In light of recent news, I’m leaving Tumblr. The activity level on the site isn’t enough to warrant staying. I’m keeping this blog up, since deleting it won’t do anything to stop the AI scraping. But from now on, my main platform will be Pillowfort.
Bluesky: @robot-horde
Pillowfort: Robot-Horde
Ao3: Robot_Horde
If you’d like to join a community of horny robot enthusiasts, come over to the Discord. I plan to keep it active and have already been putting more effort into it than into my Tumblr. It’s a really fun place and we’re always happy to have newcomers.
Join the 18+ Valveplug Discord
Check out the Shamelessly Valveplugging community on Discord - hang out with 90 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
FIGE’s founder @robot-horde made a retrospective zine that looks at the origins of Fuck It, Good Enough and shares the impact it had during its short existence.
It’s available to download for free on Itchio and on our website.
With the news of Cohost’s closure and Tumblr’s continued mistreatment of its users, those looking for an alternative platform may want to consider Pillowfort. In this post I’ll go over some of Pillowfort’s policies, setup, and emphasis on community to help prospective users decide if it’s a good fit for them.
Pillowfort has an explicitly Anti-AI stance.
They’re strict about it, so the downside is you can’t post AI images to use as examples when discussing or making fun of the topic.
They allow NSFW.
NSFW content is very much welcomed there, but it is required to be marked as such.
This means you have the option to toggle NSFW content off so you can avoid it entirely if you want.
To read the specifics of what sfw and nsfw content is and is not allowed on Pillowfort, check out point 8 in their TOS.
There is no recommendation algorithm.
Your feed is self curated, which does take some getting used to if you haven’t been on a platform like that before.
You start out following no one and have to dive through tags and communities to find people posting about your interests.
They are user funded.
This does mean some users need to donate or subscribe to Pillowfort Premium in order to reach the site’s financial goals each month.
Unlike Tumblr, “Pillowfort does not now, nor will it in the future, sell (their) user information to third-parties.”
This means that unlike many social sites, you are NOT the product!
The benefit of this is they do not have to bow to shareholders! Site users and their experience is their priority.
There is a communities feature
Similar in concept to Reddit’s sub-reddits. It allows for individuals to create and reblog posts into topic specific groups.
It’s a good way to find people to follow and quickly fill up your feed, but it also means you don’t necessarily have to follow a user’s blog to see posts from them on topics you enjoy.
Staff is transparent about funding and finances.
They have a budget breakdown on their donations page so you know exactly where your money is going.
There’s also a donation counter updated daily so everyone can see how close we are to reaching our monthly goal.
Apart from January 2024, Pillowfort has reached or exceeded the donation goal every month, with excess from other months making up for the shortfall in January.
As of this post, Pillowfort is funded through January 2025.
It is accessed through your browser.
The mobile site has some bugs and isn’t as smooth as desktop, but it still works well. Currently I’m on mobile full time and my experience has been nearly the same as it was on desktop.
A progressive web app (PWA) is in the works and it’s very high on their priority list. It should be out sometime in late 2024 - early 2025.
Tags actually work!
Unlike Tumblr’s system, when you search a tag on Pillowfort the only posts that come up are ones containing that tag. It’s not looking at text in the body of the post to include in the search.
Tags are also easy to blacklist. When you don’t want to see a certain tag, blacklisting fully hides the content from you.
In addition to tagging, Pillowfort has post privacy settings. You can set posts to be viewable by logged-in users only, followers only, or mutuals only. As well as turn off reblogs and comments.
Blocking is effective.
When you block someone you will not see any of their posts, even if someone you follow reblogs their post. They can’t see anything from you either.
The most you see from them is the text “someone commented” in place of their comments on other people’s posts. It can be annoying to see, but the benefit is it allows you to see and interact with all the other comments in a thread even if someone you’ve blocked is involved.
The community is welcoming.
The community is small, but it is generally friendly. People are excited to see new users join and are very eager to answer questions and help out.
They often make guides for new users to answer FAQs and give helpful tips.
There’s also communities, like Pillowfort101, dedicated to answering questions about the site and helping people navigate.
It’s “quiet” in nice ways.
Instead of callout posts (which are explicitly prohibited), people tend to block, move on, and let Staff handle the rest. This kind of attitude amongst users makes for the most low stress social media experience I’ve ever had.
Because of its small size in comparison to Tumblr, not all tags are super active with endless scrolling.
HOWEVER-
This means that by joining and bringing your hobbies, passions, and fandoms along with you, you’re helping to build a community from the ground up!
Because of its small size, many people on Pillowfort are open to hearing about topics they otherwise wouldn’t have encountered, so don’t be shy about introducing your interests over there.
It lacks certain features.
Pillowfort does not have reblog replies. Instead, additions and conversations are done through threaded comments on a post. A benefit of this is it gives users more control over interactions with their post.
Side blogs aren’t a current feature, though it is a feature planned for the first half of 2025.
Pillowfort has DMs, but not asks. However, asks are also planned for the first half of 2025.
Arranging images in a post can be frustrating sometimes. The system is high on their priority list to update and improve though, especially before the PWA launch.
There’s not currently a good setup for alt-text. It is an option, but there’s a character limit and it’s difficult to find. The most effective form of alt-text is putting it directly into the body of a post.
There are not custom content warnings like on Cohost or Mastadon. That’s all done through relying on people to tag or to write a warning above a read-more.
Joining
There’s several options to join. There’s a waitlist, which is the easiest option and typically takes less than an hour to get through. There’s also invites, which is the quickest option. I have a couple dozen I can give out, but there’s also people in the Pillowfort tag on Tumblr giving them out from time to time. The last option is paying $5 to get an invite instantly.
In Conclusion
It’s a small site so it’s not nearly as active as big platforms like Tumblr or Twitter, but community is a major focus of the site. From my personal experience it feels more like a place to talk with people, and not just at people. You may have to be the one to initiate conversation, but if you go looking for conversation it’s not hard to find.
As more active users join and begin participating in the site, I believe it will flourish. Overall, there’s a lot of room for growth on Pillowfort, but I for one am happy to buckle up and come along for the ride and I hope to see more of ya’ll join too.
We’re doing a mini-zine series all about Cybertronians as digital pets or what digital pets they might have on Cybertron.
We know not everyone wants to join a whole new Discord server to participate in a zine, so for this series we’re opening submissions up to people who aren’t server members. If you’re interested, message us for details on how to submit your work.
Here’s a drawing illustrating the basic format of the zine for reference
All levels of artistic experience are welcome! Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist, we love when people have fun creating in any form, so anything from a little doodle or sketch to a fully rendered drawing will be accepted. And if you’re nervous about sharing your work publicly, being credited as anonymous is always an option with our zines!
Detailed Guide on Sending Letters to & Calling Your Senators
As I've been encouraging people to contact their senators to oppose KOSA, The Screen Act, and IODA, I've gathered that a lot of people would appreciate a comprehensive step by step guide on how to do these things. The unknown is anxiety inducing, and even if the actions are easy, it can still get overwhelming if you haven't done it before.
So instead of telling people to Google it, I just sat down and wrote an instructional guide on how to call and send letters to your senators. I even include how to gather supplies for letters and how to drop them off.
I hope someone finds this helpful and encouraging. I promise, once you start doing these things, it becomes a lot easier to do again the next time.
It goes over all these topics:
How to find your senator
What to put in a letter
The actual letters I sent to my senators
How to get supplies for a letter
How to address a letter
How to send a letter
A six step guide on calling your senator
How Can I find my Senator & Their Information?
Go to senate.gov and select “Contact Your Senators” under the “Senators” dropdown menu. Enter the state you live in and it will bring up your active senators.
NOTE: If in the future you want to write to your house representatives, you can type in your address on house.gov and it will bring up your representatives.
Their profile on the Senate website will have a “contact” button that will bring you to the senator’s website. Usually, at the bottom of the page or on a dedicated contact page they will have the addresses of all of their offices. You can select one close to you, or their office in Washington for your letter.
NOTE: If you want to email your senator as well, there are often contact forms on their websites where you can fill in your information and automatically send an email from there. No need to dig around for a specific address.
What Should My Letter Include?
Keep your letter to one page.
The goal is to get your opinion counted, not to write an entire persuasive essay.
Keep it to one issue per letter.
This helps staff better tally and record your opinion.
It also means your letters take up more space and more of their resources, so if you’re really angry about multiple topics then that’s just a built in bonus.
Include your name, your city or zip code, and why you’re contacting them in the first paragraph of the letter.
Again, the goal is to have your opinion counted. Making it known that you’re their constituent and what your opinion is on the matter at hand at the start of your letter ensures it’s clearly communicated.
Identify the issue you’re writing about with the bill number and name.
Everything after is mostly fluff.
You can write about your reasoning for supporting or opposing a bill, include personal experiences that influence your view, or even request a response back. Some staffers might take note of these things, but others might not.
I’m not saying it’s not worth doing, I took up the full page for my own letters, but if you don’t have anything fancy to say you don’t need to force yourself to write more because it’s not a requirement.
Letter Templates
In the next part of this post I have copy and pasted the letters I sent to my senators. I’ve left out my personal information and labeled what information should be changed to be relevant to you. They are formatted to be typed in a PDF and printed out.
I encourage you to write your own letters from scratch, as personalized letters can have more of an impact and it’s good practice for being able to independently articulate your own beliefs in a low pressure environment. While you can copy and paste my letters and send them to your own senator, I ask that you read through the letters fully and only send them if you agree with what I’ve written, as they are my own opinions and may differ from your own. Keep in mind, everything I wrote is from my perspective and is aimed at my Republican senators and what I think they’d respond best to.
SCREEN ACT
DATE
The Honorable SENATOR’S NAME
SENATOR’S OFFICE ADDRESS
Dear Senator LAST NAME,
My name is FULL NAME and I am writing to you from CITY, STATE. As your constituent, I urge you to oppose the S.737 - Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net Act.
Children absolutely deserve to be protected from harm, but vast prohibitions and heightened surveillance of the entire population is never the solution, and has been shown to be ineffective in keeping children safe. In addition to this, it is a massive security nightmare waiting to happen.
Children are clever, and have been shown to use a variety of methods to circumvent even the most modern age verification technology, and while people claim this bill protects parental rights, it ignores parental responsibility to educate their children on online safety and to personally monitor and guide their interactions online. Not only is age verification technology ineffective in keeping children out, it risks limiting access to knowledge and freedom of speech for the masses. For instance, requiring age verification across the web would lead to many companies and organizations being unable to comply with regulations, forcing them to shut down as a result and taking whatever services, resources, and knowledge they provided for the public away with them.
Those concerns are before we even get to the fact this bill is a horrific data breach in the making, as businesses have historically failed to protect consumer data time and time again. Requiring adults to expose sensitive personal data to so many businesses and organizations exponentially increases the risk of incidents like identity theft and fraud, and in the worst cases can even risk the physical safety of the individuals exposed.
So once again, I urge you to oppose the Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net Act, as it is ineffective and would do more harm than good for the public.
Sincerely,
SIGN IN PEN HERE
FULL NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
KOSA
DATE
The Honorable SENATOR’S NAME
SENATOR’S OFFICE ADDRESS
Dear Senator LAST NAME,
My name is FULL NAME and I am writing to you from CITY, STATE. As your constituent, I urge you to oppose the S.1748 - Kids Online Safety Act.
I WROTE ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE GROWING UP IN THE WILD WEST OF THE INTERNET AND HOW I UNDERSTAND HOW HARMFUL THE INTERNET CAN BE TO A CHILD. However, I believe this bill is an ineffective method of protecting children online, and it would restrict access to a wide variety of knowledge that may benefit children and adults alike, ultimately making the bill counterproductive.
Currently, the UK is enacting similar laws, and children are using a variety of methods to get around their restrictions, rendering them useless. It’s also pushing determined children to seek out less regulated sites and go deeper into the shadows of the internet where they are at an even higher risk of danger from online predators. Additionally, libraries of online information are being age restricted. Such information is not limited to depictions of sex, but has extended to censoring general knowledge along with a variety of resources that may actually help children in being able to identify the signs of abuse and seek support and safety.Â
I truly believe education is one of the most powerful tools we have to arm our children with the ability to combat harm they may face. So I fear if we pass KOSA in America, the same things happening in the UK will happen to us and our children, failing to protect them while simultaneously stripping valuable resources from them.
So again, I urge you to oppose the Kids Online Safety Act, as it is not in the best interest of American children or the adults who care for them.
Sincerely,
SIGN IN PEN HERE
FULL NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
IODA
DATE
The Honorable SENATOR’S NAME
SENATOR’S OFFICE ADDRESS
Dear Senator LAST NAME,
My name is FULL NAME and I am writing to you from CITY, STATE. As your constituent, I urge you to oppose the S.1671 - Interstate Obscenity Definitions Act.
As you know, we already have definitions for obscenity. While some may find them too vague, the level of interpretation it provides is vital in allowing case by case assessments, and to prevent the government from abusing its power to censor freedom of speech.
Redefining obscenity as the bill intends could lead to far more harm than good. For example, this bill could be used to silence victims of sexual abuse from sharing their stories and warning others due to the graphic nature of their contents. It could also be used to restrict access to female healthcare information including resources on breastfeeding, since some people wrongfully consider the natural and necessary act of breastfeeding a child to be sexual.
I WROTE ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ARTIST MAKING ART ABOUT MY TRAUMA AND HOW PUBLIC REACTIONS FROM POLITICIANS AGAINST ART THEY FIND DISTASTEFUL MAKES ME BELIEVE THEY WILL USE THIS TO CENSOR ARTISTS WHO HANDLE HEAVY TOPICS THAT AREN’T CONSIDERED PALATABLE.
1984 was a cautionary tale, not an instruction manual, so please, oppose IODA. Strike down this bill and any variation of it that may rear its ugly head again in the future, as people are putting faith in you to defend our freedoms.
Sincerely,
SIGN IN PEN HERE
FULL NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
How to Send a Letter
Supplies
Something to write on and an envelope to put it in.
You can get plain, standard sized envelopes at any office supply store, but places like Walmart, Target, drug stores, and most grocery stores should sell them as well near their section with school supplies/stationary/packing supplies.
These standard envelopes easily fit 8.5 x 11 paper when folded into thirds horizontally.
NOTE:Â You can absolutely send letters on postcards or greeting cards or whatever else you have on hand.
Stamps
Standard USPS stamps are currently 78 cents each. They never expire and you can send a standard rectangular letter anywhere in the U.S. with just one of them.
Stamps are typically bought in “books” which contain 20 stamps. You can get them directly at the post office, but many grocery stores and drug stores sell them as well.
NOTE: There’s lots of fun stamp designs you can buy at the post office or buy online at https://store.usps.com/store/stamps. There’s ones for square or irregular shaped letters, and additional postage increments for letters weighing over an ounce.
Addressing Your Letter
Your full name and address go in the top left corner.
Including this on letters sent to senators is recommended for several reasons. It shows that you really are their constituent and allows them to send a response back to you.
NOTE: There have been incidents of letters containing deadly materials, like anthrax, being sent to political officials. So while I can’t definitively confirm this, I imagine if you don’t include your return address, it’s entirely possible your letter might get thrown out as a safety precaution.
The address you’re sending it to goes in the middle of the envelope.
When writing who it’s going to, include either “Senator” or “The Honorable” before the senator’s full name.
The stamp goes on the top right of the envelope.
NOTE:Â Some postcards have dedicated sections for where to put addresses and the stamp.
How to Send It
If you have a mailbox with a working mailbox flag, you can put your letter into the empty mailbox and raise the flag. This will notify the mailman that the letter inside is outgoing mail, and they’ll take it and get it sent out.
If you don’t have a mailbox with a flag, most apartment mailrooms, neighborhood mailbox groups, and office buildings will have a box or slot labeled “outgoing mail”. Just slide your letter in and you’re good to go.
Some places still have USPS blue letterboxes for dropping mail. They’re also called snorkel boxes, so occasionally you’ll see that on a sign pointing you towards the box.
You can always stop by your local USPS location. They’ll either have a mailbox outside for you to drop mail into, they’ll have a mail slot inside the building usually near the PO Boxes, or if all else fails you can hand it to the person working at the post office counter.
Step-By-Step Guide to Calling Your Senators
I KNOW phone calls are scary, but I promise calling your representatives are some of the easiest and fastest phone calls you’ll make. I’ve never had one over two minutes long and every staffer has been helpful and polite, even when I’m asking for my deeply Republican senator to oppose something I know they for sure agree with.
Go to your senator’s website and find their list of offices. Usually it’s either at the bottom of the webpage or in a dedicated tab. There you’ll find phone numbers for each of their offices in your state, and their office in Washington.
When you call during office hours, an office staff member will answer the phone. They’ll say something along the lines of “This is Senator [Last Name’s] office. How may I assist you?”.
NOTE: Some offices have voicemail boxes for after hours. Not all of them have it, and you won’t get confirmation from a person that your message has been noted, so I encourage you to call during office hours. But if you leave a voicemail, still include all the information present in the next steps.
Say hello! You can either give them your full name and zip code now, or you can do it later. But make sure you give that information to them before you hang up so that your input is documented.
Tell them what bill you’re calling about and tell them you want your senator to either oppose or support the bill.
That’s it! Say your goodbyes and hang up. The call is usually less than two minutes. You can give a brief sentence or two explaining your stance, but it’s not at all necessary. This is just for them to tally support or opposition to report back to the senator.
You’re all done! Wasn’t that so much easier than you thought? Go get yourself a treat as a reward. It helps with the after phone call anxiety crash.
We’re currently working on Baby Needs Smoko, a transformers zine where we put often infantilized characters into adult situations. It’ll be filled with lots of serious, silly, & sexy creations.
Submissions are open until September 4th so join the Discord to hop in on the fun!
As always, submissions aren’t juried! So as long as you follow the zine’s guidelines, your work will be automatically accepted into the zine.
Also, after feedback from our members we’ve decided to publish two versions of the final zine. One with sexual content and one without.
Because sometimes being an adult is unsexy & you’re just not in the mood for robot porn.
I’m here to give you a push to file complaints with Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe over their adult content policies that are resulting in rampant censorship. Or if you’re American, contacting your representatives to oppose KOSA & the SCREEN Act.
I’m offering both SFW and, of course, NSFW art if you complete my quest. To qualify, calls can be made over multiple days but must reach either a person or a voicemail. I’ll be operating on the honor system here and only require a brief summary of your calling experiences to act as proof you did it.
Here’s contact info for the payment processors and a link to a site that helps you find your representatives. I’d also be happy to help with a script for any of the calls if you need it and can share my experiences with calling if you want to know what to expect.
Contact me on Bluesky or Discord (hoarding_robots) to get started!
I’m here to give you a push to file complaints with Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe over their adult content policies that are resulting in rampant censorship. Or if you’re American, contacting your representatives to oppose KOSA & the SCREEN Act.
I’m offering both SFW and, of course, NSFW art if you complete my quest. To qualify, calls can be made over multiple days but must reach either a person or a voicemail. I’ll be operating on the honor system here and only require a brief summary of your calling experiences to act as proof you did it.
Here’s contact info for the payment processors and a link to a site that helps you find your representatives. I’d also be happy to help with a script for any of the calls if you need it and can share my experiences with calling if you want to know what to expect.
Contact me on Bluesky or Discord (hoarding_robots) to get started!
I’m here to give you a push to file complaints with Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe over their adult content policies that are resulting in rampant censorship. Or if you’re American, contacting your representatives to oppose KOSA & the SCREEN Act.
I’m offering both SFW and, of course, NSFW art if you complete my quest. To qualify, calls can be made over multiple days but must reach either a person or a voicemail. I’ll be operating on the honor system here and only require a brief summary of your calling experiences to act as proof you did it.
Here’s contact info for the payment processors and a link to a site that helps you find your representatives. I’d also be happy to help with a script for any of the calls if you need it and can share my experiences with calling if you want to know what to expect.
Contact me on Bluesky or Discord (hoarding_robots) to get started!
I'm opening art commissions with the goal of raising money for various mutual aid funds. I believe change starts at home and we need strong community to rely on when things go to shit. So I'm asking people to choose a mutual aid group or grassroots organization that's local to them, or that's dear to their heart, to donate to directly. Smaller local groups can often go forgotten when it comes to making personal donations, but even just a few bucks can make a tangible difference to those around you.
Ideas for types of organizations include:
Protester bail funds
Period pantries
Abortion funds
Mask blocs
Food Not Bombs
I list my pricing sheet under the read more, but for all other important information, check out the commissions page on my site.
If you have questions, or want to commission me, you can contact me through Discord or Bluesky.
Discord:Â hoarding_robots
Bluesky:Â @robot-horde.bsky.social
I operate on a sliding payment scale where you can name your own price. For more information, please check out the Payment tab on my website's commissions page.
Bust
Sketch: $5 - $10
Lined: $10 - $15
Flat Color: $15 - $25
Full Color: $25 - $35
Half Body
Sketch: $10 - $15
Lined: $20 - $25
Flat Color: $25 - $30
Full Color: $35 - $40
3/4 Body
Sketch: $15 - $20
Lined: $25 - $30
Flat Color: $35 - $40
Full Color: $40 - $50
Full Body
Sketch: $20 - $30
Lined: $30 - $35
Flat Color: $40 - $45
Full Color: $50 - $65
Misc
Reference Sheet: $75 - $100
Character Design & Reference Sheet: $85 - $110
Phone Wallpaper Collage: $25 - $30
Additional Characters
Bust and Waist Up sketches include 1-2 characters.
For half body and 3/4 body commissions, additional characters are $5 each, with up to four characters total.
For fully body commissions, additional characters are $10 each, with up to four characters total.
NSFW
Nonsexual nudity and violence are no extra charge.
NSFW expressions on busts are no extra charge.
To make 3/4 Body and Full Body commissions NSFW, +$5 for each character.
Reference sheets can be made NSFW for an additional cost between $5 - $15.
Phone wallpapers can be made NSFW at no extra charge if you provide your own NSFW art.
Backgrounds/Accessories
Flat and full color drawings come with a simple background.
More complex backgrounds can be done on request. Cost varies based on complexity.
Accessories such as weapons can be done on request. Cost varies based on complexity.
Discounts
I love drawing in the MLP style, so additional characters in MLP commissions will be $2 and $5 instead of $5 and $10.
Drawings done using the symmetry tool extensively are eligible for a 25% discount.
Extremely simple characters may also be eligible for a discount, though what counts as "simple" will be up to my discretion.
Serrated is a Transformers fanzine celebrating the wild, gruesome, and beautiful world of erotic robot gore.
It’s a fully digital zine consisting of 21 pages of art and writing from 14 fantastic contributors.
This zine started before FIGE officially came to be, and now it’s finally finished! It was a huge inspiration for Fuck It, Good Enough as a larger zine project, and many of its contributors are FIGE members today.
To Have and to Loathe: A guide to properly hating characters is a humorous Transformers fanzine giving simple, step by step instructions on the best way to loathe fictional characters. Become a true hater today by following our six simple steps!
This guide comes in two convenient formats! A digital zine for easy access, and a printable, foldable version to keep in your pocket while on the go.
It’s official! Our upcoming zine will be all about rarepairs!
What Counts as a Rarepair?
For the purpose of this zine, a rarepair is any pairing with less than 100 fics on Ao3.
What Mediums are Accepted?
Digital art, traditional art, writing, crafting, animation, and more. Whatever you can think of, we’ll find a way to include it in the zine.
What’s the Deadline?
Submissions are due by June 17th.
How do I Join?
If you’re interested in participating, join our Discord to see all the details on this zine! If your submission meets the zine’s guidelines, it will automatically be included in the zine.
If you’ve ever wanted to join a zine but were worried you’d be rejected in favor of others, our entries aren’t juried based on perceived skill level. If your submission fits our current zine’s theme, then you’re automatically accepted into the zine!
Voting for our upcoming zine’s theme is open now in our Discord, so come check it out if you’re interested in joining!
Fuck It, Good Enough, or The FIGE Project is an ongoing community art project run by @robot-horde. It aims to be a community where Transformers fans can come together and create zines while experimenting with their work and connecting with others in the process.
Here’s the fourth and final installment of Do Your Favs Dirty, a zine where people draw their favorite Transformers characters and Transformers OCs in silly and carefree ways.
There’s a digital version available to download, as well as a printable version available too so you can fold your own zine like I did here! All for free!
