trying on a metaphor

roma★
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
Cosimo Galluzzi
wallacepolsom
we're not kids anymore.
Not today Justin

Origami Around
🪼
Sade Olutola

Kaledo Art

if i look back, i am lost
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
One Nice Bug Per Day

JVL
occasionally subtle
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
Three Goblin Art

seen from Brazil

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seen from Algeria

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seen from South Africa

seen from Thailand
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
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@xydexxunicorn
rainbow dash gets a temp job at the post office
In before I start seeing people bitching about rainbow capitalism MY favorite rainbow capitalism story is about Subaru. Yes the Japanese car company.
In the nineties, they were struggling. They were competing with a dozen other companies targeting the main demographic at the time: white men ages 18-35, especially after a failed luxury car launch with a new ad agency. “What we need is to focus on niche demographics,” they decided, and then focused on people who enjoyed the outdoors. The Subaru was excellent at driving on dirt roads that many other vehicles couldn’t at the time, so it was perfect for all those off-road campers; they started making all-wheel drive standard in all their cars to help with that. And the people who wanted cars to go do outdoor stuff? Lesbians.
Okay. Of course it wasn’t only lesbians buying Subarus. They’re on the list with educators, health-care professionals, and IT people. But the point is, this Japanese car company interviewed this strange demographic (single, female head of household) and realized one important factor: They were lesbians. They liked to be able to use the cars to go do outdoorsy stuff, and they liked that they could use the cars to haul stuff rather than a big truck or van. Subaru had a choice to make then. They had four other demographics they could market to, after all–the educators, the health-care professionals, IT professionals, and straight outdoorsy couples. Their company didn’t hinge on this one “problematic” demographic.
And they decided “fuck it,” and marketed to lesbians anyway. This included offering benefits to American gay and lesbian employees for their domestic partners, so it didn’t look like a cash grab. (This was not a problem. They already offered those in Canada.)
Yes, there was some backlash. They got letters from a grassroots group accusing them of promoting homosexuality, and every letter said they’d no longer be buying from Subaru. “You didn’t buy from us before, either,” Subaru realized, and ignored them. It helped that the team really cared about the plan, and that they had many straight allies to back them up. There was also some initial backlash when Subaru hired women to play a lesbian couple in the commercial, but they quickly found that lesbians preferred more subtlety; “XENA LVR” on a license plate, or bumper stickers with the names of popular LGBTQ+ destinations, or taglines of “Get out. Stay out.” that could be used for the outdoors–or the closet.
Subaru said “We see you. We support you.” They sponsored Pride parades and partnered with Rainbow Card and hired Martina Navratilova as spokeswoman. They put their money where their mouth is and went into it whole hog. In a time where companies did not want to take our money, Subaru said, “Why not? They’re people who drive.” And that was groundbreaking.
It wasn’t blatant, it was cheeky and pretty low key, but really really effective. It played into the “if you know you know” vibe in exactly the right way.
Oh THAT’S why lesbians love Subarus
Not the only gay car
XydexxUnicorn on Bluesky
[cross-posted from Facebook]
So I've been on Bluesky about a week. (I was part of the huge migration of furries fleeing Twitter recently. We're bracing for another wave shortly.)
PROS:
- Relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Similar to the vibe of a small Furry con. Everyone is welcoming and glad to see friends show up.
- Very few awful people. Not flooded with racist dipshits or cryptocurrency scams or trolls with 300 different sockpuppet accounts.
- I'm already following roughly 1/3 the folks I was following on Twitter, including several artists I had outstanding commissions from.
- Ability to subscribe to specific feeds to curate your social media experience and select topics of interest.
CONS:
- Interface is a little buggy, but seems to be improving.
- No private messaging system (yet).
- Header graphic upload thing is not intuitive, but I figured it out through trial and error after like five attempts.
I am XydexxUnicorn over there if ya wanna follow.
Xydexx the Colorful Unicorn
So I was thinking of a conversation I had a few days ago, about when I first joined Furry fandom.
It was—by total coincidence, I'm sure—around the same time the fandom was going through its "there's too many gays in the fandom" phase, and how the fact that I had an INFLATABLE UNICORN (😱😱😱) as a fursona resulted in a lot of undeserved flak from folks who apparently thought I was singlehandedly responsible for destroying the fandom or something.
From their reaction, you'd think I was parading around the hotel lobby decked out in bondage gear, a pup mask, and a power drill strapped to my crotch or something. Which is funny because anyone who's actually seen me at cons knows how boring and average I look.
And goodness knows I wasted a lot of my virtual breath trying to reason with the more conservative elements of the fandom back in the day. It was a valiant attempt, at least.
I stopped trying to reason with them eventually. As a friend rightfully pointed out at the time: "We don't try to reason with hate groups because reasonable people don't join hate groups."
The point is it would never matter how boring and average I was at conventions. I'm gay, and they'd arbitrarily decided there were "too many" of me. When someone's goal is to eradicate anything that's not the norm, it's not a question of if they come for you, but when. There is no level or boring or average that will appease them. They just want to make the world as grey and miserable as they are.
And, y'know, fuck that.
I didn't survive the fucking Reagan years to let some ignorant dipshit try to force me back into the closet.
Furry fandom is an amazingly creative space where you can play with and explore any identity you can imagine. It's my absolute favorite thing about Furry. I love my colorful, whimsical, and yeah, VERY GAY inflatable unicorn fursona. I've had him for ~30 years at this point.
I love that we all create our own individual and unique characters. Often, as a reflection of ourselves. Which makes sense when you think about it. As JuliusGoat says, "Every human being is a unique and irreplaceable work of art carrying intrinsic and unsurpassable worth."
Anyway, I guess my point is don't waste your time trying to appease folks who want to stomp out all the colorful and different things that make the fandom---and the world---a weird and wonderful place.
Be good, stay safe, have fun.
🦄💕🏳️🌈
Last chance to save archives of Twitter accounts that are inactive because the users are deceased
Twitter has started purging inactive accounts. Musk says they’ll be archived (doubtful) and their usernames freed up (allowing impersonation). This is bad for preserving history and remembering deceased friends. Unlike Facebook, Twitter doesn’t grant a protected memorial status. Saving them directly from Twitter to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine doesn’t get far, because Twitter limits how much can be accessed without a login. Twitter’s new API limits also prevent archiving an account to Mastodon anymore, so it’s too late for that. My solution now is to access the Twitter accounts via a front-end, Nitter.it, and then archive them from that, but I still have to keep manually clicking “next page” to nudge the archival process along. Do you know better solutions? This is a race against time. Later, in the Otherkin News blog, I’ll list where to find archives of the Twitter accounts of alterhuman community members who have passed away. Whose accounts do you know of that you want to save?
Twitter presently is designed to be actively hostile to being preserved. My friends and I keep running into obstacles to it. Accounts that have several thousand tweets aren’t possible to completely archive, because it cuts you off after a few thousand. I don’t expect us to find a work-around for that particular obstacle, but we are continuing to look into how to do this better. We welcome any solutions that other people come up with.
Here is a tutorial on how you can create offsite and offline archives of those Twitter accounts before Twitter deletes them: https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/90308.html?thread=241092#cmt241092
So it looks like I missed out on the latest Take Back Our Fandom nonsense on Twitter, which thankfully choked on its own vomit and deleted itself before even getting off the ground.
There's nothing I can really say about it that I haven't already said before, and will probably say again, because the dipshits who come up with this stuff keep repeating the same mistakes and hoping for different results.
It is, however, worth noting that these groups are not motivated by a desire to improve Furry fandom, no matter how benevolently they try to phrase it.
The easiest way to tell is that they frame Furry fandom as the problem. That is something that attracts anti-furries---and worse---by design, and, let's be clear here, they 100% DO NOT have Furry fandom's best interests in mind.
(I realize most folks probably get this, it's just something to keep in mind the next embarrassing attempt shows up a few weeks/months/whatever from now.)
Honestly, this shit with Hogwarts Legacy is just like what happened with Chick-fil-A like ten or fifteen years ago. Some of y'all might be too young to remember it, but it went almost exactly like this shit today, only the target was technically gay people (not like we aren't all lumped together when push comes to shove, but gay was the political scapegoat in US politics at the time, as trans people were still on the fringes of social awareness).
It came out that the people who own Chick-fil-A were donating to organizations in other countries that were actively working to get gay people there killed, and were also very monetarily invested in stripping gay people of any legal rights they'd amassed in the US. So a lot of queer folks were asking for allies to boycott Chick-fil-A to show solidarity.
And it turned into a giant fuckin circus for bigots to rally around. There was even a support Chick-fil-A day, I remember it because I was a server at the time and our restaurant was empty most the day - while the line for Chick-fil-A down the road was like a mile long consistently.
But while that was obviously annoying, that wasn't what hit people the hardest. Cuz we expect clowns to wear the shoes, right, it's not shocking.
What disappointed people, or really demoralized a lot of young queers at the time especially, was the allies who would still go there. Because they like the sandwiches or fries or whatever. The people who'd march with them in the parade or be supportive of marriage equality, who would then turn right around and give their money to people who were trying to actively harm their friends.
Because the chicken was good.
I remember a friend of mine being really just absolutely broken up over that, trying to understand some of her friends reasoning and at the time I couldn't give her an answer. I could now, though.
And it's this:
Talk is cheap.
It costs nothing to say things. A person can say whatever the hell they want, any feel good flowery thing, and it doesn't really cost them.
But when they are asked to actually give something up - or put their money where their mouth is and just....can't do it. Well then there isn't much else for them to say, is there? At least nothing that's worth anything.
Some people had to find out the hard way that the choice between a chicken sandwich and funding people who did not believe in their dignity as a human being was, in the eyes of certain allies, apparently really hard. Too hard, in fact.
These allies would march in the colorful parades and go to the bars for drinks, but in the end, you couldn't actually depend on them to inconvenience themselves. They were fair weather allies, and they were there for the party and that's about it . They wanted entertainment, and it didn't matter if that came from having fun gay friends or a tasty sandwich.
This is the same thing, really, or pretty close to it.
These types of people just wanna have fun. Either you, their friend or whatever, are fun or the game is fun, and if you stop being fun by incidentally making them feel a little guilty about where they spend their money , then they might just choose the thing that doesn't make them currently uncomfortable.
And I'm not saying these people who say trans rights online but who also really, really want to play wizard game and already have are horrible people or anything - they're just not very good. They have no real character. And unfortunately there's not much you can do to change that, other than investing time and energy in people who do.
Words of Advice for Young Furries
[reposted from my Twitter thread, December 23, 2020.]
I was recently asked if (as someone who's been around Furry fandom for decades) I had any advice to give to young furries (as Furry fandom keeps growing and our age demographics keep trending younger).
This dovetailed with another comment about how younger furries (or folks new to the fandom) sometimes make missteps—not out of malicious intent, but simply not knowing any better. Everyone was a newbie once, after all. So after some pondering, I have a more verbose response:
If you're new to Furry fandom and worried about what people will think, in my experience how people react to furries always says more about them than it does about furries.
Popularity is overrated. Do what you enjoy instead of worrying about likes and retweets and follower count. Find your own niche.
Clout is simply another name for Imaginary Internet Points. That and two bucks will get you a coffee at Dunkin Donuts.
Furry fandom is what you make it, and the fandom you build depends on who and what you support. Surround yourself with good furries, and be one yourself.
Don't tolerate racism, transphobia, sexism, &c. in your social circle. Speak out against it, because ignoring it doesn't make it go away.
Nobody likes awful people. Don't be one. If you support awful people, then you will end up attracting more awful people. This is a hard downward spiral to break out of once it starts, and it's not pretty. Don't let it start.
Every few [years/months/weeks], someone will propose an alternative to Furry fandom with a new name for whatever reason. It's a terrible idea that folks keep slapping a fresh coat of paint on. Avoid it. We've seen it before, and it always end up an embarrassing disaster.
Fursuits can be expensive. Artwork can be expensive. Tip people who create things for you.
Conventions can also be expensive. Budget accordingly. Tip housekeeping and restaurant staff.
If you don't know anyone at a convention, volunteering is a good way to meet new people.
A costume is not consent. Don't harass or molest fursuiters. No, seriously; it's not cool or funny.
Furry fandom continues to be an amazing and creative community that has repeatedly shown itself to be a force for Good. No matter where your path within the fandom leads, use your powers for Good.
In conclusion:
Be good, stay safe, have fun. 🦄💕🏳🌈
So today I randomly remembered snippets of a bike ride I took back in the '80s in Putnam County, but have no idea what route I took to get to those places, and it's low-key alarming.
I'm pretty sure I have at least one picture from this trip in my Archives. Still, the fact that I can't remember anything else about it bothers me.
Like... yeah, it was 40-something years ago, but you'd think I'd know how I got there. (Did I even take a map with me? I don't think I did. So how did I figure out where I was going?)
The "car community" claim that the sexual component is small. A Google search for "car porn" suggests otherwise. Of course adults can do
alright everyone, say it with me:
Nice
Nice
nice
nice
putting up “HELL IS FAKE” billboards in ohio to start a dialogue
putting up “OHIO IS HELL” billboards in ohio to continue the dialogue
putting up ‘OHIO IS OTHER PEOPLE’ billboards in ohio to confuse the dialogue
putting up "GO TO OHIO" billboards in ohio to confuse everyone
In light of recent Twitter nonsense I have spent the past week or so cobbling together a massive list of other sites that the 666 folks I follow on Twitter use. I made this cute image to use with helpful hints. It's easier to find people before things get bad and they disappear instead of after the fact.
I'll be putting together (Real Soon Now) a list of links on my personal webpage, along with other fun stuff like a web counter and guestbook and web ring and the obligatory Under Construction animated GIF.
It is an old school solution to the problem, but I am old school.
Considering that Elongated Muckrag is banning links to alternate websites of where to find you I am once again tapping the sign that hey you should make a list of places to find your mutuals while you still can.
(I saw this coming and I'm glad I did it before it became a problem.)
Twitter blocks linking to other social media sites
Hello all. Just a heads up that Twitter just launched a new policy prohibiting links and promotion to other social media platforms:
"Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post."
Tumblr isn't in the net, but the policy also prohibits mentioning 3rd party link aggregators like linktr.ee. Probably the most draconian policy yet; I know people for a while have already noticed that Twitter serves a warning when you click on a Mastodon link.
Expect another Twitter refugee wave soon. My Tumblr field guide is still up and running; Tumblr vets, do have a look yourself if there's anything you think should be updated.
Look I know everyone is getting the porn bot follows but like .. what's are they even for? What's the point of them? What are they trying to accomplish?
Okay, so... tumblr is 'free' right? It costs nothing to create an account and utilize the service. So the startup costs of running a pornbot army is zero, right?
Wrong!
Shady websites sell kits to create/operate pornbot networks. You pay $$$ for an engine and a collection of scripts tuned for various free websites. And apparently (I guess) there is a new tumblr script that comes preloaded with a zillion girlie names + 3 digits, so all the prospective portbot meister has to do is start the script with some seed values and wait for their bot army to grow.
In order to fly beneath the radar, these scripts operate in stages. First they create the account then follow a few high profile blogs. THAT is why, when they first follow you, they're just a generic stolen cheesecake pic named (randomly generated name) ChestyMoorbutt754 with an otherwise empty profile.
Then after a preset number of days/weeks they start blogging 'content' like bit.ly links to malware or whatever. Along with some legit-looking reblogs to keep up appearances. All these scripted behaviors are configurable.
Their hope is that some certain percentage of idiots will (1) click thru the hosted links to an intermediary landing page (with ads, naturally) that acts as a portal to buy subs for OnlyFans, Sinder etc, or (2) interact with an actual chatbot that eventually convinces the poor schmuck to enter their credit card info so it can be hijacked.
We're seeing a new flood of bots NOW because twitter is floundering and all the talk about twitter alternatives (like tumblr) has caught the attention of the guys who make/sell pornbot tools.
Who are the ones REALLY making profit off all of this. Not the pornbots themselves, but the darkweb dweebs who sell the accounts & kits. Because selling access to pornbot armies is guaranteed income whereas who the hell knows how successful any given pornbot will be in the wild. After awhile, the pornbot army gets detected & shutdown or the customer running the botnet get disillusioned and quits or both... then the cycle begins anew with new sheep to be fleeced.
Just like in the 1840s gold rush era, it wasn't the miners who got rich; it was the guys selling picks & shovels.
That's all spot on, and another way to look at it is to realize that spam/anti-spam is an arms race that's been going on for awhile now. This isn't the first rodeo for the spammers, or for Tumblr trying to stop them. Strategies have to continously evolve on both sides.
Like, imagine you make a simple spambot for a site that has never been spammed before. You do the absolute minimum, because it'll work: you have a program that creates an account and starts posting/dm-ing spam as fast as it can, until it gets banned, then you make a new account and repeat.
Well, the first thing Tumblr is gonna do is try to detect your spam accounts by how they differ from real user accounts. One way they might do this is by flagging any account that makes more than X posts in the first 24 hours. Tumblr can relatively easily do statistics like "for this group of presumably real accounts, what's the usual amount of posting they do immediately after creation?" and spot accounts that do stuff way outside the average.
Like if a new account is created and posts 200% more than the average new user, they might just be heavily cafinated and/or have adhd. But if they post 20,000% more than the average, they're either Posts Georg who lives in a cave, or they're a bot.
So the spammers know Tumblr is doing this, because their strategy stops working. They start getting autobanned or flagged in minutes or hours, instead of days or weeks.
So, their next step is to try to avoid this spam-detection. Maybe they make an account and leave it idle for a week before they go into full spam mode.
And now Tumblr notices the spam problem is back, looks into the accounts being reported as spam, and figures out they're waiting before going spam-mode. OK, so what about instead of starting the timer from account creation, we start it at time of first post? That'll get them.
Back to the spammers, they change strategy again. Instead of waiting and going spam mode, they start in a "fake posts mode". Just post some stolen or auto-generated content, but slowly, for a week. Then go spam mode.
And so on and so forth. Both sides have to keep up, or they'll be ruined by the other side getting too far ahead.
Fun fact: this is also a concept in evolutionary biology, called "The Red Queen Hypothesis", about how species can't "win" evolution. You have to always keep evolving, because you're in competition with other species. If you stop evolving and the animals that eat you don't, they'll get better at catching you until you die out. Or if you stop and your prey doesn't, they'll find a way to escape being eaten until you all starve. Similarly with parasites: you have to keep evolving new anti-parasite mechanisms or your parasites will keep getting better at infecting you.
It's called the Red Queen Hypothesis after a line in Through the Looking Glass (aka Alice in Wonderland), from the Red Queen:
Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.
And that's really a perfect summation of this kind of situation: you always have to be working as hard as you can, because everyone else is, and you die if they get too far ahead of you.
I put the mess in message board
With Twitter continuing its downward spiral, I have started to dust off my old message board. Not sure what to do with it. Probably going to post lots of artwork of everyone's favorite inflatable unicorn. (I still need to create a webpage with that circa-Y2k aesthetic that includes counters and webrings and a guestbook. Welcome to pony internet that is full of ponies.)
In other news, I ordered a 100-pack of googly eyes today, because that's the sort of thing I do.