occasional posts

about my frequent thomas sanders obsession • Thomas Sanders and Co. sideblog • OG Fander since 2016, joined tumblr in 2018 • main blog: @nonchalantatall • icon by @whydecide •

[8pxl]

PSA: Tumblr/Wordpress is preparing to start selling our user data to Midjourney and OpenAI.

you have to MANUALLY opt out of it as well.

to opt out on desktop, click your blog ➡️ blog settings ➡️ scroll til you see visibility options and it’ll be the last option to toggle.

to opt out on mobile, click your blog ➡️ scroll then click visibility ➡️ toggle opt out option.

if you’ve already opted out of showing up in google searches, it’s preselected for you. but you also have to opt out for each blog you own separately, so if you’d like to prevent AI scraping your blog i’d really recommend taking the time to opt out. (source)

[averykedavra]

Hi sorry to ask this but what has happened between Thomas and the madlips animators? I'm this is probably dumb but I've seen everyone talk ab it but never really knew the reason

hi!! no problem, i’ve summarized it several times before but here’s a bullet point list i guess:

back in December thomas and co released the madlibs video on thomas’ second channel, and it contained animation from several fan animators

a few weeks later one of the animators broke the silence and made a video about the whole experience and then the cat was out of the bag

the animators were mainly fans and thomas’ team had never done such a big project before, plus they were apparently underfunded and limited on time

so the animators were given ridiculous deadlines and a very small amount of pay for their hard work

info was not really available to them, their messages and complaints were brushed off, some didn’t even know when the video was released

they also weren’t credited fully in the video description i think

and their contracts prevented them from speaking up about it for a while, but then eventually they came forward about it. they made a blog, @storytimediscourse, and talked about the whole issue, and we all learned what happened

and thomas & co have never apologized or addressed the issue publically, and conversations between them and the animators fizzled out

and it’s been Months now so

so it’s not good

combine it with thomas’ quick apology over the infodumping situation, and yeah i’m still pretty mad about it, thanks for asking

shitty situation no apology no guarantee of future change

there’s the story ig

you can find more details under the tag #madlibs animators on my blog

or you can click this link which i Keep Posting and you’ll see my og summary post with links to other posts about the issue

i really should just make an faq post or smth at this point, if it’s this hard for tumblr to let u guys search things

anyway yeah have a good one spread awareness all that jazz

[averykedavra]

@melopragmatic​​ here’s a link to my post about it, which includes several other links that go into more depth about what happened. also you can search infodump on my blog and i’m pretty sure you’ll find stuff

[averykedavra]

One thing I haven't seen anyone talk about is that FWSA was 17 minute long animatic done by three artists with professional experience (two of whom were known fan artists in the sanders sides community) and one even made a positive video about it so as far as we know, they were paid and treated well.

Whereas the Madlibs artists were fan artists with limited professional art experience...I'm not accusing Thomas and Co for taking advantage of fan artists but I'm also saying they had prior experience working with artists where they had to have known the going rates and yet this somehow happened.

oh, is it ‘ranting about the madlibs situation’ time again? excellent! let me grab my angry hat. see, this speculation does have a reasonable answer! except it’s not a nice answer, and it’s not the type that solves very much.

FWSA was a well-done, incredible piece of creative work. i love it so much. the animators did an amazing job. and the madlibs video was a fucking fiasco. that’s not to say that the animation wasn’t good. it was, but it was constrained by the horrible conditions and limited time.

and here’s the thing. your implied question, “how could three animators be treated well while the many from the madlibs video weren’t?” it kinda answers itself. the madlibs disaster was because there were so many animators. or, to be more accurate, because thomas and co couldn’t handle that many animators.

the FWSA animators got several months of planning. the FWSA animators were well-paid and well-informed. and there were only three of them. meanwhile, the madlibs animators were gathered last-minute. if you look in the video description, there were dozens of animators on the project. as far as i know, each of the FWSA animators was paid more than the madlibs animators combined.

so there was less time. more info to be compiled and more people to work with. and thomas & co knew the going rates, obviously, but they probably didn’t want to spend the funds on so many animators. and they knew how to communicate with animators, but there was less time and more to be done.

thomas & co had never done a big project like this! so, tbh, i’m not entirely surprised that things went south. that doesn’t mean it wasn’t shitty, especially since they never apologized, but i can see how the situation happened. it’s barely even a “somehow.” it’s a disappointed “of course.” limited time + monetary issues + big project + inexperience = problems.

and--and this is pure speculation, please take this with several heaps of salt--since thomas wasn’t as directly involved? and this was a smaller video project? it’s possible that this wasn’t as big a deal, in their eyes. fwsa is part of their ongoing narrative series. the madlibs video is a one-off. it’s possible that the quality was less important to the team, and thus, they stiffed the animators.

so yeah, there’s a clear divide between the fwsa animators and the madlibs ones. and i don’t think it’s necessarily because of the fan artists’ limited professional experience (or at least i hope not. it’s not completely out of the question, tho.)

however, your point does still stand that regardless, it ended up that many younger and inexperienced animators got screwed over. that’s shitty no matter how you look at it. it’s one of the many reasons this is so important to talk about--so fans don’t end up in that same position again.

in conclusion: you’re right, it was shitty. this may have been a semi-understandable mistake, but people were hurt, and thomas & co have an obligation to acknowledge and learn from this mistake. they can do better. and they need to.

[dukeofonions]

The Problem With Asides

Before I get into anything I want to clarify that this is not going to be a criticism of the two Asides episodes we’ve gotten so far. This is a critique of the concept of Sanders Asides as a separate series from the original Sanders Sides. A second note I want to make is that this is, just as all my other posts are, a personal opinion. This is not meant to be an attack on anyone, just a general criticism from a confused writer and viewer of the show. 

And final disclaimer: A lot of what I’m going to say is based on information that I no longer have available. It’ll mostly be me recalling things I heard and if I at any point get something wrong please feel free to let me know. 

That being said, let’s get into this, shall we? 

(Fair warning this post is very long hence why I’ve divided it into parts so feel free to read then come back as you wish)

Part One: The Concept of Asides

Seguir leyendo

[logically-asexual]

yes i agree. i felt that disappointment, too, and you explain it very well, also including storytelling points that i wouldn’t have thought of. i wanted to raise one more point:

the sides hanging out and having fun wouldn’t interfere with the main plot if they were short, relatable episodes. because who doesnt have trouble with family and later chats with them as if nothing happened for a few minutes? but when the family wants to have a big special dinner together then it becomes awkward again.

it’s the same here. it’s been stablished that thomas doesn’t settle in his living room and talk to himself for twenty minutes if there isn’t some big thing he’s dealing with. a funny video about thomas in the mall with roman trying to get thomas to flirt with random dudes and virgil stopping him and the video ending just like it started with no consequences in thomas’s life would have been perfect! both sides show up. they have hidden issues. they don’t address them which could be explained by a some repression that lasts enough for a 5-10 minute video. the video ends and both go back to their troubles and thomas’s (or each other’s) acceptance for any of them is left ignored for the main plot to address. that’s possible!!! it’s what they are supposed to be!!! keeps it funny simple and (i think very importantly) relatable.

the best thing about the original videos was that they were relatable. you thought “oh my brain also seems to have two sides arguing about whether i should do my laundry or not haha”. and that’s what i think the Asides should strive for. forget about Thomas’s existential issues and his specific problems and make it about something that happens to everyone. that is the key to make something funny and entertaining unrelated to some bigger plot.

[logically-asexual]

thomas: i’m going to try something more ... ambitious for this next video ...

[three years ago]

me: oh goodie i’m so excited!

[now]

me: oh no please god make it stop.

[dukeofonions]

I know exactly what he is talking about and I just have to ask... What the heck is he thinking?

[snowflakesincalifornia]

I’m actually starting to be convinced that he’s using the dumb gimmicks for each new episode as an excuse to take longer hiatuses and do less work, and that the gimmick additions don’t actually make the episode production take as long as he makes out.

Also it convinces the fandom that he’s working soooo hard and as hard as he caaan. (Not that they seem to need convincing, now anyway, since they practically worship him and refuse to hold him accountable for anything. *cough-cough* no one ever got any compensation, acknowledgement, or apology for the storytime madlibs exploitation because people just forgot about it.)

Plus he’s relying on a new gimmick for each ep to keep fans coming back— instead of bothering to put effort into writing a good story. Anyone noticed how he just keeps making the characters’ internal relationships worse and worse but keeps putting off actually solving anything other than the surface level stuff? Especially for everyone’s treatment of Roman? And how Virgil had started bullying Roman but then randomly stopped in FWSA for no written reason? Lazy storytelling.

It actually reminds me of those bad sitcoms where they just kept writing more unresolved drama and more unaddressed plot threads and problems to keep people coming back out of concern for the characters. But then problem after problem and plot thread after plot thread kept getting brushed under the rug. And only some surface level problems got solved. It’s easy to build conflict, but it’s going to take work to fix it.

Thomas can’t even write an episode of them watching a movie together without some ham-fisted extra drama added on to the drama already there. Oh, on top of everything else he could milk, now Virgil and Patton are fighting too. Why? Oh, the fans will create a theory for me. Then I’ll never have to address it. And it’s never going to be revealed what the original problem even was after Patton accepts Janus.

[logically-asexual]

thomas: i’m going to try something more … ambitious for this next video …

[three years ago]

me: oh goodie i’m so excited!

[now]

me: oh no please god make it stop.

[logically-asexual]

@kavka-obecna

warning, salt ahead

Seguir leyendo

[logically-asexual]

@roses-bubbles you’re right. thomas can do whatever he wants with his content. again, i’m just a person who watches his videos and i don’t give him money in any other way than adding views to them. my opinion isn’t more important than what they want.

but i’m not saying this to hate on thomas or to say that their show sucks or anything. i have this blog for a reason, i love the series and i love the characters and i think thomas and his friends are all really cool people. i never said they were shit for changing their content, i’m just criticizing the way they’re handling the change. and mostly, the way they’re handling their communications with us about these changes. because that does concern me.

this is about how i wish things were different. i’m expressing this stuff that annoys me and that annoys many other fanders (as i’ve learnt in the past 24 hours). now i wanted to say out loud my disappointment with how that is going. my last sentence above was a little too salty, i agree. i was very mad last night but i have no right to expect the team to change how they produce video because of our complaints. i apologize for that, it was rude and unnecessary.

however, i still hold the position that he chose to be a youtuber and being a youtuber means giving stuff to people who only support you with views regularly, because otherwise they will leave. you can’t rely on people already knowing who you are and coming back every year when there’s a new video for long. specially if you know (which he does) that your fandom is comprised mostly of people who have the series as their hyperfixation, and kids whose attention span for a series like this probably doesn’t last long.

if he wants to make longer more complicated videos that’s fine!! i don’t mind!! but the least he could do is not promise us we will still get content if that’s not possible.

[garbagetoast87]

Agreed! You hit the nail right on the head dude!

I love how the old episodes wrapped things up in a few minutes but it still felt fulfilling. The newer episodes are cool and longer but don’t feel the same.

They don’t have the casualness of a blog like the old ones did. Nowadays you have to have a least watched three episodes back to know what’s going on.

With the old episodes you could watch one whenever and it didn’t matter. I loved accepting anxiety cause it was different, but it still held that causal value about it.

Trying something different is good but I feel like Thomas’ team isn’t exactly reading the room when they interact with fans. Like yeah it’s cool we get more content with memberships and stuff, but not everyone can afford it and fans that do have it really just want a sliver of small casual content.

[averykedavra]

what happened with the madlibs artists? I saw it in a post you reblogged and don't know the situation.

ok so back in december, the madlibs storytime video got released. thomas and co had asked fans to do the art for the stories, like in the fwsa video. unlike the fwsa video, this video had far more artists and far less time for them to do their shit, which is probably why this whole thing happened.

flash-forward a few weeks, and this video by prince alex got released. he’s a big tss fan and a really cool creator, i rly recommend checking him out. alex was one of the animators on the madlibs and had a really shitty experience, and the moment the info started spreading, the rest of the animators backed him up.

in summary: thomas and co asked for fan animators, but paid them all ridiculously small fees. like, a dollar per second kind of small. this post breaks down how far that is from industry standard, as well as other info. the animators were given barely any time to finish the animations, and Thomas and co barely communicated with them, to the point that they didn't even know when the video was released.

and they couldn't talk about it. their contracts prevented them from speaking abt the project. i’m not fucking kidding. these animators were underpaid, overworked, and generally shat on, and they couldn’t even complain. emails were sent to the crew during the project, and most of them were brushed aside with a politely-worded fuck off.

eventually, thanks to the video and other animators coming forward, the cat got out of the bag. a few days of December were filled with ppl coming to terms with it, ‘cause even tho thomas wasn’t behind the pay itself, he was fully aware of the whole thing. and it sucked. hard.

the animators didn't want compensation (altho ppl encouraged them to donate to their kofi links.) they just wanted an apology and for thomas and co to learn from what happened. this was a shitty situation that clearly happened bc they didn't know how to handle this many animators on a project. and we all wanted an apology.

and now we’re here.

and i get it, ok? it can be easy to forget this stuff. u want to forget this stuff. u want to think just bc nobody’s talking abt it, u can move on. it can seem painful to keep dwelling on the bad spots.

but there’s been no apology. no compensation. no public acknowledgment. there has been nothing to make up for the animator abuse that occurred. thomas and co are doing the same fucking thing as some of yall are subconsciously doing--trying to forget abt it.

that’s not how u hold ppl accountable. mistakes can be forgiven, ‘cause fuckups happen, and u can never expect a celebrity to be perfect. but. people were hurt. there’s been no apology. if we forgive and forget, we stop asking for change. and this could happen again.

i’m not asking for thomas to get cancelled or whatever. i’m just saying this isn’t over. don’t let it be over. if u don't know abt this, educate urself (I'm gonna link some stuff below.) if u do, keep spreading the info. keep this in the public eye. keep this fandom buzzing. we’re not gonna forget, and we’re not gonna be silenced.

and if it makes u bummed to dwell on the bad stuff? i've said it before and ill say it again. this is not about u. it is about the people who were hurt. and thomas is not ur friend, and ur not doing the nice thing by forgiving him--ur doing the doormat thing. u can like thomas’ content and still hold him accountable. u can love sanders sides and still criticize the crew. u can say ‘i don’t hate thomas for this’ and still say ‘but i hate what happened.’

we should hate what happened. we should keep talking. we should wait for an apology, because we are under no contract to keep quiet. we never will be.

here are some links abt the situation with further details:

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637623678876745728/wh-what-happened

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637623853808582656

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637671016267644928

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637709515596447744/hi-everyone

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637708429439418369/an-animators-insight-about-the-current-thomas

https://storytimediscourse.tumblr.com/ (blog run by some of the animators themselves)

and here are general posts bc stop idolizing creators guys please:

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637669267309985792

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637672278439690240

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637672592084467712/okay-i-think-my-stance-on-the-madlibs-animator

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637666236999811072

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637683804816932864/i-saw-some-posts-w-links-to-donate-for-underpaid

and here are the kofi links of the animators:

https://averykedavra.tumblr.com/post/637665110567075840/maybe-go-drop-a-few-dollars-into-the-ko-fi-of-an

and here’s me asking for ppl to reblog this. ik it’s long but seriously, we cant drop this info, we need to keep momentum. please reblog this if u can. please be aware and be critical.

[nonchalantsanders]

Holy shit okay

I’m not really present in the Sanders Sides fandom unless there is a new episode. Everyone in the fandom (in my periphery) just stopped talking about it, so I assumed it was resolved. So here I am now admitting I was wrong:

Please read this post

[deactivation-fee]

[shouldbecelebrated]

start reblogging content, please. it’s the only way to really support content creators on this website. likes don’t do anything. the only way for original content to float around and get discovered by new users is by reblogging it. it doesn’t cost much and it’s the least you can do??

[ironwoman359]

Scalding take of the day: ALL the sides could be labeled ‘manipulative’ because their JOBS are to regulate Thomas’s emotions and personality, and EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM has had times they want their perspective listened to the most and therefore tried to uphold it as the “best” or “right” option, while also trying to tear down other perspectives. Like, if that’s your threshold for a manipulative character, then all our boys are guilty. Remember, it’s not like they’re other people trying to influence Thomas’s decisions for their own gain, they represent Thomas’s own conflicting needs and desires. 

[leconcombrerit]

I am never lining anything again, ever. 

But I will keep drawing people just sleeping together, because trusting someone else not to kill you in your sleep is a real achievement. Just wait for them to wake up screaming realizing they weren’t holding a teddy bear. 

[ambi-stage]

Incorrect quote by @incorrectsides

[ravenhilarious]

ah yes, Sanders Sides

where your ego hates himself, your feelings hides his feelings, your fears is afraid, your lies keeps lying to trick you into lying, your singular braincell gets benched, and the grand duke eats deodorant for lunch

[rollthewhatever]

had fun with color palettes

[warnadudenexttime]

The correct term is bernie’ing!

[closet-keys]

I don’t know if it’s a meme/intentional joke or whatever, but I’ve seen a couple posts talking about things people want to do after being vaccinated that are things people miss doing from before covid, and I need to make sure people understand that:

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine requires two doses

We do NOT know right now whether vaccinated people will still be able to be carriers of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). We know from testing that it is over 94% effective at preventing people from having the symptoms of COVID-19, but even vaccinated people might still risk spreading it to people in their community who don’t have the vaccine.

There is no current vaccine for children. It is being developed, but we probably shouldn’t expect it until summer.

We do NOT know right now whether the vaccine will work on the new strains. Experts think it will, but we don’t know, because it wasn’t tested on the new strains.

We do NOT know how long the vaccine’s immunity lasts. They are currently doing testing on that and will be for the next two years. (We also don’t know how long natural immunity lasts, so even if you’ve had COVID-19 before and recovered, you could still potentially get sick again.)

You need to keep wearing a mask, social distancing, limiting time indoors with other people, making sure you have good ventilation, and washing your hands thoroughly and frequently even after you’ve been vaccinated.

Keep reading

[justletmeremember]

jumping in for one minor thing here - the pfizer and moderna vaccines are being tested in children right now. when regulatory agencies approve a vaccine, they only approve it in the age range it has been tested in. children aren’t included in first round of phase 3 trials, as children are a protected class in research science and working with them requires much more oversight and regulation. there is also a vaccine in phase 3 trials right now - novavax - that is much more similar to other vaccines and does not have the temp. requirements of pfizer or moderna (it can be stored at typical fridge temperatures, which makes its distribution plan MUCH better). this post is 100% correct in the final paragraph especially - everyone needs to follow the exact same precautions even after you’ve been vaccinated. most people will not be vaccinated for a long while yet. (also if anyone is curious, i’ve been in a phase 3 clinical vaccine trial, i’m a research scientist in pharmacology, and i work for a hospital. i’m happy to answer any questions i can about what phase 3 trials are like, how regulatory bodies approve/don’t approve something, etc)

[thedevorak-deactivated20201227]

source

[ginazmemeoir]

wHY DOES THIS HAVE JUST 308 NOTES???? THE ENTIRE WORLD SHOULD BE SHARING THIS. CHINA IS LITERALLY COMMITTING THE HOLOCAUST, ONLY THIS TIME ON MUSLIMS AND Y’ALL ARE SILENT?

i have 495 people following me right now, including several mutuals. i better see y’all reblogging.

[metrotitans]

People might not be reblogging this because the first tweet makes unnecessary (and untrue) Holocaust comparisons. Taken from @nat_slay on Twitter (I don’t know the original source):

The “ways to help” info seems good afaik but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong there too.

[rainbowlack]

As a Jewish person, I appreciate those saying that this is not okay and that it is misinformation. No, 6 million Uyghur Muslims have not been murdered.

And, as a Jewish person, I know that 6 million very well could be murdered. This is not another Shoah, but it very well could become another. As a Jewish person, I feel we must say “never again.”

Never again.

“Never again” does not mean “this event was so uniquely horrible, it could never happen again.” It means “this event was horrible, but not unique. We have to make sure it never happens again.”

Never again.

The Uyghur death count isn’t 6 million, that is misinformation. But “never again” means we have to make sure it doesn’t become 6 million.

If you are not Jewish or Romani, do not draw comparisons to the Holocaust. All that provides is shock value and misinformation. What you can do is support Uyghur Muslims.

The link to the original post doesn’t work—here are other sources:

Source from The Silhouette

Source from Business Insider

Source from Middle East Forum

Source from India Blooms

Source #1 from Jewish News

Source #2 from Jewish News

Groups to donate to:

Charity Right’s Food for Uyghurs

Uyghur Human Rights Project

Petitions to sign:

Petition 1

Petition 2

If you have more relevant resources, please share them. Petitions are likely meaningless in contrast to the Chinese government.

For those who are able to, take action. For those who are unable to take action, please share.