I don't know that I would have much time to participate in writing more. I'm around, but I rarely post. I would love to do a group thing if others are willing with the understanding that I will be slow.
A wave of spambot guest comments claiming to be AO3 volunteers has recently been made across the site. They claim that there has been a data breach and that fraudulent password reset emails have been sent out. In addition, the harassment spambots are now accusing users of being sex offenders.
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Happy Black history month! While it is the shortest month of the year, this in itself wasnāt a backhanded commendation from the powers that be; rather, it has to do with the fact that Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas were born on February 12 and 14 respectively. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) declared that the second week of February to āNegro history week.ā for those birthdays. This was spearheaded by Carter G. Woodson, a founder of the association. This was the precursor to it becoming a month long observation.
For the second day of Black History month, let's learn about the father of game cartridges. Brooklyn born Gerald "Jerry" Anderson Lawson was one of the first African-American software engineers in Silicon Valley. His work led to the creation of the Fairchild Channel F, the first home console that could swap cartridges, rather than having the game built into it. This innovation led to others being able to make games for consoles, creating the video game industry as we now know it. He also created one of, if not the first, driving game that used a steering wheel in his garage!
Sometimes I think young American leftists kinda over-corrected course when they shook off the commies=evil brainwashing because they keep pretending everyone in the Soviet Union was holding hands and singing kumbaya
And then they will get mad when people who actually live in countries that used to belong to the Soviet Union for having some complex feelings about the Soviet Union and communism. Gee, wonder why
I was always under the impression that they were anti any religion. Cathollicism, Judeaism, Muslim, etc etc. I believe that started somewhere in the 20's. I recall hearing stories from my youth about people having to hide religious iconography etc lest they be imprisoned or worse. YMMV, I am not a reliable history narrator etc.
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.
Hey hobbit fandom, I don't remember but it's said that Thorin, Dwalin, and Balin are cousins, Is this true or is it a headcanon? I don't remember hearing it in the movie or reading it in the book. It's because of the name endings "in?"
Nain the 2nd is the common ancestor for all of them. Going further down the family tree we have:
Dain the 1st is the common ancestor for Thorin and Dain Ironfoot. I think that makes them second cousins)
Dwalin and Balin are 1st cousins with Oin and Gloin via Farin. I think that makes them cousins twice removed from Thorin and Dain. So they are all cousins.
October's OTW Signal offers you a chance to contribute to an archive on J. R. R. Tolkien fandom as well as read a study on misogyny in fannish conventions + a tip for you about donation gifts. Read more at https://otw-news.org/yckcxjmm.
As more and more people are being forced to switch to Windows 11, Microsoft's most AI-malware-ridden OS yet, I've been putting together articles and links for how to undo the damage and save your battery, your RAM, your disk space, your privacy, and your sanity from this bullshit.
FIRST:
The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:
A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform various other changes to customi
It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).
Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).
Microsoft wants to put AI everywhere on your PC, but you can take back control.
Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:
No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).
Tired of Microsoft pushing ads throughout Windows 11? Here are the settings you can tweak to turn them off and reclaim some privacy.
The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.
Bonus:
Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)
Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)
How to disable the AI in firefox (still the only browser that lets you do this permanently) (Windows Report, 2025)
The setting that prevents your work being used to train AI models is turned off by default! I had no idea about this until now! Artists, go to your settings, click āvisibilityā, and turn on this setting! Protect your work!
Dude is (last I heard) under investigation. I don't know if they will be able to charge him. If nothing else, perhaps for criminal tresspass. We'll see.
although iām not able to find specifically when these illustrations were made, they were in a 1993 russian translation of LotR. it should be noted that there were no official translations in russian until after the collapse of the ussr, but samizdat translations were very common (and as i understand still are)
iukhimov was ukrainian by the way, possibly from odesa though thereās very little info on him i can find in english. his now-dead website exists on the internet archive but text only sadly. someone on the tolkien collector site iāll link below at one point compiled a bunch of his illustrations on weibo though that link seems to be defunct now unfortunately
Thank you Zionius. Some astonishing ones there that i havent seen. If you want me to send you pictures of the silmarillion and hobbit illust
These look weird because they are repeatedly and actively playing with exactly the early medieval images Tolkien was playing with. A few are more modern storybook, but at least one is FANTASTIC riff on the Bayeux tapestry. Another two are lifted directly from early medieval paleography (handwriting) right out of a textbook on Insular incipits (how an opening phrase or title of a manuscript was written). Another im pretty sure borrows from the Book of Kells; thatās definitely a specific image, I know that image. And Tolkien knew it too.
The figures look like, say, the illustrations in Old English Genesis A. There might be a little Eastern Orthodox icon style creeping in, or it might just be that that style has a lot in common with early medieval British and Irish manuscript illustration (ca. 600-1100 AD). These are great, and an extremely clever nod to the texts Tolkien was drawing from, and even the literal manuscripts in which he was imagining his work (or at minimum Bilboās work, in-universe) to be written:
As Tolkien says, āFurther information will also be found in the selection from the Red Book of Westmarch that has already been published, under the title of The Hobbit.ā (The Fellowship of the Ring, āPrologue: Concerning Hobbitsā). Or, perhaps, in the Red Book of Hergest (Welsh, Llyfr Coch Hergest) ā another Red Book of the West (or Wales, that is). Obviously The Hobbit does not actually show up in one of the most important medieval Welsh manuscripts (currently housed at Oxford), but from the very first page of lotr, Tolkien was playing with an incredibly specific manuscript history!
And this guy, Sergei Iukhimov, apparently clocked that shit on day one. And got a lil weird with it. Respect.
These look so much like religious iconography like you would see on travel blogs. There are quite a few there that would not be amiss as part of a triptych.
just learned americans have different standard paper sizes than everyone else. what do you MEAN you donāt have A4 as the standard. what do you mean your standard paper size isnāt even the same size as an A4. apparently itās like. āletterā and ālegalā and whatever else. help!!!
We sometimes have notebooks that go by the international standard I think. I used to have a thing for holding A4 sized notebooks anyways. Idk what happened to it. Mightāve lost it during a move.
Anyways in the US you just come to accept that thereās two different standards for almost everything idk
Copy and pasting from Reddit user Mike J Smith on the Reddit page for ublock origin, an adblocker extension:
Condensed Update for Newcomers:
YT is making a concerted anti-adblock push via a tattler script tied to a "3 strikes and you're out" style warning message.
Each time you click on a video that WOULD have shown you ads, the tattler script detects that you blocked it and you're given a warning popup. This can be X'ed out of quickly, it's just a warning.
After 3 warnings on a given account, it no longer allows you to close the warning popup, thus acting as a soft block on that YT account until YT's tattler script no longer detects ad-block running. As of right now, it does not lock your other Google services and it does not count as a traditional account ban.
To protect the new tattler script from our jamming efforts, YT is also updating it at least once a day and sometimes multiple times, basically trying to force us into a war of attrition in coding hours. This naturally has put a MASSIVE strain on the volunteer team and will probably result in extended outages on YT as they try to keep up. They are holding their own, but just barely.
None of the uBO team are paid for this, they are volunteers with day jobs. The success of their efforts will depend largely on what YouTube decides to do next, because fighting their legions of paid coders off indefinitely would be impossible. If YouTube wants to kill adblock forever with sheer force, it's within their power - we are all hoping they're just "shaking the tree" to see what falls out and they'll stop once their accountants are satisfied.
The soft block is only tied to the individual account, not the IP. Thus, FreeTube still works fine and you can still view videos logged out. If you export your history, subs and playlists to Freetube, the only thing you've really lost is your ability to comment. I miss it, but not enough to give $20 a month to a pack of scavenging vultures.
So What Do I Do Now???
Look at the original post in the original thread, find the bold headline midway down that says "I followed the 4 steps, but I'm still experiencing issues". Directly below that is a line that says "The latest fix for anti-adblock was made on [date] and currently corresponds to ID [xxxxxxx]".
The ID refers to the version of YouTube's tattler script that it is capable of defeating. Compare that number to the bottom line on this list: https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw. The listings look like: "https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/ea2534f4/jsbin/desktop_polymer_css_polymer_serving_disabled.vflset/desktop_polymer_css_polymer_serving_disabled.js". The bolded portion is the ID number you want to compare it to.
If the numbers are the same, then the tattler has been temporarily neutralized by the volunteer team. Once you purge and update your caches, soft locked accounts will be open again and no warnings will be issued. Use it while you can. Don't forget to purge & update or it won't work.
If the numbers don't match, the volunteer team hasn't caught up yet and the tattler script is still active. You will still be warned and soft-blocked. Give them 4-5 hours to catch up.
Note that there are other ways to watch YouTube while the war is ongoing. For example my partner has switched to Freetube https://freetubeapp.io/ which is an application that you download to your desktop to use which bypasses your web browser completely, it doesn't show ads and it has sponsor block built in.
There is also Invidious, an alternative front end you can get to just by going to
Invidious is an open source alternative front-end to YouTube.
Why did I even buy a juniper bush. I don't make gin or sauces. What use do I have for junipers. I saw a shrub-sized edible fruit-bearing plant and blacked out I guess.
I'm looking for bushes that a) produce fruit I want to eat and b) I can plant straight in the ground and not regret it like with blackberries and raspberries and soforth. And boy are they hard to find.
Where to get plants at? Various places. I know you aren't in the US, but you should still be able to find your growing zone. Once you find out how many chill hours you have (the amount of cold weather for things to set fruit)
That being said, there are websites like offer up, free cycle, or the neighborhood FB groups. A lot of people will offer cuttings, thinned plants they don't need etc for free. I realize that you aren't in the states, but I suspect that there are similar types of groups in your area.
Worse comes to worse, you can order online or a local nursery if you are looking at something specific. I don't know Bunnings, but most big box stores that I have in my area do not have a staff that is knowledgeable.
Another simple thing you can do is talk to neighbors that grow things you like. Ask them where they got x or y plant. How do you take care of it? A fair amount of the time they will offer you cuttings of said plant.
HEY POLITICAL ACTIVISM SIDE OF TUMBLR DO YOU WANT TO HELP NATIVE COMMUNITIES
I got this email.
For those using screen readers or suffering from Tumblr's occasional fits of image-related pique, the only reason I screenshotted this was to show there really was an email. So here are the highlights:
*program designed to help teach Native Americans how to organize in their communities
*not listed in the screenshot but I know because I supported this program last year too, many Natives don't vote because of (extremely understandable) concerns that their voices won't be listened to, which creates a vicious cycle in which politicians don't have a Native issues platform because Natives are not a big voting bloc
*Also from last year's information: Natives who learn about political issues from a family or tribal elder are more likely to get engaged
*ALSO also from last year: Natives are woefully underrepresented at every level of government from school boards to the Senate, and often this is because they lack the resources to run for office and/or assume nobody wants to hear what they have to say
*Back to this year: the program has 140 applicants for the late November training to become community organizers
*They have the funds to train 30
*They need help
*If half of my followers clicked this link and donated $5 we'd raise $30,000
*I know not everyone can donate, but I also know everyone can reblog
*I firmly believe this site can pull together $50k to train Native American community organizers and political leaders
*if you're Jewish this would be an amazing act of tzedakah, the high holy days are upon us
If you reblogged this earlier, please reblog this version because I had a typo in the address (they are organizing, not orgabizing). If you didn't reblog this earlier, please consider doing so now.
I now have a Tumblr. What do I do with it? @givemeadecentusername - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
