a goblin

Asks- Messages sent to an inbox, anonymous or otherwise.

Tags- The hashtags at the bottom of the post. Used for trigger warnings (tw) content warnings (cw) community tags, Fandom tags, personal tags you can search later on your own blog, and minor commentary.

Comments- the speech bubble at the bottom of the post, for talking about things relating to the post or other comments without interacting with the post itself.

Reblogs- Sharing a post by clicking the little green arrows at the bottom of the post. This shares the post to your blog, so people who follow you can see it. There is no algorithm for seeing posts, so posts are only shared when people interact with them by reblogging the.m.

Likes- clicking the little heart at the bottom of a post. This adds it to your 'likes' list, but does not share it to your blog. (People may be able to see your likes unless you go into settings and make your likes private.)

No Algorithm- Because there's no system for auto-sharing posts "based on your likes", posts must be reblogged in order to gain notes (reblogs, comments, and likes) in order to be seen. As a consequence, you will often see posts that are over a decade old, that happened to get popular.

Notes and notifications- Your activity page will show you every time someone interacts with a post you interacted with first. "Flooding your notes" means a post or re-post of yours got popular and people are interacting with it so much that you have to dig through your notifications to find updates on anything else. You can mute a post, delete a post, or turn off comments or reblogs to make this stop, but keep in mind that people might screenshot the post itself to keep sharing it if you delete it or impair activity. (I am going to ruin your notes by reblogging this. I am sorry.)

Ads- The ads here are wildly unpredictable and often make no fucking sense. There was a common one for a long time with a creepy dude dressed as Pikachu that became a meme. I get a lot of religious Christian ads. Sometimes you get ads where it isn't clear what is being advertised, or why. Tumblr is a famously unprofitable website and most of us just seem to ignore them even when they are coherent.

Crabs- "Crab Rave" is a music video with dancing crabs that reached meme status here. Dancing crab gifs come up usually when someone famous and terrible experiences a deserved misfortune. There was a brief feature where you could send people little cartoon crabs. I don't understand this as well as I would like.

"Blaze"- You can pay money to make random people see a post. This is a combination of "pay to become popular" type thinking and an act of warfare amongst users.

Mutuals- Someone you follow who follows you back.

Followers- The people who follow your blog and see your posts and reblogs. This number is not public. Nobody cares

"Investing at X notes"- A common comment used to imply that someone's post, usually only having a handful of notes, is about to go wildly popular. This is usually regarded as a curse, because having a post blow up means getting your notes flooded and having to see a load of bad-faith messages from idiots.

Staff- Tumblr site staff have made a lot of dumb fucking choices since the dawn of the sisite'creation and people tend to @ staff, much in the way that a helpless peasant may shake their fist skywards to an uncaring god. Just roll with it.

Anons- You can turn anons off, meaning nobody can send you anonymous messages. Because some of these fuckers are hateful cowards, this will cut down on harassment, bigotry, and general stupid talk shoeing up in your inbox. Unfortunately, this will also limit messages from shy people who genuinely wanna be nice.

Bots- If you get a weirdly flirty message out of nowhere by someone who hasn't followed you long and has a weird username, it's it's bot. Flag and block. If you're scrolling through an unrelated tag and suddenly see a supermodel looking person with their tits out and a bunch of random tags, it's spam and it's a bot. Flag and block. It's been a problem for a while, like roaches.

Dipshits- If you see a blog with "rad", "radical", "fem", "female", "vulva", "uterus", "terf", "radfem", or "critical" in their username, check their blog to verify if they're a radfem or a terf. If you don't know what those terms mean, you can Google 'em, but they're weirdly aggressive offshoots of feminism that wrap back around to being mysoginistic, transphobic, and racist, and they aren't very popular here. The common move is to just block 'em and move on. We also have trolls and white supremacists but again, not very popular, pretty easy to block, report them if you can.

Other common etiquettes:

Always assume OP is reading your comments.

Reblog posts, don't just "like" them. Again, no algorithm- this site doesn't work without sharing.

Don't share personal information. Always assume you can be doxxed. Keep it vague.

Don't be a dick.

Fact check before sharing info if you can- theres a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation.

Always read twice- Reading comprehension has been so bad on so many posts here that it's become a meme too. If you don't understand, read it twice before commenting.

Have fun, and do it for yourself. This isnt isn't clout website.

Other longtime residents are welcome to add on if I've forgotten anything.

Nevertheless I think it's important that if you do not remember because you were too young or just didn't exist on Sept 11, 2001 to read the Something Awful 9/11 forums to get an idea of what the internet was like at the moment when America changed to 24 hour news cycles and renewed hyper-nationalism not seen since WWII.

This all happened before Twitter, Facebook, before Discord. Before smart phones. Before most people had cell phones. When a lot of people still had dial-up internet, even. Some people in the thread were relying on radio because internet and TV weren't keeping up.

It was a live event of internet denizens reacting to the biggest national event (and among the biggest international events) of the past 25 years. It was also a slice of what the internet was like at the turn of the millennium. Not only that, but people accurately calling out who was responsible, and what would result before the attacks even finished.

Keep in mind that the links that follow contain images of the event, lots of Islamophobia, people calling for the Middle East to be nuked, people blaming Palestine, casual racist and homophobic language (this was Something Awful after all), etc etc. They preserved the first 17 pages which spanned about 24 hours during the events. It's the origin of the "WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR" screenshot.

Links under the fold. I've also annotated the pages with notes regarding the timeline and any posts of interest. Note the thread was preserved in Pacific Time even though the page says times are Eastern. That's incorrect. Post timestamps are 3 hours behind Eastern Time, which is the time zone where the attacks occurred:

IT'S FINALLY HERE! The true full size of my "do you love the colour of the sky HD remake director's cut" tumblr post

This ended up being 2 3/4 inches wide by 36 FEET LONG. 

The 2 3/4 inch width was chosen because that's the same width as a pretty average phone screen, and I wanted to know how physically far you have to scroll to get past this post.

also dont tell my boss that I got into the art gallery before we opened just to set up this rainbow CVS receipt looking motherfucker. in my defense i literally couldn't find any other location that was long enough to show this off

she wanted us to focus on the art, on the innovation of heated plumbing, on the tiles and decorations of the bathhouses, and all we wanted to do was learn more about the people under the floors. and she didn't know anything more about that. in fact, she said she thought we were focusing too much on superfluous details.

it feels almost hokey to put too fine a point on the idea im getting at here but i will anyway: There are a lot of people who are still under the floors. all these beautiful, convenient, brilliant innovations of modern society (think fast fashion, chatgpt, uber, doordash) are still powered by people working in inhumane, untenable conditions.

“Oh, no the CEO of my employer is having an emergency and I need to click this link right now!!!”

Slow down…

How do you put on the cowl you wear every night so badly that it basically screams this is clearly parody and can only be a gag?

Oh god, he’d absolutely be making the Madagascar penguin face on the inside. Just:

He fumbles it several times, dropping it on the floor and wrinkling his nose up at the thick rubbery smell. “God this thing looks sweaty. How am I supposed to follow the curly girl method in this thing?”

And has no idea the significance of doing so.

Oh, no, no. She doesn't do it to Bruce. She does it to the Joker.

They're at a televised charity gala, making the rounds. All the usual glitz and glam. Miss Piggy has just left to powder her snout when the shooting starts, and cries to "get down on the ground now!" reverberate through the room. It's almost half expected that the night is going to end in a hostage situation. It's Gotham, for Christ's sake. But no one's expecting the Joker. He's supposed to be in Arkham. The Bats just put him there. He shouldn't be out already.

Bruce is stalling for time, trying to give the Boy Wonder and all his other kids time to get to them. He's stammering, hands in the air, offering to pay whatever the Joker wants if he'll let all these people go. Except the Joker doesn't take ransoms. He barely takes prisoners. And he's got a gun aimed squarely at Bruce Wayne's forehead.

But Bruce keeps trying, inching forward on his knees, hands behind his head. Trying to figure out how much he can get away with in a room full of all these fucking cameras. He's going to get shot. He already knows it. It's just a question of whether he can duck and make sure it goes through his shoulder and not his head. Christ, he fucking hates guns.

"Come on," Bruce says, trying his hardest to sound both scared and amenable. "Everyone has a price. Name yours."

The Joker laughs, gesturing grandly with his free hand. "Tell you what, Brucie-boy, you'll get a price when pigs fly!"

The sound of enraged hoofs striking off marble makes itself known. A deep, guttural squeal tears through the night. The kind that hunters of old knew the fear and keep at the end of a long spear. The Joker turns just in time to see Miss Piggy flying through the air. Eyes red. Tusks bared. Hand raised. "HIIIIIII-YA!"

A) A running gag in The Muppets Take Gotham that Bruce Wayne might actually be Batman but the Muppets keep saving the day before he can change into costume (maybe a play on the matching butts?)

Or

Miss Piggy's Puppeteer (MPP): Holy shit, I think I just beat up the Joker? And his minions? And survived?? *starts hyperventilating as delayed reaction kicks in*

Other Puppeteer (OP): I saw that on the news, how did you do that?

MPP: Well, you know how we're trained to always be "on" when we've got our puppets, right?

OP: Yeah, and?

MPP: And you know that Miss Piggy graduated from that charm-slash-martial arts school and holds a purple belt...

OP: Oh no...

MPP: And that she's a real diva and can't stand somebody getting more screen time than her...

OP, burying face in hands: oh no...

MPP: Oh yeah. One second she's admiring herself in the mirror, the next second her "losing center stage" alarm goes off. The next thing I know, we're in the middle of a crowd of clown-faced thugs and she's "hiii-yah!"ing and taking out grown men five times her size while I'm just trying to keep up with her and wondering if I'm hallucinating that we just took out the Joker.

OP: Holy shit is right.

MPP: Yeah, my heart's still racing when I realize how close I came to dying.

OP: What did the police do to you?

MPP, looking absolutely shattered while giving a single laugh: That's... That's the worst part. Our teachers would be so proud.

OP: Oh no, you mean?

MPP: Yeah, they thanked Miss Piggy for her assistance, got into a ten minute debate as to whether it was legal to bring a pig in for further questioning, and finally released her from the scene. One officer slipped her his number.

OP: And you?

MPP: They didn't notice me at all. Afterwards, Bruce came over to thank her and kissed her hand and we continued into the gala like nothing had happened.

OP: And even he didn't stop to check on you?

MPP, laughing brokenly and scrubbing a hand down their face while slowly starting to give a shaken smile: Not even a single flicker of an eyelid. I've done it. I can't believe it. After so many years, I am finally one with The Pig.

OP, patting their back: Well at least there's that to celebrate. Want to go get a drink?

MPP: Your treat?

like if it's too fluff for someone bc of personal taste that's totes fine, but i've seen complaints, too, and i want to address two of them.

1. it's too silly/fanon/goofy:

it's a batman comic. like, i love angst and trauma and gore, but also, there's a point where you have to acknowledge that "grimdark" is its own kind of fantasy. you know what's silly? most of batman comics. batman on a grapple line is silly. batman having his back cracked in half by a former mexican child prisoner on super steroids is pretty silly. it is goofy, it's just that when characters are all angry and the coloring is dark, we say it's a power fantasy or some kind of realism and that makes it Serious. i love some of those comics. but it's also bullshit. and WFA has an issue where a character grapples with how to talk to a child about parental death because of their own history of trauma with it. it has a depiction of a PTSD flashback and dissociative episode. how are those less serious?

2. The characters aren't like that in "real" canon/don't have relationships there.

WFA has figured out that characters don't have to constantly be trying to kill, undermine, betray, trick, or hate one another. that's one thing hurting so many comic titles now-- it's exhausting and boring. WFA has been letting stories happen while characters actually want to work things out. yeah, it's often relationship driven. that's okay. not every single comic has to be the exact same kind of comic, and frankly, many current plot-driven comics would do better if they weren't trying to deconstruct their own world, tear relationships to pieces, or reinvent the universe.

WFA has been fun for me-- not the deepest title, not the most groundbreaking title. but when did we get the idea that comics weren't supposed to be fun? that they only matter if they're Changing Comics as a Medium, or gritty and dark, or a specific vein of power fantasy Cool?

WFA is doing something right for a lot of people. it doesn't have to be the right comic for everyone, but that doesn't mean it's bad, or failing somehow. so what if it's a lot of fanon? there happen to be a lot of people-- real people, whose opinions matter-- that enjoy fanon for a reason. and batman comics, unlike a series of tv, have multiple titles and genres happening at once. it's not The Only Comic being ruined, like a fan-service season could ruin a tv show.

When people say they enjoy things, they usually mean one of two things. The first is that these things are fun; that is, they satisfy immediate emotional needs or desires for pleasure. Candy Crush is fun, for people who are into that sort of thing; waterslides are fun, watching TV is fun. Fun, in the way I'm defining it for this post, is the party food of pleasure; immediately and usually temporarily satisfying, and after that, mostly satisfying only as a happy memory (although some of these activities, like watching a TV show, can generate further opportunities for pleasure down the line like daydreaming, discussion, and making fanart). Like party food, this kind of fun is a good thing to have, and someone who doesn't get enough of it is at high risk of stress-related health concerns. Also burnout. A lack of fun is a major contributor to burnout.

The second kind of pleasure that most people talk about is rewarding activity. The lack of rewarding activity in one's life is a major contributor to depression. It creates a sense of purposelessness and worthlessness and generates a low attention span, sapping the ability to feel long-term motivation or pleasure. People usually try to pick themselves up with the first kind of fun, which is a band-aid but not a very sticky one; the lack of rewarding activity grows and festers over time. Rewarding pleasure involves working on something long-term that feels worthwhile. There are usually also spots of fun (or you wouldn't have gotten into the activity enough for it to become rewarding), but there also tends to be long slogs that aren't that fun. Nevertheless, when people report on doing said activity, they will speak about it with great enjoyment and remember it being enjoyable and claim they like it. (I like being a writer. Writing can sometimes be boring as shit.) (Look into Csíkszentmihályi's work on experience sampling and flow states for more info on this, it is FASCINATING.)

In Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal sums up what she thinks are the most important contributing factors to rewarding activity. These are not the only factors, but I agree that they're a good baseline of the critical ones. I'm going to paraphrase them using different language. The four big contributors are:

Satisfying work. This is the vaguest one because different people find different things satisfying. Basically, the task itself should feel productive, and you should not feel bad about doing it to the point where it causes you distress. Satisfying work involves clear goals with actionable steps and a clear product, preferably something that you can see, touch or use. A clean house, a new high score, a freshly built table, a happy child.

Mastery. Rewarding pleasure is often something that you can get better at. There are things to learn, practice, improve. Improving your ability to solve tricky code problems, getting better at painting landscapes, figuring out fun new strategies in Magic: The Gathering, being able to build computers better or faster or cheaper. Mastery does not require becoming the best at something (although some people enjoy that specifically also), merely seeing progress in yourself and being able to take pride int he fact that you are better than you were.

Social connection. Rewarding pleasure often involves social or community connection. A long-term social group that discusses fan theories of their favourite show. Your weekly tabletop rpg. Teaching a room full of kids who to make leather belts. Working at a small bookshop and making small talk with all the tourists. Some people find social activity to be fun in the 'immediate pleasure' kind of way, some don't, but it is a critical factor in mental health and in the long-term... rewardingness (?)... of a hobby. Animals can also partially fill this niche, but be warned, they are far, far less effective than people. Your cat might be able to stop you from committing suicide today. You cat alone will not make your life satisfying.

Contribution. Humans are community animals and have a need to be something larger than ourselves or, more specifically to be of service to something larger than ourselves. Looking after kids, cooking big meals for others, creating art or physical products for others. Teaching the next generation how to read. Serving your God. Saving a species of small fish from extinction. Volunteering at your local charity shop or soup kitchen. Being a member of a crowd to reach the Guinness World Record for "most people fit into a storage crate". Making useful tutorial videos, being an entertainer, joining your local queer support group or political organisation. Humans fucking love to be part of something bigger than their own brain and they fucking love to help people.

The world is full of rewarding activities, and not all of them rate high in all four categories. The woman working in the charity shop warehouse and chatting with her coworkers isn't necessarily all that interested in mastery of her job (although I've worked in these places and some people do take pride in learning to be as efficient as possible), the musical hermit training to become the best violinist in the world might not be all that interested in social connection or how the audience actually feels about him. You might have noticed that I've listed hobbies, jobs, and non-employed but important life work (volunteering and childrearing) as possible rewarding activities; you can find rewarding activities everywhere. (In fact the lack of rewarding pleasure in our work lives is a very serious problem that companies keep trying to condescendingly band-aid over. The late David Graeber had a lot to say about this and I highly recommend his work, particularly Bullshit Jobs, which is a book specifically discussing the lack of above points 1 and 4 (satisfying work and sense of contribution) in so many modern workplaces and its distressing psychological ramifications). Rewarding activities are not 'fun' all the time; in fact, Csíkszentmihályi's work found that many of them are quite unfun most of the time. They do, however, create long term pleasure, and are emotionally and psychologically critical.

Recently, I read this post titled “Animals have been taken off in novels since 1835. Is fiction undergoing its own extinction event?” which talks about a study that found that since 1835, the use of wild animals in fiction has dropped drastically.

Many are blaming this “slow extinction” on modern societies disconnect to nature. After all, not everyone spends their days outside, so they might not notice mice, birds, or even the insects at their feet. If they do not think about animals in their daily life, why would they think about them while writing?

That is the theory, at least.

It is worthwhile pointing out what several other writers and readers are; there are plenty of animals in children’s fiction. That is true, but what about young adult to adult fantasy? Since that is what I personally write, that is what I wanted to talk about.

Just going off what books I think of first, it seems like often in fantasy novels, the only prey animals (like deer, squirrels, or rabbits) that we see are after nearly always during or after they are hunted. Then there is the complete lack of mosquitos, leaches, biting ants, and other annoying creatures.

Sometimes, there is a mention of the sound of birds singing, but rarely ever are there any details of the birds or what they are doing. Where are the ducks and swans on the lakes? Where are the birds building nests?

Now you may be going “What is the point? Why should I care?” and I get that, but by eliminating these creatures, your novels could be losing a sense of realism.

For example, in Stephen Kings The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon — which I argue is a light fantasy story, not a horror story — has a girl is lost in the woods and stalked by a creature. Interestingly, even most survival books fail to mention animals apart from for food, but Stephen King did not do that. He had deer, water bugs skittering across ponds, and even wasps that attack the main character. This added a sense of reality to the novel. It was not just a forest with some trees and plants, it was a forest filled with life, and that can be dangerous for anyone, let alone a young girl.

So, go ahead, raise the mood with your characters. If they are miserable, make them more so by having the mosquitos bite at them day and night or have them step in a anthill. If they are happy, they could watch a mother bird feeding its young or a swan rubbing necks with its partner.

I truly have noticed, even in the past couple decades, a decline in "natural" worldbuilding. There is less and less attempt on the part of authors to include a rich ecology in their world, and less faith in readers' ability to be interested in it

During the lockdowns, one of the things I really missed was LARP. So I got together a game in tabletop simulator of our usual LARP dice game. But of course, just playing a virtual game doesn't quite cut it when you're longing for a physical space, so I went all-out, complete with putting together a custom soundscape to run while we played.

One of the layers of sound I wanted was a general sort of, birdsong and outdoor noises track. When I went looking for something on a royalty-free sound website, I went through a couple of possibilities before I happened to find a track that was recorded in my state.

hot weather

high temperatures

heat