Definitely no longer new to this weirdness, random stuff happens, occasionally I remember to write fanfiction. Prompts* welcome...Oh and the name's Adaobi. *I never get those, but it seems like the right thing to say. Plus, you really don't want them - they'd get really weird...
I didn’t watch the Supergirl show, but I do follow supercorp shippers so I guess you could say that I secondhand ship it because of them. The funniest thing about the ship, to me, has always been the idea of them marrying and forcing Superman and Lex to become in-laws.
I now desperately want supercorp for the new dc movieverse because this Lex
being in-laws with this Supergirl
who just so happens to own this Krypto
would be the single funniest fucking thing that could possibly happen.
“The widely circulated timeline created by @Zerflin does a great job in showing how recently slavery & segregation occurred & that they lasted longer than the modern era.
“I'd like to offer this timeline as another way of viewing the same period of history to show the constancy of both Black resistance in US & efforts of the white power structure to maintain racial caste since 1619.”
I had the exact same experience the second time I looked at this picture as the first time. I was looking like "what is this green line? Like suddenly everything is OK? It's not. Racists are still trying to push us back to 1619. Nothing has been fixed. We still need to fight. Hard!
So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.
Pro GenAI websites/Programs:
Facebook
Instagram
X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)
Threads
Pro Writing Aid
Grammarly
Duolingo
Google Docs
Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.
Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)
Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.
Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)
Canva Takes and feeds their machine.
Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.
Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.
Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.
Neutral ground:
Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai
Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.
Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).
Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.
Strong positions against AI:
Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.
LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)
Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.
yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.
Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.
Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.
Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.
Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.
Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.
Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.
Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.
Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)
Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.
Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.
Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)
Discover a world of creativity and craftsmanship through Handmade, an innovative platform connecting passionate artisans with discerning buy
Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.
But you need a pro website...
Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/
Use cloudflare:
Use Nightshade:
https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html
which will poison the algorithm
Use Glaze:
Take Away:
The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.
Analysis shows that indiscriminately training generative artificial intelligence on real and generated content, usually done by scrapi
And why not help that along?
I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.
We saw that one coming... knew what was going to happen... were mentally prepared, or at least we thought we were. And then that girl flew! Not quite Meet Joe Black Leap Day level shit, but we gasped!
Auto-translate, grain of salt, etc. but I saw this tweet from a Thai fan yesterday when it had 3k retweets and it's, uh, gained some traction since then.
Now that I'm only using a burner account to collect videos and interviews, the Very Sensitive Algorithm shows me more Thai tweets than it ever did when I had an active account tweeting in English. And something I've noticed is that Thai fans tweeting in Thai are often discussing completely different things compared to interfans tweeting in English.
Like the whole Songkran thing.
I saw Thai fans criticizing BL actors for performative behavior in an ambiguous public role while not actually pushing for issues relevant to the queer community.
Pointing out that openly queer actors don't get the clout that closeted/straight actors do.
Asking when Songkran became a time for BL actors to farm for engagement—because this only started happening last year.
And obviously not all Thai people were upset. Some responded going, "Eh, who cares, let them do whatever."
But the general tone of what I saw were Thai users criticizing actors who were seemingly using public displays of affection during Songkran as guaranteed engagement bait since it was such a success for some imaginary couples last year. But if you've been in this fandom or lived in Thailand longer than that, you'll remember that they didn't do this in 2024. Or 2023. Or any year before that.
And as @hallowpen pointed out—
—to behave like that in 2026 is dangerous because since the recent election, Thailand is becoming increasingly conservative. And it's one thing if the actors themselves are part of the queer community and choosing to display public acts of affection as a form of rebellion. That's their choice, and it's up to the queer community in Thailand to judge whether that's helpful to their movement. It's quite another matter when the actors are straight or have a real-life partner at home (which Thai fans often know because they have a wealth of information we don't) and they're just using the social media engagement for personal gain.
Then, after all this, we had irresponsible accounts like this one on Instagram spreading this bait about Thai people:
And then interfans did zero research as usual and jumped to the conclusion that Thai people must be homophobic.
Like.
Asking, "Can someone explain what really happened?" and then taking the only commenter's explanation as reliable is par for the course on the internet these days, but that also explains why Thai fans ended up getting demonized for bigotry they weren't even practicing.
It was surreal to see tweets defending the queer community somehow twisted into, "JUST LET THEM KISS OMG!!"
I even saw interfans here on Tumblr accusing Thai fans of being homophobic for the Songkran criticism. Like, I'm sure there was some of that on Twitter because it's Twitter and Elon Musk owns it and he loves homophobia, but why weren't any of the viral tweets getting any attention at all?
The problem on Tumblr is that interfans outnumber Thai fans, and so there's a feedback loop. So don't take my word for any of this either, because I'm an interfan, which is why I led with the Thai tweet currently going viral at 12k retweets.
The issue we face as interfans is recognizing that Thailand—and Southeast Asia generally—is a very difficult place to speak freely in.
I was fortunate enough to get here right before the "youth-led protest movement" of 2020, so I watched as this movement gained traction, and I've watched what's happened in the years afterward.
Thailand has had twelve successful coups (and more attempted) since 1932:
Ever since transforming from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one in 1932, Thailand has been rocked by clashes between conservative monarchists and pro-democracy reformists. To some extent, these two groups (represented in the 2000s by the 'yellow shirts' and 'red shirts') reflect deep social divides between urban elites, and the impoverished, but increasingly politically aware rural population. Historians have described a 'vicious cycle of Thai politics', in which unstable democratically elected civilian governments alternate with military rule, installed on the pretext of restoring order. Since 1932, Thailand has been through 12 successful coups (as well as many more attempted ones) and multiple constitutions.
I've seen Thailand described as a "competitive autocracy," and a non-confrontational culture (เกรงใจ) combined with the controversial results of the most recent election make it extremely challenging for (especially marginalized) people living in Thailand to speak out, even on the internet.
Since the 2023 election, the royal, military and judicial elites have increasingly relied on political accommodation rather than direct domination to contain reformist challengers. This strategy has involved the pragmatic incorporation of actors long viewed as adversaries, including Pheu Thai. The current election represents a continuation of this accommodation — what binds these actors together is not a shared political vision, but a mutual interest in office holding, stability and access to state resources.
So it is difficult to find out what's actually going on in Thailand, but that's why interfans should be cautious before jumping to conclusions about their true motives or beliefs.
And, of course, while interfans should never speak over Thai people, we can and should uplift those who are kind enough to take the time and energy to offer us information.
Here on Tumblr, @hallowpen is making an informational series about queer media representing Thailand over at @thai-in that people can follow along with soon.
And also check out the work @recentadultburnout has done on AO3: 23 pages of information on Thailand for fic writers and people in general to learn about and get a more informed appreciation of the country and culture. They've also made posts about the meanings of character names in series under this hashtag with the full list here!
Ultimately, we are guests in their house, and it would be kindest for us to treat them with the respect that hosts deserve. <3
Not me crying on a Friday night, because this is so important to me.
I've been involved in various fan spaces on Tumblr that have resulted in me leaving because of deliberately malicious ignorance or just plain blatant racism.
I've met some of the most important people in my life during my time here, @thebroccolination amongst them. And when Key reached out to me, it was never just about using me as a resource for Thai QL... but an offer of genuine friendship that later allowed space for genuine communication about topics where they were willing to actually listen to and engage with my point of view.
My goal of participating in certain fandoms has always been to curate an atmosphere of open communication, but it's become so hard to do that lately with the amount of contrived ignorance and hurtful name-calling. My goal was and still is to use @thai-in as my last ditch effort to help interfans understand Thai fans before I graciously bow out from fandom interactions regarding Thai QL as a whole.
...and I hope that it will help create more opportunities for communication and more genuine friendships between Thai fans and interfans that can mirror the one I have shared with Key.
I'd be lying if I said I'm not loving this angst. P'Lé has to put such a strong facade but she's clearly suffering so much because she loves Rann so deeply.
I think pretty much everybody is convinced that she's pushing her away because she's trying to protect her, and maybe they died in a previous iteration of the loop and she was the one seeing Rann die first.
If P'Lé came back first, I bet the moment she came to was this
because she's night and day from who she was before, and how harsh she became even to the people she worked with. It wouldn't make sense to have come any time earlier, because she would have pushed Rann away before they got close.
Also, whatever happened that got her killed must have happened 5 years after this kiss, because it was then and only then that P'Lé apparently thought it safe enough to contact her again.
Now the question is whether that is the maximum number of chances they have, or if they would keep coming back if they both die until they fix it (and I guess they're not about to try to find out). But if it's like this, it would be curious both starting again such a long time before the actual incident. What if there was something to fix at that moment?