Americans not giving a shit about the wildfires burning down forests and homes in Canada until smoke starts spreading across the border. Meanwhile Indigenous communities across the country are far more likely to be impacted by the fires and I’ve seen all of one link to a charity and about nine million memes. 🙃
TV Executives: “if the strike goes on, you won’t get new episodes of your favorite shows! You won’t get new movies you were looking forward to! Isn’t that terrible, what the writers are doing to you?”
Me: Bitch, that might have been an effective threat in 2007, but we have since survived a Covid shutdown and discovered ways to amuse ourselves while we waited, we can outwait this shit, too. I got a pile of shows saved I haven’t even watched yet, and a Mt. TBR waiting for me.
Compensate (and respect) your writers for their work, assholes.
I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.
(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)
The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.
So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.
I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.
First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?
And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:
Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.
Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.
I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!
Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.
Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).
Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.
So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.
They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.
I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.
Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.
Every so often, a place like webnovel makes the rounds. Inkitt used to do the same thing too. Their terms of service were just as bad. They do this on Wattpad too which is mainly original fic and populated by people just scraping for a crumb of readership. People who have stars in their eyes and dreams in there hearts about making some money from their writing. It’s incredibly predatory and the general consensus is that if you get one of these messages, delete it and ignore.
“Cowboy Like Me is a weak spot” ok just say you’re incapable of understanding the complexity and vulnerability of a line like the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up
It is actually,,, so important to talk to people who are not the same age as you?? Every time I see people being weird about someone older than them existing on tumblr, or acting like minors are the Scourge Of The Earth, it makes me so frustrated- not just because they have as much right to the space as you do, but because it’s so important to have a diverse community of people.
Big Life Moments like graduating, moving, starting a new job or losing an old one, are absolutely terrifying for a lot of folks. You don’t know what’s coming next, even if you have a vague idea. Society loved to parrot that that if you mess it up, “you have no future”. Change is terrifying. Aging is terrifying. Anything beyond what’s already clear to you is terrifying.
Knowing people who are older than you is like,, hey. Look. These people have done it. And they all have stories that may or may not look like yours, but are definitely not all the same. Knowing people older than you and being friends with them is having living proof that life goes on, even when it changes, and you’re still a person after that. I say being friends with them, because it takes away this mystic sense that they’re something other for being older, or that they magically have it all figured out in a way you never could. Older friends proves that the people who have done this before are still people, just like you- and you can get through it too.
They made 3 styles in several colours using 3 styles from the the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries from their current exhibition “In Bloom: Flowers and Footwear”, and are currently in pre-sale, with estimated deliveries between July and August 2023.
Let’s take a look:
We start at the 18th century with the Primrose shoes, based on their Dunmore model, accurate for 1770s-1790s they are embroidered on satin and are $179 USD while in pre-sale and later will be $199. The original style is in black and pink silk satin, and OF COURSE that’s my favourite variation, but the green ones are a close second.
Images from top: 1780s shoes, Bata Shoe Museum / Primrose shoes, American Duchess.
From the 19th century we have this style called Flora, accurate for the late 19th century (1870s-1900), are $230 USD while in pre-sale and later will bee $250. This embroidered boots with satin ribbon laces are probably my favourite style from the collection. Of course my fave colour is black, which is also the colour of the original piece, but the lavender ones are just *chef kiss*:
Images from top: the original French embroidered boots by Francois Pinet, late 1870s-early 1880s, Bata Shoe Museum. / Flora boots, American Duchess
Finally, the 20th century style is the Daisy, accurate for the 1920s-1940s. A vintage style full of flowers and colour, this T-strap style is perfect to pair with a simple dress from any decade and have a very decent 6.3cm heel, so you can dance all night in these art deco shoes.
1920s shoes, Bata Shoe Museum / Daisy shoes, American Duchess.
The sales from the In Bloom collection will support The Bata Shoe Museum in their study, outreach, and conservation of historic footwear, and we’re here for it.
![screenshot of tweet by Psychotherapy Action Network @PsiANorg [thread emoji] (1/6) So, according the the FTC, BetterHelp: 1) Sold data about all LGBTQ users who looked into "Pride Counseling," teens who visited "Teen Counseling," Christians who visited "Faithful Counseling," & Spanish-speaking folks who visited "Terappeuta." (at least spell it right?)](https://64.media.tumblr.com/2452f15a10487da4e8064aed4e05bc8e/33a7ddb2957c29ac-fb/s500x750/bae2dec4be8d9c588b9c0c7a52a604bc9882b3af.png)
![screenshot of tweets 5 and 6. (5/6) 8) "Use[d] this health information for advertising, BetterHelp has brought in hundreds of thousands of new Users, resulting in millions of dollars in additional revenue." (6/6) Leaving our most private and intimate personal details up to venture capital-led groups that privilege convenience over quality (or even the most basic prerequisite of therapy: privacy) is bad for everyone.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f250e8046ed1a6362b35dd573e22ed1a/33a7ddb2957c29ac-5c/s540x810/94c6b8784516e6d23bc7d9e95c98df5fbd32ef11.png)