I mostly use this to cross-post stuff from my Live Journal. I have an AO3 and a DeviantArt, neither of which I update frequently. I am really not that interesting.
I know the midterm election is not until November 3, 2026, however I want everyone to be prepared and not say that they "didn't know" or "couldn't figure it out". This is a guide for everything you need to know about voting in the U.S. in the next major election - the 2026 midterm. I will be updating as needed. If you have a question about voting, registration, or anything else please send me an ask or message. State specific deadlines and info listed under the cut! Even if you have a super unique situation, I will absolutely research it for you!
Every seat in the House of Representatives is up for election!
What district am I in?
Who is my current rep?
What is the house of reps?
Critical House races
Governor races
Is my state having a governor election?
Senate races
Is there a senate race for my state?
What is the senate?
Who are my current senators?
Critical Senate races
General voting info
REGISTER TO VOTE
Already registered? Double check your registration has been accepted and validated
What are the deadlines for registering to vote for my state?
State specific rules for registering to vote
I need to change something on my registration
Who is eligible to vote? - anyone who is a U.S. citizen and over the age of 18
I have been convicted of a felony, can I vote?
I am a student who attends school a different state than where I am registered to vote -> resource linked here
How do I vote if I am in the military?
How can I vote (by mail, in person, etc)?
How does voting by mail work?
Can I register to vote online, or do I have to register in person?
How does voting in person work?
Where is my polling place?
Does my state offer early voting?
Does my state offer same day voter registration?
Do I need an ID to vote?
How do I vote if I am unhoused?
Will my ballot be invalidated if I take a photo of it, or post a photo of my ballot on social media?
I've mailed in my ballot, how can I check that it's been received?
What are the deadlines for mailing my ballot?
Can I vote if I am living overseas/in another country?
Does my work have to give me time off to allow me to vote?
I have a disability, what accessibility resources are there?
I need to report an issue or abuse regarding my ballot or voting experience
When are the results of the election announced?
Resources for non English speakers
I am homebound, and need assistance with mailing or filling out my ballot
Does it matter what party I put on my voter registration?
I am going through, or have gone through, DV/stalking/harassment, and I am worried about my address showing up on public voter registries
I've finally finished issue 1 of ButchBun & TigerDyke!
Now you may be wondering “so what is it about?”
Oh you know…
existential spiraling and meeting a cute girl at a gym…
Normal Things…
I made it solely for me, to process some feelings and make something out of it. Half venting, half cute gay wish fulfillment. But if you follow along, I hope you'll enjoy!
I'll be posting one page a day so you can read the entire thing for free, but if you want to read the full issue of the comic sooner it is up in full on my patreon and ko-fi!
AO3 has recently seen a rise in guest spambot comments making false accusations about work creators or other users. For example, they may claim that a particular user is discriminating against minorities, trying to hide the fact that they use AI, or are at risk of having their works stolen or deleted.
These comments often copy existing AO3 usernames in order to make their accusations seem more legitimate. They may also try to lure people onto other platforms (similar to the art commission scam), or use fake links that actually lead to pornographic images.
As always, we recommend that you do not click on any suspicious links or give your contact information to scammers. Instead, simply mark the comments as spam or report them so that the Policy & Abuse committee can remove comments left by these spambots.
Learn how to recognize them and what to do below the cut!
How to recognize this kind of spam:
The comments come from guests, not logged-in users.
The comments may start with praise for you and your writing, trying to lull you into a false sense of security. Or they may claim that you are a bad writer, trying to make you too upset to realize that the comments are fake.
The comments may accuse you or another user of promoting discriminatory beliefs, deceiving fans, or similar behaviors that might cause other people to shun or harass the accused individual. They may claim that they checked social media to find that the accused user is "brazenly sharing hateful content" or "bragging about using AI".
The comments are often pleading or angry, asking you to "stop lying to your readers", "don't remove the AI prompts from your work", or suggesting that you "consider adding more diverse characters" to "repair the trust you've lost with your audience".
So far, these comments have all been from guests. Our advice is to flag them as spam to better filter them out.
To help train our automated spam-checker to block similar guest comments in the future:
If the comment is on your own work:
Go directly to the comment on your work, either by clicking on the link in your email or in your AO3 inbox.
Click on the "Spam" button to mark the guest comment as spam and remove it from your work.
Note: The "Spam" button only appears when viewing a guest comment directly on your work. This is because the AO3 comment inbox is merely a copy of the work's comments – deleting a comment from your AO3 inbox does not delete the comment from the work itself.
If you see comments like these on someone else's work:
Feel free to let the creator know the comment is from a bot, and that they should mark it as spam.
You can also report the comments as botspam via the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form linked at the bottom of every page on AO3.
If you are reporting multiple guest comments, please submit only one report, and include all comment links in your report description. (You can get the direct link to any comment by clicking the "Thread" button on the comment, and then copying the URL of that page.)
As of December 2025, bots have also left guest comments harassing users by:
threatening to report you/your fic to the authorities or your employers
alleging security concerns like your email being compromised or spyware on your computer
claiming that they know your address and are going to visit you at your house
saying that you will die alone and unemployed over the holidays
What these bots claim is not true. These accusations do not mean your work will be deleted or that your accounts are insecure. We recommend that you mark these comments as spam following the instructions in our previous post.
These examples also do not represent the full range of harassment comments that you may receive. We will continue to try and keep you updated about trends; however, please note that the exact wording the bots use will continue to evolve.
If you're not sure if something is a spambot comment, you're welcome to contact Policy & Abuse for assistance. Refer to the original post for more information!
As of January 2026, bots impersonating legitimate users have increasingly left guest comments harassing other users by:
claiming that they know where you live
alleging to have seen you in person
threatening to meet you face-to-face
saying that they posted your personal information (name, address, etc) online
What these bots claim is not true. These comments are likely intended to alarm you into replying.We recommend that you mark these comments as spam following the instructions in our previous post.
These examples do not represent the full range of harassment comments that you may receive. We will continue to try and keep you updated about trends; however, please note that the exact wording the bots use will continue to evolve.
If you're not sure if something is a spambot comment, you're welcome to contact Policy & Abuse for assistance. Refer to the original post for more information!
I know this post is for a very small audience here on Tumblr but some of my oldest friends I met on LiveJournal are still here, so I'm making it anyway just in case.
But there have been some changes at LJ recently that do not bode well at all. Rahaeli made a thread about it on bsky with some more worrying details. For a bit of background on this, LJ is surprisingly big in Russia. Like way more than on the western side, and it's been owned by a Russian company for a long time now (it wasn't always - there was a big controversy when LJ got sold to the Russians back in the day).
The Russian side of LJ dropped a very big change on Dec 29th without warning on their users, essentially making it so they'd have to register their ID or bank info with LJ to post or comment. Any posts from people outside of Russia, or without Cyrillic services turned on, are invisible and can't be interacted with by people inside Russia. It's nearly impossible to turn Cyrillic services on if you're not in Russia either, so there's a big wall now between both sets of users. Rahaeli speculates that this could mean the Russian company that owns LJ could be considering selling off or just shutting down the western side of LJ soon, thus why they're sectioning it off. There's been no mention of this on the western LJ news comms or anything which is also worrying.
Fandom's moved on from LJ now, but that doesn't mean that a large chunk of old fandom didn't take place there before, and if LJ does go down then tons of fic, fanart, meta, communities, kinkmemes, discussions, rp, goes down with it. Everything up in smoke! I think people underestimate sometimes just how much stuff went on there. LJ being dead is much different than LJ being gone... the thought of it really disappearing after all this time breaks my heart. I've spent so much of my life there, even after everyone else left. ;_;
But how to do your backups? Dreamwidth is an easy answer as an LJ clone, with an automated importer that'll snag all your stuff and move it over for you. Another tool I've been using is ljArchive, specifically this fork of it which will also save comments and communities, although it won't get userpics. There's also LJ Archivr, although that one costs money, and I think some others are mentioned in the bsky thread. Whatever you pick, I'd do it sooner than later.
Every answer I can think of to the question "Who picked out these outfits?" is delightful. My very first thought was, "Hajime is dressing these boys," followed quickly by, "UNLESS..." (These colors and designs look so satisfying.)
So I've got this idea to make a series of connecting charms/keychains! The idea is that each one would have a hole/clasp on the top and hole on the bottom so you can connect them to each other and make a chain! You can just get the ones you're interested in and hook them up in whatever way you want! I just went with my main crew so far but these are fun to do, haha. I'm looking into getting these made but I haven't decided on anything yet... depending on how it works out, maybe I'll do some other ones if there's a demand for them. Tempted to make some for some of my OTPs...
Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.
Further, some authors may never even find out the lawsuit is happening. The court's suggested notification scheme "would require class claimants to themselves notify other potential rightsholders," groups said, overlooking the fact that it cost Google $34.5 million "to set up a 'Books Rights Registry' to identify owners for payouts under the proposed settlement" in one of the largest cases involving book authors prior to the AI avalanche of lawsuits.
If you're an author, please use this database to see if you could qualify for that sweet GenAI lawsuit money.
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
I have never ever ever in my life asked someone to blaze my posts.
But if you want to throw me some pennies blaze this. I want ALL OF THE AUTHORS to know that they have the opportunities to get some sweet sweet GenAI lawsuit money.
Like to charge. Reblog to cast that Anthropic will have to pay out the ass.
Ohhhh but Brusk, Smoker started playing guitar when she was still
dating JuanShhhh in this Au, which I totally didn't just make up to
justify that. She met Smoker much earlier, shhhh.
I really hope you like this little video with its rough editing lol. Ahhh,
I'm also grateful to the pirated copy of Filmora, which probably
messed up my laptop, but it really didn't disappoint.
It took me three weeks! Haha, I really didn't think it would take so
long, but that's okay, it was a fun project! It was the first time I had
drawn the ladies so often! I'll definitely do it more, I love them so
much! And I love every story you write, you don't know how much
your stories have saved me, you really deserve the cake you ate for
your birthday (again, sorry for the delay, I underestimated my
abilities, lol).
I hope you're having a nice day/night, you really deserve it.
Happy birthday again!
@zarla-s
Close ups of some of the frames!
truly from the bottom of my heart i hate the level of enshittification etsy has reached because it's still the best place to buy patterns for my hobby and every time i go scrolling through endless ai-generated bullshit to finally dig up a human-designed pattern i like, i'm hit with a deluge of 'popular!! 563 people are looking at this right now!! it's in 134632 baskets!! you must buy immediately!!!' it's a pdf file. it's a fucking pdf file. do you get off on trying to give people fomo over a fucking pdf file. fuck off. get diarrhea forever.
and that's not even touching the ai-generated patterns with hundreds of 5-star bot reviews that are stupidly easy to spot if you know what to look for. but most beginners don't know what to look for, so they're straight-up scammed into buying based on a nice picture. then their 'hey, i made this and it looks nothing like advertised' comments get buried under hundreds of 5-star bot reviews, and this is how someone who might have otherwise discovered an interesting and fulfilling hobby drops it, thinking the pattern's fine, everyone else likes it, so it's on them for not being good enough. it pisses me off so much, you have no idea.
anyway, here's some shops selling amigurumi (crochet soft toys) patterns fully created by crafters. i've either bought and made patterns from them or saved them for later, meaning i already checked that they aren't ai-generated. i might make a post later on how to spot ai-generated amigurumi patterns, but i wanted to give these a shout-out. go buy from them if you can, it's cool stuff and an interesting skill to learn.
straw animals design (etsy store) plushies and accessories, including some knitted patterns. beginner friendly!
green frog crochet (website store). mostly doll patterns, very pretty and totally worth the time and effort. they also sell full kits for some of the patterns, that include all supplies except for crochet hooks and fiberfill. also, youtube channel with tutorials.
moonlight crochet (etsy store). mostly doll patterns, lots of clothes you can adapt to dolls of similar sizes
yan schenkel (website store for individual patterns) has several books out that i really love. it took a bit of digging to figure out if this online store selling the pdf versions is legit and i found that the publisher sells directly through them. there are three pattern books (1, 2, 3) with animal plushies.
natura crochet (website store) has colorful animal and holiday themed patterns, plus two books of aquatic themed patterns. same publisher/seller as above.
hanichan (website store) has a distinct and minimalist style that i think is very beginner friendly. there are also useful general tutorials for amigurumi.
aquariwool crochet (etsy store). a lot of colorful and fun animal patterns. i haven't bought anything from them yet but i have a few saved and honestly just looking through the patterns makes me happy.
make me roar (website store). one of the more unique styles i've seen out there, especially these.
jo handmade design (etsy store). both plushies and more realistic toys, the patterns are very well written and illustrated.
whenever possible i linked to a store outside etsy, but not all pattern creators have one, so it's 100% worth checking them out and supporting them despite the absolute tar pit they operate in. also whatever creative hobby you're curious about, don't let an ai-generated picture discourage you from trying it. you are a god capable of summoning something out of nothing and generative ai is a pathetic little string of mathematical operations with ideas above its station.
I AM GOING TO SCREAM AND SCREAM AND SCREAM to the heavens until everyone knows about the Etsy competitor goimagine!!!
Shop Handmade | Shop Local | Shop with Purpose
The founder of GoImagine refuses to go public or sell the platform: NO SHARE HOLDERS TO APPEASE!!
They have a STRICT vetting process for sellers: NO BOTS, NO AI, NO DROP SHIPPING, HAND MADE CRAFTS ONLY!!
You can narrow down stores you're shopping from by STATE! EASILY SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES!!
2% of every sale transaction is donated to charity!!!
This is baked into the platform. Right now they're partnered with four different charities to fight childhood hunger, provide relief childcare for families dealing with domestic violence, end childhood homelessness, and fund art accessablity. HELPING KIDS!!!!
I have a shop there that I will be stocking soon! If you're a creator, their basic ship front is FREE and you get 12 listing slots! The next size up is only $5 a month and you get 200 listings, and the topn you're at $15 gives you 1,000 product listings and a whole ass customizable store front website. That's cheaper than anything else on the market rn.
Current downsides that will not remain downsides: they're only available in the USA but they're planning on expanding into Canada soon. And they've been mostly focused on growing their seller side, so not a lot of buyers know about them yet. But!!! That why I tell everyone I can! Shop with them! List your products with them! Use a platform that has a dedicated mission for community good and is there to support sustainable creator markets, not create endless bloated corporate growth!!!!
Everyone: Please please please don't write your books in Google Docs. Frankly don't use Google Drive for personal stuff.
Their terms of service say they take down stuff like content related to terrorism and trafficking, but this Google Sheet was literally a list of movies I'd watched this year and books I'd read.
Holy smokes, guys. It's way worse than I thought. Google actually took away access to every single file of fiction writing I'd made on that account. BUT I backed it all up on Scrivener yesterday by coincidence. So I haven't lost my work, but I could have just lost the 12,000 words I've written this month after a year of really intense writer's block. I honestly don't know what that would have done to my psyche.
That is awful! If you're looking for a gdocs-like replacement, Ellipsus @ellipsus-writes is a queer friendly, anti-AI equivalent with online syncing and sharing - I've been using it for almost a year now as a replacement for gdocs and absolutely love it.
I do still back up all my work to local storage on LibreOffice too though, thank goodness you backed up to Scrivener OP!
Wow, now there's a bot going around on Ao3 telling people that the "moderators" will delete works from "deprecated" fandoms and impose bans.
Fearmongering bullshit, but it's fearmongering bullshit that seems to be taking advantage of the recent spotlight series in order to trick authors into deleting their fics.
Just. Why.
What the hell does anyone get out of making these bots.
There's a theory already that this makes it easier for copyright infringers to steal fanfics because you can't prove the authorship of a deleted work.
This is pure evil
Spread the word
p.s. The comments look something like this:
p.p.s. There's no "new" policy that bans original works, either. Everything that was allowed, is still allowed. This is a "please read our TOS ffs" awareness campaign - not a surprise rugpull. Don't delete anything, please. It's an archive.
the full schedule for summer games done quick 2025, benefitting doctors without borders, was just posted! it looks like the finale this year will be deltarune!
Check out the schedule for Summer Games Done Quick 2025!
games done quick is an organization that hosts charity events showcasing video games played with top-level skill. speedruns, challenge runs, randomizers, and knocking people's socks off by playing video games wrong for some fantastic causes. to date, GDQ has raised tens of MILLIONS of dollars (USD) for charity.
there are a bunch of great video game-themed prizes to win. summer games done quick raises money for a group called doctors without borders.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cares for people affected by conflict, disease outbreaks, natural and human-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries.
from the doctors without borders website. money raised watching video games goes directly towards saving lives all over the world. SGDQ is their top fundraiser!
this is a really fun way to do a TON of good. summer games done quick 2025 will be held july 6 through july 13, with awesome stuff happening 24 hours a day, both in person in minneapolis and streaming online. literally 24/7!
Sign up for Summer Games Done Quick 2025 happening at Hilton Minneapolis Downtown! Registration period is 3/19/25 6:00 PM to 5/26/25 6:59 AM
in addition to the two main events of awesome games done quick (in the winter!) and summer games done quick (in the summer!) games done quick also has awesome programming alongside other smaller charity events year-round! if you like video games, check them out!
games done quick kicks ass! who else is fucking hype for SGDQ!!! which runs are you looking forward to?
doctors without borders is doing life-saving work in gaza, sudan, dr congo, syria, ukraine, and in so many other places around the world in urgent need of medical care.
whether it be this post or any other post you might see or make, please consider spreading the word about summer games done quick 2025.
SGDQ is a fun way to save lives and make a real difference in the world.
SGDQ is the largest fundraising event for doctors without borders in the entire world.
