House of Spirits

Shit You Must Do Right Fucking Now:

Change your profile picture, blog header, and title to something other than the defaults. Do it right now. You will be mistaken for a bot otherwise, and blocked.

Go into Settings -> Dashboard, scroll down to Preferences, and turn off the options in the picture. This will get rid of most of the algorithmic stuff.

Turn off Tumblr Live. You have to snooze it once every 7 days for some stupid reason. It's hosted through another company and will steal your data if you use it.

Go to your blog settings (under the little person menu) and turn off these two settings:

Turn off infinite scroll (lags the site) and turn on timestamps on posts, in the same menu as Preferences.

Basic Features of the Site:

Reblogs drive the entire site. If you'd upvote something on Reddit, you'd reblog it on Tumblr. You can add text, images, or tags to a reblog, but you're not required to.

The dashboard is the equivalent to your Reddit feed, and contains the posts of all the people you follow, with the newest at the top

You can send an ask to someone, and it'll appear in their askbox for them to answer. You can receive them too, or turn off the settings if you don't want.

Tags aren't actually used for finding stuff (search function is dogshit), but are more for categorizing. People also talk in tags. Because Tumblr is weird, you can't use quotation marks (") or commas in them without fucking it up

You can filter both tags and phrases under Account Settings; doing this will put a filter over a post that contains them, which you'll have to click through to see the post itself. Useful for avoiding hate speech or blocking out annoying stuff

You can make polls in posts. Here's one now.

Likes are useless. They literally do fuck-all except send a notification to the OP.

Stuff Tumblr Does That Other Sites Don't:

Very old posts (I'm talking from like 2012) often circulate on this site. There's no such thing as a post being "too old" to reblog

Blocking is highly encouraged; you can block someone for any reason. Even for just being annoying.

If you and someone else are following each other, you are mutuals. Mutuals are fucking awesome and are treasured like friends. Mutuals are a thing on other sites but Tumblr treats em differently.

You can screenshot someone's tags if you like them and add them to a reblog. This is called "peer review"

Sometimes someone will find a blog and go through it and like/reblog a bunch of posts. This is totally fine and not "creepy" like it is seen as on other sites.

Tumblr jokes often rely on Continuing The Bit and a "yes, and?" attitude. Goncharov is probably the best example of this.

We are fucking infested with bots. They will either have totally blank profiles or be filled with porn. Block and report on sight.

Censorship is pretty lax here. I can say "I want to brutally stab Elon Musk to death and watch him bleed out in front of a crowd" and nobody gives a shit.

General Etiquette:

Don't try to do epic clapbacks here, you'll probably just get laughed at or blocked. If someone is bugging you or spouting bigoted bullshit, block them.

Reblog art!!! Artists often struggle to gain traction on here; reblogging will give them a boost.

Not every reblog needs a comment or tag in it

You can go all out with tagging your stuff to organize it, or you can just leave it all blank. Someone might ask "hey, can you tag these posts as [x]?" and you can decide if you want to do that or not. It's generally polite to oblige, but "no" is still reasonable.

Avoid discourse like the plague. Filter it, block people who start it, scroll past it when you see it. Just don't get involved in it. Ever.

Don't put fandom tags or jokes on someone's posts about serious matters or personal shit

You're responsible for curating your own dashboard; if you complain about constantly seeing stuff you don't like, that's probably on you. Don't be afraid to unfollow.

Follower count doesn't matter much here and you don't have to make yours known if you don't want to.

Reblog, don't repost. Reblogging keeps the credit and doesn't "steal" engagement like Twitter retweets.

If someone likes something a LOT, they might reblog it like 30 times in a row. This is normal

Having a post blow up is actually kinda a bad thing, since it floods your notifications. There's a sort of in-joke about how having a big post is awful and people jokingly try to stop their own posts from blowing up, often in vain.

Tips:

Get XKit Rewritten if you're on desktop, it's a really helpful extension

In the little drop-down menu next to the 'Post now' button you can either save a draft, schedule a post, or add it to your queue. The queue lets you post things in order at a certain interval, which you can change. It's good for spreading stuff out over time.

You can use Shift+R to quickly reblog stuff and Shift+Q to queue!

Filter your notifications under Activity - you can also see some neat graphs

Find each other! If you want your old Reddit communities to stick together, seek out other refugees and follow them.

Miles: wait what was that middle thing

Jefferson: well he’s very insistent that she’s Spider-Woman but honestly he always seems to want to act professional when he’s in the mask so I can’t tell

Rio: you could ask him

Jefferson: honey we need to let him have his privacy he doesn’t want us to know

LATER

Rio: I wonder if the new Spider-Man has a girlfriend he seems like he’d be very nice

For a huge pile of tiny rocks, you live a surprisingly nomadic lifestyle. More than a hundred years of tourism and foot traffic has destroyed much of the native grass that kept you stationary. You are now what they call a “wandering dune”, as wind off the lake slowly but steadily pushes your tremendous bulk a little further inland every year.

As you move, you gradually engulf everything in your path—trees, buildings, rocks, hills, your own parking lot—everything. You are an unstoppable force, like some kind of gigantic gelatinous cube, but you’re still very popular with visitors.

In 2013, you suddenly eat a child. It’s a surprising move on your part—dry quicksand isn’t supposed to be a real natural phenomenon. I mean, what is this, a 1960’s action movie?

One moment, a family from Illinois is cheerfully climbing your slopes. The next, the 6 year old boy suddenly vanishes without warning, leaving no trace. Would-be rescuers dig in the sand where he disappeared until their hands are bleeding. Geologists insist that he must have wandered off, because enormous piles sand physically cannot form hollows or pockets within themselves—but three hours later, he is found, unconscious but alive, buried almost twelve feet deep in the sand.

If you see smol birbs with few or no feathers on the ground, you can safely put them back into their nest, bird parents will still care for them.

scruffy feather bird = starting to try the fly thing, not very good at it. only put in nest/branch if predators abound, i.e. you have four outdoor cats and they’re licking their chops.

an apple can be used for a simple house blessing; cut an apple in half, and eat one half in your home. place the other outside, in the backyard or front porch, as an offering to good spirits for protection and warm energy.

bay leaves can be placed in the corners of a room to banish evil from it and protect those within it.

a cactus can be grown near a house to offer strong protection; even stronger protection is gained by planting cacti at all for corners of the home.

planting catnip in the garden, or hanging it above your door, will attract good spirits and good luck.

chamomile can be sprinkled about in the home to break curses and unwanted spells cast on or in the home.

cilantro brings peace and harmony to a home.

clover can be sprinkled around a home to banish unwanted spirits.

garlic can be hung in a home to bring its inhabitants closer together.

ivy plants can be hung to deter unwanted guests.

lavender can be burned and its ashes sprinkled about to cultivate rest and tranquility within the home.

orange peel can be placed in windowsills to bless the house with angel and sun energy.

peppermint can be burned as a smoke cleanser to remove illness and negative energy from a new home.

a sprig of pine can be hung in the home to bless it and its inhabitants.

sachets of saffron can bring happiness to the home.

That’s how it usually works.

Say that Bob sells the apples for $5 and spreads his rumor, but Charlie decides to buy ALL the apples he can afford and spreads a different rumor that apples are actually the cure for cancer and amazing and you should definitely buy them RIGHT NOW.  Suddenly, apples are worth $50!  Bob still owes Alice all her apples, so he has to buy them back at this higher price, losing $45 in the process.

But Bob doesn’t want to lose $45, so he borrows even more apples from Alice, so he can sell THOSE ones for $50, still in the hopes that his rumor will come out on top and the price will drop and he can buy them back and give them back to Alice and make any amount of money in profit.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, apples are just apples.  Eventually, the price is going to drop, that’s a given, it’s just a matter of when. Bob can’t keep borrowing apples forever, eventually he has to give them back.  In the short term, apples are seen as the next big thing, so as more people buy them the more they’re worth.  This means that when Bob sells his apples in the hopes the price will go down, he’s actually helping the price go up!  Apples are worth $100 now, so Bob’s just hoping something ELSE bad will happen to make apples worth less, but there’s no guarantee if or when that will ever happen.

It’s a game of chicken between Bob and Charlie to see who will blink first.  Charlie bought a LOT of apples, and the price is high right now, so he could sell them for profit and be done with it, but he doesn’t.  He hopes the price will keep going up so he can sell them later for even MORE money!  But who knows if the price will keep going up, or for how long?  Maybe the prices drop and he ends up losing ALL his money because he bet it on apples and lost.

You have to wonder, why did Alice let Bob borrow her apples in the first place?  Why didn’t she just sell the apples herself when they were worth $5?  If Bob wins, then Alice loses money.  Does Alice root for Charlie now?  What happens if Bob can’t afford to give Alice back her apples?  The price will eventually drop because, after all, these are just apples we’re talking about.  $100 is a lot for apples, but Bob can’t afford to wait for the price to drop because Alice will send Daniel to break his kneecaps with a lead pipe in the morning.  Bob is screwed.

The hedge funds never actually owned these shares to begin with because they were short selling so they never actually paid for them.

Redditors saw this and decided to buy up all these shorted shares to gamestop a company that wasnt failing that the hedge funds would then be forced to buy back as they never actually owned the shares.

rich hedge funds have the ability to sell stocks they havent paid for yet that other people actually own and then pay for them after a certain amount of time. they can sell these stocks trade them whatever but they will eventually have to buy them back.

So they shorted gamestop shares from 20 dollars all the way down to 3 dollars, meaning they borrowed shares to then massively sell.

they sold shares at like 20 dollars and then 18, etc. and because when investors see massive amounts of shares being sold they get nervous and then sell their shares which drives the price of the stock ever further down.

so they took something worth 20 that they sold for 20 dollars and all its downward prices and instead of paying for it at $3 dollars they thought theyd CONTINUE to short the market, meaning they kept driving the prices down because apparently this obscene amount of money wasnt good enough.

Redditors who dont say the stock market is magic and mystical astrology saw this very obvious evidence that these hedge funds would be forced to buy back all these fucking gamestop shares and decided to drive the price of these shares up knowing that the hedge funds would then be forced to buy back the shares they have yet to pay for at increasingly wild prices.

what they were looking for was over 100% of all stocks shorted on a company that wasnt even failing or in complete disarray

they used this knowledge to bring stock that was 20 dollars brought down to $3 all the way back up to $140

the hedge funds still have to pay for all of those shares they never technically even owned in the first place which these redditors knew so they held onto these stocks they bought in a company whose shares were oversold.

INSTEAD of acknowledging this they decided to have media campaigns lie and make the stock market look even more mystical and crazy to people who dont know shit about finance so that your average folks wouldnt catch them in the act of just getting a fucking 2 billion dollar bailout for being greedy fucking pieces of shit.

They also dont want your average person to KNOW they do this shit especially when they drive shares so deep into the ground ($3)

TL;DR: Every time you call the stock market magic and mystical and ooo makes no sense, you pretty much allow these motherfuckers to get away with robbery of the average person (given a government bailout is paying for this)

Understanding how these things happen and knowing what to look for allows people to work together and not only stop it but rob back from the billionaires when they pull this shit.

Huffpost article about the fight for Oak Flat

Protestors tore through 4 layers of barricades and are fighting cops to get into the Capitol building. A possible bomb was spotted and the Madison and Cannon buildings have been evacuated while a bomb squad was called in. And just now the Capitol has gone into lockdown.

But also Pence issued a statement that he is not doing anything with the electors and McConnell denounced Republican senators’ efforts to stop counting the electoral votes.

Trump lashed out at Pence for not stopping the vote. He is not telling the protesters to leave but instructed them to “support the Capitol police and law enforcement”. Trump later told protesters to “remain peaceful” despite already storming the Capitol.

Ivanka tweeted out calling the protestors “patriots” but then deleted this tweet and replaced it with one saying violence is not patriotic. Meanwhile Rudy Giuliani’s messaging to protesters is to be peaceful and that they are on “the right side of history”. Neither acknowledges the violence.

The Department of Defense denied a request by DC officials to deploy the National Guard. Supposedly it was because they were beholden to Trump and only acted when he decided to deploy them about an hour later.

Guns were drawn by police on the Senate floor as protesters break through windows in an attempt to reach the room. One women was shot in the chest (GRAPHIC VIDEO). It appears she was with those trying to break into the Senate floor. Later reports state that that 5 people have been transported to the hospital, including at least member of police.

Police are making “attempts to deescalate”.

Ted Cruz is sending fundraising text messages to contest the vote despite the escalation of the riots. Screenshot of one here.

Mitt Romney called the riots an  “insurrection”.

Emergency procedures were emailed to all Capitol staffers urging them to hide.

Mayor Bower issued a 6pm curfew.

Protestors are climbing all over police vehicles without cops stopping them. Maybe because they’re too busy taking selfies with the protesters.

The potential bomb has been detonated by bomb squad.

Trump is refusing to condemn the protester’s violence despite being urged to do so by staffers which is a stark contrast to his attitude toward BLM protesters. His aids can’t convince him to do anything and the White House briefing room is empty with no preparation to address the nation to be seen.

 Only Pence is stepping up to call for an end to the violence and for protestors to vacate the Capitol.

President elect Biden is calling the protesters a “mob” and an “insurrection”.

Chris Christie has been attempting without success to contact Trump and convince him to tell his supporters to leave.