That Panda You Know

Like worstie, I can barely promote my own published book without wanting to curl up and die.

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.

Not going to reblog and single them out because that'd feel like a dick move, but someone just commented on one of my older ADHD posts with, "the fuck are you talking about? Everyone does this," and I'm just sitting here like:

Actual 80s goth looks were closer to Jem and the Holograms with added black (and not even all the time!) than to whatever you'll see on TikTok's #tradgoth hashtag.

Actually a lot of modern "trad" goth looks have way more 90s elements to them than 80s ones. I see sooooo many layered maxi skirts with underbusts and bell sleeves. Monochrome black and white makeup was also not all that common in 80s goth, they loved some color.

There's definitely a relatively defined romantic goth fashion style; usually inspired by historical Western fashion, whether there's a serious attempt at authenticity or not at all, lots of lace, velvet, frills, long skirts for feminine goths, not a lot of leather or BDSM elements though they can be present, not a lot of the punk or New Romantic elements that were extremely common in authentic trad goth fashion.

But makeup was far from set in stone and as someone who currently dons that look more often than not, the makeup tends to be the most boring aspect of it. Again, not always! But often plenty of romantic goths who wear makeup pretty much wear regular normie makeup but in dark colors.

Our idea of what romantic goth looks like was developed in the 90s, and compared to other decades makeup in the 90s was much more minimalist (alternative people as a whole would usually stick to dark smokey eyes and dark berry lips). So, honestly while many did keep the adventurous and experimental looks up, plenty of 90s goth makeup was very plain and subdued.

Faces painted clown-white are very uncommon in this style, I've seen plenty of romantic goth feminine people who pretty much only wear red lips and nothing much else, and masculine romantic goths who only wear a thin black eyeliner and that's it. A lot of the time, romantic goth makeup is a fine balance between simply looking pretty and how extravagantly gothic does it need to be in relation to the rest of the outfit (this be to gothify an otherwise not-that-goth an outfit or to keep up with how goth an outfit already is, if the person feels the need to do either).

Romantic goth as a fashion style is extremely diverse in general, unlike actual trad goth and ESPECIALLY unlike current/revival "trad" goth. There's no one definitive makeup style for romantic goth.

This is bat friendly street lighting, which not only looks sick as fuck but allows bats to pass through without disturbance, as they cannot see red.

So on a bit of a whim, with a few people I work with, we created The Game Awards for Games Who Can't Afford the Game Awards.

Or TGAGWCAGA for short.

It's pretty much exploded over the past week on Bluesky where a lot of indie developers have made their home.

We asked indie games to nominate themselves, whether they had released this year or whether they were an upcoming game that couldn't afford to pay for the advertising space at the Game Awards.

Geoff Keighley said that Gamescom's Opening Night Light were going to be charging as much as $480,000 for ad spaces during next year's showcase.

That's simply not remotely affordable for thousands of studios.

So while it's a bit of a parody, we also hope it'll shine some light on great indie games, and our form is of course written in Comic Sans.