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#also i know its possible that someone is just sending this ask en masse
luckycharge · 3 years
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oxenfree 2 announced
this ask is such a mystery to me like its not that i dont appreciate it and im actually very excited because oxenfree is still one of my favorite games of all time and if the sequel is anywhere as good as the original im going to have a very good time but like. I have not posted about this game regularly in SO long and the last time i posted about it at all was 7 months ago. 
Like who are you that oxenfree 2 was announced and you were like FUCK i have GOT TO TELL DUCKY ABOUT THIS. this is not a complaint i appreciate it i’m just baffled
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Dead Apple Explanation:
Part Two: Dragon Head Conflict
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WARNING. If you do NOT want spoilers, then please do not keep reading. :)
Understanding what happened during the Dragon Head Conflict is key to understanding what happens in Dead Apple.
This section is going to be the longest, so bear with me.
6 years ago, (from the present timeline,) the Dragon Head Conflict broke out. It was the bloodiest day in Yokohama's history. Dead Apple starts on the last day of the conflict, Night 87/Day 88, but the Prologue explains the basic layout of the Conflict in pretty good detail. (If you want to skip my summary and just watch the YT videos, link in Part One of my explanation. There are five videos, the longest is 5 and a half minutes.)
What happens is as follows:
An unnamed ability user with a vast fortune died. At this time in Yokohama's history, there were many more rivals and gangs in the city and several different groups moved in to claim the treasure. The treasure eventually became just an excuse for the rival gangs to finally wage all out war on each other, even though they just called it a 'feud'. As the conflict dragged on into days and then weeks, turning bloodier and bloodier, the Special Division of the government decided to hire an ability user named Shibusawa, who became known as the White Dragon. They thought they could use him, but Shibusawa had his own agenda. (Obviously he didn't tell the government that LOL.)
Shibusawa has a many faceted ability - one facet of it allows him to create a mist, the Dragon's Breath, which separates a user from his or her ability. (There are users who are immune/can resist, but more on that later.) The ability will then turn on the user and kill them. (Please note that this mist was NOT the all-encompassing mist we see later in Dead Apple.)
I feel like this is the perfect time to explain a bit about what we know regarding his backstory. He is an incredibly powerful ability user, and incredibly intelligent, as well, predicting people's moves with even more ease than Rampo or Dazai. (Dead Apple makes this scarily obvious.) He is bored with everything: life, death, abilities, etc. One of the few things he couldn't predict was what would happen if he could get an ability that was in direct opposition to his. He was NOT interested in creating and collecting ability gems yet, he just wanted to find his ability's opposite. Like he tells Atsushi near the end of Dead Apple, the opposite ability could possibly show him the strength and tenacity of life, and it would do so by killing him. It was so alive and powerful, that he would enjoy death at its hands. But he wasn't /sure/, because he couldn't find the antithesis of his ability. (This guy is seriously messed up.)
KEEPING ALL THIS IN MIND-
Enter Fyodor. Yes, Fyodor had his hands in it the entire time. You thought Shibusawa was in control? Nooooope. Fyodor is an enigma; he has a lot of agendas going at once, and he's basically on the same intelligence level as Shibusawa. He uses Shibusawa, (a feat in and of itself,) telling him about an ability user locked away in an orphanage. This ability is not fully developed, but incredibly powerful; the rival to Shibusawa. Elated, Shibusawa rushes off to the orphanage. How he manages to torture the abilty user is a mystery - either he snuck him out of the orphanage, or the director of the orphange was just that much of an @#$%^&*!. Regardless, Shibusawa tortured the ability user to try and extract his ability - since it wasn't fully developed, and buried so deep inside the user who had no knowledge that he WAS a user, Shibusawa couldn't separate it with his Dragon's Breath ability, and was forced to use electrocution.
The ability inside the user /was/ the rival to Shibusawa's, and even in it's not-fully-developed state, it activated last-minute to protect its user, turning into a white tiger and slashing through Shibusawa's skull, killing him.
However, Shibusawa's ability was unique. It resided in his skull, and the skull was not destroyed by the white tiger's claws. With a little unexplained Fyodor magic, (seriously, someone explain the many facets of Fyodor's ability already!) Shibusawa was revived, but Fyodor withheld his memories, thereby making it easier for him to continue manipulating Shibusawa without Shibusawa's knowledge. His memories are gone, but Shibusawa does remember his lust for collecting and his boredom with the universe. (He's also basically a spirit in some sort of magical physical body, since his skull was kept separate from him, so he's not going to die conventionally.)
There is a bit of a gap here, as Shibusawa somehow went from being a revived dead spirit dude to being hired by the government, and this is not explained. My guess is Fyodor was involved. Shibusawa was vital to his plan, and this was the perfect time to start putting it in motion. (Fyodor's plan is not important right now, that's for the apple suicide section.) So yeah - let's assume Fyodor somehow got the Special Division to hire Shibusawa. (Asagiri, I know this is not the most important detail, but it would be great if you explained it~)
Fast forward to where we left off with Dragon Head Conflict. We are not sure when in the 88 days of conflict that the government sent out Shibusawa, but it was probably around the middle. During the time he was free to roam the streets, the bloodshed increased. Ability users started dying en masse. Rumors of a "White Dragon" start circulating,
Oda, the mafioso who wouldn't kill anyone and Dazai's friend, went one night to investigate a jewelry store that had been blasted apart. It also doubled as a base of operations for a blackmarket organization known as the Gerhardt Security Services, or GSS. (You'll remember them from the Fifteen Arc.) The place was known to be protected by some extremely dangerous combat ability users. While there, Oda bumps into Shibusawa, who pretends to be investigating the scene of the crime and shows little interest in the deaths of the ability users, saying that people die all the time, especially since there is a war on. (Shibusawa actually was the one who attacked the store himself, stealing the gems for a separate collection of his [normal gems, not ability gems,] and killing all the ability users. His boredom caused him to obsessively collect things, and the loss of his memories amplified it.) Oda asks if he's new here, because the murders make no sense and he /ought/ to be surprised. GSS was one of the few neutral parties in the current feud, and therefore, whoever attacked was a "thrill seeking fool". Oda then speculates that maybe it's the White Dragon's doing, a loose cannon who appeared out of nowhere a few days ago and attacks anyone in any organization, leaving no witnesses. Shibusawa comments that, if there were no witnesses, how would The White Dragon get a name? He then says that if it /is/ the White Dragon's doing, he has no business sticking around. Oda says that he's going to stay because he wants to find out the White Dragon's motive. Shibusawa starts to leave, then says he's going to give Oda a hint to the White Dragon's obvious motive. (Real subtle there, sir.) The answer is pure boredom - perhaps beautiful jewels would awaken feelings inside him. He then leaves, saying that if Oda survives, he'd love to meet up with him again.
Dazai appears shortly afterwards, and Oda tells him what happened. Dazai tells him he is lucky to have survived, since that 'investigator' was the White Dragon himself.
Fast forward to 70 days into the conflict. Chuuya confronts Dazai for napping and subsequently ignoring a call from Mori to attend an important meeting, asking him if he even understands what's going on because this is the biggest gang feud in Yokohama's history. Dazai first teases him, saying he needs to buy a microscope to use on Chuuya because he's so short, then tells him that yes, he does understand. An organization called Strain has had 80% of their members wiped out. Another organization, the Tasake Corps, has had their leader assassinated, sending their gang into chaos. He then rattles off several other organizations who have joined in the bloodshed. Old feuds, paranoia, lust for revenge - the conflict is just an excuse for everyone to lay everything on the table. It will only end with the death of everyone involved. Chuuya yells at him, that he needs to contribute to stopping the death. Dazai comments that rushing headlong into a fight is what everyone else is doing, thereby causing more death and chaos. He says they should leave the strategy of the Port Mafia's part of the war to Mori, the leader of the Port Mafia, and then shifts Chuuya's attention to something else.
Dazai shows him a photo of a corpse of a Port Mafia executive named "The Colonel." Chuuya is in shock that the older man, who had a very powerful ability, could possibly be killed. Dazai tells him it's the White Dragon - the White Dragon's ability is still unknown, but he appears to get stronger with every kill he makes. Chuuya says this war makes the perfect hunting ground to find and kill the White Dragon, and asks Dazai what the plan is to take him down. Dazai says he doesn't plan on hunting him down, and that Chuuya ought to be wondering about who will replace The Colonel as the next executive, especially since they both are potential candidates. Chuuya's temper flares again, and he punches Dazai, telling him he's going after the White Dragon and Dazai can go back to napping until he dies, before storming out. Dazai mumbles "how cruel", but smiles, obviously having more up his sleeve than he let Chuuya on to.
Two days later, Shibusawa is taking a stroll through a ruined section of Yokohama. Despite the bloodshed, a few pedestrians are still around - life must go on. He approaches a street vendor and tries to buy a bouquet of white flowers. The vendor asks him if they're a gift for someone. Shibusawa says yes, that he plans to leave them with his next encounters, as a parting gift. (Seriously, this guy needs to learn the art of SUBTLETY-) The vendor then says she will gift him "this", and pulls out a gun, aiming it at him. The rest of the 'pedestrians' pull out weapons and surround him, much to Shibusawa's surprise. Dazai then appears, telling him that these are the Mafia's best, and he shouldn't resist; this is just the "entertainment before the show". Shibusawa is impressed, and guesses Dazai's identity. Dazai informs Shibusawa that he (Dazai) is "on thin ice" with his partner for "sleeping all the time" and asks Shibusawa to come away with him. Shibusawa asks what will happen if he refuses. Dazai tells him that he was offering to let Shibusawa choose where he dies, but he could just stay there and die right now. He then tells him that he made two miscalculations: First, Shibusawa can't win against Dazai, because Dazai's ability will nullify whatever the White Dragon's ability is. Second, the Port Mafia never works alone - the White Dragon is a One Man Army, and that will always fail.
Shibusawa asks if that's why Dazai joined the mafia, (i.e., being stronger in a group.) Dazai affirms this. Shibusawa tells him that's unfortunate, but Dazai probably feels the same way. He goes on to say that groups are important, likening individuals to threads and a group to a whole cloth. However, if you have one black thread in a white cloth, the cloth is nothing better than ruined trash. (Ouch, much.) Dazai brushes this remark aside, telling him that he will show him no mercy. The White Dragon went too far by killing The Colonel, and Dazai will punish him for it. Shibusawa shrugs, and says that's fine with him, but Dazai will regret it. Dazai denies this with a smirk. But Shibusawa keeps talking.
He tells Dazai that if he kills the White Dragon, the feud will not end. Dazai comments that's a unique way of looking at it. Shibusawa says that only the death of everyone will end the conflict, (echoing Dazai's words to Chuuya two days prior,) unless of course… another feud happens to distract everyone from the original feud. Dazai asks how. Shibusawa tells him that to stop a fire in an oil ring, you set off a bomb.
At that exact moment, an explosion goes off somewhere nearby. Rare shock appears on Dazai's face and he asks where it came from. Shibusawa tells him that no longer is this a feud, but an all-out war, thanks to him. His declaration was just delivered to all the organizations involved. Dazai watches the Mafia Headquarters rise into the sky, confused and still in shock. Shibusawa continues to talk, telling him that he is going to reduce everyone's base to nothing but rubble. Dazai then yells out that no, the mafia headquarters is /falling/. The bomb flew part of the building into the air, and now it's going to crash into the square.
Smug, Shibusawa repeats Dazai's "You made two miscalculations" quote back at him. First, Dazai thought the White Dragon wasn't expecting an ambush. Second, Dazai thought the White Dragon was alone. Supernatural abilities appear out of nowhere, attacking the mafia members in the square.
Dazai's subordinates fall one by one as he watches in horror. Shibusawa casually comments that Dazai was right, superiority in numbers was a splendid idea. He decided to form his own 'group', to help distract him from his boredom.
(What is NOT specified here is if Shibusawa is using his ability, or if he recruited ability users to his side. However, as we know from the beginning of Dead Apple, Shibusawa /did/ have a bunch of people in masks and cloaks and hoods. As to whether he animated them with abilities from deceased ability users, or if they were an extension of his own ability, or if they were a mix of ability users and normal people, is unknown. ASAGIRI, PLS JUST WRITE A WHOLE DANG NOVEL CALLED 'DRAGON HEAD CONFLICT'-)
As he finishes speaking, the rubble of the mafia looms closer to hitting the ground. Dazai mumbles that "who would have thought the White Dragon would be so powerful?" (This comment makes me think that in this instance, Shibusawa /was/ using his ability, and his hired hands were the ones setting off the bombs around Yokohama.) Shibusawa says he's tired of that name: "I am Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, the explosion that will end this war. The bringer of death that will end all of the massacres. This is the grand finale. I hope you leave me yearning for more…" Dazai recovers his composure and says that it's all very interesting, and it's time they had some fun, but at that moment, the headquarters finally hits the square, engulfing Shibusawa and Dazai in rubble and dust.
That day, every organization watched their base be destroyed, and they all learned the name of their common enemy. The Port Mafia sent a search party out to find Dazai, but his body was nowhere to be found, and neither was Shibusawa's.
Fifteen days later, Day 87 of Dragon Head Conflict, Shibusawa is moping in his palace, Draconia. (This is yet another facet of his ability - it is a special place, sort of like Lucy's, except he can make his tangible in the real world. Draconia holds everything he obsessively collects. Draconia is technically the name of his ability, but like I said, his ability is many-faceted, and the novel and movie refers to the palace as Draconia, so that is what I am going to do. He created his collecting palace after he was killed by the tiger ability, in a desperate way to find meaning without his memories - Fyodor briefly mentions this in Dead Apple.)
Fyodor appears and asks Shibusawa what's wrong? He's defeated amazing ability users, his palace is full to the brim with beautiful and priceless things; isn't this what he wanted? Shibusawa looks around at all the treasure and the heads (yes, you read that right, HEADS,) of many very strong ability users who he defeated. He says he's obsessively organized, just like he obsessively collected, but he has some measure of regret. Fyodor says that of course he isn't satisfied; he's told Shibusawa time and again that the pleasures of this world will never fill the deep emptiness he feels. "Not even jewels or war?" Shibusawa asks dejectedly. "No, they will not. As someone who has known you a long time, I can assure you of that." Shibusawa agrees reluctantly, commenting on how he predicted the moves of all his fallen foes and it's just so boring. He likens it to children who look back at old, broken toys and wonder how they ever enjoyed playing with them. What did they hope to get out of it? Eventually, they will just feel hopeless and smash the toy to bits. Fyodor tells him to blame the gods, because that's just how the world was made. Shibusawa asks what he should do, "detest the gods?" Fyodor smiles slyly. "No, there's a far simpler answer. Break your toys and move onto the next." Shibusawa smiles and proclaims this an excellent idea.
This exchange of dialogue is eerily similar to Dazai and Odasaku at the end of the Dark Era arc. However, the parallel is striking: both Dazai and Shibusawa are too smart for their own good, but their friends handle it in different ways. Oda tells Dazai to make his world more beautiful, save people, be a good man. Fyodor, who has his own agenda, advises Shibusawa to basically burn his world to the ground and do whatever he wants. (Fyodor, we hate you.)
Back at the temporary Port Mafia headquarters, Mori is holding a brief meeting between Hirotsu, Chuuya and himself. Mori bewails the fact that Shibusawa is a one man army and so enigmatic. Mori cannot use mathematics and logic and normal strategies and manipulation against an enemy they know nothing about, not even his ability, let alone his motive or whereabouts. "It's like we're fighting the mist itself." He goes on to explain that the top four organizations next to the Port Mafia have been completely annihilated, and many Port Mafia members have gone missing, from new recruits to executive candidates, including Dazai.
Chuuya says they should forget about "that moron" and try to find the others. (Obviously he doesn't think Dazai is dead, and knowing Dazai's crafty ways, he can look out for himself.) Mori comments there's the possibility that the missing people may not even be alive anymore, before asking Hirotsu for an update on the White Dragon.
Hirotsu tells him they don't have much beyond speculation and rumors, and that "the White Dragon's supernatural ability" is "a bizarre power that defies expectations." It appears that any user who encounters him commits suicide in despair. Mori then asks if Dazai left any information behind before his disappearance. Hirotsu says he's investigated everything thoroughly three times and has found nothing but a microscope that Dazai recently purchased, but it doesn't even look used.
Chuuya's eyes widen and he demands to know where the microscope is. Hirotsu says it's still in his room. (From the background pictures of said room, it is evident that Dazai has finally upgraded from his frighteningly isolated and empty storage container. Thanks for that stab, Stormbringer.) Fuming, Chuuya rushes off to the room, Hirotsu in tow. Once there, Hirotsu indicates the microscope, and Chuuya grabs it, promptly smashing it. Hirotsu starts to remonstrate, but is interrupted. Annoyance flashes across Chuuya's face as he holds up a transmitter for a tracking device that had been hidden inside. "That jerk saw this coming and got caught on purpose." Hirotsu says the coordinates are probably where both Dazai /and/ the White Dragon are, and is visibly impressed. "And the fact that he put it in a microscope so only I would notice must mean I have no choice but to go rescue that piece of crap. Damn it, Dazai! You always know how to be as annoying as possible!" He starts to leave, and Hirotsu asks where he's going. Chuuya tells him he's getting his motorcycle, indicating he plans to go after the White Dragon and Dazai. Hirotsu protests that Chuuya can't take on the White Dragon alone. Chuuya's annoyance fades, and he becomes more serious. "Don't worry, I have something for him." Hirotsu can't believe he's serious, (hello, Corruption!) and asks if that's really his plan. Chuuya just leaves, gets on his motorcycle, and zooms off, muttering, "Hold on, Dazai… you damn idiot!"
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okay so since you know more than sarah could u give more info?? because i love learning about pete and his blackness as its literally never talked about ANYWHERE else. like thank god for tumblr tbh. sarah is genuinely the only reason ive ever known anything about him in that way but its always been limited so thats why i sent her the ask. i didnt even know ur blog. sorry for sending to her instead of you!!!
oh its fine!! im pretty new on the scene technically. while sarah and i were in the fob fandom at the same time in 2015 ish, i actually left tumblr completely and recently came back!! but anyway, lets talk about petes melanin (my beloved <3)
theres a pretty pervasive narrative, not just around pete but around any black and especially biracial celebrities that theyre ashamed of their blackness or arent "really" black. theres like. a looooooooooong conversation to be had within the black community about this, but to tldr it, the assumption is if you dont look black, you arent black, which for a lot of reasons isnt exactly the case. with him in particular theres a lot of stuff that contributes to this.
most people do not associate the alternative scene and emo especially with black people, so its easy to overlook a lot if someone isnt SUPER obviously black. pete has other ethnic features, like his nose, and is recognizable visually as black except for his skin color. except thats because hes been artificially lightened in photoshoots due to editing and (ALLEGEDLY AND POSSIBLY) lighter foundations. further, he relaxed his hair, which takes away another ethnic feature of his.
there is another aspect to this, which is that black people tan, noticeably and by several shades. you will not notice it if youre like seeing them continuously throughout the year, but as someone who lives in the caribbean and has spent some time in the states, the difference is stark enough to be noticeable. a lightskinned black person may look MUCH paler in the winter compared to in the summer.
in addition, the wealthier you are, the less time you tend to spend in the sun, so ive noticed that black celebrities tend to get lighter as they gain notoriety just because they have like more resources. the reason people from the caribbean tend to become lighter when we go to the states isnt because of less sun, during the summer thats not at all the case, its because the US is more developed so you dont HAVE to spend as much time in the sun.
besides that, hes like genuinely very loud and proud about being black, but all of those attempts are met with backlash. there was the reaction to his natural hair, the reaction to him with cornrows, and the reaction to his very emotional rant about the murder of george floyd. it happens in fobs music too!! ioh for example draws a lot of influence from choral and hymnal arrangements and soul music, not to mention jay-z and babyface working on the album itself, which led to them being labelled sell outs. they also just generally work with rappers more, with lil wayne on tiffany blews and big sean on srar, both of which also led to them being called sell outs. ab/ap as an album draws influence from rap/trap and mixtape culture in the way it was written (thats why its got so many samples), and subsequently got remixed. remember what happened next? mania draws a lot of influence from calypso and dancehall music and features burna boy singing in yoruba patois. that one led to the featured artist getting harassed en masse and multiple (worse) edits of the song without him on it. i dont like it here 💞.
that last point brings me to the fact that while pete definitely loves hardcore and metal, he also has always loved reggae and dancehall. hes half jamaican, spent time in jamaica as a child and listened to his grandparents records, which were. well. reggae and calypso and a little dancehall. if anyone ASKS him about it, hell talk about it willingly and candidly, theres an entire interview from during the hiatus (which i can no longer find rip) where hes asked about and talks about going natural and spending time in jamaica and listening to reggae, which heavily influenced black cards. he visited jamaica during the hiatus! although its unclear if he visited family since literally every news outlet that mentioned it was like "oh tropical getaway <3" unaware that thats where his folks are from
also heres that interview snippet sarah mentioned! i have the full page, its about the early days which is funny bc its just before futct.
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theres also some poetry on sarahs blog that she found years ago thats VERY black. i dont like making it easy to find for nonblack people simply because the first time it was unearthed mostly white people were talking about it and the meaning of it went way over everyone elses head so i try to make sure that if people start talking about it they know going in that its about being black and biracial specifically and so that black fans dont feel the way i did when it first surfaced lol
all of this emphatically points to pete genuinely loving his blackness and not trying to hide it and it being something that majorly shaped his life, but genuinely being unable to talk about it bc of public perception.
sorry for talking your ear off!! if you have any specific qs i almost certainly have answers!!
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On Bruce And Texting:
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Author’s Note: Hello and welcome, this is my first properly written fic, originally posted to my AO3, and now that I have finally created a writing blog, it’s here as well. Please enjoy!!  AO3.  Masterlist
Warnings: Hopefully none, its all cute and fluff <3
Summary: Bruce Wayne texts like he's sending correspondences to the Queen, so of course the little monsters he calls children just have to make fun of him! Brats, the lot of them, but he wouldn't have them any other way.
Features: Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle, all the bats and birds, mentions JL, no crime fighting, only family fluff, jokes and nods to Millennial and GenZ shenanigans.
Word Count: 2.7k
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Billionaire, genius, tech expert, father of many children, and all around up-to-date-with-just-about-everything type of person he may be, it is also a well-known Fact that Bruce Wayne, the Batman(TM) himself, can’t text to save his life.
Whether it’s due to his Very Proper English Upbringing, his inability to be informal via written correspondences of any type, his indifference, or the fact that it bothers his children so much, Bruce Wayne has not and never will text with anything less than perfect grammar, spelling, and formality. If he has not sent you a proper letter (featuring a dedication, indentation for every paragraph, signature, and post-script when applicable), he did, in fact, not send you that text. Informality is not his Batman Way(TM) according to his children... he’s not too sure what that even means, but it makes his young ones laugh so it’s probably fine?  
His oldest children (Richard and Jason) were raised in the time of Change, where computers, internet access, social media, and all things similar were only just being introduced into households en-masse. They were young enough to remember a time without such devices and connectivity (both for very different reasons, of course, but they grew up without the newest technology none-the-less). They could understand his relationship to the digital environment more so than his younger children, but they still tended to poke fun at his ‘texting blunders’ regularly. All his kids somehow ended up as brats. He doesn’t know how this happened. It’s certainly not his fault. He blames the League members, and especially Clark Kent, for their defiant personalities. 
His younger children, whom he loves dearly, like to confuse him as much as they possibly can with their slang, egregious spelling errors, and all-around ‘internet humour’. He doesn’t know what ‘wig’ or ‘worm’ or ‘oof’ or anything means. He has no idea what those dances are, or how they relate to the music that seems to always accompany them, and for the love of all that is good, don’t ask him what he thinks of this or that ‘meme’. What even is a ‘meme’, and should he be more concerned about his kids being obsessed with them? He tries, oh my god, does he try to follow the children’s conversations, but they somehow all learned a language he has no idea how to decrypt. His best response to them once they start speaking in tongues is as follows: smile but not too much, listen to child even though he is deeply confused, and pat child on head or shoulder when they are finished and are looking for assurance.  
He refuses to be a parent who ignores or tunes out his children, so he always makes sure to put down his work, his crossword, his tools, or whatever else is in his hands when a child searches him out for a conversation. But somehow, despite all the time he spends around them and their strange words, when he gets text from them comprised of abbreviations, acronyms, and completely random words, he goes a little cross eyed. He would never tell anyone, but he keeps a running list on his phone about the things they say that he has had to translate in the past. Spilling tea? Speaking the truth, usually to do with gossip. Wow? Multiple possible meanings: either a video game, or someone saying it (different pronunciation depending on context and who sent the text). Stickbug? A nice little prank with no ulterior motives, just for fun. Something along the lines of “this basic bitch Karen at the grocery store who is a dirty rat-licker and is def an anti-vaxxer just took 45 (forty-five) minutes to decide she didn’t actually want that almond milk. I Stan the cashier who had to put up with her. Rad af dude.” roughly translates to “A rude, middle-aged white woman who wasn’t wearing a mask and doesn’t believe in disease control or vaccinating her children wasted a great deal of an essential worker’s time in the checkout line. The cashier was very professional in their dealings with said customer and should be commended on their actions.”  
Given enough time, the internet for searching up new slang words, and occasionally some help from a friend (Alfred, Selina, Lucius, another of his children, etc), Bruce could decode and respond appropriately to most texts. He was quite proud of these achievements, and although he didn’t always like how often his children were on their phones or computers or gaming systems, he was quite proud of how integrated and easily they adapted to the ever-evolving world of electronics. All his kids were gifted in many ways, but their ability to learn, their hunger for knowledge, and their perseverance when exploring new and challenging ideas were always the things that he was most impressed by.  
He could do without their comments though. Yes, surprisingly, he did manage to get girlfriends with his type of texting. No, he doesn’t miss the ‘good old days’ when telegraphs were the main form of long-distance correspondence (how old do these brats think he is?!). And yes, he does know what a “tweet” is, and how to “post” on his social media accounts, and what “sliding into your DMs” is (thanks to a frantic search after a WE employee mentioned it near him). The Wayne children, truly whom and what Bruce considers his pride and joy, are cruel little jerks to him sometimes. His hoard of parenting books fails to mention what one should do when their children gang up on them. Bullying is covered of course, but he can’t really talk to a teacher or his guardian about how his second son calls him an idiot sandwich, or that his third son regularly tries to get him to do something “For The Vine”. His oldest and youngest boys are only slightly better in the bullying him department; Richard and his puppy dog eyes when he wants to do something dangerous or not-Alfred-approved, and Damian and his growing collection of pets because “Mother never let me have them, and I am deprived, and don’t you love me Father?”.  
His only good child is his beautiful daughter Cassandra, the flower of the Wayne clan. She gives him hugs, and pats his hands, and can sit with him and just enjoy the quiet and stillness when his other children are not around. Her language skills are improving by leaps and bounds every day, and her heart and spirit are unparalleled, but her main method of communication is in her movements. Her hands, her posture, her dancing; Bruce couldn’t think of a more graceful, fluid, powerful person if the world depended on it. His amazing little girl doesn't bully him (and if she ever does, he probably deserves it, he trusts her), so he turns to her most of all when it comes to communicating with someone else. She doesn’t let him send anything that is “sketchy” or “wrong words, bad meaning, Dad”. He would give the world to his children, but for Cassandra, he would destroy it and build her an entirely new one.
Social media, especially with his terrible children all having accounts dedicated to making him look like a simpleton, was another rocky terrain he had to navigate on the regular. He had professionals in place at WE to run the company’s many accounts, paid top dollar to help appeal and relate to the masses, but he mostly had to manage his personal accounts himself. And so, @TheRealBruceWayne was one of the greatest struggles in his adult life. Why can’t he just retweet every post from @WE_Offical and leave it at that? People should only want to know about what’s new with the company. What do you mean they want to know more about our family and private lives? That’s unnecessary, and not important to the running of the company, right? Right? Why are you laughing?!
Luckily, most people in his life aren’t so intimately aware of his struggles. He can act and lie all he wants about being “hip” and “woke” and whatever else the kids are saying these days when he’s with the JL or in board meeting intermissions, networking with his associates. The Batman knows all and sees all, Green Lantern, of course he understands how “Tiktok” works. The Batman is a robot without a funny bone in his body, Green Arrow, but I did witness him sigh and say “same” when he knocked his cup of coffee over while on monitor duty once. No matter how badly his darling children call him out, the Justice League would be so much worse. So, it’s one of his most importantly guarded secrets... even more so than his secret identity at this point. Being unmasked in front of every Gotham rogue would be less detrimental to him than his “friends” learning of his utter ineptitude in staying on top of the younger generations’ lingo.  
When questioned why the League doesn’t have a group chat or a forum or anything that they can use to contact each other outside of world ending matters and communicator (”because we’re friends, Batman! Ma and Pa Kent would love to have everyone over for a barbecue!”), the person who dared even mention texting isn’t even given a verbal response. They are just glared at, silently, often for several uninterrupted minutes, frozen in place only able to breathe shallowly in fear of setting off the Bat. “You know why” his glare says, “I’ll eat you, your family, and everything you have ever held dear” the younger members hear. No one makes the mistake of asking about it twice.  
Outside of his children and Alfred, and his small circle of true friends involved in all aspects of his life, there is only one more person Bruce allows to know of his Darkest Secret. Selina. Someone most people would recommend he not be involved with. Catwoman: accomplished thief, distraction, chaos-incarnate most nights, and his significant other. Sharp as a whip (ha) and crafty like no one’s business; he is head-over-heels. On again/Off again and all over the place their long romance has been, but no one has ever challenged him, intrigued him, like this clever, beautiful, amazing woman has. He’s brought his partners around his children before, both for their judgement, and for their worst behaviours to vet out any “unworthy” suitors. He trusts them explicitly to tell him the truth about those he allows into the manor; were they rude about Bruce wanting to have group outings, did they say something about Bruce’s money, did they get angry or shout or make anyone uncomfortable while they were here? If his children even looked slightly unhappy with someone he brought them to meet, that person would not be invited back. Children, he finds, have the best sight when meeting people; no motives other than finding safety and love, no fear of consequences from speaking honestly...  
Selina, or Catwoman, as they had known her first, was someone all of his kids liked without issue right off the bat. She would make puns and play word games with Richard, his first Robin, tiny, still working on his English, able to connect with him over their acrobatic abilities. His second Robin, Jason, skittish and feisty as an alley cat, knew of Catwoman and her daring escapades long before Bruce found him. The young boy had a few heroes, and no one (not even Wonder Woman) could compare to the incredible burglar who bought food and jackets and medicine for the street kids in Crime Alley. She was saintly in his eyes, and to this day, Bruce was still working on convincing Jason he was good enough for Selina. Tim and Cass and Stephanie (basically another daughter to Bruce, she spends so much time with the family) all joined the Wayne clan around the same time and officially met Selina as a friend and partner of his, and in the good graces of his first two sons. Selina, in all her nightly business, and many travels and acquaintances, had met the three independently, helping Tim get home safely back to Drake Manor when he escaped to photograph Batman and Robin in the dank darkness of Gotham when he was just a young boy, spending some time with Cassandra when her despicable father left her alone long enough to recover from his rough treatment, showing her the first scraps of kindness in her short life, and watching over and protecting Stephanie as she followed and sabotaged her father Cluemaster and his criminal activities. There was no need to win them over once they met her civilian identity, she had already gained their favour and acceptance, and they were happy to have her near their new family. Damian, his youngest, his biological son, took the longest to warm up to Selina. He would never fault his little boy for fighting so hard against a woman that was not his birth mother, especially after all the manipulation and cruelty dealt to him by Talia for the first decade of his life. But as he began to learn about his father, these people in his father’s life, and this woman that was Not His Mother but “still okay, I guess”, he grew to see her as acceptable. Her cats definitely helped, he’d say, no one with cats that loyal and happy can be a bad person.  
Selina, the love of his life, he’d admit quietly to himself, was also a dirty traitor and in cahoots with his terrible children. She would say his texting skills were “sweet” and “very gentlemanly” when she was asked by anyone outside the family, and privately to him she would say she thought they were “adorable” and “please don’t ever change, Bruce, I like it.” However, nothing seemed to bring her more joy than his children sending her texts and “Snaps” and “memes” about him to her. Sometimes it was screenshots of the family group chat that they forced him to join, where he would post “To whom it may concern...” and “In regards to...” when he needed to reach all his delinquents in a timely manner. Sometimes it was video clips of him staring at his phone intently, then typing something on his laptop, then him reading and nodding along, and then finally going back and responding to the text he received with a small, pleased smile. And sometimes, when he got too injured or was too incapacitated to text coherently, he’d have his nearest able child transcribe his text to her. Depending on who was texting her for Bruce, she could expect many different things. From Dick, she’d get lots of shorthand and silly emojis, and many, many, winky and crying/laughing faces in brackets depending on what Bruce had made him type. Jason, bless him, used proper English most of the time, but would never write a single word of Bruce’s soliloquy to her, instead she enjoyed the TL;DR version: “hurt again, missing you, come home soon, blah blah blah, sappy gross words here, love you”. Tim would allow speech recognition to run on Bruce’s phone, and just let it go until the man passed out. Stephanie, the little chaos child, would film it and send it to her, including all her muffled laughter and shaky camera shots of Bruce emoting with his available undamaged limbs. Cass, still more versed in physicality and emotive movement, would interpret Bruce’s text into mostly emojis, hearts and happy faces and animals, but would include photos, and phrases that she found important enough to type out for Selina. Damian, forever his Father’s son in any way possible, texts very formally, referring to her or his siblings Bruce mentions by last name only, and lots of “Father requests me to tell you...” and “Kyle, know that Father...”. She adores these kids, and once Bruce recovers enough to text her himself, or she gets back to the Manor, they get to laugh about whatever she was sent this time.  
So, while it’s true that Bruce couldn’t text his way out of a wet paper bag, and his kids are sometimes brats about it, there’s probably a lot of different reasons he doesn’t spend too much time trying to improve his skills. Whether it’s the smiles of his children, the giggles of his significant other, or the warm feeling in his chest when he sees all his important people bonding over him, well, in the end, who’s to say?
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sleepymarmot · 5 years
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Twilight Mirage liveblog 5/5 (finale & post-mortem)
64-67
Found a new shortcut to my heart: announcing your finale is going to be a mashup of The Quiet Year and Firebrands 
Why is it surpising that the Qui Err Coalition allies with the Waking Cadent? That was my first thought when Iota was making her speech! The Qui Err thinks the humans should leave, the Cadent thinks the humans should leave, sounds pretty compatible to me. 
What's the logic of “When Crystal Palace arrives, we will blow up this system”? It's not a bomb! But it will be in danger if a bomb goes off right next to it!
Oh no, Ali is doing the classic “shoot yourself in the foot on purpose” move
I don't get how Grand Magnificent got promoted from “got paid once to retire” to “is trusted to do actual missions for Advent”
Why the hell does Gig want to kill Ballad
The players keep underestimating how “horny” the scenes in Firebrands are and Austin is increasingly exasperated 
I would like to thank Jack from the bottom of my heart for choosing dance as a framing for making contact with Grand. Also I completely lost it at “there are talons on my shoulder”
I must have missed something, what's so bad about the Splice and Our Profit that everyone's so excited to fuck them over? The Mirage is made a renewable resource, right, so the Splice isn't a drain on anything?
The Echo-Ballad scene is so frustrating that I can't even feel appropriately bad about it! Come on Echo, just help Grand go back to Advent as an undercover spy, it doesn't have to be a competition this time!
I still don't understand Independence II… How do you send your new very conspicous and recognizable design to friends in rival factions without blowing your cover 
The timeline here is really weird… Echo rescues Grand and brings Ballad with them, Ballad calls off his people, Grand sends out his new mech design… And a week later, Grand's still on Qui Err territory having a friendly lunch with its leader? If going back is still an option, how is that going to look without making Advent seem like total idiots? Ah, it's only a day after? Okay…
I'm very glad the Volition problem was solved so peacefully!
5 minutes later: “Quire could die!” How about no??! I was so busy preparing to mourn Volition. I am completely unprepared to lose Quire just like that.
Memorious was alive and also an axiom worm this whole time? Wut
Fuck, do we need another opportunity to kill off Ballad?! This list of NPCs is making me very nervous, I don't want any of them to die… As soon as they said “tactical skirmish” I started screaming internally and likely won't stop until it is over… Wow, Ali, that was cold Oh no, Keith is really on a mission to murder Ballad
Grand how could you bring a bomb to Christmas dinner what the hell RIP bird leader / avian boss, he had an amazing unique voice and, in my head, a really cool cartoony design
Thanks for 9.5 hours of fun. Now I guess it's time for the 4 hour long brutal and heartbreaking final boss encounter
Full offence Gig, but I wouldn't log off even the real internet for lawn games
Signet fucking saved everyone single-handedly, twice. Two biggest threats. Incredible. What is the rest of the game even about
Seriously, do the players know something about Advent that I don't?! Otherwise please stop calling your cheesy space mafia “nazis”
I've been waiting for Even and Cascabel stealing time together since the beginning of the finale! For 11 hours! Finally! This finale is in dire need of more romance content I like that everyone immediately starting dragging all Bioware games at once
I don't see how a secular virtual reality is more of a “weird cult” than an augmented reality in which people maintain an actual religion worshipping the union of human and synthetic life for 30k years. Can we not do the hypocrisy again please. Why is it okay for the Divine Fleet to build their own take on utopia but when the NEH does it's portrayed as a threat and all characters treat it with suspicion and contempt
OK all these ideological debates are fine and dandy but people really should ask more practical questions like “you don't have to rush, why don't you just go back to the previous eco-friendly methods we have previously agreed upon” Glad Fourteen won, but ideologically, as you can guess from this entire liveblog, I'm with Our Profit
I don't like how Tender started with the intention of attacking Our Profit / the Splice but very much like how it somehow turned into her offering to help them and solve everyone's problems in one move
Grand Magnificent building a pseudo-Divine to blind the Crystal Palace with the power of bullshit is the ideal happy ending for him
Good on everyone for doing the best possible things with the Divines, except for the DFS for managing to do every possible bad thing simultaneously!!! My dislike of that faction is vindicated but at what cost Oh god it's even worse 
“Echo Reverie, who knew well both the value and the cost of violence, and who dreamt powerfully of peace” is such a beautiful and concise summary of their character arc God I just love how organically Echo and Gig's arcs led them to help a decolonized society lead independent, peaceful and joyful lives
A new Fleet with a healthier relationship between the Divines and everyone else is nice, thank you Signet
Oh my god, the ending titles are Gig interviewing everyone, that's so sweet!!! Really the perfect sentence to end this campaign with.
(I feel like a jerk mentioning it but… Whenever there's music overlayed with the voice track, it's almost always too loud and I have to strain my ears to hear the words… It's been like that since season one. Am I really the only one with this problem?!) 
Whew! Hard to believe this long, long listening experience is over. I have mixed feelings: sometimes it was exciting or inspiring, sometimes it was fun but I felt I could as well be doing something else, sometimes I listened to the outro and thought “this music and the montage for it in my head right now make me feel so much more than the episode I just heard”, and sometimes the ideology of the narrative or characters'/players' opinions and actions clashed enough with my worldview enough to poison the entire experience. What's new is that, unlike the previous arcs, I didn't have an urge to shake my friends and yell at them “you absolutely must listen to this!” and that made me sad. But that might be just me getting used to this show and taking its good features for granted.
Post-mortem
Oh god, the production of the final sequence sounds like absolute nightmare
Thanks for validating me with the speech about the Fleet's lack of engagement with its “original sin”, Austin 
Thanks, Janine, I hate it! This religion didn't need to get any creepier!
Yes tell us how many ears Tender has! I need to know!! Tender's fursona is the Russian food cat?! Amazing The livestream practically starts with googling animal pictures. Classic
Honestly Echo's disability was barely noticeable to me as a listener… There wasn't a lot of visible difference between the way they accessed the mesh and other PCs did, and after the nanites did activate, I don't think it was ever brought up again…
Yeah I'm genuinely upset that Tender and Fourteen didn't get together, by the way! Or at least have an overt romantic storyline! Give me that sweet sweet PC/PC romance my soul is starving Like I get what Jack is saying about the value of depicting friendship and normally I'd be on his side but 😭 😭 😭 On the other hand I didn't know Echo/Grand was a thing (And now feel kind of bitter it got more official endorsement than my ship that has more canonical foundation) This universe is actually about Austin inventing NPCs who have crushes on Keith's characters and then Keith pointedly avoiding the subject How could anyone forget about Tender's wild fangirling over Waltz lmfao
Austin calmly talking of all these things I screamed about above like “yeah that's what I intended”. Like on the one hand I'm glad, but on the other why couldn't you make it less frustrating to listen to
The rehabilitation theme is another thing that is present thematically but was not discussed on screen enough imo. One thing my mind kept returning to re: Contrition's Figure was the question of forgiveness for serious crime, personal boundaries and principles, and the policy of not disclosing the inmates' crimes. I imagine a survivor of rape or abuse wouldn't want to share space with someone who did the same kind of crime that hurt them. Even if they wouldn't be made to interact, of course, but what if that person believes those kind of people don't deserve rehabilitation at all? What if they reject that system on principle? You often encounter seemingly serious statements like “abusers/rapists/nazis should die”, especially lately. I've heard that about “fascists” (which is a separate issue) in this very campaign. Where do people with these opinions go in a utopia? Do they not exist? Do people who commit horrific crimes not exist either? Because I was listening to that arc and thinking “What if one of those undisclosed crimes was csa or serial murder or something like that? Would I be expected to shake hands and play chess with that criminal? How could I rehabilitate, heal, re-socialize, learn to trust in a space where anyone I meet could be Shrodinger's rapist?” And that leads to the bigger question of what a utopia is. Is it a better society – or better human nature? If latter (and Austin said so) – then to what extent? Because the theoretical people who are so much more advanced than us that they are, en masse, incapable of extreme cruelty, must also differ from our generation with their entire psychology. And a psychology so different would be unimaginable, unplayable, and would not provide necessary dramatic conflict or antagonistic characters. Which is why most alien characters in most stories, including this one, are just humans in silly costumes or prosthetics.
Oh dear god, that must be the heaviest personal story yet… But I understand better what Declan's Corrective was about.
Oh I've been definitely thinking about static utopias vs utopias of process while listening! When I wrote at some point that they made me stop and consider what a utopia is, it was one of the things I meant.
Yeah, sure, in our world the Splice would be terrible because of the existing power dynamics. But that's a Counter/weight story! Twilight Mirage and the Divine Fleet have been about the technologies and ideas that could have been, or were, used to terrible ends, but miraculously, we got to see them used in good faith with genuinely good intentions and good results. Divines have been all kinds of threats over the ages, and yet the Fleet managed to build a community around them that was a small paradise for 30,000 years. So why do the NEH and the Splice not get the same benefit of the doubt? Why is narrative not treating them with the same respect? Why are they always a threat? Why isn't there a major, likeable NPC whose life was enriched by the Splice to the extent that it is central to their identity, who could be our advocate for that point of view? Why are some powerful and potentially infinitely dangerous things, like Divines or religion itself, shown as more valid than others? And don't tell me that our player characters are from the Fleet – none of them are Qui Err either, and yet by the end it is a respected, lovingly portrayed player faction.
Oh, and also, speaking of the Splice's dangers, and what would have made it dangerous in the real world – one of the things that bothered me about it was that these dangers weren't actually described and addressed in the show properly! Probably at least in part because this techology is so magical it's hard to codify how it works. If it gives an indefinite amount of time, how do you sync up all these infinite amounts of timelines? Whenever anyone logs in to visit Tender, how do they know if it's been a day for her, like in the real world, or a hundred years? (Oh and by the way, I waited in vain for the explanation for these strange duplicities and possible time anomalies; what was going on with Ache and Acre?) If opposing the Splice and the NEH were about solving specific problems with the Splice, I would be all for that!
But yeah, I really do appreciate “processes that self-regulate and address their own issues”, how the story and specifically the finale were about the work of building a better world. I like the finale especially because it shows the social processes more clearly; TM's lack of a faction game and its focus on “bigger picture” was palpable, so I was happy to see again that aspect of the show I think is really good and unique. At first I thought it was anticlimactic that the main threats of the finale were solved so easily, early, and pretty much single-handedly. And, indeed, in a tv show that would have looked pretty strange (and require some rewriting, because with how it went down, Signet should have been the sole protagonist from the start lol). But on the other hand, it gave a lot of space and focus to what the whole story has been about: building a better society and future. Not just saving it from an external threat and drawing the curtain on that – but making sure the world we won is the one we want to live in. Preserve the environment! Decolonize the land! Shut off the tyrannical prophecy machine! And that's a good thing, and from my perspective very characteristic of this show. Before it, I didn't even know there were games about building and preserving communities and addressing civil issues! For years I thought “Well, stories of adventure are fun, but they don't address the real issues”, but turns out, there are people and systems that at least try to combine both. And that's a thought I can find comfort in, even if the specific choices of this campaign make me frustrated sometimes.
“I also tried to move away from violence this season and ended up making an arms manufacturer”
Somehow the end of the post-mortem feels sadder and more final than the end of the show proper
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6 Educational Email Marketing Lessons for Nonprofits Organizations
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Email marketing is vital for businesses that want to connect with their audiences in an effective and cost-efficient way.
With email marketing, brands can produce a very strong ROI if they leverage this powerful marketing tool correctly - and the same goes for nonprofits.
Even though padding your bottom line isn’t the goal, email marketing will help you get people involved and spread the word about your organization’s objectives. It’s also a great tool to keep both donors and volunteers engaged.
Nonprofit marketing can be daunting.
Finding donors and asking for donations is a process that involves a lot of moving parts, and donors receive tons of requests, which means you need a system that allows you to stand out and connect with them in a more personal and authentic way.
Although there are many marketing methods you can use, email marketing is one of the best ways to help you cut through the noise and convince your prospects to take massive action for nonprofit.
According to a recent study by Campaign Monitor, 42% of donors prefer to hear from non-profits through email. In fact, 21% of the respondents reported that emails from nonprofit organizations inspire them to donate.
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Read on to find out everything you need to know about email marketing for nonprofits in our beginner's guide so you can supercharge your donor base.
1. All Website Traffic is an Opportunity
Any of the individuals that you reach online are potential subscribers for your nonprofit’s email list. But, it's important to ensure that you give them the opportunity to join your list.
You can do this in a variety of ways. For instance, you can embed lead forms on your website and then use various tactics to get prospective donors to opt into your email marketing list.
This is something that is crucial for all nonprofit organizations because, with email marketing, you own the list of donors, unlike when you connect and interact with your audience on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
If you lose that social media account, the audience goes with it. But, no matter what happens to those social platforms, you will always be able to drive donations using email marketing.
2. Always Have a “Hook”
When you are trying to capture leads, it's important to give them a compelling reason to join your list. This "hook" is called a “lead magnet” and it can be anything that your audience will find valuable and useful.
You can use a PDF download, guide, mini course, or case study as your lead magnet.
It's vital to choose something that will be extremely relevant to your target audience. You can also create different lead magnets in order to give yourself the best chance of capturing as many emails as possible.
As an example, I’ve personally created a free course for my own audience on my website and use that as a lead magnet.
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When people opt-in to get my free course, I then put them into an email campaign that automatically emails them every day for 7 total days. From there, the free course pushes them to purchase a course.
I’ve found that courses, especially those that are given away for free and are relatively short (under 1 hour) with defined outcomes, can be an amazing lead magnet. If you want to go down this route, I suggest you check out this guide to help you choose the right platform for your nonprofit.
This is vital because your email list size directly affects your organization's average donation amount.
Once you have your email lead capture form and lead magnet ready, you can use both offline and online methods to help you grow your email list.
Off-line methods are great for getting email addresses from attendees at your events. But, online techniques are still the most effective when it comes to gathering contact information en masse.
Don’t forget to check out our guide on Social Media for Non-Profits
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3. Understanding Email Types
Once you've got subscribers on your list, you must then begin sending them emails. The type of email you send will depend on what it is that you want your subscribers to do.
For instance, is there an issue that you would like them to learn more about?
Are you inviting them to attend an event?
Or maybe you are hoping for petition signatures or a donation?
You could even send them an email just to keep your donors in the loop about what's happening in your organization.
Here’s a quick look at three of the most important types of emails to send:
Drip Email
A drip email campaign is one that involves sending out a set of marketing emails automatically on a schedule.
Also known as drip marketing, lifecycle marketing, automated email campaigns, and marketing automation, drip emails are powerful because they allow you to connect with and engage with your audience on autopilot.
This means you can get a lot more out of your email marketing with less effort by using drip campaigns.
You can use drip email campaigns to delight your donors and volunteers and keep them engaged, as well as for advocacy and calls to action. Here is a good example from Plan International.
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See how they used a simple, modern email design for their drip campaign. This is effective for capturing the attention of your audience and getting people to act on the issues you care about.
An effective drip campaign will help you to achieve consistent growth for your email list and automate demanding, time-consuming, and delicate manual tasks that otherwise might incur mistakes.
Broadcast Email
Email broadcasts are individual emails that you send to groups of subscribers on your email list. A broadcast email is most useful when you need a way to send a single email, such as an announcement or update, to the donors on your list.
These types of emails are also called mass or bulk emails.
With mass email software, you can schedule an email to be sent at a specific time but it means that all the subscribers on your email are going to receive that email at the same time, regardless of where they are in the world.
Broadcast emails are perfect for updating, educating, and nurturing your subscribers and transforming them into donors. One way to do this is by sending newsletters on a regular basis.
Here's a great example of a newsletter from a well-known nonprofit, WWF.
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Use broadcast emails to drive conversions for your flash sales, promotions, and to strengthen your relationships with your donors and volunteers through newsletters and other types of emails.
Transaction Email
A transactional email is one that is sent to one recipient, typically related to a commercial transaction or some other account activity.
Each interaction you have with one of your donors or prospective donors is critical.
Whether it's the initial email of a major marketing campaign, or if it's just a quick transactional email - like the thank you email in the example below - every message plays an important role in strengthening your brand image and building customer relationships.
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Some of the most common uses for transactional emails include event notifications, requests for feedback, password reminders or resets, subscription welcome emails, responses to inquiries, and so on.
The bottom line is that a transactional email contains information that is relevant to its recipients. This is what sets a transactional email apart from other types of emails like broadcast emails.
Can Your Non-Profit use all of These Email Types?
Absolutely!
In fact, I’d encourage non-profits to use all of these email types to take full advantage of the email marketing platform they’re using. The difficulty in doing something like this is that you need to make sure that your emails aren’t overlapping.
Meaning, if you have someone in a 5-day drip email campaign sequence, you wouldn’t want to send them a few broadcast emails in the middle of it to interrupt the messaging that they’re getting. This is because drip campaigns typically have a very distinct goal at the end.
For a non-profit, that could be to get a lead to become a donor.
If you have a 5-day drip email campaign sequence that gets interrupted by a broadcast email, it may distract the email recipient from the primary goal that you have of becoming a donor.
In terms of transactional emails, I think you can send those at any time. Considering those are based on a desired action that your users take, I don’t think you need to reduce their delivery so long as they aren’t overwhelming.
4. Deliver Value Before Asking For Something
When sending out emails for your nonprofit, it's important to give value to your subscribers before asking for anything.
You can give helpful information, educational material, or anything else that your audience will find useful. Only then can you ask for donations to your organization. But, if you focus on donations alone, you're likely to alienate a lot of potential donors.
No one likes to be bombarded with endless donation requests, but your audience will appreciate all your emails that offer value. Such emails will allow you to build trust and make it more likely that your subscribers will give when you do ask for a donation.
Video is a great way to build trust with your audience as well. There aren’t too many nonprofits that include video in their emails, but I’ve found from experience that people really like video as it shows there are people behind the brand, not just a brand itself.
Depending on what your nonprofit is, video also might be a great way to connect them with the cause and show them what their donations are actually doing. If you can’t afford to hire a video editing company and have someone within the company willing to learn, there are plenty of editing software platforms available that can help.
Some types of emails that you can send to ensure you're not focusing on donations alone include the following:
Give your subscribers updates on specific projects you're working on
Email monthly donation reports showing transparency in how you are using funds
Send donors thank you emails
Share interesting case studies
Send your donors coupons or gifts
The important thing here is to use your email marketing to build strong relationships with your prospective donors and provide them with lots of value before you ask them to contribute to your cause.
Take the time to show your new subscribers the reasons why your mission is so vital.
For instance, you can woo them by creating a welcome series with four or five emails triggered to send a couple of weeks apart. These emails can include a warm welcome from your organization's CEO, as well as stories of impact, links to your blog and social media, and some helpful resources.
You can also showcase behind-the-scenes information that will help your prospective donors feel more connected to all the work you do.
5. Don’t be Spammy
When deciding the frequency of your emails, keep in mind that sending too many emails will be viewed as spammy and it will lead to a lot of unsubscribes.
Although the people that join your nonprofit’s email list do so because they are connected to your cause, it's still very easy to alienate subscribers by sending too many emails.
According to an M+R Benchmarks report, most nonprofits send out about 59 emails each year. This seems like a good number to stick to if you don't want to inundate your donors with emails.
In addition to getting the frequency right, it's also important to ensure that people actually want to receive your nonprofit emails. You should strive to ensure that your subscribers look forward to your next email and are eager to open it to see what you have to share.
This is yet another reason to avoid asking for donations too frequently, but rather find different ways to provide interesting, useful, and valuable content for your subscribers.
Steering clear of the spam folder isn't very hard if you simply stick to these few best practices.
Also, you must always use confirmation emails to ensure that the emails you receive are real.
6. Don’t Forget Analytics
One of the most important aspects of your email marketing campaign is the analytics. After all, it's impossible to improve something if you can measure it.
Keeping track of the right email marketing metrics will help you to determine how successful your email marketing campaign is.
Listed below are some of the most common metrics that nonprofits should pay attention to:
Open Rate
Click through Rate
Unsubscribe Rate
Donation Rate
List Size
Non-Confirmed Emails
Keeping track of these and other important email metrics will help you to analyze and adapt in order to ensure the best results from your email marketing campaign.
No matter how good your existing approach is, it can always be improved upon. By focusing on the right email marketing metrics, you will continue to experience better and better results from your marketing efforts.
Here are some of the analytics that I get using my email service provider:
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You can see that this page includes the open rate, clicks, forwards, unsubscribes, and bounces. It also shows who my contacts are that opened the emails and how many have been unopened.
The good news is that all email service providers have robust tools for analytics, so you can measure your performance and better inform your decisions for your future promotions.
For example, if you find that your emails have a low open rate, it could be an indication that your subscribers are not very interested in the type of content you are sending them. Or, it could be that your subject lines are not grabbing their attention.
With the right email marketing platform, you can A/B test your emails to avoid making such a mistake more than once.
Nonprofit Email Examples
In this section, we take a look at the examples of nonprofit emails and why they are effective. While it’s not clear if these brands had a digital agency helping them with these emails, the examples are still very good and give ideas of what you can aspire to create.
1. Charity: Water
This email is extremely effective because it shares a story of success. You can send similar emails showing someone who benefits from your organization as a way of providing proof of your nonprofit’s impact.
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2. World Disaster Response
It can be an uphill battle trying to stand out in your donors’ inboxes. But, with a number and statistics-based email like the one in the example below, it's easy to capture the attention of your subscribers.
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3. WWF
Storytelling is a big part of a nonprofit email marketing strategy. It's a great way to draw readers in emotionally, as shown by the example from this charity below. You can use the same tactic to mix eye-catching imagery with compelling email copy to get your donors to take action.
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Conclusion
Email marketing is a great tool for both businesses and nonprofits alike. Its unique outreach capability makes it particularly suited for encouraging donations.
When you’re considering any type of email marketing for your own nonprofit remember the lessons that were covered in this post. All website traffic is an opportunity, you always need a “hook” to grow your list, there are different email types for different situations, value should always come first, you should never be spammy, and finally to lead with analytics.
If you follow these best practices, your nonprofit will have a much greater chance of success with their email marketing campaign than most competitors out there.
Which of our tips have you included in your email marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments section below!
About the Author
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Ron Stefanski is a professor, youtuber, and online entrepreneur who has a passion for helping people create and grow online businesses. Visit his website to learn more: OneHourProfessor.com
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spideyxchelle · 7 years
Note
Kinda angsty hc. Michelle is in the middle of a terror attack and gets injured svang a child from something. Peter is freaking out. You can sork with this How ever you want
OH MAN OH MAN DO I HAVE IDEAS FOR THIS NONSENSE…and also, YAS for MJ not getting kidnapped or some nonsense (although I kind of love that trope, too)…I love the idea of Michelle getting hurt because she is being badass and taking no shit
imagine if you will….
MJ knows that Peter is Spider-man, that is well-established and she is part of the golden trio (ie. Ned and Peter and Michelle) now…like any all Spider-man things that happen in Queens and sometimes even with the Avengers she’s on headset with Ned helping out
and that is how she knows things are going south during a terror attack on New York
some terror organization overseas has gotten a hold of some of Tony’s blueprints for the iron man suit and have mass produced them to terrorize the citizens of New York
the first suit attacks sometime after lunch and Peter and co. (now seniors) are evacuated from school and Peter is off before they can even think straight about how to help him
and Michelle is like DAMN IT PETER because, well, damn it Peter
he can’t just disappear, they need a game plan
by the time Ned and MJ get back to headquarters (ahem, Peter’s bedroom) shit has REALLY hit the fan
the Avengers are mobilizing in Mahattan and Peter is already in the thick of the action with War Machine, they tag team really well
Ned gets on his headset first and its almost too loud, like EXPLOSIONS LEVEL LOUD… “what the hell, Peter?”
and that little bastard disconnects them! which REALLY gets Michelle going. like, that was NOT the plan, Parker. 
she tells Ned to get Peter back on the line however he can… (”how??” “hack the suit, Ned. I don’t know…FIGURE IT OUT!”)….and she is rushing out the door to get downtown to try and help however she can, it feels like a city emergency and there is no way there are enough police officers and ambulances to accommodate an attack of this size 
by the time she gets downtown, which takes waaaaay too long, things are an actual mess. people are screaming, buildings are exploding and the occasional avenger swings overhead trying to take down one of the suits. the WHOLE Avengers team is there now but MJ can’t pay attention, really. they have super powers, they can handle themselves. its the bystanders she’s worried about.
she approaches the nearest ambulance and is like “HOW CAN I HELP?!” and they put shit in her hands and off she goes, bandages and bracing what she can and helping drag people out of the more dangerous zones to safe ones. 
its a mess. she’s a mess. this is a mess.
that’s when she hears the cry….and just past the line into a dangerous zone she sees a little kid with a tuft of black hair standing out among the rubble 
she goes running for the kid as police officers yell to stop her….because oh man oh MAN one of the drones is coming her way and she won’t be able to make it but MJ is not going to leave a little kid out there on her own, not today Satan.
she slides in the muck and coddles the kid against her chest, he’s screaming and crying which would usually irritate her but considering the circumstances she gets it, it’s allowed today of all days.
just beyond the safety zone she passes off the kid to a medic and feels good, feels great actually and then she doesn’t feel much at all. she tips forward and collapses into the ground. her body is screaming in profound pain, like someone or, well, something has shot her. her hands touch her side and it comes away with blood…her blood. oh. f u c k. 
Peter doesn’t see this happen, doesn’t see her fall. he’s in the thick of battle. he’s fighting for his life, for the city’s life. 
when the battle ends, when they win, he hears from Tony that the casualty count is a little less than a hundred and in a city of 8.5 million people that doesn’t feel like a terrible number…its not a great number, it will take a few months for the city to move forward, for things to be okay again, but they saved more people than lost them and at a certain point he’s learned to celebrate that
he calls Ned once he’s been debriefed and he gets the most frantic phone call of his life
“Peter! Oh my god, you’re alive.” “I’m sorry I hung up, I couldn’t concentrate.” “Is MJ with you?” 
no sentence has ever terrified him more than that one
“w-what do you mean?” “she went downtown to help the injured, I guessed she would have found you.”
correction, that sentence is the most terrifying one of his young life. his whole stomach roars in discomfort. 
“you haven’t heard from her?” “she’s not answering her phone.” “Ned, she’s not with me.” AND MJ ALWAYS, ALWAYS as a rule answers her phone. if she’s not…something bad…no he won’t even think about it….he can’t
he asks Karen to run diagnostics of all the nearby hospitals to see if they have any patients named Michelle Jones. she comes up with nothing and Peter panics even more. he changes out of his costume and goes running toward every ambulance he can find. nothing. no one knows who she is, or what she did.
until…he finds an officer that talking to a parent of a child who was saved by “a miraculous young woman, she took a shot in the side for your kid ma’am…you’re very lucky.” peter doesn’t know much but his gut tells him this is her, he’s not sure how he knows but he knows
he’s frantically pulling up his phone and shoving it in the officer’s face “is this the girl?” “yea, that’s her. you her boyfriend?” peter ignores that, “where is she?” “en route to New York Presbyterian”
he’s off again without so much of a thank you to the officer and he’s on his phone, calling Tony grief stricken… “Tony, Tony…I need your help.” his voice must be wrecked because he drops everything post-battle to listen to Peter and find MJ at the hospital….and before he knows it she’s being airlifted to the facility upstate to be treated by the Avenger’s doctors. so like, some of the best in the country. 
when he finally can breathe again, when he’s on his way upstate in Tony’s car, he calls Aunt May and Ned to tell them what happened and where he’s going. he asks May to tell MJ’s parents where she is and that he’ll have Tony send them a car as soon as possible to get upstate.
it’s a long nine hours. whatever MJ got shot with did some real damage to one of her internal organs and, along with the Jones’, he’s sitting nearby the operation room. waiting. its torture. 
sometime around two in the morning Aunt May and Ned arrive. its Aunt May that coaxes him into sleep, convinces him that he fought a city-wide battle today and that he’ll be of more use to MJ with a goodnight sleep under his belt. he doesn’t wanna leave but he’s convinced when Tony reminds him he can always just knock him out and force him to bed. 
his room in the Avenger’s haedquarters is familiar and makes some things very apparent. like, the fact that almost all of his pictures tapped up on the wall have MJ in them. like…fuck…how long has this been going on? how long has he felt like this?? because he knows now how much he cares and it terrifies him. and he shouldn’t have had to almost lose her to know. he should have just….damn it. 
the next morning Ned comes to find him a little after noon (he’s lowkey pissed they all let him sleep that late) to tell him that MJ is awake. her family has been with her all morning and she’s ready to see some other people if Peter’s ready. he throws on his clothes so fast it even startles him. 
he rushes down the metal staircases and slides across the glass to the hospital wing and is about to burst FULL FORCE AHEAD into the room when he hears Tony just beyond the door… “-ortant you take care of yourself. he’d be devastated if something happened to you.”
PETER DOES NOT WANT TO BE GOSSIPED ABOUT so he charges into the room and all the eyes turn to Peter. ALL the eyes. why so many eyes??? why are all the Jones family, Nat, Aunt May, Natasha, Vision and Wanda all in here???? awkward. 
MJ smiles at him, tho, and its suddenly all worth it. 
Tony clears his throat and politely suggest everyone leave. Mrs. Jones kisses MJ on the head as everyone files out and then, just like that, they’re alone. 
Peter sits in the chair next to her bed and the NERDS both start talking at once. cue awkward giggle. MJ shakes her head, “go on, I know you want to say it.”
and damn it, she’s right, “are you crazy? you could have died.” “but you’re allowed to go and risk your life?” “that’s different, i have literal super powers.” “Parker, it was my city, too.”
he shakes his head like she doesn’t get it because she doesn’t okay??? “I don’t care about the stupid city, MJ. I care about-” gulp. 
she leans forward, “care about what?”
“you know what…”
“i wanna hear you say it.”
he finds some courage, “i care about you. if you die, what’s the point of all this?” he gestures around the room like he’s talking about the whole facility, like he’s talking about being an avenger. “i do this to protect the people I love.”
“love?” she stutters.
and peter wants to die. yepppppp. he’s so embarrassed. “it’s a figure of speech.” SURE IT IS PARKER. even Michelle knows better. 
“i’m not going to sit on the sidelines,” she states like its fact. because, well, it is. “and you shouldn’t ask me to.”
“if you get hurt…if you die…i’ll….”
“you’ll what?” he leans over the bed and kisses her forehead, its a desperate source of connection. surprised, she tips her head up to look at him. “what was that for?”  
“i was so worried.” “welcome to my life.” peter has the good grace to look somewhat embarrassed because yea, she’s right, he’s always risking his life. 
she cracks him a smile and taps her lips, “you missed.” he startles, “w-what?” “you kissed my forehead, loser. you missed.” and she taps her lips again. impatient and expectant and just a touch embarrassed.
peter’s face breaks into a grin and he closes the gap between them, their lips barely brushing, the pair of them aware of her new stitches and bruises from the day before. 
when they break apart, she knocks her nose against his, “i’m not going to be the kind of girlfriend that sits on the sidelines, Parker. if I have to worry about you, its only far that you get to worry about me.” 
he kisses her again (because he wants to) “just be careful” she breathes against his mouth and its so sweet he can’t stop smiling, “ditto, spiderling.”
its not the last time MJ is in the thick of the fighting, she always goes to help when she can and it drives Peter crazy. but the best part of a battle is whenever he can collapse in her arms when the fighting is done.
and sure, she gets hurt, but so does he. and somehow it only makes them stronger. 
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laundryandtaxes · 7 years
Note
hey, i hope this isnt too invasive but im struggling w my identity and id like ur persepctive. how did you know u were a butch lesbian and not a transman? im attached to my lesbian identity and my relationship to womanhood but i also often feel dysphoric and want top surgery. how do i reconcile these things that i feel are diametrically opposed? how do i know i am a butch lesbian vs a transmasc nb lesbian person?
Thank you for sending this message and reaching out- I know it can be hard to talk about, I’ve been there myself as someone who disidentified for several years, and I’m glad you reached out to talk about it rather than hold it in. Just to get this out of the way, I don’t think these things are diametrically opposed at all.
The first thing I think you should consider is whether you really consider womanhood an option. I know that sounds a bit silly but so many of us absolutely did not realize it was actually, really, physically possible to grow old as women, to have sex as women, to have friends as women, because so many of us either had no friends like us or, in many cases, had friends like us only to see absolutely all of them stop identifying as women. I think there are a number of forces pushing in the direction of disidentification- it is hard to be a gnc girl and this leads to many of us not having solid senses of self as adults, it is hard to not see anyone who looks like you want to claim community with you specifically as women and this can make you feel like you literally are not real, it is just materially more appealing to be perceived as a non gnc man than a gnc woman and if you can pass 100% of the time it’s an appealing option because it means a better paycheck and safety when you walk down the street and so on, it hurts when your friends literally don’t treat you like they treat other women, and in many queer circles right now it is popular for people to straight up either ask when you’re transitioning or tell you that being a boring cis woman is regressive and not even possible if you see yourself as masculine, and the proper thing to do is to at least change your pronouns and pick up a gender identity that’s not regressive. This is a really confusing mixture of social impulses and material impulses, but I don’t think that we should always see the drive to disidentify as an individual decision with no social input having happened- there are lots of forces that make a lot of us, butch women especially, give up on a womanhood which people keep telling us we are doing wrong. So I would ask yourself what you think there is about women that means you can’t be one- there’s nothing wrong with being a woman who isn’t feminine, or even a woman like myself who primarily sees herself as a masculine person, and I think perhaps more now than ever we all need to at least be told that this in an option.
The second thing I think you should consider is what those terms mean to you and I think you should understand that none of them have one agreed upon definition. The way that I see myself is absolutely the same as how some people who identify as transmasc see themselves, down to my experiences with dysphoria, and honestly I have had conversations with more than one trans man who’ve told me our experiences and senses of self are more similar than different . I think the idea that you’re obligated to pick a term and then, if you should happen to pick the wrong one, you’re suddenly cut off from any community with women and lesbians is stupid and cruel. I think it is cruel to call straight trans men lesbians en masse but it is undeniable that there have always been and will always be trans men who still see themselves as very connected to women, who see themselves as living a certain kind of lesbian experience, etc- and the drive among those people to retain communities that have brought them up is not nasty male predatory behavior, it’s a desire to keep community with people they see as similar and important to them, and that’s fine. So this whole issue of picking the wrong term and then being shunned by lesbian communities of course has some basis- if you plan to date other lesbians then transition will shorten your options because there will likely be physical changes and social changes that most lesbians are just not going to be comfortable with, whether that is calling you her boyfriend or you growing facial hair, whether you see yourself as living a kind of lesbian experience or not- but when it comes to just retaining friendships and friend circles and not pretending you don’t relate to butch writing anymore, I don’t think that is a predicament you should be facing at all. Culturally, you probably will right now and that’s sad and unfortunate and I think encourages people to draw lines along identity politics rather than who you feel to be your people. But as far as I’m concerned, if lesbians are your people then we’re just you’re people and that’s that, and that space is generally there in some capacity if you want to claim it. But really the primary differences between myself and a “transmasc nb lesbian person” are literally just the terms we pick to describe ourselves (which is minimally important to me personally) and, in some cases, transition itself. To be perfectly clear though, I don’t believe there are hard lines between terms that refer to gender identity anyway- they’re terms that make us comfortable or uncomfortable, but one experience can go by a million names and you never know except by talking to individual people. If you want to call yourself an nb lesbian that’s totally fine, just know that your experiences are shared by lots of women who just call themseves butches and that you can have community there if you want it.
And then, lastly, I don’t think transition (social or physical) is a worst case scenario at all, or something you should see as a last ditch effort. It will come with its own set of challenges but honestly you’ve already faced many of those challenges as a gnc woman, and the others you should hopefully find communities of other people to help you out. In some communities, you will certainly be pushed away if you start seeing yourself as trans in some way due to concerns about you suddenly becoming a totally different person who wants to infiltrate women’s spaces. I think that’s stupid and, ironically, transphobic in its implication than transition will somehow make you a worse person than before. But in many communities, you will absolutely not be pushed away and I don’t think you should be. This is a matter of your comfort and your health, and I hope the women around you respect that.
This got long, sorry, but I wanted to give you a full answer because I’ve been there myself and didn’t call myself a woman for several years (I know almost no butches who didn’t disidentify at some point, including some who either transitioned and then stopped or are just living stealth as men still while reidentifying because that’s the cleanest option for them) and I think this sentiment is really common among us for right now, but really all I needed to read and respond to is “im attached to my lesbian identity and my relationship to womanhood” because that’s it, then! No matter what you call yourself I’ll consider you a sister or sibling of mine in some capacity, but I want to stress that there is nothing about you that is not true or cannot be true of at least some women, and if you want space here, which you just told me, it is here for you whether you’re dysphoric or end up choosing top surgery or whatever. If you know that your people are here then I’m quite happy to have you as one of us, whatever that means to you and whatever makes that easier for you. I honestly get the feeling that, like many of us, you are asking for permission to hold space with other women and other lesbians, and you absolutely have it. Much love your way, and keep in touch somehow!
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Gender reveals are awful. (Trans)gender reveals are a different story.
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Not all gender reveal parties are bad — in fact, there’s one type of gender reveal that might *actually* be considered good.  
I know it’s hard to believe, especially when you consider the path of destruction our gender reveal hysteria has left behind. In 2017, a gender reveal party that involved explosives sparked a 47,000 acre wildfire and left $8 million worth of damage behind. Gender reveal parties have caused broken ankles and generated mass chaos. No one is safe — not the people forced to watch these parties or, far more seriously, the children forced to live out their parents' highly gendered expectations.
SEE ALSO: Sam Smith opens up about being non-binary in revealing new interview
But not all gender reveal blowouts are this normative. Over the past few years, a certain kind of gender reveal party has gone viral for a very good reason: They’re led by and for trans folks.
Though they may imitate the form of a traditional, regressive gender reveal, they're nothing like them. And that's a beautiful thing.
Gender reveal parties for adults, not the unborn
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Hallmark, make this a card.
Image: heather green
When Heather Lundberg Green son's Adrian Brown came out to her as trans in 2018, neither Green nor her son knew how to tell other members of their family. Coming out as trans was "not the kind of things you announce to grandparents over Facebook," Green told Mashable in a phone interview. Not telling people also carried risks.
"People thought I had three children," Green said, "I only have two. Or people thought I had a daughter who died at some point … I just wanted to announce to my friends and family, 'This is awesome.' And I'm choosing joy and acceptance and support."
Green and her son explored different ways they could tell people en masse and still somehow inspire an affirming response. Ultimately, the two settled on the idea of a gender reveal. Instead of a traditional reveal, where expectant parent announces their future child's gender, Brown — who was 19 at the time of his transition — would announce his gender publicly, on his 20th birthday, with a photoshoot and party.
The power reversal was clear and transformative.
"I thought — you're nuts," Brown said of his mother's initial idea. "There's no way this is a good idea! This is the biggest taboo for trans people ever."
Once Green and Brown started to formulate their subversive plan for a gender reveal, Brown felt more confident.
"I've seen so many gender reveal parties on Facebook and online," Green said. "And when you see a gender reveal party you say 'Congratulations!' So that I thought would be a funny way to bring people in."
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This is the one kind of party worth leaving your house for.
Image: heather green
The family pulled together a photoshoot, complete with blue balloons and other traditional gender signifiers. Green posted the photos to Facebook not expecting much of a reaction beyond family and friends. Within 24 hours, however, the they had been shared over 10,000 times, according to Green. Local news picked it up. National news picked it up.
Shortly after posting, Brown said, messages of support poured in from across the globe. He was surprised by how uplifting most of them were ("I expected more, a lot more hate," he said) and how clearly other trans folks were moved.
The pair had tapped into a real emotion. Unlike other gender reveals, this was one didn't go viral for setting off a major fire or letting a crocodile go loose.
It went viral for the most radical of reasons — because it was fundamentally kind.
Brown's reveal wasn't the first of its kind.
In 2017, Corey Walker, a 27-year-old trans Floridian, went viral after his friends threw him his own (trans)gender reveal party. Walker had thrown a similar party for his trans partner years before.
My friends threw me an "it's a boy" party to celebrate me starting testosterone. I'm blessed af to have so much support!!! pic.twitter.com/EcFWzg2rbO
— Corey (@seedubya18) May 25, 2018
"I thought it would be a cute surprise for him to come home to after he went to the doctor to get his first shot of testosterone," Walker told Metro UK at the time.
These reveals share a core emotional element which primed them to go viral. Traditional gender reveals celebrate predetermined, doctor-assigned sexes. Parents don't ask their fetus how they identify — they take whatever gendered information their doctor gives them, then assign it to their unborn children. By contrast, Walker and Brown's reveals celebrate sex and gender self-determination. 
It's a vital contrast.
The implications of this reversal are profound, both for the trans population and for cis folks who struggle to live under a gender binary.
Anachronistic gender reveal parties aren't great for anyone, trans or cis
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Imagine if your family was this photogenic.
Image: heather green
The physical consequences of gender reveal parties (massive fires, blows to the face) are familiar to anyone who's seen a viral video in the past few years. The cultural consequences are, in many ways, more damaging in the long-term. These reveals send a strong message about who defines gender and what that assigned gender means.
"Gender reveal parties reinforce gender stereotypes and expectations that send messages to young people that there are guidelines, requirements, and limitations to only two genders," a.t. Furuya, Youth Programs Manager at GLSEN, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ students, told Mashable over email. "This message is harmful in that it limits the possibilities and autonomy one has over their identity."
The problem is twofold. It isn't just that gender reveals use an antiquated definition of gender. It's that they rely on exhausted gendered symbols and codes. Boys are coded blue and girls pink. Gifts are often distributed accordingly. The entire operation is a regressive throwback.
After all, gender reveals are only able to be celebrations because people continue to attach such intense emotional significance to gender. For a lot of parents, having a boy means something holistically, seismically different from having a girl. In this paradigm, biology, not culture or behavior, determines personality type. Parents pass down their gendered expectations onto their children.
Gender reveals are only relevant to a population who believes that there are two genders, and that they are fundamentally and biologically distinct. It's a destructive narrative, and one that seems out-of-place in an increasingly queer and trans-friendly society. 
That hasn't slowed down the success of gender reveal parties, though. Furuya isn't surprised that the country seems to be suffering from a bout of extreme gender-normative nostalgia.
"In the age of social media, gender reveal parties are seen as a way to 'creatively' share an old tradition," Furuya says. "In actuality, they unconsciously reinforce dangerously outmoded stereotypes — like ‘pink is for girls and blue is for boys’ — that many in our society have already moved away from. People who are not negatively impacted by gender roles do not have to think about the effects of these traditions — but everyone really should stop to think about their effects."
Maybe folks should stop throwing gender reveal parties. Or maybe they should take a cue from Adrian Brown and Corey Walker and let young people design their own.
Gender self-reveal parties are great. They also can't be the only model.
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A party like this is perfect — for some people.
Image: heather green
Brown and Walker have set an incredible example for trans folks seeking to celebrate themselves, all while coming out to large groups of people. The reveals are subversive, celebratory, affirming, and fun. They communicate humor and, by extension, safety. These emotions are key to virality and, for some people, acceptance.
Even as they imitate traditional reveals, neither Brown nor Walker’s parties replicated the traditional model. Brown wasn’t forced to use blue balloons just because he publicly identified as male. That was a personal choice, as it should be for anyone planning to come out. 
Want to plan your own reveal? Use whatever damn color of balloons you want. Post photos of the event to Facebook, or don’t. The central conceit of a (trans)gender reveal party is that it’s based on personal choice, not cultural predetermination. 
(Trans)gender reveal parties also aren't for everyone. If you're thinking of throwing a reveal party for a transitioning friend, please consider whether or not they want it. And for the love of god, don't do the party as a surprise. One of the worst things you can do to someone trying to publicly announce their own gender identity, often after a long period of personal exploration, is to predetermine something else for them.
Just do the right thing and ask.
In the meantime, if you're an adult, consider not attending traditional gender reveal parties and reframing the way you talk about gender identity with young people.
"Some best practices in speaking with young people about gender is giving them space to navigate it freely and without judgment," Furuya says. "You do not have to be an expert on gender terminology or best practices to be a supportive parent or guardian. For many young people, knowing that you will continue to love them, protect them, and support them, minimizes serious mental health risks, allows for them to focus on important things like school and social engagements with their peers."
This attitude resonates. Recently, Brown and his mother attended an event for International Transgender Day of Visibility. They offered a "(Trans)gender reveal photoshoot booth" for anyone who wanted it. The booth was grounded in the same core principles as Furuya’s — freedom from judgment (Brown and Green never asked participants to reveal their gender) and support for every person who took a photo.
The booth was extremely popular. People carried "The future is non-binary" signs and played with blue and pink "gendered" balloons that didn’t match their assigned sex at birth.
"Everybody was so happy to have the opportunity," Brown says.
It was a party for anyone who needed it. There were so many people there. There'll be so many more to come. 
WATCH: Lyft reveals its IPO price range and fundraising goals
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austinpanda · 4 years
Text
Dad Letter 030120
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1 March, 2020
Dear Dad--
Seems like it’s almost spring now, in the south, although we were still at 6 degrees this morning, and my car was covered with lacy frost. I still love how cold it is here. I have to wear two long-sleeved layers at home to be comfortable (otherwise we burn too much kerosene, which is expensive) and I just find it so much easier to think than when I’m hiding indoors from the heat and the air conditioning is running constantly. Perhaps I wouldn’t be so hard-wired to enjoy cold climates if I’d been raised here, but for now, it’s still fuckin’ magical, and I love it! 
Had a very good job interview this past week at Penquis. It took me until after the interview before I figured out where the name “Penquis” came from. At first, I thought it was an organization founded by some guy named Joe Penquis, but then I typed the names of the three counties that Penquis serves, and figured it out: Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Knox counties. It’s the beginning of PENobscot and the end of PiscataQUIS. When I finally snapped to that, I felt pretty smart. 
The interview went fairly well. We sat at a big conference table and two women tag-teamed me with the usual questions. “What are your strengths?” “What would your last manager say about you?” “Have you ever had any interaction with this kind of social services organization before?” I got to tell them that, yes, since moving to Maine, I’d been enrolled in MaineCare. This gave me an opportunity to impress the shit out of them. I figured they’d be in favor of people using this kind of social service, generally, because they ARE this kind of social service! And this allowed me to say that I wasn’t glad to move to a new state and immediately go on the dole for healthcare, but that it also wasn’t in anybody’s best interest for me to be without medication I need (they nodded a lot) and that it was my strong belief that “need” isn’t weakness, and it isn’t indicative of failure (nods nods nods, hey, this guy can articulate his passionate beliefs, woo-hoo, etc.) and I think they were very impressed by that. They were equally impressed by my other-worldly typing speed, and I think they appreciate the fact that it’s always handy to have one person around who knows what semicolons are for, and where the apostrophe is supposed to go, and how to get the phrasing just right. 
So I may be working for a place called Penquis soon. If I’ve already mentioned that it’s a naughty word with a superfluous “QU” stuck in the middle, it’s also delightfully close to the word “Penguins.” And my job would have a summer break! Since my job would be for the home heating assistance program, my job would evaporate like a snowball in the summertime. They asked if I had any problem with what amounted to summer unemployment, and I said, “It occurs to me that teachers have been doing it forever now, right? I certainly can find something to do, whether a temp job or whatever.” They also mentioned that I’d probably qualify for unemployment during that period. I think that aspect of the job is awesome, and it makes me want the job more!
I should find out whether I got the Penquis job by early this week, so possibly as soon as tomorrow. I could be wrong, but I really think I got it. A small part of me thinks the women who interviewed me liked me so much that they now want to marry me, and bear me many children, and take to their smelling salts whenever I narrow my eyes at them. But it’s also possible that this is a stupid guy-centric way of looking at it, and they weren’t thinking any of the sort. I can’t help the fact that my salt and pepper hair and beard make me look like an irresistible, if meaty, George Clooney. As the rock star once said about his own gorgeous ass, “I don’t claim to understand it. I’m only its servant.”
Here’s a nice thing that’s happened. Ever since we moved here, we’ve been cursed with a very meager supply of hot water. Taking a shower has stopped becoming a thing of relaxing cleansing, and has become a thing of quick, nervous scrubbing before the water goes cold. It sucked! We only had hot water for about four minutes worth of shower time, and that meant you couldn’t wash your hair in the shower, or shave while you shower, because there wasn’t enough time. Being in a cold state, and stepping out of a cold shower into a cold bathroom is just...cold.
But two nights ago, a glorious thing happened: Our water heater burst, and died! Something gave way, and water started gushing out of it, and into the spare bedroom. If we hadn’t been at home, and if we hadn’t been wandering around wondering where the sound of rushing water was coming from, we might not have caught the leak before it did some real damage. As it was, we were able to spring into action: Zach started removing the screws from the little door that covers the space in the spare bedroom wall where you access the water heater. I called the landlord. They said they’d send someone around right away, and could I please try to turn the water off that’s feeding to that heater, so it doesn’t flood the room? With a bit of trial and error, I found the valve to turn off the cold water feeding to the tank and stopped the leaking (making me the hero, obviously.). 
So that sucked. But! They sent a guy around. He examined the water heater. He made a phone call and said, “Yeah, wow, it blew out the whole lower unit,” which sounded serious. Long story short: within a couple of hours, he’d fetched another (used) water heater, and installed it. It looked newer, and clean. It was a Whirlpool. It was full-sized and looked serious. And it works! 
Now, we have what I’d call a normal amount of hot water. Zach has tested this by taking a few long showers, and said he has yet to run out of hot water. This is a serious improvement to our lives. In fact, you now have to use a lot more cold water to balance out the hot water, because the hot water alone is hot enough to melt your face off. But at last, we can shower like normal people again! The only drawback is that the maintenance fellow left the old water heater in the spare bedroom. He said he’d send “the guys” around on Monday with “the trailah,” (cause here, men sound like the Pepperidge Farm cookies spokes-curmudgeon) and they’d haul it away. The spare bedroom is pretty small, so the big, old, filthy water heater that’s sitting in the middle of the room kind of dwarfs everything else. No worries. I have cleaned around the water heater. It’s the cat’s room, anyway, until we get a spare bed. Anyway, hot showers again. Wonder what the poor people are doing, etc. 
A weird weather thing happened! One day last week, we had been forecast a heavy snowstorm, up to 12 inches. As the day of the snow neared, however, the snow chances dropped and dropped, eventually hitting “none.” Needless to say, Zach and I felt tremendously screwed, because we still haven’t had a significant snowstorm yet. But the city of Bangor, and the city of Old Town (where we live), and the city of Orono (across the street from us, containing the big university) all shut down anyway! It was weird! For some of the day, it rained slush. But mostly it was just cold and damp. And everyone shut down! I swear, we went to Dairy Queen for a treat that night (and I can’t believe there’s a Dairy Queen near us in Old Town, Maine, but there is) and the Dairy Queen shut down while we were waiting in line. They still served us, but they stuck a note on the window saying they were closing at 6:00 pm due to weather. There was no weather! By that point it wasn’t even precipitating; it was just cold! 
I think that means I just witnessed a whole city, and its surrounding towns, rebelling en masse against the lack of a snow day that they felt like they got cheated out of! I think the schools, municipal offices, and other businesses all thought they’d get a day off work, because of unsafe driving conditions. Then, when the driving conditions turned out to be just fine, they collectively said, “Fuck you, sunshine,” and closed up shop anyway. It’s weird being in line at Dairy Queen and all the outside lights go off, and everyone inside is running around frantically because they’re excited that they’re going home early. They literally asked me, “Do you want lids?” To which I said, “...I’m sorry, do I want what?” They wanted to know if we wanted lids on our Blizzards (our frozen milkshake things). Since it seemed she wanted very badly for me to not require a lid, I told her, “Nah, we’re fine without lids.” And we were. Perhaps it would have taken too long for her to obtain a lid. Obviously, working in food service requires lots of high-pressure decision making. 
I’ll sign off now, but you’ll probably see the bluebonnets soon! All my love to you both!
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Video
youtube
Les MiseraBaristas
To understand more about Canada and its infamous King’s Prerogative.
                                                      Forward to Gar Pardy- Please and thank you!
 Fahmy Foundation          
To: Mohamed Fahmy
To: Gar Pardy
HELP ME GET BACK TO VANCOUVER – TO SAINT PAUL’S HOSPITAL
https://twitter.com/FahmyFoundation          
https://www.facebook.com/FahmyFoundation/
CC. Alison Smith
 https://youtu.be/OJJsBjZCDPU
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/canadian-malaysian-hubris-death-lepto-weils-de-caermichael/?published=t
PLEASE     NOTE THAT NOT ONLY WAS I ABUSED BY CHC-KL - DR.HEDY FRY AND THE PMO OFFICE     - ACCORDING TO CANADA - I PAID INTO A $ 1 BILLION FUND TOWARDS SUCH A     RESCUE. $
ALSO NOTE     THAT THE RCMP INVOLVEMENT WAS A WAY TO INTIMDATE AND THREATEN ME. SO     CANADA KNOWING ALL MY MEDICAL HISTORY WANTS ME TO DIE IN MALAYSIA. QUELLE     HORREUR
ALSO NOTE     - CANADA HAS SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FOR WHITE CANADIANS? I AM PORTUGUESE -     CANADIAN - AND I MENTIONED IT IN MY BLOG - I WAS SUBJECTED TO RACIAL SLURS     AND PROFILING DUE TO MY EXOTIC LOOKS THAT I FEATURED IN MY BLOGS AS A     POSSIBLE HATE CRIME. AND IT’S DISBURSEMENTOF EMERGENCY HELP – IS THE     KING’S PEROGATIVE-BY DISCRETION OF JUSTIN TRUDEAU - WHO PERSONALLY KNOWS     OF MY CASE.
Fahmy     Foundation
https://youtu.be/z_BVjrPV2KM
https://youtu.be/cfclGba2IIs
·         https://youtu.be/OJJsBjZCDPU
·         https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/canadian-malaysian-hubris-death-lepto-weils-de-caermichael/?published=t
·         https://youtu.be/MHTGKbRn6Xs
  CC. Omar Alghabra
Parliament Secretary – Consular Affairs
CC- Gar Pardy – fmr. Director General Consular Affairs
 ·        George and Amal Clooney -Clooney Foundation for Justice
·        CC.CFJ presidents George and Amal Clooney,
·        CC. CFJ Executive Director David Pressman
·         U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs. 
https://cfj.org/project/trialwatch/
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161103005251/en/U.S.-Ambassador-United-Nations-David-Pressman-Join
  Ambassador Pressman will also be serving as the Executive Director of the recently established Clooney Foundation for Justice. Pressman has advised a diverse set of highly-visible and prominent individuals on international strategy. With George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and producer Jerry Weintraub, Pressman co-founded Not On Our Watch —an international advocacy and grant-making organization designed to focus global attention and resources on mass atrocities and gross violations of international human rights.
URGENT PLEASE HELP
  George and Amal Clooney, Mohamed Fahmy & Omar Alghabra, Gar Pardy
 I have tried to reach Amal and then I discovered today that my situation has medically deteriorated – as well as legally. I am writing and documenting it – while I am dying and begging for help. Somehow my requests are being considered as? I may have only a few weeks left to live.  
8:57PM
                        Protection International counts with 20 years of experience working with human rights defenders at risk from our offices in Colombia, Guatemala, Thailand, Indonesia, Kenya and DRC
 Dear Cristoph, our organisation does not deal with reporting and denouncing human rights violations; however, you could address the ombudsmen in Malaysia and in Canada, plus the high commissioner for human rights (providing the general inboxes for each one). We hope that helps. Best regards to you,
  As a result of what I discovered today. The ICC vis a vis – Fatou Bensouda & Mr James Stewart- my case will never be heard. A massive Conflict of Interest as my case and life are under danger from Canada. I am dying and Canada is involved with my death. No wonder that all the agencies I contacted refused to assist me – they were all Canadian based – linked etc. As the Deputy Counsel for the ICC is a Canadian. There is massive conflict of interest. But in that conflict – is my death.
Please assist as per all the documents that I have written. I kept writing and contacting begging for help.
  Communications and claims under art.15 of the Rome Statute may be addressed to:
Information and Evidence Unit Office of the Prosecutor  Post Office Box 19519 2500 CM The Hague The Netherlands
or sent by email to [email protected]
or sent by facsimile to +31 70 515 8555.
  https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/otp
November 22, 2017        
                             I now realize why I am in grave danger. Canada blocked me and I see from all the ways Canada behaved – that there was a sense that they were untouchable. This statement indicates that Canada via Mr. James Stewart is in a conflict of interest.
The current Prosecutor is Ms Fatou Bensouda from The Gambia; her Deputy is Mr James Stewart from Canada.
No wonder I can’t get through to anyone. They all know why Canada is so deviant in regards to Human Rights. It may also explain why the CHC-KL can operate with no threat of impunity.
Now I require a huge legal team – that can fight for my life. I am really a dead man, walking.
   https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/dangerous-murderous-malaysia-2017/
                                  https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/death-watch-leptospirosis-malaysia-2017/
                                                                                                                      https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/the-lepto-weils-ancillary-files/
                                                                                                                                                https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/if-it-bleeds-it-leads-prosecutor-of-the-international-criminal-court-your-honor-fatou-bensouda-oude-waalsdorperweg-10-2597-ak-the-hague-the-netherlands/        
 https://youtu.be/OJJsBjZCDPU
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/canadian-malaysian-hubris-death-lepto-weils-de-caermichael/?published=t
https://youtu.be/MHTGKbRn6Xs
 Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court YOUR HONOR – Fatou Bensouda Oude Waalsdorperweg 10 2597 AK, The Hague The Netherlands.
 2.     Julian Assange -Ecuadorean Embassy in London: Flat 3B, 3 Hans Cres, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 0LS, UK
 3.     Pamela Anderson Aid Still Required
·         Honorary PETA US Director Pamela Anderson
·         People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
·         501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510
 4.     Amal Clooney
·         c/o Richard Bayliss at [email protected].
·         54 Doughty Street
·         London
·         WC1N 2LS
·         020 7404 1313
 -URGENT -
I had sent out many letters via mail in the past month. Knowing that my case is convoluted - and that there is a chance I could perish before help arrives - I realized that I had to send emails to get through to Julian - Pamela - Amal- Her Honour ICC. 
I just do not know what to do any more and waiting to die is so hard. 
 My Name is Christopher De Caermichael – Canadian – I am dying of leptospirosis in Malaysia. The infection was placed in my bedding and within 30 minutes my life was over. That was January 13th. 2017 – The full case study – is in the documents and on line and in many Videos. I am being asked to move – so I don’t know my address.
I am so ill that the longest case – of anyone surviving without treatment is 10 months – November 13th 2017 marks that end – date. Due to the severity of the illness – I could not concentrate and I had no idea where to send a Plea. But I made many videos and sent documents to try and reach help.
Canada? Became very hostile when I asked for help and there are months of me contacting everyone – for Urgent Medical assistance.
 Malaysian doctors refuse to treat me – in fact it’s their credo to not treat any foreign visitors- it’s not dependant on money, it’s just what they do. Finally they confessed this reality and said I must understand that foreigners are too much of a liability.  The result is we will not treat you. Ever! They told me I will die from this – and best to get out ASAP. That was in June 2017. Please look at these links as the situation is dire.
 A Summary of Leptospirosis
 Please forgive any typos etc. The disease has hit my brain, so I don’t see or read as well as I used to. So, I have to admit that my life if not rescued is over. Why?
This is what is developing and I require urgent medical assistance. I have written a comprehensive document about the tragic ordeal that has affected me in Malaysia.
 The disease in Red are the ones I am infected with? With. But I am developing other symptoms rapidly.
·         Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome expanded.
·         Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome collapsed.
·         Lassa fever collapsed.
·         Leptospirosis collapsed.(MALAYSIA EPIDEMIC) 
·         Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis (LCM) collapsed.
·         Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever collapsed.
·         Plague collapsed.
·         Rat-Bite Fever collapsed
 As the facetious KL- Vice- counsel of Canada stated,” You seem to be contacting everyone” and laughs. Then he escalated the events into an international incident. Instead of assisting me, they went into a state that kept from leaving and getting assistance. Executive privileges may exist, but to harm innocent Canadians and interfere in getting medical assistance resulting in my death. Implicating, PMO office- Dr. Hedy Fry & the RCMP.
The issue with Malaysia
So far I have written many versions of the events, which shows my intent to get assistance but at the same may complicate my telling of the events, as I have tried so many times – therefore reported events may become clouded by cut and pasting. But it’s the same story.
What I am facing,
·         Imminent death
·         a lot of suffering
·         Increased Trauma especially if I have to get Medical assistance in Canada.
Increased risk of more permanent disease and damages. To my heart, liver and brain.
I am asking that my case be forwarded to:  And whoever can assist in this huge process. YOUR HONOR - Fatou Bensouda Oude Waalsdorperweg 10 2597 AK, The Hague The Netherlands. However it’s a huge organization and somewhere somehow someone can assist. PLEASE
 And that whatever assistance I can get. It’s way too complicated at this time. And my death may be? Soon? I don’t know please HELP – I BEG of YOU.  
        https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/dangerous-murderous-malaysia-2017/
https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/death-watch-leptospirosis-malaysia-2017/
 These videos try to explain all this colossal verbiage. The situation is so out of control – and death awaits – which is very scary.
https://youtu.be/cz-1txvbl5U
 https://youtu.be/--RpYDhDihQ
 https://youtu.be/gTg5PCMa7TY
 https://youtu.be/cjpy9PsldeE
 https://youtu.be/qGYnIlnaVJs
 https://youtu.be/opqT5h7uxco
https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/dangerous-murderous-malaysia-2017/
 https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/death-watch-leptospirosis-malaysia-2017/
                                                                                                                      https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/the-lepto-weils-ancillary-files/
                                  https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/if-it-bleeds-it-leads-prosecutor-of-the-international-criminal-court-your-honor-fatou-bensouda-oude-waalsdorperweg-10-2597-ak-the-hague-the-netherlands/
 I JUST DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO.
ALSO NOTE THAT THE RCMP INVOLVEMENT WAS A WAY TO INTIMDATE AND THREATEN ME.
Wow - CIC’s National Capital Branch on January 18. We focusing on increasing dangers for travelling Canadians, and on related issues of official services to support and assist distressed Canadians abroad.
Given the sheer numbers of Canadians living overseas (2.8 million), or travelling in and out of danger zones (subject to mishap, traffic accidents, natural disaster, theft, assault, arrest by foreign governments, kidnapping or murder), consular issues, and how they are handled, are of direct concern to all of us who travel, or who have loved ones who live, work or travel abroad. Are our expectations of government consular services too high or not high enough?
Gar Pardy: Leading expert on government services to citizens in foreign countries. Unparalleled experience in headquarters (11 years as Canada's Director General for Consular Services) and in the field in the US, Central America, Kenya and India. Published Afterwords From a Foreign Service Odyssey in 2015. Last year, proposed a comprehensive policy and legislative agenda for the reform of services for Canadians overseas (available on websites of the Rideau Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives).
  @cristophde
 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/canadian-malaysian-hubris-death-lepto-weils-de-caermichael/?published=t
https://youtu.be/SKn5UFAUDcc
 https://youtu.be/WsK_fTJ5ob0
https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/her-royal-majesty-queen-mother-diana-spencer-windsor/
 https://thebookof25.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/prince-harry-megan-markle-and-the-legacy-of-princess-diana/
https://youtu.be/WsK_fTJ5ob0
 https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/11/14/art-for-all-its-worth/
  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/her-royal-majesty-queen-mother-diana-spencer-windsor-de-caermichael?published=t
 https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/malaysia-the-twilight-zone/
https://youtu.be/SKn5UFAUDcc
 https://youtu.be/beJ258sQE50
·         https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jalanraya-basic-man-kalau-you-nampak-lobang-tapi-jadi-de-caermichael?published=t
·         file:///C:/Users/Cristoph-Dell/Desktop/LANDO%20REPORT.pdf
·         https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jalanraya-basic-man-kalau-you-nampak-lobang-tapi-jadi-de-caermichael?published=t
·          
 file:///C:/Users/Cristoph-Dell/Desktop/The%20adaptation%20of%20%20traditional%20Rorschach%20technique.pdf
Lando Zawawi and the Brotherhood of Mercy in Shah Alam Malaysia
https://youtu.be/hB2aZJpN-_Q
https://youtu.be/Xy9yKbUzEtE                                                            
https://youtu.be/chN90tJ668Y
https://youtu.be/SHcYFmlwksE
https://youtu.be/mAUxh-RKMHM
https://youtu.be/R85l8uvOuuE
https://youtu.be/KsCZXefx-Po
https://youtu.be/K3OyzFEyI90
https://youtu.be/2MvmxNn_zyc
https://youtu.be/hoGetWqAx5M
https://youtu.be/YpLEYNe3hNM
https://youtu.be/DogS19o_lxA
https://youtu.be/ydzXdPxOipQ
https://youtu.be/9Le-iw8d8r0
https://youtu.be/1DkPLaOiht8
https://youtu.be/NPI9XoVQiBE
https://youtu.be/sJ0SutY0Uyo
 https://writerswrite000.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/if-it-bleeds-it-leads-prosecutor-of-the-international-criminal-court-your-honor-fatou-bensouda-oude-waalsdorperweg-10-2597-ak-the-hague-the-netherlands/
https://youtu.be/2aDxw1U-YeE
file:///C:/Users/Cristoph-Dell/Desktop/IF%20IT%20BLEEDS%20IT%20LEADS.pdf
 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bleeds-leads-cristoph-de-caermichael?published=t
 https://youtu.be/beJ258sQE50
file:///C:/Users/Cristoph-Dell/Desktop/ALL%20THE%20EMAILS%20TO%20PAYPAL%20REQUESTING%20HELP.pdf
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/paypal-really-sucks-here-deets-get-through-peeps-de-caermichael?published=t
  THE BOOK of 25 - RORSCHACH IN COGNITION
https://youtu.be/2ZKV9v6toK8
 https://youtu.be/c_AxxBv2sPg
0 notes
johnattaway · 7 years
Text
Is WordPress A Secure Website Platform?
In April 2013 a global brute-force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every WP hosting server in existence around the world.
These attacks were caused by botnets (networks of infected computers programmed to attack other sites with security vulnerabilities).
(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a frequent target for hacking attacks)
In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Image source: BlogDefender.com)
According to the Cnet report,
“With some old-fashioned trickery, hackers were able to get more than 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered Web sites to mount a distributed-denial-of-service attack against another Web site.”
(Source: http://ift.tt/1LSDeye)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
When attacks on WordPress sites take place on a worldwide scale, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running their sites.
WordPress often is targeted by hackers, due to its global popularity. But should you be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?
In this article you will learn some of the main reasons why you should consider using WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.
Let’s start by looking at some facts …
Thousands of websites are hacked every year … not just WordPress sites!
The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and it’s getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!
Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?
“Isn’t Open Source Software Highly Vulnerable?”
Many people will often try and argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running a website or blog because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software runs.
Open-source CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone has access to the underlying code.
The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and go through it in detail, searching for vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …
(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)
While it’s true that WordPress is a free program and hackers can easily go through the code searching for holes and weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it more secure in several ways.
The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a community of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …
(With WordPress, an open community of developers around the world is responsible for keeping the core application updated. Image source: make.wordpress.org)
WordPress evolves through the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the software, fixing bugs and making WordPress safer for every user …
(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of experienced web developers. Screenshot: WordPress.org)
The moment that a security hole is identified by developers or users, these are reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …
(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a huge community community of developers and users. Image source: make.wordpress.org)
The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.
For example:
If you find bugs and a security weakness, you can report these by emailing [email protected].
If you find issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by sending an email to [email protected].
This is why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly up-to-date …
(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to address security holes)
WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms
Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a small team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly understand the value of using WordPress to power your website or blog on a secure platform.
The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a free CMS platform that you can download, use and modify as you wish?
WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms
(CMS Platforms – WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)
Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research showing that the WordPress CMS is actually safer than other Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.
For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these open source CMS platforms …
(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other CMS applications. Screenshot source: National Vulnerability Database)
Other studies show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to update, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …
(WordPress is more secure than other CMS platforms. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
WordPress Should Not Be Blamed
When WordPress sites are attacked en masse, don’t be too quick to blame WordPress.
According to a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most website owners have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.
In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their websites had been compromised after an attack …
(Many webmasters don’t know how their sites got hacked. Screenshot source: StopBadware.org)
Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that many security-related issues result from users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …
(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. Image: Sucuri.net)
When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 30% per cent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …
(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)
Like all robust software platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security problems that can arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins and themes up-to-date.
WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!
The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime in and reply to posts online.
In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted on April 15, 2015 in his own blog, Matt wrote the following about WordPress security …
There’s a thread on Quora asking “I am powering a bank’s website using WordPress. What security measures should I take?” The answers have mostly been ignorant junk along the lines of “Oh NOES WP is INSECURE! let me take my money out of that bank”, so I wrote one myself, which I’ve copied below.
I agree there’s probably not a ton of benefit to having the online banking / billpay / etc portion of a bank’s website on WordPress, however there is no reason you couldn’t run the front-end and marketing side of the site on WordPress, and in fact you’d be leveraging WordPress’ strength as a content management platform that is flexible, customizable, and easy to update and maintain.
Matt then goes on to provide a couple of security tips, before stating the following …
For an example of a beautiful, responsive banking website built on WordPress, check out Gateway Bank of Mesa AZ. WordPress is also trusted to run sites for some of the largest and most security-conscious organizations in the world, including Facebook, SAP, Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept, eBay, McAfee, Sophos, GNOME, Mozilla, MIT, Reuters, CNN, Google Ventures, NASA, and literally hundreds more.
As the most widely used CMS in the world, many people use and deploy the open source version of WordPress in a sub-optimal and insecure way, but the same could be said of Linux, Apache, MySQL, Node, Rails, Java, or any widely-used software. It is possible and actually not that hard to run WordPress in a way that is secure enough for a bank, government site, media site, or anything.
Millions of businesses, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers..
Other Areas That Can Affect WP Security
Other factors that can affect site security include things such as:
No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
The biggest vulnerability in all content management systems seem to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the shared server becomes vulnerable.
There’s No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress
As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there’s really no reason not to use WordPress.
WordPress Security – Tips
To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article: 10 Security Measures That Can Help To Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On WordPress
A vulnerable web site provides hackers with a valuable resource for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more: Secure Your WP Blog From Bots And Hackers
If you are currently using an outdated version of WordPress make sure you back up everything before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their previous state.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WP Websites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP
Article References
For more information on the above, refer to the sites below:
ITProPortal.com
National Vulnerability Database
BlogDefender.com
UpAndUpStudios.com
StopBadware.org
Sucuri.net
WebDesign.org
Quora.com
Ma.tt
Hopefully now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please post a comment below and feel free to share this information with your friends.
The post Is WordPress A Secure Website Platform? appeared first on Quick Click Hosting.
http://ift.tt/2n3oyYi from Blogger http://ift.tt/2mCytZT
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robertbryantblog · 7 years
Text
Is WordPress A Secure Website Platform?
In April 2013 a global brute-force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every WP hosting server in existence around the world.
These attacks were caused by botnets (networks of infected computers programmed to attack other sites with security vulnerabilities).
(WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a frequent target for hacking attacks)
In March 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
(Over 160,000 WordPress sites were attacked in a massive DDoS attack in early 2014. Image source: BlogDefender.com)
According to the Cnet report,
“With some old-fashioned trickery, hackers were able to get more than 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered Web sites to mount a distributed-denial-of-service attack against another Web site.”
(Source: cnet.com/news/ddos-attack-is-launched-from-162000-wordpress-sites)
According to leading security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress websites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
When attacks on WordPress sites take place on a worldwide scale, it’s natural for people to start asking if WordPress really is a secure software for building and running their sites.
WordPress often is targeted by hackers, due to its global popularity. But should you be concerned about WordPress as a secure web platform?
In this article you will learn some of the main reasons why you should consider using WordPress if you are at all concerned about website security.
Let’s start by looking at some facts …
Thousands of websites are hacked every year … not just WordPress sites!
The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and it’s getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site … regardless of the web platform your website has been built with!
Since it’s no longer a matter of if, but when before your website is targeted by hackers, are there any advantages that WordPress can offer you in terms of security?
“Isn’t Open Source Software Highly Vulnerable?”
Many people will often try and argue that WordPress is not a safe platform for building and running a website or blog because having open source code means that anyone can view how the software runs.
Open-source CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to use and anyone has access to the underlying code.
The argument against using WordPress, then, goes something like this: If anyone can examine the Open Source code for WordPress, then hackers can easily download the code and go through it in detail, searching for vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited …
(It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when before your website will be targeted by hackers … WordPress or no WordPress!)
While it’s true that WordPress is a free program and hackers can easily go through the code searching for holes and weaknesses they can exploit (hackers can do the same with any software program), the fact that WordPress is a free, open-source application actually makes it more secure in several ways.
The reason for this is that WordPress is supported by a community of hundreds of software programmers, plugin developers and theme designers who are constantly working to help improve the software and make WordPress more secure …
(With WordPress, an open community of developers around the world is responsible for keeping the core application updated. Image source: make.wordpress.org)
WordPress evolves through the effort of a global volunteer community working around the clock to fix any issues detected by users. Everyone benefits from hundreds of web developers, designers and users who, at any one time, are focused on improving the software, fixing bugs and making WordPress safer for every user …
(WordPress is built and maintained by a large community of experienced web developers. Screenshot: WordPress.org)
The moment that a security hole is identified by developers or users, these are reported in user forums and addressed by the WordPress developers …
(WordPress is continually being improved upon by a huge community community of developers and users. Image source: make.wordpress.org)
The WordPress community support system, therefore, is quite formidable and anybody can contribute to the process of addressing security issues.
For example:
If you find bugs and a security weakness, you can report these by emailing [email protected].
If you find issues in a WP plugin, you can report these by sending an email to [email protected].
This is why the WordPress community is constantly releasing new security updates, and why you need to keep your WordPress sites and blogs regularly up-to-date …
(WordPress frequently releases new version updates to address security holes)
WordPress CMS Vs Proprietary CMS Platforms
Contrast what we have just discussed above with proprietary CMS technologies where often the responsibility for maintaining software security, fixing bugs, etc. falls to a small team of developers with limited resources and you will quickly understand the value of using WordPress to power your website or blog on a secure platform.
The WordPress CMS is free to download, use and modify, and thousands of volunteers and expert developers are continually working to improve the software. Can a proprietary technology company afford to employ as many developers and programmers and still deliver you a free CMS platform that you can download, use and modify as you wish?
WordPress Vs Other Open Source CMS Platforms
(CMS Platforms – WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)
Whilst on the topic of Open Source content management systems, there is valid research showing that the WordPress CMS is actually safer than other Open Source CMS platforms such as Drupal and Joomla.
For example, the chart below shows how many security vulnerabilities were discovered in each of these open source CMS platforms …
(WordPress experiences less security vulnerabilities than other CMS applications. Screenshot source: National Vulnerability Database)
Other studies show that, because WordPress is quite easy to use and to update, when sites using different CMS platforms were tested for security issues, sites run on WordPress had a significant degree of less exposure to risk …
(WordPress is more secure than other CMS platforms. Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
WordPress Should Not Be Blamed
When WordPress sites are attacked en masse, don’t be too quick to blame WordPress.
According to a nonprofit organization that helps webmasters identify, remediate and prevent website compromises called StopBadware and security vendor Commtouch in a published report entitled “Compromised Websites: An Owner’s Perspective“, most website owners have no idea about the security threats their websites are exposed to, how to secure a website, or how to deal with compromised web security.
In fact, over 60% of webmasters surveyed in this report didn’t even know how their websites had been compromised after an attack …
(Many webmasters don’t know how their sites got hacked. Screenshot source: StopBadware.org)
Of more immediate concern for WordPress users, however, is the fact that many security-related issues result from users running sites with an outdated version of WordPress …
(Many security issues come from sites running an outdated WordPress version. Image: Sucuri.net)
When WordPress security issues were looked at in more detail, it was found that only around between 25% – 30% per cent of vulnerabilities discovered in 3rd-party code are found in the WordPress core software, while most security issues are found in plug-ins and extensions created by 3rd-party developers …
(WP Security Issues. Source: WebDesign.org)
Like all robust software platforms, WordPress is regularly updated to address new security problems that can arise. Improving security is always a concern, and to that end, you should always keep your WordPress site, plugins and themes up-to-date.
WordPress Is Used By Many Security-Conscious Businesses!
The amount of misinformation online about WordPress security has even led the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to chime in and reply to posts online.
In an article entitled “A Bank Website on WordPress” posted on April 15, 2015 in his own blog, Matt wrote the following about WordPress security …
There’s a thread on Quora asking “I am powering a bank’s website using WordPress. What security measures should I take?” The answers have mostly been ignorant junk along the lines of “Oh NOES WP is INSECURE! let me take my money out of that bank”, so I wrote one myself, which I’ve copied below.
I agree there’s probably not a ton of benefit to having the online banking / billpay / etc portion of a bank’s website on WordPress, however there is no reason you couldn’t run the front-end and marketing side of the site on WordPress, and in fact you’d be leveraging WordPress’ strength as a content management platform that is flexible, customizable, and easy to update and maintain.
Matt then goes on to provide a couple of security tips, before stating the following …
For an example of a beautiful, responsive banking website built on WordPress, check out Gateway Bank of Mesa AZ. WordPress is also trusted to run sites for some of the largest and most security-conscious organizations in the world, including Facebook, SAP, Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept, eBay, McAfee, Sophos, GNOME, Mozilla, MIT, Reuters, CNN, Google Ventures, NASA, and literally hundreds more.
As the most widely used CMS in the world, many people use and deploy the open source version of WordPress in a sub-optimal and insecure way, but the same could be said of Linux, Apache, MySQL, Node, Rails, Java, or any widely-used software. It is possible and actually not that hard to run WordPress in a way that is secure enough for a bank, government site, media site, or anything.
Millions of businesses, including banks, global corporations and e-commerce sites use WordPress to build their web presence, not just bloggers..
Other Areas That Can Affect WP Security
Other factors that can affect site security include things such as:
No platform is completely protected from hacking. As many as 90% of all websites across all platforms are vulnerable to attack, mostly due to using outdated software.
The biggest vulnerability in all content management systems seem to be the users themselves. An example of this is users ignoring good password security recommendations.
Lack of constant monitoring. Security systems need to be regularly monitored, tested, updated and improved.
Server setup. For example, websites on shared webhosting are only as safe as the least secure website on the hosting grid, so if someone else on your shared server gets their site hacked into, then every site on the shared server becomes vulnerable.
There’s No Reason To Avoid Using WordPress
As this article has hopefully shown, WordPress is as secure as most of the leading web platforms being used by businesses to build their presence online. As long as you implement basic web security measures and keep your WordPress software (and themes, plugins, etc.) updated, there’s really no reason not to use WordPress.
WordPress Security – Tips
To learn about ways to protect your WordPress site from brute-force attacks see this article: 10 Security Measures That Can Help To Prevent Brute-Force Attacks On WordPress
A vulnerable web site provides hackers with a valuable resource for launching distributed attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft. Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin makes your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets. Go here to learn more: Secure Your WP Blog From Bots And Hackers
If you are currently using an outdated version of WordPress make sure you back up everything before updating your software to benefit from the latest security updates. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their previous state.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WP Websites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP
Article References
For more information on the above, refer to the sites below:
ITProPortal.com
National Vulnerability Database
BlogDefender.com
UpAndUpStudios.com
StopBadware.org
Sucuri.net
WebDesign.org
Quora.com
Ma.tt
Hopefully now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the security benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section or subscribe to receive updates and notifications when new articles or tutorials are published.
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please post a comment below and feel free to share this information with your friends.
The post Is WordPress A Secure Website Platform? appeared first on Quick Click Hosting.
from Quick Click Hosting https://quickclickhosting.com/wordpress-secure-website-platform/
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newstwitter-blog · 7 years
Text
New Post has been published on News Twitter
New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/21/washington-post-the-cost-of-silence-why-more-ceos-are-speaking-out-in-the-trump-era-71/
Washington Post: The cost of silence: Why more CEOs are speaking out in the Trump era
(iStock photo)
After receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of Glasgow recently, Apple chief executive Tim Cook took questions from the capacity crowd. The first student had two for the leader of the world’s most profitable company. He wondered, to laughter, whether he could have a job. And then he asked about Apple’s “next big thing” — not just as far as products, but “in terms of activism.”
Cook said he doesn’t view himself or Apple as an “activist,” casting the company’s battles over privacy rights or its opposition to President Trump’s immigration order in moral terms about right and wrong. Just before that he had invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quotation about the problem with “the appalling silence of the good people.”
Yet more and more, consumers and employees are like that student in Scotland, expecting the companies they buy from or work for to take a stand on social issues. And increasingly, CEOs are responding.
American companies have emerged as a force for social change in recent years and are among the most vocal critics of the new president’s executive order to temporarily ban migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.
[‘Deeply concerned’: Corporate America responds to Trump’s travel ban]
In the days after Trump’s travel ban was issued, more than a dozen top executives at rival companies in Silicon Valley, including Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, traded a flurry of candid emails to discuss the response, according to sources familiar with the discussions. In addition, more than 100 tech CEOs signed an amicus brief against the executive order, which a federal appeals court ruled would remain frozen; Trump is expected to issue a new immigration order.
On Thursday, Zuckerberg announced, in a 6,000-word manifesto, that he was reorienting Facebook toward issues that have a civic impact and build a global community — focusing on areas such as how the social network can improve safety during crises, and possibly changing the product to display a greater variety of political viewpoints.
Although Silicon Valley has led the opposition, companies as diverse as Chobani, Nike, Ford, Goldman Sachs and MasterCard all said they were against the immigration order or expressed concerns about it. More than 160 biotech executives blasted it in a letter published last week. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said he planned to hire 10,000 refugees in 75 countries over five years; he said that “we will neither stand by, nor stand silent, as the uncertainty around the new administration’s actions grows with each passing day.”
“There’s just nothing,” in scale or swiftness, that has compared to the corporate response to Trump’s entry ban, said Nancy Koehn, a historian at Harvard Business School.
A public stand against the president
Trump has billed himself as a businessman who could run the country like he does a corporation, and many executives have stood by him, promising new U.S. jobs, expressing confidence about his economic policies, or taking part in a parade of high-profile meetings at Trump Tower or the White House. Others have stood on the sidelines, fearful of inviting an angry tweetstorm from Trump, who can quickly stir a tempest that rattles their share prices.
Even so, Koehn noted that it’s highly unusual to see corporations take a public stand against a president so early in his first term.
“Go back to early labor law legislation. Go back to apartheid,” she said. “It’s really hard to find the public kind of drumbeat of this action, across these different kinds of organizations, in such a short span of time.”
As the calculus on whether it pays to stay silent or speak up rapidly shifts, the risks for companies can cut both ways. Speaking out can alienate consumers who disagree with the company’s views, as Starbucks saw when it faced boycotts from the right after Schultz’s refugee action. Audi drew fire when it took up the gender pay gap in a Super Bowl spot. On the other hand, ride-sharing company Uber faces a boycott from the left, with thousands of people deleting their accounts because they believe the company has not done enough to oppose the ban.
[Corporate America’s embrace of gay rights has reached a stunning tipping point]
This spirit of activism predated Trump. Cook, like Schultz at Starbucks and Marc Benioff at Salesforce, has been outspoken on such issues as gay rights and racial equality for some time.
Such efforts galvanized around state-level gay rights issues. In recent years, companies signed on to legal briefs supporting same-sex marriage and added their names en masse to letters against state legislation that critics view as discriminatory toward LGBTQ groups. A few, such as PayPal and Deutsche Bank, even canceled planned business expansions in North Carolina over a bill that blocked transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender identity in government buildings and public schools.
In the interest of business
Business leaders have taken political stances in the past, but usually behind the scenes. Their more public statements today are not mere corporate altruism but often have an economic interest: Fears about changes in visa programs, especially in a tech industry dependent on them, have made speaking out a business imperative.
Meanwhile, the rise of social media, which can quickly mobilize large groups and are what Koehn calls “the lighter fluid in all this,” has put new pressure on chief executives to speak up or take action. Grab Your Wallet, a social media campaign, has pushed consumers to boycott the Trump family’s products.
“CEOs’ hands are being forced, by consumers, by employees, by the larger field of public discourse,” Koehn said. “Some of what is happening now is so controversial, and the stakes are so high, that business leaders are rethinking what it means to protect [their] brand in a new landscape.”
Aaron Chatterji, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business who has studied CEO activism, says that what’s changed most over the past year is that staying out of the fray now has a cost.
“Silence used to be the default posture,” but political polarization, Facebook and Twitter have changed that, Chatterji said. “It’s a choose-a-side mentality. The middle is harder to occupy. And with the proliferation of social media, it’s kind of like a microphone that’s always on. If you’re not speaking out, it’s more conspicuous.”
That’s especially true for companies in the technology industry or that have a large swath of millennial workers, who are accustomed to expressing themselves, remain less loyal to individual companies and are skeptical of corporate America.
Brad Taylor, an engineer at San Francisco-based Optimizely, is organizing a walkout of tech workers on March 14 that he says is intended to send a message to business leaders and present a unified front against the immigration order. He said he knows people starting to look for other jobs after a CEO’s initial statement against the order wasn’t strong enough.
“There’s some irreversible damage,” he says. Before more chief executives began speaking out, friends told him they were “sometimes even embarrassed to say they worked at some of these companies” that had not made a public statement.
Of course, sought-after engineers — the ones a Silicon Valley adviser compared to “five-star college football recruits” — risk far less when they speak out. “Tech workers are in huge demand right now and constantly being recruited,” Taylor said.
Tim Cook took questions from the audience after he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Glasgow. (Darcer’s Tech via YouTube)
Pressure from the front lines
Other tech workers are gathering signatures to urge their bosses to do more.
IBM engineer Daniel Hanley, 35, started a petition in November that now has more than 2,000 signatories, about 1,300 of whom have self-identified as IBM employees, according to Hanley.
An IBM spokesperson declined to comment about the petition. In an internal message to employees, CEO Ginni Rometty wrote that “some have suggested that we should not engage with the U.S. administration. I disagree. Our experience has taught us that engagement — reaching out, listening and having authentic dialogue — is the best path to good outcomes.”
Last week, three Oracle employees launched a petition that now has more than 800 signatures, urging the tech giant, which has not put out a public statement on the entry ban, to sign the legal brief.
One reason: They want to work at a company they believe reflects their views. “When I walk around and introduce myself as someone who works at Oracle, there are assumptions that can come back to me,” said Rachel Kane, 29, a sales representative who started the petition with colleagues Irene Scher and Lara Beers. They all recently joined the company. With fewer boundaries between work and home life, Kane said, “it’s nice to have your life and your beliefs, and your moral compass, be aligned.”
An Oracle spokesperson declined to comment on the petition.
Tech companies, in particular, are concerned about the Trump order’s direct impact on current employees, and also by potential immigration actions that could limit the visas the industry depends on to populate its ranks of engineers. The companies may also want to prove to consumers and start-up-minded recruits that they’re not losing the moral high ground now that they’ve become advertising juggernauts and have faced withering privacy challenges of their own.
The more tech giants “are perceived to be like the rest of corporate America, the more risk to them,” Koehn said.
[Starbucks promised to hire thousands of refugees. Critics want a boycott]
CEOs who advocate can also risk being seen by investors as distracted or becoming overexposed, lowering the impact of their message, Chatterji said. CEOs need to choose the “issues you’re authentically connected to, so you might have more influence,” he said. “People will take it much more seriously.”
In his remarks in Glasgow, Cook said Apple weighs in on issues where it feels it has knowledge or holds a strong point of view, such as the environment and human rights. When it does, he said, “we will stand up, even when our voice shakes.”
Consumers remain skeptical
Meanwhile, many consumers remain skeptical about the reasons behind CEOs’ activism. In a survey of 1,027 U.S. adults by the communications firm Weber Shandwick  last year, respondents named media attention as the top reason they thought CEOs spoke out. Just 14 percent thought they were getting more political because they wanted to leverage their influence for the broader good, and only 11 percent thought it was to “speak up on behalf of the company’s employees and customers.
Yet the report, titled “The Dawn of CEO Activism,” also found that people saw CEOs more favorably if they took a public stance on current issues — as long as the topic was related to the company’s business. (If it wasn’t, the numbers reversed.) A newly released survey from Weber Shandwick also found that 41 percent of global consumers and 46 percent of global executives said companies should express their opinions or take actions on issues; 20 percent of consumers and 32 percent of executives said they should not.
And research by Chatterji and Michael Toffel at Harvard Business School found that CEO activism can help shape public opinion on controversial social issues and increase interest in buying by consumers who favor the company’s point of view.
Companies have been funneling millions of dollars into diversity and inclusion programs as research underscores the business case for having more diverse teams, which improve decision-making and better represent a company’s customers. If companies ignore political actions that hurt certain groups, they undermine the credibility of those programs, making them ring hollow.
“If those values have any meaning, then they need to stand up for them,” said Craig Smith, chair in ethics and social responsibility at INSEAD Business School in France. “Something that started out largely economic is not just the economics anymore. It’s become part of the identity of the organization.”
That diversity commitment was tested as same-sex marriage fights made their way through the courts and state-level laws viewed by critics as discriminatory toward LGBT groups sprang up in state after state. Companies had an incentive to speak out to avoid the patchwork of state laws that can complicate their operations and limit employee mobility between states. But doing so also helped them appear more accountable to the diversity and inclusion programs they were touting internally, and dozens signed on against laws in such states as Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and North Carolina. In the latter state, more than 200 companies signed a letter to oppose the state’s so-called “bathroom bill.”
Companies “got their feet wet around LGBTQ issues,” said Beck Bailey, deputy director of employee engagement for the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. “I think once they got to that place, they felt that same internal and external pressure of living up to their stated values” when it came to other groups. “In this day and age, there’s more, ‘Okay, then what are you going to do about it?’ ”
That’s exactly the sentiment Taylor says many tech workers have been pushing their employers to uphold in the weeks since Trump took office. Tech workers, he said, are lucky to have the choice of speaking out without fearing for their jobs. “Most of America doesn’t. So let’s use that power to hold our tech leaders to the ideals that they tell us about every day.
“They tell us they want to change the world,” he said. “Now’s our chance.”
Read also:
Tim Cook, the interview: Running Apple is ‘sort of a lonely job’
Tech industry opposition to Trump travel ban escalates
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Postcards from America: X-rays from Hell (1988)
Late yesterday afternoon a friend came over unexpectedly to sit at my kitchen table and try and find some measure of language for his state of mind. “What’s left of living?” He’s been on AZT for six to eight months and his T-cells have dropped from 100 plus to 30. His doctor says: “What the hell do you want from me?” Now he’s asking himself: “What the hell do I want?” He’s trying to answer this while in the throes of agitating FEAR.
I know what he’s talking about as each tense description of his state of mind slips out across the table. The table is filled with piles of papers and objects; a boom-box, a bottle of AZT, a jar of Advil (remember, you can’t take asprin or Tylenol while on AZT). There’s an old smiley mug with pens and scissors and a bottle of Xanax for when the brain goes loopy; there’s a Sony tape-recorder that contains a half-used cassette of late night sex talk, fears of gradual dying, anger, dreams and someone speaking Cantonese. In this foreign language it says: My mind cannot contain all that I see. I keep experiencing this sensation that my skin is too tight; civilization is exploding inside of me. Do you have a room with a better view? I am experiencing the X-ray of civilization. The minimum speed required to break through the earth’s gravitational pull is seven miles a second. Since economic conditions prevent us from gaining access to rockets or spaceships we have to learn to run awful fast to achieve escape from where we are all heading . . .
My friend across the table says, “There are no more people in their 30’s. We’re all dying out. One of my four best friends just went into the hospital yesterday and he underwent a blood transfusion and is now suddenly blind in one eye. The doctors don’t know what it is . . .” My eyes are still scanning the table; I know a hug or a pat on the shoulder won’t answer the question mark in his voice. The AZT is kicking in with one of its little side-effects: increased mental activity which in translation means I wake up these mornings with an intense claustrophobic feeling of fucking doom. It also means that one word too many can send me to the window kicking out panes of glass, or at least that’s my impulse (the fact that winter is coming holds me in check). My eyes scan the surfaces of walls and tables to provide balance to the weight of words. A 35mm camera containing the unprocessed images of red and blue and green faces  in close-up profile screaming, a large postcard of a stuffed gorilla pounding its dusty chest in a museum diorama, a small bottle of hydrocortisone to keep my face from turning into a mass of peeling red and yellow flaking skin, an airline ticket to Normal, Illinois, to work on a print, a small plaster model of a generic Mexican pyramid looking like it was mad in Aztec kindergarten, a tiny motorcar with tiny Goofy driving at the wheel . . .
My friend across the table says, “The other three of my four best friends are dead and I’m afraid that I won’t see this friend again.” My eyes settle on a six-inch-tall rubber model of Frankenstein from the Universal Pictures Tour gift shop, ™ 1931: his hands are enormous and my head fills up with replaceable body parts; with seeing the guy in the hospital; seeing myself and my friend across the table in line for replaceable body parts; my wandering eyes aren’t staving off the anxiety of his words; behind his words, so I say, “You know … he can still rally back . . . maybe . . . I mean people do come back from the edge of death . . .”
“Well,” he says, “he lost thirty pounds in a few weeks …”
A boxed cassette of someone’s interview with me in which I talk about diagnosis and how it simply underlined what I knew existed anyway. Not just the disease but the sense of death in the American landscape. How when I was out west this summer standing in the mountains of a small city in New Mexico I got a sudden and intense feeling of rage looking at those postcard perfect slopes and clouds. For all I knew I was the only person for miles and all alone and I didn’t trust that fucking mountain’s serenity. I mean it was just bullshit. I couldn’t buy the con of nature’s beauty; all I could see was death. The rest of my life is being unwound and seen through a frame of death. My anger is more about this culture’s refusal to deal with mortality. My rage is really about the fact that WHEN I WAS TOLD THAT I’D CONTRACTED THIS VIRUS IT DIDN’T TAKE ME LONG TO REALIZE THAT I’D CONTRACTED A DISEASED SOCIETY AS WELL.
On the table is today’s newspaper with a picture of cardinal O’Connor saying he’d like to take part in operation rescue’s blocking of abortion clinics but his lawyers are advising against it. This fat cannibal from the house of walking swastikas up on fifth avenue should lose his church tax-exempt status and pay retroactive taxes from the last couple centuries. Shut down our clinics and we will shut down your “church.” I believe in the death penalty for people in positions of power who commit crimes against humanity, i.e., fascism. This creep in black skirts has kept safer-sex information off the local television stations and mass transit advertising spaces for the last eight years of the AIDS epidemic thereby helping thousands and thousands to their unnecessary deaths.
My friend across the table is talking again. “I just feel so fucking sick … I have never felt this bad in my whole life … I woke up this morning with such intense horror; sat upright in bed and pulled on my clothes and shoes and left the house and ran and ran and ran …” I’m thinking maybe he got up to the speed of no more than ten miles an hour. There are times I wish we could fly; knowing that this is impossible I wish I could get a selective lobotomy and rearrange my senses so that all I could see is the color blue; no images or forms, no sounds or sensations. There are times I wish this were so. There are times that I feel so tired, so exhausted. I may have been born centuries too late. A couple of centuries ago I might have been able to be a hermit but the psychic and physical landscape today is just too fucking crowded and bought up. Last night I was invited to dinner upstairs at a neighbor’s house. We got together to figure out how to stop the landlord from illegally tearing the roofs off our apartments. The buildings dept. had already shut the construction crew down twice and yet they have started work again. The recent rains have been slowly destroying my western wall. This landlord some time ago allowed me to stay in my apartment without a lease only after signing an agreement that if there were a cure for AIDS I would have to leave within 30 days. A guy visiting the upstairs neighbor learned that I had this virus and said he believed that although the government probably introduced the virus to the homosexual community, that homosexuals were dying en masse as a reaction to centuries of society’s hatred and repression of homosexuality. All I could think of when he said this was an image of hundreds of whales that beach themselves on the coastlines in supposed protest of the ocean’s being polluted. He continued: “People don’t die – they choose death. Homosexuals are dying of this disease because they have internalized society’s hate …” I felt like smacking him in the head, but held off momentarily, saying, “As far as your theory of homosexuals dying of AIDS as a protest against society’s hatred, what about the statistics that those people contracting the disease are intravenous drug users or heterosexually inclined, and that this seems to be increasingly the case. Just look at the statistics for this area of the lower east side.” “Oh,” he said, “they’re hated too …” “Look,” I said, “after witnessing the deaths of dozens of friends and a handful of lovers, among them some of the most authentically spiritual people I have ever known, I simply can’t accept mystical answers or excuses for why so many people are dying from this disease – really it’s on the shoulders of a bunch of bigoted creeps who at this point in time are in the positions of power that determine where and when and for whom government funds are spent for research and medical care.”
I found that, after witnessing Peter Hujar’s death on November 26, 1987, and after my recent diagnosis, I tend to dismantle and discard any and all kinds of spiritual and psychic and physical words or concepts designed to make sense of the external world or designed to give momentary comfort. It’s like stripping the body of flesh in order to see the skeleton, the structure. I want to know what the structure of all this is in the way only I can know it. All my notions of the machinations of the world have been built throughout my life on odd cannibalizations of different lost cultures and on intuitive mythologies. I gained comfort from the idea that people could spontaneously self-combust and from surreal excursions into nightly dream landscapes. But all that is breaking down or being severely eroded by my own brain; it’s like tipping a bottle over on its side and watching the liquid contents drain out in slow motion. I suddenly resist comfort, from myself and especially from others. There is something I want to see clearly, something I want to witness in its raw state. And this need comes from my sense of mortality. There is a relief in having this sense of mortality. At least I won’t arrive one day at my 80th birthday and at the eve of my possible death and only then realize my whole life was supposed to be somewhat a preparation for the event of death and suddenly fill up with rage because instead of preparation all I had was a lifetime of adaptation to the pre-invented world – do you understand what I’m saying here? I am busying myself with a process of distancing myself from you and others and my environment in order to know what I feel and what I can find. I’m trying to lift off the weight of the pre-invented world so I can see what’s underneath it all. I’m hungry and the pre-invented world won’t satisfy my hunger. I’m a prisoner of language that doesn’t have a letter or a sign or gesture that approximates what I’m sensing. Rage may be one of the few things that binds or connects me to you, to our pre-invented world.
My friend across the table says, “I don’t know how much longer I can go on … Maybe I should just kill myself.” I looked up from the Frankenstein doll, stopped trying to twist its yellow head off and looked at him. He was looking out the window at a sexy Puerto Rican guy standing on the street below. I asked him, “If tomorrow you could take a pill that would let you die quickly and quietly, would you do it?”
“No,” he said, “not yet.”
“There’s too much work to do,” I said.
“That’s right,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to do …”
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SEO for Etsy Sellers
We developed an Etsy SEO Help guide to help other sellers improve their Etsy SEO. SEO is what many Etsy sellers fears as i have seen myself.
SEO for Etsy Sellers  http://www.aktechblog.com/2016/11/seo-for-etsy-sellers.html
Just take a look at my Etsy shop I've gotten 21,000+ sales in my 4 years on Etsy so far, and my biggest Etsy strategy has been SEO. The duplicate content will hurt a sellers SEO and the way Pattern is set up there is no way to improve the SEO like you would on a regular website. As a business coach to Etsy sellers, Marmalead is the only tool I recommend for serious sellers who need the very best help in SEO research.
Deux importants éléments de référencement pour vos pages de fiches produits sont le titre de l'article et sa description. Etsy SEO and the SEO used by most bloggers doesn't have much difference. Le titre de la boutique est votre tagline, votre argument marketing.
The first three words of your title are the most important for Etsy SEO. For a comprehensive guide to starting and marketing your Etsy shop. Etsy School: The Complete Etsy Business Startup Guide by Sarah Moore: an audiobook that covers everything from basic shop setup and all the way to Etsy SEO.
This SEO e-Book is a step-by-step guide that teaches you how to improve your SEO within your shop. Are always looking for fresh content and rank pages with higher authority if the content is updated regularly. La façon dont vous optimiser votre boutique pour Etsy aide aussi votre SEO sur les autres moteurs de recherché.
Utiliser Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn et Google+ sont de bons moyens de montrer aux moteurs de recherche que l'on parle de votre boutique et de vos produits. Your Pattern by Etsy shop will not get found by search engines easily, your regular Etsy shop has more customization opportunities for SEO. La manière dont vous nommez les sections de votre boutique peut également aider à accroître le référencement de cette dernière.
It can be quite difficult to get noticed on a large marketplace like Etsy - even if you have great products that people want to buy. Without traffic and views Etsy sellers would never make sales. How to use onsite SEO strategies to get your products ranking higher in Etsy's search engine.
Here are some Etsy SEO tips to help you get your handmade products in front of as many potential buyers as possible. This is a little-known strategy that can have a HUGE impact on your Etsy SEO results. Because there is not a lot of room to SEO the Pattern shop and there is no internal search engine to help your items get found like there is on Etsy, all traffic will be from marketing the Etsy seller does on their own.
In our next post we'll explore marketing strategies for Etsy sellers which will really get your Etsy business flying. You will learn how to optimize your Etsy Shop SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with our 8-part SEO lesson. The term content strategy is an interesting one in relation to Etsy.
Votre titre de boutique est un petit texte qui apparaît sous le nom de votre boutique sur la page d'accueil de celle-ci. Cependant, il existe quelques bonnes pratiques que vous pouvez utiliser pour aider à améliorer le référencement de votre boutique. If you want your products to get found, you need to understand how the platform works and how buyers use it. That's where Etsy SEO tips come in.
Seo for Etsy Sellers  http://www.aktechblog.com/2016/11/seo-for-etsy-sellers.html
Plenty of Etsy sellers also make sales by getting their products found by people searching on Google. But if the people who you want to buy your products aren't makers themselves, they aren't likely to search for those terms — and you will have lost the sale. I agree- it is frustrating to me and thousands of other Etsy sellers who've worked hard to get their SEO right.
Having an Etsy shop isn't much different than having any other online shop; you need to generate traffic. I looked it over but was offended that Etsy would import my shop content to a site I didn't want to join. They are very much active on social media and use tools like So I think Etsy sellers should focus more on SEO and other forms of marketing.
Titles over tags Sur Etsy, vos titres et tags contribuent à votre positionnement. Les catégories peuvent améliorer votre SEO sur Google car c'est un autre signal qui indique ce que vous vendez dans votre boutique. Complétez votre page A propos Cela permettra aux moteurs de recherche de tout savoir sur votre boutique.
Vous pouvez songer à créer des liens vers votre boutique Etsy à partir de votre blog personnel, et élaborer un réseautage avec d'autres sites pour amener ceux-ci à mettre en valeur vos fiches produits. En bref : vous voulez que les gens écrivent sur votre boutique et vos fiches produits en vente, tout en créant des liens vers vos pages Etsy. Pensez à inclure votre nom complet ou le nom de votre société dans le titre de votre boutique si des clients potentiels sont susceptibles de vous rechercher de cette façon.
SEO is the key to getting more visitors and sale for your Etsy shop. The last thing that we want to talk about here with you guys is about the Entrepreneur's Course Library Marmalead has been very focused on SEO and how your SEO can perform on Etsy. The author of Etsy Empire explains where to add valuable keywords for Etsy SEO and increasing Google traffic to your Etsy shop.
These are the different categories within your Etsy shop. We are happy to introduce this free ebook The complete guide to SEO for Etsy”, to help all the Etsians crack the hard nut of SEO for Etsy shops. I started doing SEO in 1999 and so I have seen all the changes and updates that Google has gone through and frankly, true SEO hasn't changed that much over the years.
If you want to be good at SEO for Etsy, you have to practice. To my mind (and most people on the forums) that translates as Etsy wanting all sellers to have some sales rather than just a few having all the sales. I would not send people to your Etsy shop only a website.
You have to go beyond Etsy because Etsy just has too many sellers and not enough buyers searching for items. If your read through the comments here you will find the opinions of people who have tried Pattern and also of SEO experts who can see that having a Pattern site will actually hurt the SEO of your regular Etsy shop and decrease your views there. We've talked about how the Pattern site may not get found in search engines due to duplicate content but you bring up the interesting point that it may hurt the shop owner's actual Etsy shop itself.
I understand the need for Etsy sellers to have a standalone website that works for them and is easy to setup and maintain. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Etsy is different to standard website optimization as Etsy uses its own SEO algorithms. As you setup your shop, you're required to add products first before customizing your shop as a whole.
This bonus only includes the SEO terms that matter for your Etsy shop. One of the most important parts of your Etsy store is the website content. As an Etsy Coach for Creatives I have worked with a number of SEO tools, but have found Marmalead to be extremely accurate and very user friendly, especially with those sellers that aren't quite tech savvy”.
Please note with all SEO strategies, results overnight do not happen, this is a marketing strategy that is utilized with quality content and listings to improve rankings in a safe manner. The nature of Etsy's business model is such that it allows a mass effort to contribute to the overall pie in terms of content and SEO. Et surtout, ne vous occupez pas trop de la valeur de votre PageRank Google.
Décrivez brièvement votre article dans la première phrase de votre description. Le titre de votre article est utilisé pour créer le titre de page de votre fiche produit. A l'instar du titre de votre boutique, Etsy utilise vos noms de section pour créer les titres de page pour chacune des pages de destination de vos sections.
Vous pouvez modifier les sections de votre boutique en accédant à Votre boutique > Liens rapides > Gestionnaire de fiches produits Recherchez l'intitulé Sections dans la barre d'outils de gauche et cliquez sur Gérer pour les modifier. Nous vous recommandons de décrire brièvement votre boutique et les types d'articles que vous vendez. La fonction SSEO (Search Engine Optimization - Optimisation des moteurs de recherche), également connue sous le nom de référencement, constitue un puissant processus qui peut aider à améliorer la visibilité de votre boutique et vos fiches produits d'articles dans les résultats des moteurs de recherche pour des sites comme Google, Bing et Yahoo.
Many Etsy sellers set up their shop backwards and then ultimately wind up wondering why they can't get ranked on Etsy or maintain a ranking. One of the big things that we hear from Etsy sellers all the time when they're sitting down to work on their SEO is that it's not always easy to know where to start. Treasuries get seen by lots of sellers and buyers, so taking Treasury-worthy photos is key to your Etsy success.
The problem is that the buy button on every product pulled in from your shop says Buy on Etsy. When considering whether or not to partner with someone to promote your Etsy Store, a good place to start would be asking whether or not they use the ethical tactics outlined in Etsy's own Guide to SEO If not, then you may want to steer clear. On-page (within your shop) SEO is also only part of the process.
You can't rely on just your Etsy shop to drive your sales. After reading this post you will not need to search for Etsy SEO Services. It's really super that you continue to press onward with key information on SEO for ETsy Sellers.
Etsy has always had search but at a basic level — it was described to me as a one-size-fits-all approach” — that didn't do a good job of showcasing the site's products. You need to switch it up just a bit to get the most traffic to your Etsy shop. Etsy SEO isn't really all that different from Google, just there are Tags instead of keywords.
So as I was trying to get a handle on my SEO for Etsy, I really couldn't find a great way to get all the data together easily. Richie Peplin, the co-founder of Marmalead, an Etsy SEO and market research tool , shares with us The Top Five Ways To Get Your Shop Seen On Etsy With SEO! Learn how to find products to sell and setup your online store.
Connect and contact other Etsy sellers that might be interested in your products. Even if that doesn't happen, when you direct people to your Etsy shop you have no control over what happens when they get there. If you're already making some sales, it might actually be easier and more effective to look at marketing outside of Etsy to bring people back to your Etsy shop.
Very few people get enough traffic on Etsy to bring in great income without doing the marketing work. I've been really struggling with my Etsy shop and have about decided to close up shop after this year. If Etsy shuts down or closes your shop, your Pattern by Etsy shop goes away with it. One of the biggest reasons sellers need to have a website for their merchandise outside of Etsy is to protect themselves if something happens on Etsy itself.
If you came this far and read everything, you realize that there's no dearth of tools for Etsy SEO (and if you are using Shopify or Bigcartel etc, for online shop SEO). Content Marketing represents one of the biggest cultural shifts seen in advertising. There are a lot of good resources out there about Etsy SEO and how to optimize your Etsy product page for search engines, but I want to explore in more detail how to rank higher in Etsy's own search engine.
(Because sellers who are doing well usually have ok SEO already…even if it was an accident). Never be confused when talking SEO with other sellers again! Fixing your SEO is the fastest way to get your shop the attention it deserves.
To setup your Etsy shop, you need to know how complicated Etsy system works. The information is direct, motivational and inspirational. En haut de votre lisiting, il vous est possible de catégoriser votre item jusqu'à 3 niveaux.
Acheter son nom de domaine et le faire pointer vers sa boutique Etsy pour s'assurer d'avoir son espace pour le futur lorsque vous lancez votre propre boutique. Si le nom de votre magasin n'explique pas ce que vous vendez, le titre de votre boutique doit le faire ! De plus, vous n'êtes pas le seul vendeur Etsy à optimiser vos pages, donc il se peut que vous voyiez vos pages démarrer doucement et connaître des hauts et des bas.
Ne soyez pas timide et osez l'auto-promotion — n'en faites pas trop mais ajoutez quelques liens vers votre boutique Etsy ou vos fiches produits quand c'est possible. Pensez aux mots-clés que les acheteurs pourraient utiliser lorsqu'ils cherchent votre produit et incorporez-les dans les titres de vos fiches. Un pro de la recherche Etsy vous donne de bons conseils pour rendre votre boutique plus visible.
Les 160 premiers caractères de la description de votre article sont utilisés pour créer la méta-description de la page de votre fiche produit. Il n'y a pas de façon de promettre que votre boutique apparaîtra en haut des résultats de recherche Google. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a confusing topic to maneuver, but it's so important to get straight for making Etsy sales.
Handmade, bespoke and unique gifts are big business (there aren't many of us who haven't got lost in a world of hand-crafted beauty at least once) but we get loads of Etsy sellers asking for help and advice when it comes to marketing their Etsy business. Getting your products found on Etsy doesn't just mean optimizing for people searching within Etsy's platform.
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