UnsightedJoker

oh my god i'm so honored that you remembered!! it's such a rush to have people care about the things you make and this sent me into an absolute frenzy, so thank you!!!

the animatic is still in progress-- it's a pretty long one, covering everything from the end of the chimera ant arc to current day succession war politics. i'd say its about 70% done rn, but i'm a perfectionist at heart and routinely go over my work again and again until they meet the standard. i've been wary of posting anything abt it bc it gives me the jitters..... but in honor of you reaching out, here's a snippet!

like, that's the tragedy of MOTOE, that one bad person can ruin so many lives.

and how in The Residence, one of the problems in figuring out who killed Wynter is the fact that a ton of staff members have motives...

but not because Wynter was cruel and careless, he WASN'T. he was hard-working, dedicated, loyal, meticulous, professional, honorable, and above all motivated by a deep, deep love for the place he worked. every motive everyone has for killing him is, ultimately: he's a good man who wants to do a good job.

that's the tragedy in The Residence, that being very good can get you treated exactly the same way as being very bad.

Cordelia Cupp, world's best detective, who solves the unsolvable, gives up... because she prioritizes the reputation and livelihood of a man she respects and who respects and supports her in turn. Chief Dokes knows that continuing to pursue the case will mean the end of his career, but he says nothing... until she asks. She asks. She knows that there are consequences to her dogged pursuit of the truth, she asks about them, and despite the fact that Chief Dokes is willing to accept those consequences, she says "I'm not."

In a genre that is often characterized by detectives who keep pursuing the case to the ends of the earth - consequences and fallout be damned - I am desperately in love with this character who is blunt and clever and justifiably arrogant and still shows such compassion to those who support her to say "I will not ask this price of you, even if you're willing to pay it, because what you built your life around is more important than finding my answer."

If he sells them for cheap and great numbers he'll just use an "order 66" kinda thing to take over cities and countries.

"Youtube is applying post-processing to all shorts so they look more like Al. this is intentional & malicious. when their generative Al shorts feature launches users will be less likely to discern what's Al-slop and what's not, and the audience will think Al video is just as good"

Please be aware.

If everything starts to look a little off and a little fake, it's much easier for bad actors to not only push through actual disinformation, but also attempt to discredit factual video sources.

And I know this post is about youtube but Google is just as bad when they do this. The ammount of times I've had to deal with a page not loading or a page that says "the article you searched doesn't exist/is no longer available" only to go back to the search page and realize the entire reason I can't access the page was because: GOOGLE WAS FUCKING AUTOTRANSLATING ALL THE SITES!!

I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO DO THAT DID I?!?!

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3

It's called "Extending Protections to More US-Based Teens" and it goes into effect on August 13, 2025.

Google states that on that date, they'll begin rolling out "an age estimation model to determine if a US-based user is under the age of 18." No way AI can fuck that up, right?

This will occur "regardless of the birthdate you entered when creating your account." So, a 33-year-old like myself, despite putting my accurate birthdate, will still be subjected to this AI model and cannot opt out. Great.

And then they'll use the model to market shit to teenagers, because that's always gone well--wait, I'm sorry, they'll use it to "extend age-appropriate product experiences and protections to more teens (like enabling digital wellbeing tools and only showing non-personalized ads)." Right.

Google claims they've used this model elsewhere and it's worked well. (I'm assuming they're referring to the age verification roll out in response to the UK’s Online Safety Act.)

The model in question uses "a variety of signals" like "YouTube activity and longevity of the account." Well that's not vague at all.

When ZDNet reached out, "a YouTube representative stressed that the age-estimation model 'does not collect any new information not already associated with the account'"--which is true... unless your account is anonymous. To revert an account wrongfully flagged as underage, you have to upload a government issued ID, selfie, or credit card. Which defeats the purpose of an anonymous account.

Like the op, I tried to voice my displeasure at the further encroachment of artificial intelligence onto internet platforms. And like op, my reply "failed to post."

What I want to know is what about the above reply or mine

violates community policy? Or does Google just have AI content filters set up to ping key phrases? This is particularly grating when community policy specifically prohibits spam comments and shit like this

makes it through but comments that disagree with policy decisions are automatically flagged as inappropriate.

Regardless, this is fucking bunk, on three levels.

Firstly, what a child consumes on the internet is not the responsibility of the internet--or its users. It is the responsibility of the parent of that child.

Parental controls exist not just on televisions, but on phones and computers as well. Not only is it available via the hardware we're using to access the platform, it's also already available on the fucking platform.

Secondly, with this AI age verification rollout, Google is telling its consumers that they get to decide what we consume. That we as consumers are not in control of our experience and that we clearly do not know what is in our own best interests.

This is a violation of the concept of consumer sovereignty.

Thirdly, this model is more or less the implementation of Google's own privatized version of KOSA. Which, as we've discussed ad nauseam here on Tumblr and on the internet at-large, is largely the first step toward internet censorship.

I don't think I need to remind anyone that censorship is bad. For lots of reasons.

And look, I know we're all tired. There are Things Happening and they just keep fucking happening. I know it's a lot.

But you and me? We're the boss in this situation. No company should ever feel comfortable enough to dictate what its consumers can and cannot access. Companies work for us. Without consumers, companies cease to exist. So we have a lot more power than it feels like we do in this situation.

For better or worse, Google and YouTube are part of the ecosystem of information on the internet. And access to information is important. The freedom to access information is a right that we must protect at all costs, regardless of the age of the person accessing that information.

So take a deep breath. And keep yelling at them about this.

You can:

Spam their social media.

Call their customer service line (1-650-253-0000).

File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

(Politely) Yell at your local news media--if local news covers it, there's a chance that national news might.

Sign this petition (or another like it).

And if you're sick of Google's bullshit, you can also just... stop. Stop using their services. And let them know that's why you're leaving.

There are alternatives to Google services:

Proton has a VPN, email service, and also has a drive, similar to Google's, as well as a docs feature similar to Google docs.

Ellipsus is an alternative to Google docs.

Obsidian is another.

There's also Dropbox Paper.

LibreOffice is an alternative to the Google suite/Microsoft Office suite and storage is local to your device rather than the cloud.

DuckDuckGo is a great alternative to Google search, with an easy opt-out for AI features.

Firefox is a good alternative browser for Chrome.

Twitch, Vimeo and DailyMotion, are viable alternatives for YouTube, depending on what you use it for.

There is, unfortunately, no perfect solution. Google has a monopoly on many of the services it offers, including video-sharing.

But that's another great reason to contact your reps! If you want to keep using YouTube and other Google products, or you don't want other companies to follow Google's lead, go yell at your representatives about it. They have the power to demand action on a state and federal level to protect their constituents.

Call and demand they protect their constituents from predatory business practices (which demanding an ID or credit card, when they have a history of data breaches, most certainly is). Tell your reps that it's against your freedom as a consumer for Google to decide what is and is not appropriate for its consumers to consume, and nowhere in the Constitution does it say that Google is arbiter of our access to information. And let them know that their action or lack thereof will directly impact your voting decisions during the next election.

The only way we can get companies like Google to stop doing stupid shit like this is to get loud about it and to stop using their services.

---

For the curious, here are the links I used in my attempted reply:

This one is from 2021, when they were sued for allegedly selling user data to third parties: https://www.tampabay.com/news/2021/05/07/google-selling-users-personal-data-despite-promise-federal-court-lawsuit-claims/

Chrollo

Gon, with his whole heart, apologizes to Killua after the Chimera Ant arc.

This whining on the floor scene is not his apology. It is a reaction to Killua bringing up the things that hurt him, after they undoubtedly talked about it, and rubbing salt into Gon’s guilt-ridden wounds. Notice that Gon doesn’t complain or say, “I already said sorry!” He just gets to his knees and apologizes, again. He is owning his mistakes, the ones Killua isn’t yet ready to let go of entirely, and Alluka scolds him for it. Her calling him out is the only reason Killua backtracks and says the most important line that proves a significant scene occurred between them off-screen: “You already apologized.” 

In both the anime and the manga, the Japanese clearly says it: もう謝ってもらったし

The “mou” is the “already,” and interestingly enough, it’s put into a list by the use of “shi,” which functions a bit like “and” might: You apologized to me and Alluka is free because of you, by the way, she healed you. 

Both Gon’s apology, and Alluka’s freedom, are clearly topics they’ve discussed before. Her ability is not. Why does he suddenly reveal it at this time? Unfortunately, this post isn’t about that; it’s about the apology we didn’t see, and more importantly, the promise we didn’t hear. 

How do we know there was a promise?

Ging Freecss told us. 

apparently, the communal puzzle club was just a front for document forgery and counterfeit cash, and i had been inadvertently sabotaging them this entire time. which is sad because i support both of those things. but it also explains why they met 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and why they had their own building despite having no profit model and also why i was the only one who seemed to actually care about the puzzles. everyone else was too busy making fake passports to care.

in hindsight, i always knew they were all a bunch of casuals. but i didn't mind because they had so many excellent puzzles. I asked one of the officers if i could at least have the puzzles but he said they were already taken and locked away in the evidence room. the thought sickens me- all those puzzles, gathering dust, never to be assembled again. or maybe the pigs just took them for themselves! so they could have all the puzzles they want while the rest of us ordinary, law-abiding citizens have nothing to do except die of boredom!