tannertan36
Misplaced Lens Cap
styofa doing anything
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Kiana Khansmith
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
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I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
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dirt enthusiast
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@purplecowbell
Writing Thoughts Masterpost
Fantasy Bioessentialism Tumblr | Medium
Out of Serial Tumblr | Medium
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Time Travel and Wish Fulfillment Tumblr | Medium
What's Going on with Short Fiction Tumblr | Medium
Guys I think I got a glitch on my end of the deltarune website?
Hello Jenn! Why do some publishers and people insist on fiction authors doing or having big social media accounts when the fact is that publishers themselves have the greatest sway and reach and stuff? Most of authors I know barely get a drop in the bucket when they do their own promos and they track their sales to prove it. I mean, yeah, we would make or build one if asked but even some agents are insisting on “influence” nowadays to get their attention…
Publishers are well aware that they can do significantly more than the author can with traditional marketing. Things like ARCs, bringing the book to school library conferences, doing bigmouth mailings, having special bookstore display signage and special discounts for stores -- all of these things are things that drive sales to bookstores, schools and libraries. All of which are, obviously, necessary to sell books to consumers. (People can't buy the book if it isn't in the bookstore!)
So, MARKETING is to some extent consumer-oriented, but really mostly geared toward getting gatekeepers to know and love the book so that they can then make their community aware of it and push it, because that's the most bang for the buck. A passionate bookseller or librarian can reach a LOT of people, and those tentacles spread out!
Publicity is a bit of a different beast. The goal there is getting "earned media" -- that is, NOT PAYING for coverage, rather, getting the NYT or whoever it is to WANT to write a story about you. Publishers are decent at that too, but of course, not all books lend themselves easily to being featured in major media. So those two are the main avenues by which publishers get the word out about books.
But there is that third prong, SOCIAL media... which publishers, frankly, kinda often suck at. And this isn't ACTUALLY their fault. The problem is, things that the publisher creates tend to look like ADS. (surprise!) People on social media aren't looking for ADS. The things that go viral are things that feel AUTHENTIC.
So a publisher spends time and money crafting an elegant video about a book -- 30 copies sell. A grainy video of grandma hilariously reading a book aloud to a kid and laughing will set the internet on fire and suddenly a half a million copies of a nearly-out-of-print picture book sell. Obviously you can't manufacture or buy "authenticity" -- that's the whole point!
But it is just a fact that on social media, the AUTHOR is a way better ambassador for the book than the publisher can be. People DO want to listen to authors -- they DON'T want to listen to ads. So that's really the main place where an author can help with book marketing.
THAT BEING SAID. I've been doing this for nearly 20 years and have literally never had a publisher or anyone else in a position of power "insist" that one of my authors have "big social media accounts".
They might suggest that an author have at least one social media account. Not because they are expecting you to have a string of viral videos or anything -- but just because that's best practices! It's good for you to be able to post stuff on easily and and it's good for them to have a way for them to tag you in their posts. They'd appreciate that. But I don't think they are insisting, and I don't think they are follower-counting. If anything, that seems like LESS of a conversation than it was in the 2010s!
Of course, if an author HAS a big social media account, that's a nice bonus, I'm sure they'd be delighted -- but it's laughable to think that an author who DOESN'T have a huge following is just going to "get big" overnight because a publisher "insists". I just really don't think most publishers DO expect that.
I mean there ARE publishers and agents who are explicitly seeking influencer-type authors who have a huge social media presence. But that's not all or even most publishers and agents. If you DON'T have a huge social media presence, you probably aren't a fit for those particular folks, or vice versa. So, OK, move on. Normal authors with normal, regular social media (or even hardly any at all) do get book deals all the time.
Don't listen to people who use words like "theorist" or "philosopher" to describe themselves. That's something u get called by somebody else. It's like if u walked around introducing yourself to ppl as a genius.
I call myself a rat
that's a title that needs to be earned but can be assigned by oneself as well
Yeah anybody can be a Creature that's encouraged
I made a Zine about this! If anyone ever wants to print and hand it out, please do!
one thing I haven't gotten critiqued on yet but that I can see looming on the horizon, is that I really like to have main characters who are non-human and autistic-coded. and I've seen the conversations about how it's not actually all that validating to have "autistic rep" if the character in question is just an alien or a robot or whatever, and I actually do agree with that (for real!), but unfortunately I want to be a creature so so bad, I just really really want to be a creature. or like a little gnome or bug or something. so a good number of my autistic self inserts will just be awful fuck ass creatures and I apologize for that.
wait that's so big-brained
Relevant
One story beat about deltarune chapter 5 that I'm convinced will happen is that, in general, the chapter will have the dark world interwoven with the festival.
So for example the chapter proper starts with Susie and Kris attending the festival with Noelle, then Susie and Kris discover the Dark World and have to subtly ditch Noelle to deal with Dark World shit. And then at a certain point of Dark World shit they have to go back to the light world and attend the festival still with Noelle and look for clues/plot macguffins while trying to be inconspicuous. Rinse and Repeat two or so more times.
So the main "comedy" of the chapter is Kris and Susie desperately trying to juggle Dark World stuff and trying to not make Noelle sad by not letting her realize they keep leaving her.
You'd expect pretending that you think of the Devil and We Know the Devil are the same game in order to annoy people on purpose would be a bit that has a hard time landing, but it turns out that these two fandoms represent a demographic Venn diagram with a very specific overlap.
"We Know of the Devil."
Web series where the principal characters are constantly having long, emotionally open conversations about their needs and traumas, except it quickly becomes clear that one of them is wildly mistaken about their own motivations, one perfectly understands themselves but is lying on purpose, and one is just kind of saying shit.
Lovely to see we have spaces where you can gain access to so much literature!
Finally, an open hardware printer you can actually understand, repair, and upgrade
Open Printer is an open-source, repairable inkjet printer designed for makers, artists, and anyone tired of throwaway hardware. Built with standard mechanical components and modular parts, it’s easy to assemble, modify, and repair. You can print on standard sheets or paper rolls and choose between black or color cartridges, refillable at your convenience.
This project aims to reclaim our everyday tools. As such, it features no proprietary drivers, no cartridge DRM that locks you to a single vendor and is designed to never become obsolete. The Open Printer is built for longevity and customizability, ensuring that it remains fully under your control.
“Guys I swear sometime in the festival there is going to be a thing where Sans offers to take the group’s picture (kris, Susie, and Noelle) and like theres going to be this bit where he doesn’t give the photo back and keeps it, and it’s going to be the same one from the lab in the basement from hit game Undertale, and it’s going to be his only memory of home, I swear, PLEASE I SWEAR IT WILL-“ I say before being dragged back into the white padded room.
GenAI v. not GenAI round up.
So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.
Pro GenAI websites/Programs:
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.
You can add Procreate to the anti AI list. They have vowed time and time again when people ask that they will not use AI in their software.
We are not adding generative AI to our apps. Here's why.
Will also add that elllipsus has options for sharing work with Betas and getting comments in-line wjth the text, a lot like google docs does.
I know a lot of writers stick to gdocs for thaf specific feature but you dont have to!
as a chemist i would like to say BWAHAHAHAHAHA
image description at explainXKCD:
explain xkcd is a wiki dedicated to explaining the webcomic xkcd. Go figure.
its a bit easier for astronomers
NO! Where’s the non-metals and metaloids?!
are they hydrogen or helium
oxygen, carbon, sulfur, xenon, iodine, neon, etc etc.
ooo okay i see the confusion. you're listing off a bunch of metals there
…. You’re breaking my chemistry nerd brain. Hhhuuuhhhh???
im an astrophysicist
but but, science is science?!
and different fields of science have different conventions and definitions for their unique contexts
tl;dr: all "algorithmically" pushed stuff on a newsfeed is mostly ads. nothing that's really surprising form this vulture article, but it is dismal and makes me grateful for one website where you only see things from people you follow WITHOUT horrible short-form video content
What if every viral song, movie, meme, influencer, and celebrity drama in recent memory was the result of a stealth marketing campaign?
https://web.archive.org/web/20260515113210/https://www.vulture.com/article/social-media-feeds-chaotic-good-projects-clipping.html
Have a paywall free link to the source!
If I was making an Overwatch-esque fighting game I'd have an interaction mechanic that changes based on the characters relationship. The simplest version of this would be like, a proximity stun effect with a cooldown that plays a unique voice line depending on the pair-up, but the more ambitious version would have 3 different effects;
Threaten, which gives a damage boost and/or increased crit chance to the attacker
Plead, which gives you a decrease in damage, or possibly some kind of armour.
and Flirt, which would be the stun.
This would give a strategic advantage for players who know the lore, as well as being a way to characterize both individual characters and their relationships. Like, if you have a character who usually Pleads, the one guy they Threaten says a lot about them. And two characters having different interactions (as in, A Flirts with B but B Threatens A) tells you a lot about where they're at - and gives players an interesting challenge, where they can theoretically cancel out/counter each others interactions if they know what they're doing and can get the timing right. You could also potentially change interactions if you have an evolving story, and use that as a way to rebalance the game.
This would probably be hard to balance in the first place and might difficult on an esport level but I just think it'd be neat.
Also if I was making an Overwatch-esque fighting game the premise would be that assassination was made legal, but since regular murder is still a crime assassins have to be, like, super obvious about it. People start wearing costumes and adopting stupid gimmicks so it's obvious at a glance that they are doing a Perfectly Legal Killing and not a murder + people won't clock them and freak out when they're just buying groceries with they're blood money.
Obviously public figures start upping their securities and it turns out the people most willing to fight weirdos in costumes are other weirdos in costumes. So characters can be on either the Assassin or Guard team for any match up without it being weird because this is just everyone's day job, but behind the scenes there's interpersonal drama and maybe some political intrigue going on. Mostly drama though.
I was actually gonna draw a bunch of fighting game OC's a while back but then I got Way Too Deep into rendering the first character and never went back to my other sketches. Anyways here's a character I call The Clown Car.
[ID: A digital illustration of a polka-dotted clown car with a face and comically elevated suspension. Three clowns are popping out; Sorry Face (they/them), a purple and yellow clown in a dress shirt and tie, is hanging out of the right side window with a shotgun; Silly Face (he/him) A red and blue clown in a tutu and suspenders, is popping out of the roof on a spring loaded platform with a tommygun; Scary Face (it/its), a green and orange clown with puffy shorts, arm socks, and a bikini top is lying down on the left door, which has lowered like a drawbridge, holding a revolver. End ID]
The Clown Car counts as one character and every time you attack a different clown pops out. I can't decide if it's funnier for it to be high damage and high skill floor so all the serious gamers Git Good at it or if it should be the easiest newbie friendly character so tons of The Clown Cars are rolling around every match.
(also yes I was playing a lot of Balatro at the time. whatever)
