Too Many Alts

Mostly FF14 tumblr for Shar Oronir/Valerienne Roulemet/Poeryth Blackstone et al on Goblin, Balmung, and Mateus discord: mlemja#1753 pillowfort:lichface

[konbaniibunto]

Bunny Mocha ☕️🐰

Twitter | Instagram | Etsy

[nixaluminos]

[legsdemandias]

Fiction doesn’t manifest brand new experiences out of thin air, fiction doesn’t infect people with never before thought about evil ideas. When we say ‘fiction affects reality’ we’re coming at it like those things never existed before that we interacted with ficiton. Assault, murder, death, queer romance, kink, whatever, and all other commonly censored topics existed before fiction had the audacity to immortalize them. 

Fiction amplifies reality. Jaws didn’t manifest a never before seen fear of sharks, it played on existing misconceptions and existing fears, and amplified them. The fear of sharks already existed. With or without Jaws we feared sharks, then a scary movie came out and those fears became amplified. 

But amplification isn’t exclusively bad. 

Nabokov’s Lolita, aka the most famous pedophilic story of all time and heavily censored for being “pornographic”, amplified our understanding of pedophilia, the kinds of people who commit it (charming, well educated, attractive people), and brought that conversation from hushed rooms to national attention.

Fifty Shades of Gray should have caused an uptick of relationship abuse and misuse of BDSM (and maybe it did), but it also caused a nationwide conversation on abuse, stalking, cult behavior, controlling relationships, and healthy BDSM. 

A lot of young girls first encountered female masturbation through Judy Blume’s Deenie (one of the ALA’s top 100 banned books of all time and a 40 year old woman writing about teen masturbation, a big tumblr no-no). Deenie’s impact was so important that it’s often cited as an invaluable validation for women and queer women who felt that their exploration was somehow immoral. There’s an entire book full of letters from readers to Blume about how important that book was to them. 

Take a scroll through some ‘top banned books’ lists and count to yourself how many of them were banned for specifically exploring sexual content in a liberating way. Or how many were banned for questioning the system.

Every single censorship movement and every single banned book has an army of people insisting that “fiction [only negatively] affects reality”. Books like Perks of Being a Wallflower for daring to talk about child sexual assault by a woman and depiction of a gay teenager. Or Speak for exploring the sexual assault and suicide attempts of a teenage girl. 

In reality, these books amplified reality and gave voices to the voiceless–those who felt purposefully stifled by society. Visually represented by this comic. 

Tl;dr: Fiction doesn’t change reality, fiction takes what’s already there and has the possibility of amplifying it–and of course you can pretend “bad fiction” only has “bad results”, but you have to be willing to silence the silenced while you support the people who aim to make fiction 1950s idyllic, oppressive silence. 

[phinarei]

I remember being a young teen and watching The Famous Jett Jackson. There was an episode about Farenheit 451 being banned and the fight to be allowed to read it.

I also remember my church talking about how “that’s why it’s banned! It teaches rebellion! It teaches you to question authority!” I nodded along and assumed that those were bad things.

And then I read the book. I read it and I realised something.

The thing that that book taught me the most? Was to wonder WHY a book had been banned. Because once I read it I realized it wasn’t JUST about questioning authority, it was about questioning a system that enforces ignorance and conformity. Something that requires censorship to begin, control, and spread.

I’ve had moments in my life where I saw a piece of media and cringed. Where I was sick just knowing it exists. There are books and shows that I feel strongly against and have had passing thoughts about how they should be banned.

And then I remember reading Farenheit 451. And I remember to ask, “why do I want to ban it?” and “Who does banning this benefit and who does it harm?” as well as “If this is banned, what comes next? What else can be classified this way but is vital to society and the vulnerable people in it?”

Because fiction? Is an important exploration of humanity, good and bad. And it might amplify what’s already there in a bad way sometimes, but it also shines a light on the dark places that we can actually do something about. And if you take away that light, it doesn’t make the bad things go away, it just makes bad people able to hide in the dark.

There are any number of “objectionable” works that have changed society for the better. And we always need to ask ourselves, “is it banning this book I don’t like worth risking preventing someone else taking future generations to a better place because of it?” We don’t get to decide which piece of fiction does that because that isn’t how it works.

[marshals-to-dictators]

You’re all monsters

[nutsacktorturer]

even her?

[marshals-to-dictators]

No!!! Of course not!!!! She’s wonderful!

[nutsacktorturer]

you fool!!

[riotmlllf]

if you tag me in a chain post and i don't do it it's not because i hate you it's because i am very lazy. i love you thank you for tagging me.

[dorindameddler]

if you live in california please vote no on prop 22 to waste the 186 million dollars uber lyft and doordash spent to keep exploiting their workers

[voidwife]

rhela moshroca by @bamicommissions! tysm! 💖

[batwizard]

anyone else live under the assumption that they’re constantly doing something wrong

[arkangelev]

cecil… i havent drawn him in years

[durgens-ffxiv]

Hey, so I know I’ve been pretty quiet on here, and I apologize that I’m only coming back for this– I plan to stick around, though. But tumblr has always been best for crowdfunding type things. 
I’ve been fairly quiet about my private life, but this is Mango. He’s a year old. We got him last year, after my grandfather died. While my parents have never been ones to ask each other for permission, they like to agree on things and the only reason my father agreed to let us bring Mango home was as a gift to my mother to help her during her loss- she’d always wanted an orange tabby. So he has a lot of emotional significance to her, since my dad doesn’t usually do gifts, at all. 
He is a sweet, playful boy. Yesterday morning, I noticed he was squatting everywhere, as if he was peeing in places he wasn’t supposed to, but all that was coming out was little droplets of blood. We called the vet ASAP and they had us rush him over. He ended up having a urinary blockage, and he had to pay $800 after all was said and done. This morning he was having the same problem, even after I gave him the meds the vet prescribed and I had to take him back in. I’ve been on unemployment since my job furloughed me, but didn’t qualify for the executive order for the $300 assistance because I only get $78 from unemployment. I have a carecredit account, and so does my mom, but we had to put them together to pay off the bill yesterday, and put in a bit extra. I have no idea what they will have to do to him this time or how much more it will cost. But we cannot afford it. 
I would offer commissions but I haven’t drawn in two years. If you can spare a little to help, my paypal link is https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/reani . If you can’t, that’s fine, a reblog would be really helpful– I have honestly watched other people need help and been unable to help myself, and I know how bad it can feel, but shit is rough for all of us, this year has been a kick in the face, there’s no reason to pile on to those bad feels. In all honesty, just the good sentiment and the reblog are a big help. 
Anyway, thank you for reading this. I’m sorry it’s a downer. Hug your cats, or dogs, or whatever animals bring you joy right now. Tell them I love them.

[durgens-ffxiv]

Update: he’s home since the vet is closed over the weekend with instructions to watch him and take him to the emergency vet if anything goes very wrong, and take him back in on Monday. He’s still squatting and peeing in spots, but I guess according to the vet he’s getting enough out to be safe for now. They didn’t give us any idea of how much it will end up being all together, but they had to do blood tests and a urinalysis.

[durgens-ffxiv]

Hey, so I know I’ve been pretty quiet on here, and I apologize that I’m only coming back for this– I plan to stick around, though. But tumblr has always been best for crowdfunding type things. 
I’ve been fairly quiet about my private life, but this is Mango. He’s a year old. We got him last year, after my grandfather died. While my parents have never been ones to ask each other for permission, they like to agree on things and the only reason my father agreed to let us bring Mango home was as a gift to my mother to help her during her loss- she’d always wanted an orange tabby. So he has a lot of emotional significance to her, since my dad doesn’t usually do gifts, at all. 
He is a sweet, playful boy. Yesterday morning, I noticed he was squatting everywhere, as if he was peeing in places he wasn’t supposed to, but all that was coming out was little droplets of blood. We called the vet ASAP and they had us rush him over. He ended up having a urinary blockage, and he had to pay $800 after all was said and done. This morning he was having the same problem, even after I gave him the meds the vet prescribed and I had to take him back in. I’ve been on unemployment since my job furloughed me, but didn’t qualify for the executive order for the $300 assistance because I only get $78 from unemployment. I have a carecredit account, and so does my mom, but we had to put them together to pay off the bill yesterday, and put in a bit extra. I have no idea what they will have to do to him this time or how much more it will cost. But we cannot afford it. 
I would offer commissions but I haven’t drawn in two years. If you can spare a little to help, my paypal link is https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/reani . If you can’t, that’s fine, a reblog would be really helpful– I have honestly watched other people need help and been unable to help myself, and I know how bad it can feel, but shit is rough for all of us, this year has been a kick in the face, there’s no reason to pile on to those bad feels. In all honesty, just the good sentiment and the reblog are a big help. 
Anyway, thank you for reading this. I’m sorry it’s a downer. Hug your cats, or dogs, or whatever animals bring you joy right now. Tell them I love them.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

what fresh fuckery is going on at The Onion 

[starapture]

[modernagesomniari]

Does anyone else have a place in their mind, warm and comforting, where their primary OCs reside?

Not all of them, there aren’t castles big enough for that.  But I reckon we all have a few OCs that are just that little bit more precious than the others.  Perhaps they’re a proper self-insert into a world you love, or the person you’d like to live the rest of your life with.  Perhaps they’re your Problem Child, your Grumpy Hero, your Hot Mess.  Perhaps you’ve broken them over and over just to know that they’ll always get back up.  Perhaps you’ve given them everything only to take it away to see how they carry on.  Perhaps they’ve survived torment after torment, only for you to let them have everything they’ve ever wanted.  

Perhaps they came to you when you really needed them, to give you hope or strength when you were struggling to find it for yourself.  

Perhaps they come in pairs - forever together, or attached to a character that isn’t yours, but is just as much part of them as you are.  Perhaps they are alone.

You don’t always know which of your OCs will end up there - not all do.  But at some point, perhaps in the first few days of getting to know a new OC, perhaps longer, perhaps even months or years later, you realise that they’re a proper part of you now and you bring them into the room.

They may stay there, forgotten for a time, but you know they’re there because, one day, you’ll think about them again and it feels like home, brings a smile to your face and the sudden urge to go and reread/look at all the content you’ve ever created for them.

They are our muses, our projections, our hopes and our fears.  They are how we fight, how we explore and experiment, how we work through our feelings, how we find inspiration.

And perhaps I’m just feeling sentimental today, but I kind of want to thank them for being there when we needed them.  Which, I suppose, is the same as thanking ourselves for creating them.  Well done us.

[elluvians-deactivated20260113]

[nostrem]

I’m posting this here because I’m honestly so sick and tired of this kind of thing. Especially in regards to endangered languages

[nostrem]

But yeah. so funny

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

For those who don’t know, Scots language is not the same as Scottish Gaelic. They are unique from each other. Some people know Scots language better as being referred to as a dialect, so if you’ve heard about the Scots dialect before online, they’re probably referring to Scots language. 

UNESCO recognizes it as a vulnerable language (Gaelic is considered more severely as “endangered”).

The Scots Wikipedia is exactly what it sounds like, an alternate wikipedia where the articles are all written in Scots. There are other wikipedias that provide content for other languages the same way. It helps preserve and give access to a threatened and underrepresented language, which is invaluable.

About 16 hours ago, it was discovered that an American teenager has been editing and writing articles not in Scots, but in an American’s disrespectful phonetic take on what he thinks Scots sounds like. 

“The problem is that this person cannot speak Scots. I don’t mean this in a mean spirited or gatekeeping way where they’re trying their best but are making a few mistakes, I mean they don’t seem to have any knowledge of the language at all. “

This problem isn’t unique to this incident. Frequently on tumblr I see Americans making jokes about Scottish actors making what they’ve called “garbled Scottish sounds” and attempting (and failing) to type in Scots. Scottish languages have been decimated over the centuries, and Scots Wikipedia should be an amazing language resource.

The worst part? He’s apparently been at this for YEARS. He’s potentially (more info to come) edited or penned nearly 1/3 of Scots Wikipedia. Apparently when Scots speakers have corrected him in the past, he’s had a “haughty attitude,” claiming that other Scots speakers (who were never present, unsurprisingly) approved of his failed attempts at writing in Scots.

The damage is heart wrenching:

“Potentially tens of millions of people now think that Scots is a horribly mangled rendering of English rather than being a language or dialect of its own, all because they were exposed to a mangled rendering of English being called Scots by this person and by this person alone.

They wrote such a massive volume of this pretend Scots that anyone writing in genuine Scots would have their work drowned out by rubbish. Or, even worse, edited to be more in line with said rubbish.

Wikipedia could have been an invaluable resource for the struggling language. Instead, it’s just become another source of ammunition for people wanting to disparage and mock it, all because of this one person and their bizarre fixation on Scots, which unfortunately never extended so far as wanting to properly learn it.”

Even worse, many people are praising this kid as the all-time most dedicate “troll,” as funny, etc. It’s inexcusable.

They’re hoping Scots speakers will volunteer to help fix all of the nonsense articles he’s put up.

[feministakari]

This is awful first of all, but how can you completely write that many Wikipedia page translations in a bastardized language without getting caught sooner? I know Wikipedia is open to edit many pages, but there’s got to be some checks right? The fact that nobody caught this seems like a bigger problem. Even if that one kid didn’t do this, it could have been done to many other vulnerable languages by anyone else.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

Apparently, at some point he was somehow granted moderator power, but there’s so far no detail as to how. Scots Wikipedia isn’t exactly a bustling business. There aren’t many moderators, and unless they were combing through tens of thousands of articles continually, these ones could be missed among the rest.

Apparently, the kid was using online Scots dictionaries (not a reliable way to translate a language) so that at a glance or to a non-speaker, enough words…..looked like they were being used in the APPROXIMATELY correct place. That combined with a small number of moderators and tens of thousands of articles to look after let this non-speaker edit and moderate pages despite being caught a few times and questioned by speakers.

That’s all I know.

It’s a mess. And you’re right. Hopefully nothing like this happens (or is already happening) to other vulnerable languages.

[somni-omni]

Native speakers are organising an edit-a-thon. One of the organisers reached out to the person that caused all this and said they were on board with actually learning Scots. They later tweeted they were concerned for the person due to the harassment they were getting. The teenager is okay with being banned from the wiki:

Teenager’s statement: “Honestly, I don’t mind if you revert all of my edits, delete my articles, and ban me from the wiki for good. I’ve already found out that my “contributions” have angered countless people, and to me that’s all the devastation I can be given, after years of my thinking I was doing good (and yes, obsessively editing). I was only a 12-year-old kid when I started, and sometimes when you start something young, you can’t see that the habit you’ve developed is unhealthy and unhelpful as you get older. I don’t care about defending myself, I only want to stop being harassed on my social medias (and to stop my other friends who have nothing to do with the wiki from being harassed as well). Whether peace can be achieved by scowiki being kept like it is or extensively reformed to wipe my influence from it makes no difference to me now that I know that I’ve done no good anyway.”

It should be noted, it is possible to selectively delete pages started by a specific user and also roll back their edits. It was started by native speakers and there are still native speakers writing pages. The whole thing doesn’t have to be deleted.

While I may seem unreasonably sympathetic to this person, I’m doing so because so many of the native Scots speakers who have been or plan to contribute to scowiki, and the Reddit OP, have been surprisingly very sympathetic. It’s obvious this wasn’t done for “teh lullz” like many are assuming. If that’s their decision on how to proceed then I certainly won’t go against that.

[wingedcatgirl]

I was only a 12-year-old kid when I started, and sometimes when you start something young, you can’t see that the habit you’ve developed is unhealthy and unhelpful as you get older.

Yeah, that definitely tracks… glad the guy is at least cognizant of what he’s done and willing to help resolve the problem.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

Good things to hear on this situation!

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

From my other post:

Y’all I reblogged that post with additional information yesterday hoping simply to explain what Scots language is and what had happened with only the developing information I had available in that moment. I didn’t call for and don’t approve of the excessive and graphic descriptions of violence and doxxing threats in the notes of that post.

I understand people are angry, but plenty of native Scots speakers are optimistically looking ahead to how this attention can be used to create a strong Scots language resource moving forward.

Michael Dempster, the director of the Scots Language Centre based in Perth, takes a more ameliorative approach and says he is now in conversation with the Wikimedia Foundation about the prospect of properly re-editing the teenager’s contributions.

“We know that this kid has put in an incredible amount of work, and he has created an editable infrastructure. It’s a great resource but it needs people who are literate in Scots to edit it now. It has the potential to be a great online focus for the language in the future.” (Source)

Even the person who originally discovered the fiasco and started the Reddit post has asked people to stop harassing the person responsible and his friends who were not even involved:

EDIT : I’ve been told that the editor I’ve written about has received some harassment for what they’ve done. This should go without saying but I don’t condone this at all. They screwed up and I’m sure they know that by now. They seem like a nice enough person who made a mistake when they were a young child, a mistake which nobody ever bothered to correct, so it’s hardly their fault. They’re clearly very passionate and dedicated, and with any luck maybe they can use this as an opportunity to learn the language properly and make a positive contribution. If you’re reading this I hope you’re doing alright and that you’re not taking it too personally. (Source).

The guy himself has apologized, explained that he thought he was doing a good thing, and has agreed to both leave the wiki AND to start actually learning Scots.

If the people who have to clean up this mess and organize the translation corrections can give this guy some grace, I think that’s the path to follow.

I won’t tell Scottish people and Scots speakers how to feel about all of this, but I’ll ask other people in the notes, especially the outraged Americans, who are posting extremely aggressive and sometimes violent reactions to consider putting that energy into supporting the speakers who are going to fix this.

The main takeaway from this mess is that now other vulnerable language resources can check their own weak spots to hopefully avoid this from happening to them, and it seems that now the woefully understaffed (not their fault, they’ve been doing their best!) Scots Wiki is getting the attention and volunteer work it deserves to build a reliable language source on strong foundations.

[buyakasha]

*sprinkling my traits throughout my ocs* this one is the kid in me and all my wonder. this one is my self-worth issues and anger. this one is my absolute desire to be over six feet tall