Skelly Swears

she/her, 40+, queer, Phoenix, AZ

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Pet Peeve:

Cell phone voicemail pre-programmed messages, in a generic, arbitrary voice (not the voice of the person you're trying to call):

The person you've dialed can't take your call, now . . .

How, in the Sweet Name of Hermes, am I supposed to know if I've even dialed the correct number?!

What if I accidentally tapped a wrong button? What if I can't be sure of the handwriting I'm getting the number from?

How can I be sure I'm not leaving a message in a random stranger's voicemail?

[poetic-poppy]

I don’t know about you, but I get so many spam calls and debt collectors calling me that I don’t say my name in the message. It’s in my voice, but doesn’t state my name. I’d hazard a guess that at least some people are doing this for the same reasons.

If leaving a voicemail on a new person’s phone causes you to feel anxious, which is fair, you could just say who you’re calling for and leave your name and number. Don’t say anything that the recipient wouldn’t want other people to hear.

If you leave a message at the wrong number, they can simply delete it or contact you to say that you have the wrong number.

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

That's fair.

Still doesn't help my anxiety, especially when I do leave a message, and no one calls back, so I never find out if it went to the right person or not.

(Also to be fair, back in my day, when we all had land lines, and answering machines had physical cassette tapes to hold the messages, scam callers weren't really a thing, either, so ....)

[skelly-swears]

There's also fear of scammers collecting your voice and then using AI to call your loved ones while asking for money in your voice. Not sure if this actually happens yet, or if it's conjecture. Really sucks.

[no-resolution]

Who would win

Miss Piggy

Angel from Buffy

Remaining time: 1 day 1 hour

[materassassino]

It seems like we're just feeding characters to Miss Piggy at this point

[infestuous]

Wally Dion, Green Star Quilt, 2019 circuit boards, brass wire, copper tube

[chekhovs-raygun]

I SAW THIS IN THE PORTLAND ART MUSEUM! ITS HUGE!

it shimmers like no gemstones i've ever seen: green as malachite and emerald but shot through with opal, gold, copper. photographs can't do it justice because of how it shines, as well as the way the actual material elements have their own dimensions. you can lean in and study all the fine lines of the circuits or step back and admire how the rearranged whole forms new patterns. it's one of the most beautiful creations i've ever seen.

[thebibliosphere]

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?

[thebibliosphere]

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

[thebibliosphere]

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.

[thebibliosphere]

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

[thebibliosphere]

Hey, I’m going to hold your hand when I say this, but if you didn’t realize these types of posts/blogs were ads… that’s okay! They are designed to trick you!

These type of undeclared sellers are relying on you believing that Tumblr is different from other social media platforms where the advertising is usually more blatant. They are also relying on your trust in your community not to put undisclosed ads onto your dash.

After all, everyone knows Tumblr is a sinkhole where profit goes to die and everyone hates ads. Why would anyone waste time doing that here… unless they can adapt what they’re doing to make you think you’re not being marketed to, because Tumblr as a user base would never allow that kind of thing. Right?

Turns out, not so much.

Some people might say, “well that’s just obvious! You’d have to be really silly not to realize it!”

And maybe it was obvious to them.

I know it was obvious to me. But I also know I have enough online experience to play “spot the affiliate link” and enough knowledge as a indie author about how those links are supposed to be disclosed by law, to know when someone is being dishonest and trying to make a post seem organic and not like an ad.

But not everyone has the same knowledge or life experiences to put the context clues together, and that’s why I wrote the above post because many, many, many people on here are unaware they are reblogging ads—usually while talking about how much they hate ads!

You’re not dumb or silly or worthless or any of the unkind things some people are calling themselves in the notes. You just needed more information. Happily I was able to provide it and now you know what to look for. Go forth and scroll with newfound knowledge 🫡

[misogyny-affected]

trans poc, please i beg of you get transition inspo of people with your ethnicity

i was incredibly dysphoric about my round face and softer features until i started looking at the faces of hispanic men and realized that those features weren’t feminine at all, they were ethnic features white supremacy had conditioned me to see as less masculine

your ethnic features are beautiful, and you do not need to look european to look masculine or feminine

[ms-demeanor]

I made a vertabracelet.

[that-gay-jedi]

"All monsters must die bloody, and by a hero's hands, and soon," he says over brunch.

He doesn't think it's a rude thing to say in front of a monster. There are no rude things to say to monsters, only rude things monsters say.

"Don't worry," she says between bites, "You're one of the good ones."

"But I am still a monster," I do not say. I do not say that I love my claws and teeth, my prehensile shadow and my glowing eyes. That I cannot imagine giving them up even for survival, that to hide my shadow and trim my claws for them makes me feel diminished. In public I cannot say that I do not wish to be human.

They're progressives, this bunch, even if he carries a hero's banner with its proud history and none of them ask him to put it away. They know there are good monsters, monsters who can speak eloquently and hold the fork right, monsters you can be seen with in public. Some of their best friends are monsters.

They do not know the monster who is invited to brunch knows solidarity with the monster who is not. Believes and understands the monster who is not invited more than the human who does the inviting.

"Isn't that a little harsh?" says a third human, and I have not forgotten I am outnumbered. "We have ways of killing monsters without blood now, painlessly. And, of course, a monster should be allowed to live if it never growls."

He has never seen me growl. Yet how loudly and endlessly I will, when I'm out of earshot. He's talking about killing monsters who cannot stoop to civility, about mother and brother and lover who were never able to mute themselves like me, and does he not know how small a child who can only growl is?

"To growl is not to kill," I say, and all heads turn toward me. It is one of those rude things monsters say.

[moonlitmartyr]

I hate ruminating on what could have been. Out here thinking "if only I locked in when I was 13" are we serious

[valdin-s]

WHAT ABOUT THE FIRE!!

[stagkingswife]

Friendly reminder folks, the block button is there to use when you want, on whoever you want, for any reason you damn well please. No one ever needs to explain who they have blocked or why they have blocked them.

[swagophile]

important reminder that most people you follow online are significantly lamer than you think they are including me. and if you feel insecure comparing yourself to someone online: DON'T. theyre probably also lame and weird. most people on the internet are

[most-sane-classicist]

reblog if you're also lame and weird.

[pardalote]

Okay yeah. I might have a long term obsession manifesting here.

Maybe.

[maxxie-or-smth]

everything is getting worse and thats why it's SO so important that we have fun and hang out and play and im being serious im being unimaginable amounts of serious

[rederiswrites]

Just watched Adam Conover (of Adam Ruins Everything) make such a solid point that I think we should spread far and wide. Yes, having AI write your emails is lazy, sure, but people love being lazy. We need to really emphasize that sending AI emails (or using AI responses on social media, or publishing AI flyers, or or or) is rude.

It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.

It's rude.

[abandonedandurbex]

Computer wiring tunnel inside an abandoned coal power plant, photo by Bryan Buckley [1280x854]

[batsandboba]

when i say “girl” randomly as an interjection i’m speaking to the omnipresent all knowing being of Girl. asking her for mercy. taking girl’s name in vain

[insomniac-arrest]

People have overused Catholic Guilt to the point they cannot recognize the clear and haunting Protestant Shame in front of their eyes. that character Knows they could have worked harder

[abbiistabbii]

This goes out to everyone, but specifically the LGBT community, but especially the trans community.

Shit's getting concerning right now, not just in the US but also in the UK, and as you can see with how the UK went from being the best place in Europe for LGBT rights to going to rolling back transgender rights faster than they burnt documents relating to their Imperial Atrocities, I think we need to have a talk.

This goes out to everyone, but I want transgender people and Queer people generally to sit up and listen because the rest of the acronym is next. You need to start caring about your privacy, especially in regards to technology, because that will come back to bite you and it's the reason they're so gung ho on AI: Surveillance.

Here's some shit you should (at least try) and do:

Keep a paper diary and a paper notebook: A paper diary isn't merely theraputic, it's also very good to keep a historical record that isn't electronic because the government and their corporate allies can't fuck with it, and you can say all the things that would get your house raided either now or in the future when their "targets" change.

If you are going to do shit on a computer, keep shit either offline on your own computer or on a NAS if you have one. Replace Google Docs with LibreOffice, which is free and open source and cross platform. Keeping shit local is your friend. If you're keeping notes on your phone, try something like Notally, something that doesn't call back to your phone's servers. CoMaps let's you download OpenStreetMaps on your phone so even when you are offline, you have a fully functioning map app.

Encrypted Comms: No, WhatsApp is not safe, it's run by Meta and they want your fucking data and they will give it to whoever pays them. Get Signal: It's Open Source, Run by a non-profit who's whole goal is secure communications. It's got all the shit you'd want and more.

If you can, get off Windows or Mac and move to Linux: Linux isn't complex, Linux Mint is easy, and it's user friendly. It's not 2006 anymore.

Get a VPN. It's not that scary. The UK and parts of the US are already demanding you give away your ID to view social media and are blocking places that can't/won't comply. Imgur, the Image Hosting and meme sharing website is blocked in the UK and the Online Safety act has also forced the shit down of Support forms for Illnesses and Football supporter forums because they couldn't comply. I recommend Proton, which also have a good Email Service and a suite of things like cloud storage, a Password Manager and even an AI chat bot if you really can't live without it, but again, Local is best.

Keep Tor in your mind: yes that might sound like overkill but you don't know what might happen in the next government cycles.

Shit's getting bad, start thinking about your privacy.