He can only have up to 3 Favored Persons at a time.

APPEARANCE

RAVEN FORM

In raven form he is larger than average - black with a white patch on his chest. He could be mistaken for a form of Pied Raven, an extinct variety of raven from the Faroe Islands. He displays unusual flexibility and can do things normal raven should not, such as holding a coffee cup by the handle and drinking from it.

HUMAN FORM

HEIGHT - 6′6″ EYES - Gray, reflecting no color like normal gray eyes. HAIR - Black, sometimes appearing like a single mass or with feather texture depending on how much he is focusing on something else.

SCARS - Missing the last joint of left ring finger, scar from chin through his lip on the right, scar crossing from left cheek through right brow, deeply puckered scar over chest linked to similar scar on his back, slash across throat. He has a tattooed brand of Yggdrasil on the nape of his neck, covered by his hair. The rest of his body is a hodgepodge of scar tissue and corded muscle.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION - He is built like a scarecrow to outward appearance but possesses wiry muscle to back up his big mouth. His skin is deeply tanned and he appears to be between his late 20s and early 40s. He has a constant unshaven scruff on his face and dresses in business casual clothing - black dress shirt, black slacks, black shoes, red tie - but wears it in such a manner that it looks like he just rolled out of bed. The tie is the only actual physical part of his clothing - it’s a gift from his ‘sister’, Freki. FACECLAIMS - Russel Brand & Danny Sexbang.

#mobile users

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