Fooling around in my sandbox

It never fails to amuse me when I get “hello influencer” emails wanting me to push questionable products to my followers.

Like worstie, I can barely promote my own published book without wanting to curl up and die.

The fuck makes you think I’ll shill your discount wish shit?

Also, it's Tumblr. If I try to tell anyone about your knock-off Wish-quality sex toy there’s going to be a horde of Autistic lesbians doing a power point presentation in the notes about safe sex toy material and correct battery storage.

Which I am 100% down for, but it will not get you any sales.

cookieoppressor

I was trying to figure out if you were someone important on a other platform, because there's no way in hell anyone actually thinks you can be classified as "Influencer" if you have a big Tumblr blog.

And then also think advertising to this mob would be a good idea

There are actually lots of people who sell stuff successfully on here, usually drop ship stuff.

They’re just not disclosing it as ads, which they are supposed to do, and instead it's marketed in a very Tumblr-esque way which can be summed up as “omg guys look how CUTE this is” followed by a different account underneath going “omg found it!!” and it links to a drop ship site with the item(s).

And the link usually has an affiliate tracker in it, which you may or may not be able to spot unless you’re familiar with them, which is also something you are legally supposed to disclose.

I used to get a lot of offers from around 2016-2020 to sell “moon lamps” on here, y’know those orb lights that look like a moon? Yeah. I was offered a higher kickback to make it look like I wasnt posting an add because these sellers know Tumblrites don’t like ads.

They wanted it to look as organic and hyped up as possible and then I’d just so happen to be like “omg you guys it's on sale” and post a link. Which is skeevy as shit and also illegal af in the US.

It’s like the insta/tiktok girlies saying “link in bio” to get around saying “here’s a product I make money on if you buy it” because they want to sound like your friend because people are more likely to impulse buy stuff if a “friend” is recommending something.

They’re also trusting that everyone knows “link in bio” means “affiliate link” which is technically not enough of a disclosure but whatever.

This is why I tag all my own book promos with “affiliate links” because depending on which storefront you buy Hunger Pangs from, I may get a kickback from the vender which I do to help mediate the fees I lose from distribution. It’s not much—literal pennies in some cases—but I’m still legally required to state it.

It’s also why when I do post products I use or like, I make a point of letting people know I’m not an affiliate and not sponsored because despite the legal ramifications these people are flirting with by not disclosing their affiliate status, I want to be fully transparent with my followers when it comes to me trying to sell them things.

Y’all keep my lights on by reading my work and through my ko-fi and patreon. I am not about to risk that trust for the sake of some shitty vibrator sales from a sketch-ass drop shipper who wants me to pretend I’m not selling you things.

So, yeah. People do successfully sell stuff on here. A lot of us small indie creators sell our own work all the time.

But there are also drop-ship sellers on here who get enough of a kick-back from affiliate links to make selling cutesy kitsch stuff worth their time on here. They’re just making sure you don’t know you’re being marketed to.

Throwback to when I openly talked about this and got blocked by several huge “meme” blogs that were actually drop shippers who didn’t like me lifting up the rock and exposing how they hide their ads in plain sight lol

teaboot

My boss has a new boss who's been dropping in to check on how different sites are doing and I keep introducing her to the clients by going "This is Hank. Hank, this is my boss's boss, she's very important, please tell her nice things about me" and that's my big Autistic secret to professional networking. Letting them think you're funny

teaboot

Other fun Professional Hacks:

"Networking" doesn't have to feel like one big huge façade of manipulation and lies. You just find people you like. The things you talk about don't even have to be related, you just gotta find people who you like working with who you might reach out to for questions or projects later.

You don't need to look professional and respectable or like a "real" adult. I like to just show up and make it clear I'm receptive to jokes and quirks and weird ideas, and the people who vibe with that usually come to me.

Introduce people you like to other people you like. Talk them up. You can tell your boss "This is Mike he kicks ass, he knows everything about this place, if you want to know something talk to him, if he ever quits we're stealing him"

I found can't think of a polite or socially normal way to say something, sometimes you can just say it like "I don't know if this is dumb or not but I don't know anything about this. Can you explain what you mean?", or "I was taught something different. Should I change how I've been doing it?". I've never had a negative reaction to this.

When in doubt, ask a weird question. "What's your favorite dessert food" is a p good one. Sometimes folks think I'm childish but at least they know what they're getting into and they know I'm not judging them.

Sometimes when higher-ups approach me with a stiff upper lip I'll test the waters with a "is your job as insane as it sounds" or something similar to remind them that I, a worker performing a role, and speaking to them, a worker performing a role. If they give a stiff and measured answer I stay distant and professional. If their performance cracks and their tone changes or they smile or laugh or give a funny reply I know I can relax and joke a bit too.

I still don't enjoy business stuff outside of the most basic day to day duties of my job and conventions n shit are still pretty draining but learning that other people are also following a script and the performance has room for "yes-and" type improv has helped a lot

apollos-boyfriend

something they don’t tell you about being autistic is that every character you write WILL end up autistic/autistic-coded whether you like it or not

apollos-boyfriend

same goes for being aromantic/asexual. every character WILL come out at least a little aspec

apollos-boyfriend

if you reblog this and purposefully remove the second addition i Will block you.

that-house

john wick is weirdly cyberpunk for a series that isn't cyberpunk <- insane

that-house

cyberpunk is when there's guns and colorful lights

that-house

cyberpunk is when keanu reeves is there

lingthusiasm

Roses are red Violets are blue English poems are stress-based This is not a haiku In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiasti

Bonus 114: How poetry reveals the structure of languages

Roses are red Violets are blue English poems are stress-based This is not a haiku

In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about how the structure of a language influences what forms of poetry are possible in the language. We talk about why so much English poetry depends on not putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle, how languages that don't have word-level stress like French write poetry based on syllable counts instead, how English speakers write haiku in a way that's actually subtly shifted for the constraints of the language (because Japanese doesn't have syllables, they have morae), and how signed languages like ASL use handshape repetition for poetry. (Check out the links to some ASL and BSL poem performances below, they're well worth watching!) We also talk about how the form of poetry has evolved several times as it moves back and forth between spoken and written formats, from beat and slam poets reclaiming orality to perfectly tweet-length forms like double dactyls and formats that rely on screencaps to preserve formatting, like the double-columned twin cinema. Listen to this episode about how the structure of a language influences what forms of poetry are possible in the language, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon. You'll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat to other language fans about your favourite popular or obscure form of poetry!

#linguistics #poetry #english #japanese #french #asl #bsl

fanficmemes

Babygirl I know fandom history that you wouldn’t even care about

mikkeneko

i know fandom history that even I don’t care about

antlershade

well, i know about lump fish

cyber-seagull404

Good to see we’re all on the same page

things a code lyoko reboot should go into: the amount of crime jeremie does

how does this boy pay for aelita’s tuition? does he make her a fake birth certificate? social security number? how deep does it go?

semie78

things a code lyoko reboot should do: send jeremie to jail

common interest was one of my favorite episodes and I think there should be more like it

what I’m saying is xana helps the gang break jeremie out of prison

but like he didn’t know she was a real person when she started attending school. also it would say she’s like 30 or whatever, right?

jeremie forged a birth certificate

alwayswasalwayswillbeourland

YOU GET IT

dyke-peter-parker

vigilantsycamore

I think a lot people don't realise that microaggressions are still racist. Just cause you're not saying a slur or wishing death on black people doesn't mean you're not being racist. ALL racism counts.

wanderinsect

🫩 no i don't think those characters are siblings i think they're friends. I don't think that's their mom I actually think she's their friend. I don't think they're related actually I think they're friends with each other.

ooppo

I wish humans had monkey tails (most likely tail we'd have ngl) because it would be so cute. There's an alternate world out there where people are dying their tails and buzzing patterns into them and getting tail accessories and tail piercings. God could you imagine

ooppo

Does anyone else understand

turnipfritters

My scorching hot take on Christopher Nolan Presents Homer's The Odyssey is Tom Holland having his mind blown while filming this, then going back to Marvel to and being all "Why did no one tell me that you can, like, have a finished script before you start filming and a cinematographer who has all the shots planned before filming instead of figuring it out in post, has anyone else heard about this?" is pretty funny

turnipfritters

Visionary Director Christopher Nolan's controversial directing style of "telling actors what's happening in a scene when they're filming"

sometimes you read fic and it mentions something you know too much about and you have to pause and decide if the illusion is ruined

that man would not fucking know how to make croissants. he would not have his shit together like that

you dont just make croissants in the morning on a day off on a whim. croissants are a weekend event. he’s on the verge of the worst relapse of his life he did NOT stay up late beating the fuck out of his butter block to make it flat -> doing several laminations. i just dont believe that