How To Talk To Children

obligatory welcome guide for redditors

A lot of the guides I've seen don't actually seem to understand how reddit works in comparison to tumblr so

your blog is basically your own small subreddit. some people curate this heavily to fit a theme, like a sub, most people don't

reblogs are culturally equivilant to upvotes but functionally equvilant to crossposting

there is an algorithm. it sucks and nobody uses it. turn it off in settings. everything is generally chronological

likes are functionally equivilant to saving a post

you've probably already seen this but change your icon and put something in your bio or people WILL assume you're a bot. personal info not required

generally, anything you would put as a comment on a thread should go in the tags or the replies of a post. only add comments in reblogs if you want it to become part of the base post

tags are mostly equivilant to flairs, used for organization and commentary

your dashboard is an aggregation of everyone you follow

there is an r/all equivilant(trending page) but it sucks and nobody uses it

our search also sucks. your best bet is using tumblr.com/tagged/[TAG] and not /search

there are no mods

by extension, reporting something doesn't put it in front of the mods, it sends it to staff, who may or may not do anything(usually they don't)

there is no karma, there are no karma limits. anyone can reblog anything, comment/reply to anything, or post in any tag

"reposting"(reblogging) old content doesn't matter. people can and will reblog the same post multiple times, including in a row

CAVEAT. reposting someones art(NOT reblogging, making a new post) is a dick move. i know this is commonplace on fandom subs but its not necessary here. everything you post should be [OC] unless you are reblogging. or posting shitty memes

we have our own sitelore, you'll pick it up

(though im not opposed to bringing some over from reddit)

our app also sucks. we do not have third party apps and any that claim to be are scams. sorry

for desktop, most people use the XKit Rewritten extension for QoL improvements and to revert shitty aesthetic updates, much like old.reddit

we have no idea where the porn rules are at either. add a mature content flag to anything you'd get fired for looking at at work, that's about it

finally, from the bottom of my heart, fuck u/spez

hEY CREATIVES!

Are you stuck scrolling through reddit, twitter, tumblr, tiktok, any media site that gets money from the attention that you give it by granting you little scraps of dopamine whenever you actually find something genuine throughout the mundane?

I need you to pull up a playlist, any playlist. It can be an oc playlist, your world building playlist, mood playlist, etc.

Second, grab your notebook or sketchbook.

Third, get comfy somewhere, like the couch, your partner’s bed, etc (blankets and snacks may be crucial)

LASTLY, start your playlist and place your phone face down and just

Be bored. With your music. For 15 minutes.

Don’t pick up your phone, let your mind wander, and see where it takes you.

Through a series of events you find out that your party members have all been replaced by a mimic, a skinwalker, a changeling, and a shapeshifter. You don’t bring up that you know this however as they’re a lot nicer and more efficient then the ones they replaced.

Pro-writing tip: if your story doesn't need a number, don't put a fucking number in it.

Nothing, I mean nothing, activates reader pedantry like a number.

I have seen it a thousand times in writing workshops. People just can't resist nitpicking a number. For example, "This scifi story takes place 200 years in the future and they have faster than light travel because it's plot convenient," will immediately drag every armchair scientist out of the woodwork to say why there's no way that technology would exist in only 200 years.

Dates, ages, math, spans of time, I don't know what it is but the second a specific number shows up, your reader is thinking, and they're thinking critically but it's about whether that information is correct. They are now doing the math and have gone off drawing conclusions and getting distracted from your story or worse, putting it down entirely because umm, that sword could not have existed in that Medieval year, or this character couldn't be this old because it means they were an infant when this other story event happened that they're supposed to know about, or these two events now overlap in the timeline, or... etc etc etc.

Unless you are 1000% certain that a specific number is adding to your narrative, and you know rock-solid, backwards and forwards that the information attached to that number is correct and consistent throughout the entire story, do yourself a favor, and don't bring that evil down upon your head.

You became a “supervillain”, not out of any particular desire to do evil deeds or take over the world or whatever, but just because your friend is a somewhat underpowered superhero, and you wanted to make sure they had a “nemesis” who wouldn’t actually hurt them.

dab

People on twitter arguing that Disney owns so many things it’s “““impossible”““ to boycott them when they still only own a bunch of entertainment and media brands. How does anyone not know about things like 123movies or kimcartoon. No you won’t get viruses or malware, no you won’t go to jail, stop spending money on moving pictures that hundreds of people have already uploaded for free, come on, this is ridiculous. If it kills the industries, let it. They’re too big. They’ve already made so much shit that you can never watch it all in one lifetime. Nobody needs more actually.

Everyone knows that on Uber/Lyft you should always give the driver five stars unless they, like, drive the car into the ocean or something, right?  You can’t say “the ride was fine, nothing special, so I gave them three stars,” because the company will punish them for being anything less than perfect.

Well, you should know that the same rule goes for any kind of customer service survey.  Unless the service you received was unacceptable, give them 5/5 or 10/10 or whatever.  It’s annoying, because it ruins the sensitivity of the survey, but it’s how it’s gotta be.  9/10 gets treated like a problem and 6/10 gets treated like a disaster.   Understand this and do the workers a favor by grading easy.

my mind is sprung with creatures galore

How to Appreciate Pokemon WITHOUT Supporting Corporate Nonsense

in light of gen 9's bonkers release timescale and the steadily-decreasing game quality in recent years, you may want to pull your support for pokemon until they get their shit together. however, you might feel too attached to the franchise to just drop it.

if that's your problem, this is the post for you!

originally this was a comic, hence the "special project" i was talking about, but my laptop decided to delete it randomly (rip) so you're getting a written guide.

rbs > likes for exposure, everything's under the cut!

to clarify something real quick, nintendo/the pokemon company owns the franchise and oversees the games + merch but gamefreak actually makes the games themselves. if you're going to be (rightfully) mad, get mad at the right people.

also a lot of this stuff might not come as a shock, but i still felt this was an important post to make, especially for younger/newer pokemon fans.

that being said, here we go!

games

you can play pokemon games multiple ways without supporting gamefreak! this may not come as a shock to most of you, but i still wanted to mention it.

buy games/devices secondhand (often cheaper and better for the environment, though it's still spending money)

borrow a friends device/copy of the game and play on that

use emulators (just a quick search on duckduckgo is a good place to start with this!)

play fangames

make your own fangames! i personally recommend rpg maker mv for game-making purposes. you can get a free, fully-functioning copy of rpg maker mv on steamunlocked!

cards

we all know that joke about collecting the cards because they're pretty but not knowing how to play the card game. you can always:

buy the specific cards you want second-hand

find the cards you want and print them out

draw your own cards if you wanna have fun with it

figurines

here's where we're getting into interesting territory. usually by the time you can save up for these, they're out of stock.

your options are:

buy them secondhand (again, cheaper, better for the environment, and usually your only feasible option anyway)

learn 3d modelling (try blender, it's free and has a ton of tutorials out!) and make your own custom ones with 3d printing

fanart, fanfic, and misc merch

the reblog button is gonna be your best friend. likes don't give exposure and they only serve to dishearten creators that were so excited to show their hard work to the world but might not even bother if they only get likes. what's the point if nobody sees what you do?

buying merch from individual creators on sites like redbubble and etsy not only tells these creators that you like and care about what they do, it gives them money to go towards important things so they can keep creating amazing things for you to enjoy!

merch on redbubble can range anywhere from stickers to blankets and pillows, and merch on etsy can be things like plushies, stickers, keychains, you name it! personally i'd recommend redbubble, though, since it doesn't charge the artist just to open a shop and have listings. etsy is notoriously shitty about how it treats its users.

you can also commission artists directly to draw whatever you want within their guidelines, not just pokemon! (shameless plug but my commissions are here, my phone recently broke ^^;) this is an even better option, since rather than the site taking a cut from what the artist would make, the only cuts taken are small fees by whatever the artist uses, which is usually paypal.

conclusion

look at you, you made it through this overly-wordy guide!

before you go, if you really want to make a statement, email/tweet @/write to gamefreak/the pokemon company to tell them exactly why you won't be supporting them rather than just. not.

sending a clear message with specific complaints, then withholding money from their grubby corporate hands until they act right, is the best way to incite change as money's their only motivator.

however! it'll only work if this happens in large enough amounts with the same complaints, so be sure to encourage your friends to take these options too instead of doing it alone.

if this helps even one person, it was a post worth making in my opinion, so thanks for reading! have a good day/night!