#but then you get what you pay for i guess when you use free website programs lol

[dapg-otmebytheballs]

All or Nothing and lowave records

Strap in because this is gonna be a long one. This post will try to shed some light on how the whole lowave records thing works, how you can use this music, how it is being distributed, and what all a contract with lowave would include. All this and more below the cut!

Let us start with the basics: What is lowave records?

Quite succinctly summed up on their website as follows:

They make and distribute royalty-free music for content creators - specifically video-format content creators like Youtubers and streamers - they share some streaming revenue (30%, we'll get into that) with the creators who are labelled 'co-artists' and get promotion of their music through the content creators.

So, that brings us to the next big question: What is royalty-free music?

This is music that is free to use. Yes, by anyone, by Dan and Phil, by other creators, by you and me, any of us. This is by no means a new thing of course, anyone who has created content online would have come across other such services. just as an example, bensound.com hosts a large library of royalty-free music which you can use in any video by simply crediting the site in your description. Lowave works in a similar fashion. The music is not copyrighted. However, the rights to the music are held by lowave records and there are limitations on its use, which we will get into ahead.

How is the money working (preliminary edition)?

I will add details to this later when I discuss the contract, but let's see the info we get straight away from the FAQs: You do not have to pay them anything to make music for you

The money is coming in from the streaming platforms, depends completely on amount of streams, and is shared between lowave and the creators

Also from the FAQs: how can this music be used?

Anyone can freely use any of the music from lowave records, which means that yes, you can use any music from All or Nothing for your purposes with credit, it will not be taken down

Is this the only music we will hear on dapg now? Will there be more albums?

Not necessarily! This isn't an exclusive deal, DnP can use any music they want on the channel. As for new albums, seems like it depends on how this one does (and it seems to be doing quite well!) which will unlock future avenues for more collabs with lowave

Okay BASICS DONE if you're still reading you're probably here for the real meat so let us get into it

How is the money working (director's cut)?

Let us start with the terms on the partner agreement:

Content Creators get 30% of the 'remaining income'. This basically means any costs that streaming platforms are deducting, any processing fees, taxes etc will be deducted before the 30% share is calculated. The second point there basically means that the deductions here do not include business expenses of the label itself, ie when the label calculates its own profit production costs and various other expenses are deducted from the income, but these costs will not affect the revenue received by the content creators (You are probably already thinking 'how is this company earning enough to keep going?' and I will touch on that later as well)

Payment installments are simple enough but here we see a third party enter the chat: DistroKid. Who is DistroKid and why are payments going through them, Hazel? I hear you ask. Well I'll tell you dear readers:

It is basically a service that takes a yearly fee for putting your music on streaming platforms efficiently and then pockets 0% of the royalties. The royalties go from the streaming services (eg Spotify) to DistroKid who then send it to the rights-holders (in this case, lowave records). lowave records is using this service for a yearly fee to upload all their music through.

But wait! If DistroKid is working with lowave, and lowave owns all the rights, why is DistroKid making direct payments to the content creators?

Well, over the years they have offered a bunch of services:

I am guessing lowave is making use of the teams feature to send royalties owed to content creators ("collaborators") directly from Diskworld, which makes sense, the less people money goes through the less chances of mishandling.

People have of course been talking about what percentage Spotify even pays for many many years. The short answer: we don't know for sure because it is confidential, Spotify won't tell and artists aren't allowed to. The longer answer: people have estimated from a bunch of publically available data that the share seems to be 70-30 (rights-holders- spotify).

However spotify is not paying per stream anymore so that makes these figures harder to pin down. they are using a 'streamshare' system which is much more convoluted:

That was all about the money, now let's talk Licensing

Creators can use this music in any capacity, and do not have to share any of the revenue from their own content with lowave. They have put a stipulation that it may not be used in a way that is "illegal, immoral, discriminatory or derogatory to [lowave]" but what constitutes 'immoral' and 'discriminatory' is not really defined.

The other limitation applies to the contracted Content Creators only as far as I can tell: they are not allowed to remix, sample, or edit these songs without prior permission. This probably only applies to altering the songs and playing under the same name, so fan remixes should not run into issues here, as long as they are not monetised. (thanks kate @goldenpinof for making me think about this part a bit more, I think it should be safe, but even royalty free music cannot be transformed without permission at least in a commercial capacity)

They will also make more music free of cost if the streaming targets they set are being met by the albums produced. The process:

Other services they provide will be handling the creator's account which they set up (DanAndPhilBeats in this case) on streaming platforms and making changes as required, so the Cheeky Banter -> Project X thing was probably done from their end, possibly an older change that they forgot to update?

Also below are promotional obligations:

The promotion wasn't a one-time thing, it is expected to be ongoing, so we will probably be hearing about this in future videos as well. However, later in the partner agreement it is added that this has to be done as often as possible in a way that is "natural and appealing to their audience" which again, is pretty vague wording

Also the licensing goes both ways, so lowave can also use segments of the content DnP make that has the music in the background to promote their music:

Additional stuff from the contract:

lowave takes the guarantee of creating original works that it has the rights to and which do not infringe on copyrights, and the creators likewise take the guarantee not use the songs in content which infringes copyright. If there are any disputes regarding such infringement in the future the record and the creators have to back each other up (including sharing legal fees)

I mentioned before some parts of the agreement being written in vague language. There is also a clause that says if any provision ends up being illegal/not possible to enforce by a court (eg if a court were to it's impossible to say whether content featuring the songs was 'immoral') then only that provision will be removed, the rest of the contract stands.

The waiver part basically means that if any of the parties decide to not sue or forgo a complaint about breach of contract, that does not mean that those provisions are now unavailable, they can still sue later on or for some other breach if they wish.

That's the contracts done. Some of the framing there makes it seem to me like it's a pretty small company. The revenue they hope to generate does not seem to be very sustainable, especially since the revenue is being shared with content creators but the cost is not and they are additionally paying for other services like DistroKid.

So I looked more into this record label: they started business in 2022. If you go to their socials though, twitter and instagram they have followers in double digits and post very sparsely. Their tiktok seems to have nothing on it at all (thanks @lesbiandanhowell for the screenshot) and you may have noticed, Dan did not tag the lowave account at all when he announced the album on twitter

The agreement never mentions creators promoting lowave's social channels or tagging them either (and it is quite odd, I have worked with a bunch of organisations in their infancy and this is, now more than ever, a common requirement from collaborators). lowave records does not seem to be actively working towards promoting themselves on social media or building an online presence, even though they have been operational two years producing music throughout.

There are three people involved with the company on public record:

Benjamin Johnson listed as 'Head of Production' is probably the 'Ben' Dan has been talking about who made the songs. Seems like their scale of operations is not very big and possibly not a lot of producers in the records at all (despite the spotify page saying they have 'producers' plural, but that doesn't have to mean a lot many lol). Anyway, that would solve the mystery of 'how are they playing their employees?' if there aren't many employees to begin with (not even an intern to manage their social media it seems).

Look at the last person in the screenshots though: Robin. I looked at what other companies Robin is associated with and several of them - yeah several different operations that he's involved in - have the same correspondence address of '60 Thorpe Road...', so probably operating out of a ghost office (just to have a registered address and receive mail at etc). And one of these businesses that Robin is associated with is RWD, the business that made lowave records' website for them:

The no-cost production of royalty-free music, little attention to social media presence, vaguely written contract, seemingly small scale of operations with technical assistance like website design coming from an affiliated organisation makes me think that lowave records might be a side project. A labour of love, possibly, hoping to sustain itself enough to keep putting out royalty-free music in a time of extreme crackdown on copyrighted music use.

It makes sense to use content creators for promotion, gets you way more streaming than making your own music and putting it out. And the incentive of unique but guaranteed royalty free music at no cost is great for content creators of all sizes. It is far from sustainable on its own though, especially with streaming revenue being basically peanuts, and I do not think there's much interest in gaining a following or putting in that effort either, so it's probably a very small business by a few people. How long it manages to sustain itself as a project I am not sure, but it certainly isn't looking like something particularly geared towards profit and growth in its current state.

We are at an end! If you read this far, leave me like an A+ or a star for my essay so I can have academic validation from this please. Of course I probably have not covered everything possible in connection to this so if anyone has more info feel free to add on! And if this was all very long and there's something particular you wanted to know you can drop an ask into the inbox about it!

Thank you for coming with me on this journey! Back to the important things, which was your favourite song from the album? I think mine is Arcade Admission

#dnp #dan and phil #dnpgames #dan and phil games #meta #? #all or nothing #lowave records #dan howell #phil lester

[unpretty]

waiting patiently for the info post/referral link about ynab because uh, the credit card situation is a skotch uncomfortable, you can tell i've been doing "just a lil' treat for morale" since 2016.

i had to wait until my free trial was over to get a referral link (no infinite free trial for me, alas)

here's my You Need A Budget referral link! you get a free month, i get a free month. if you decide you like it the cheapest option is the $99 annual plan but if you don't have a hundred bucks to spend on on a website that tells you to spend less fucking money they also have $15 a month. i guess ideally if the $15 a month plan digs you out of your hole well enough you can save up for the annual. it also comes with a family plan built-in, so in theory you can split the cost between six people if you all need some fucking help. in my case i'm sharing my household budget with my spouse, but i'm also sharing the plan with my mom and my sister who both have their own budgets that they don't share with me. i come from a long proud line of women juggling which utility is about to be shut off.

NOTE: if you are straight-up not making enough fucking money, ynab won't do shit. this is only helpful if you should be making enough money but money is cursed and you can't stop spending it because money is fake. no amount of budgeting the amount you spend on hot drinks will dig you out of poverty and anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. spam your resume to higher paying jobs and hope you get lucky enough to need ynab someday.

YNAB EXPLANATION: it's very similar to envelope-based budgeting, which is the kind where you set cash aside in labeled envelopes and whenever you need to spend money on different things it comes out of the envelopes. except it's 2024 and i don't use fucking cash. so with ynab i assign money into categories and then when it's time to spend money i check the app and see how much money i have in my energy drinks and vapes budget.

except i spent my first month frantically rearranging money into different categories to try and cover what i'd already spent despite not having the money for it, and also it took forever to figure out how it handles credit cards.

anyway. i'm not there yet. i'm working on it. i'm still riding the float on my credit cards and i need to stop doing that because it's bad actually. i recommend watching youtube tutorials about ynab because it can be really confusing at first and that makes it easy to give up. but even though i'm not there yet, i'm already doing better than i was a month ago and progress is progress.

#original #affiliate links jsyk #my credit card situation is... still not great #but it's way better than it was when i realized i'd been having An Episode lmao

[olderthannetfic]

Since you've mentioned that you use Scrivener as a word processing software, I have a bit of a weird-ish question. I have looked at the programme and it seems incredibly useful, and then I looked at the pricetag and- gulp.

I currently use Word which costs 5 euros per year thanks to university, but am thinking about switching to another programme that isn't related to my uni as I feel too paranoid about my smutty fanfic ideas being looked at by my uni and them disapproving of my writing. XD (Word keeps marking "fuck" with a squiggly line and suggesting I choose another word to avoid offending my readers, but if canon doesn't give Barclay some holographic MMF action taking place during "A Fistful of Datas" and turning both his holographic partners into holographic Data and therefore inducing maximum tension and insecurity due to feelings in poor sandwiched Barclay whenever he meets actual Data after that, I will have to write it myself! :P )

According to the website where one can buy a Scrivener license, one pays for the current version of it and will have to buy later versions anew if I haven't misunderstood. You seem to have used it for quite a while, and I haven't managed to find out when the different versions came out. I know the current one is 3, but I am unsure how much time passed between 1 and 2 and 2 and 3, and am unsure whether it's a good idea to buy a license now or whether it would be wiser to wait if it's likely that another version might be released in the near future (that is within one year for example) because then I might wait a little while with my purchase, heh. It probably sounds quite stingy but I am solely getting it for my tiny and too seldom indulged hobby of writing fanfic, and currently have to kinda sorta pay more attention to my wallet and where its contents go, so to say, which is why I'm hesitant.

The question basically is: As a (probable?) long-time user, do you think it's likely a new version of Scrivener will be released within the next year or so or do you think it's likely the current version will be tha latest to purchase for a longer while than 1-2 years?

I hope this rambly mess makes sense, haven't really slept for quite some time, so I am sorry if this is terribly incomprehensible. Sorry for the weird stingy question. Have a nice day and I hope you have slept and will sleep better than I currently do, heh!

--

I've only used it for like three years.

A quick google suggests that Scrivener 2 was released in 2010. 3 was released in 2017 basically to keep up with OS changes.

(IDK what you searched, but this isn't hard to find, dude.)

Scrivener is a fairly... old-fashioned style of software, I guess I'd call it. Some dude wrote himself a program to write his own novel and then people liked it. Some other guy decided to port it to Windows.

They update approximately never. When they do, recent buyers of the old one upgrade for free and everybody else gets like half off. The trial period is 30 days of actual use. The current retail license for 3 is only like sixty bucks. It's a commercial product, but... not like you've been trained to expect by your average modern software that wants to nickle and dime you at every turn.

Do you need Scrivener? Well, no. Not unless you want customizable high-level ebook output formatting and fancy features like that. You could just use some other free option if you just want to type stories in something that isn't Word. But Scrivener is priced extremely low for what it is.

[dilf-in-peril]

A quick guide to pirating wrestling

There are basically two options when it comes to pirating: streaming (that's what I am calling watching videos on some website for the purpose of this post) and downloading them via torrent.

The problem with streaming is the videos often get taken down from the sites they are hosted on due to copyright claims, which means a lot of links to older shows are just dead.

The problem with torrenting is that it's peer to peer (no hosting website, just all of us sharing the files amongst each other), which means that the older the show the less people still bother to share it, which means a lot of torrent for older shows are dead. (*torrenting also allows people sharing the file to see your IP which copyright holders can theoretically abuse to track you down and sue you but this might depend on your local laws and with torrenting dying because no one knows how it works anymore it's grown much rarer I believe)

Then there is also archive.org which in my experience does not suffer from the issue with videos being taken down but can be rather slow. Archive.org is also a proper archive that does not blast you with pop up ads and links to malware.

For the streaming option there are sites like watchprowrestling.co and watch-wrestling.cc (and many similar ones, they also change urls a lot unfortunately), which do not host the videos but link to them. Links to older shows are often dead as mentioned before.

There are some youtube alternatives that care less about copyright such as bilibili.com and dailymotion.com and have a lot of wrestling shows. You might even be so lucky on youtube.

If you're interested in torrenting you'll need to download some software, I'm sure you'll find guides if you use the search engine of your choice, and then you can also search "torrent sites" and find a list of sites, such as The Pirate Bay or 1337x, where you can search for the show you want to watch.

Lastly, there are some sites that stream wrestling shows live as they happen, such as baked.live.

And then there's asking around if someone's got the file and being invited to private google drive folders and all that, which I guess is modern tape trading but I can't help with that.

Plus, if the issue is not actually money, but just finding the show because it's too old or obscure, try wrestlinghdd.net which has a huge library of shows, which you can either trade for with digital tapes or pay them for.

Feel free to add onto this if you have suggestions.

#wrestling #guide

[pensat-i-fet]

Lesson learned (Rúben Dias x Reader)

**So one of my anons suggested the idea of holidays with Rúben and then a flirty tour guide shows up. And of course, it was too good to pass so here we have some jealous Rúben. Enjoy!! ❤️**

Word count: 1735

Masterlist

Wattpad

"There is an exhibition I would like to go to. I can go by myself if you're not interested".

"We're on holiday together. Where you go, I go".

"That sounds a bit stalkerish, Rúben. And honestly, we can have some time alone. It'd be what? An hour? Two?"

"Too long. I already have to be away from you the rest of the year because of my travelling and yours. You're staying with me all the time during our holiday".

I laugh at Rúben's little pout. And he's right. I want to spend all my time with him too.

"Ok then", I say, sitting down and patting the space next to me so he sits there. "The website says it's free admission. But we can pay 2 euros and get a guide".

"Do we need a guide?", he asks, now sitting next to me and putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Having one won't hurt and it's just 4 euros. The ice cream we ate last night was more expensive than that".

He laughs, remembering my face when I saw the price for a simple vanilla ice cream. "Alright then, book the tickets. I guess that'd be good to move around the place quicker so we have more time for other activities".

"Done. Tomorrow at 11.30. How exciting! I love this designer".

"Anything else you need to check or can we go to lunch now?"

"Take me to lunch, Dias", I tell him, getting up from the bed and offering a hand he kisses before intertwining his fingers with mine and leading us out of the hotel room.

                                           **

The next morning I wake up super excited about the exhibition. J.W. Anderson's work for his namesake brand and for Loewe has been such a joy to follow for the last couple of years. I can't wait to see some of those pieces up close and to hear more about his design process.

"Would it be too on the nose if I wore a Loewe shirt?"

"I don't know?", Rúben is still sleepy and not ready for harder questions than do you want breakfast?

I laugh and shake my head. "I'll just wear this other blouse and shorts. I want to be comfy".

"Well, I don't know who made those shorts but I love the way they look on you".

"And I would love the way a lot of the Loewe menswear collection would look on you", I say, walking closer to where he's sitting on the bed.

"Yeah?", I nod and he starts to caress my thighs which are now exposed because these shorts are very short. "I still won't look as good as you but I guess I could try".

As it's happened every morning since our holidays started, it's a struggle to leave the room. But we have to or we'll be late.

"There it is. That entrance is for the people without tickets and…over there! That's our entrance!"

I almost drag Rúben to the door because of how excited I am about this exhibition.

"Your tickets, please?"

"Here".

"Perfect, please go over there and wait for your guide. He should be here any minute. The previous tour just ended".

"Amazing, thank you".

"Enjoy!"

Rúben and I start to read the itinerary on the walls to pass the time but only two minutes later, a young man stops near us and introduces himself.

"I'll be your guide today. Follow me, please".

"Is it just the two of us?", I ask.

"Yes, the other people who booked the tickets didn't show up".

"Their loss. Let's start".

We go to the first room where there are some of the first designs Anderson did years ago. It's so incredible to see them while Thomas, our guide, explains to us the designer's story. I already know most of it but I still nod every couple of seconds so he knows I'm listening.

"Let's move to the next room", he says, opening the door and holding it for us to walk through.

I smile at him but Rúben doesn't. He looks very serious but I guess he's just bored.

While I'm looking inside one of the vitrines and reading the description, I call Thomas so he can come closer.

"Why are you calling him? He finally left us alone for 5 seconds", says Rúben and I frown.

"I need to ask a question and he's our guide, he has to be near us. What's your problem?"

"Yes?", Thomas gets there before Rúben can say more.

"I was reading this and I have a question about this part", I say, pointing to the paragraph. "I read something different once".

Thomas moves closer to me and places his hand right next to mine, which I don't even notice because I'm busy reading. But Rúben does.

"I wish I had an answer, sorry. I just memorized the stuff for the tour. But I could ask other guides when we are done".

"Oh no, please. Don't worry. I just thought you could help but it's fine. Isn't this your main job, then?"

"No. I'm a tour guide but I do hikes with people. This is just a side gig to earn some extra money".

"Really? We love hiking!"

"We do?", asks Rúben, now both annoyed and confused.

"Well, I do and you follow me like a good boy when I want to go", I joke, making Thomas snort and try to cover it with a fake cough. And Rúben doesn't like that reaction at all.

"If you're free this weekend, you could come to that tour. I promise I'll answer all of your questions there", he winks.

"We could try and find the time…".

"We're really busy", interrupts Rúben.

"During the weekend? No, we aren't".

"Maybe I had plans I didn't tell you about yet".

"Then you can do that and I'll do the hike. I told you it was ok for us to separate for a couple of hours".

Thomas tells us to move to the next room and when we do, Rúben walks next to me and leans down to whisper.

"You're not going on a hike alone with him?"

"What's that supposed to mean? And I'm sure the tours are formed by groups of people, not just by one person".

"I don't care. You are not going".

"You don't get to tell me what I do, Rúben. I thought you would have learned that by now".

I walk faster to join Thomas and Rúben just follows us, glaring at anything our guide says.

"This dress is incredible. I would love to wear one like that one day".

"You'd look fantastic wearing it".

That compliment should have come from my boyfriend…but it came from Thomas.

"Thank you, Thomas", I say sweetly. "And about that hike…".

Even if I'm not looking at Rúben, I can imagine his face right now. I know what they say about poking a bear but I'm feeling feisty. I don't get to go on a hike if I want to go…huh! He's going to be taught a lesson.

By the time we're done, I'm surprised Rúben hasn't said a word. But I can sense his eyes on me the whole time.

"See you Saturday".

"See you then, Thomas. Thanks for the tour, it was perfect".

Rúben is still silent when we walk outside the building and I can't help but laugh.

"You're so stupid, actually".

"Me? He was flirting with you the whole time!", he says, trying not to raise his voice.

"There it is, the jealous rant".

"Would you like it if an attractive woman flirted with me in front of your face?"

"So you also thought Thomas was attractive then?"

I know that's a step too far but his face makes me laugh again.

"Yes, it's really funny".

"Rúben, attractive women flirt with you in front of my face the whole time. But you don't give them the time of day so why should I?"

"You loved Thomas' attention, don't lie".

"No, I didn't. I was just nice to the person who was doing his job and showing us the exhibition we paid to visit. It's called good manners. Or should I just smile at women from now on just so your insecurities don't ruin the day?"

"But he flirted with you", he really is running out of arguments.

"Of course he did, look how hot I am. Wouldn't you flirt with me too?"

He shakes his head and keeps walking. But I swear I saw a little smile on his face that he tried, and failed, to hide.

Once back at the hotel room, Rúben throws himself to the bed, face first.

"Sooo dramatic!"

I take my shoes off before going to the bed too and I sit on his lower back.

"What are you doing?", he asks, trying to turn his head to look at me.

"I've got two options", I say, placing my hands on his shoulders. "I could give you a massage to get rid of all this tension you got after your little tantrum. Or…I could strangle you for being so silly. You choose".

His eyes soften when he looks at me. "Can I choose the massage even if I deserve to be strangled?"

"Magic words?"

"Words? Please is just one word".

"No", I shake my head. "Not please but I'm an idiot".

"Can this idiot get a massage from his beautiful girlfriend that he doesn't deserve?"

"Of course".

I start to massage his upper back and it really feels tense. I'll need a massage myself after all this work.

"That feels really good", he mutters. "But do you know what feels better?"

"You massaging me?"

"That means I get to touch you so sure. But I meant something else", I stay quiet waiting for him to tell me. "That Thomas won't get a massage like this".

"Well, there is always the hike…".

I'm about to laugh when Rúben flips us so he can be the one on top.

"That's not funny. And I'm coming on the hike too".

"But you don't like hiking", I tease.

"I don't like when you use my jealousy against me either yet here we are", he says, now kissing my neck.

"I was just teaching you a lesson".

"Really?", he says, staring into my eyes. "Maybe I should teach you a lesson".

Yes, it's a struggle to leave the room during this holiday.

#ruben dias #ruben dias imagine #ruben dias one shot #ruben dias x reader #ruben dias angst #ruben dias fluff #ruben dias x yn #footballer imagine #footballer one shot #footballer angst #footballer fluff #footballer x reader

[panlight]

I'm not sure if its possible to get something like pigs blood from a butcher in the US, but i feel like someone like Esme would prefer that over hunting animals.

And maybe Carlisle and Rosalie would work on a blood alternative, kind of like TruBlood, for vampires.

What are your thoughts on that?

My understanding is that it's tricky in the US to find it, but with the Cullens' money they could probably pay off some local butchers to save blood for them. Just imagining Esme being like "oh I make authentic black pudding and sell it online!" as an explanation and they make like a fake online store front for it and then people start trying to actually order it and she's like, oh crap I guess I have to make some now? Like when you read stories about restaurants that were really fronts for mob activity but someone wanders in and the mobsters have to get their mom to cook some pasta for the oblivious customers.

But, really, if SM were more interested in 'vampire slice of life' stuff AND if she had more room in her story for the secondary characters to have desires and motivations outsides of either facilitating or resenting the main romance, of course Carlisle would have been trying to make a blood substitute, and of course Rosalie and Edward, with their various STEM degrees, would be helping him. And OF COURSE they would have researched the myths surrounding vampires having children long before Bella got pregnant. It's absolutely impossible for me to suspend my disbelief to accept that the Cullens and especially Carlisle were just like 'wow we literally never thought or wondered about this until just now' when Bella gets pregnant. Esme and Rosalie LONG for children! SURELY they've researched this before!?!? I could accept that they researched it but found no concrete evidence and thought it was just a myth made up by the Volturi or whatever but just the 'literally no idea . . . even though apparently there are books in our library about it, and our groundskeepers on Isle Esme know about it, and there are websites online about it' does not make sense to me unless the Cullens have just literally been standing around like unplayed Sims waiting for Edward and Bella to need them for something.

I also think the Cullens probably should have been working on some kind of sparkle-suppressing vampire make-up. I've seen people asking why they don't just use make-up to hide the sparkle or look older, but since their skin is so different from human skin, normal make-up probably wouldn't work that well. But again, you've got Alice the fashion maven and bunch of other vampires with backgrounds in biology and they can't put their heads together and come up with some kind of vampire-friendly, sparkle-proof foundation?

Again, I get it: at the end of the day Twilight is a romance, and romances generally and understandably have a narrow focus on the central relationship. But romances don't usually have so MANY side characters, either. Realistically, I would expect the Cullens, with their various medical and scientific studies, abundant free time (no sleep!) and unlimited wealth, would have already solved a lot of living-as-a-vampire problems by the time Bella showed up.

Assuming they can be solved, of course. Maybe vampire venom on the skin really just makes any make-up lasting for more than a half hour impossible. Maybe a blood substitute just doesn't work because there's some magical 'blood is the life' thing going on here. Maybe pig's blood is just too impractical to get from a butcher in the volume they need it. Maybe the act of hunting helps them release tension and they realize they miss it.

But yeah I'd have loved to have seen more of this. There's some stuff in Midnight Sun that hints at the stuff the Cullens get up to, but it's more like, Emmett and Jasper's complicated chess game with multiple boards, or Alice and Rosalie designing clothes on the computer. I don't think SM really thought about 'what would a vampire doctor who wants to be as human as possible be researching in his spare time?' and so we missed out on some of this stuff.

#asks

[communistkenobi]

Hiiiiiiii Nick, so sorry if you've already answered this somewhere, but I couldn't find it. I was wondering if you have any recs for leftist literature that's somewhat digestible for people who don't usually read a lot of academic papers/journals and the like? Basically, theory for beginners, I guess. I've been wanting to start reading more theory and while everything you posted about The Authoritarian Personality was super interesting, I think that trying to read a 1000 page book right now would kill me 💀

(also definitely don't feel the need to answer, I just thought you might appreciate getting an ask that's not star wars related asjdjdjshdjdhsjdjfj)

oh god yeah do not start with authoritarian personality that thing is insane

There is a Marxism archive that has a page for beginners here (ignore the advice to read Capital. Like try if you want to but it’s not accessible at all in my experience lol, so I would not start there). That website gives you free access to a lot of theory, you can poke around there and see what you might want to read (if you scroll to the bottom of the page I linked it has a link where you can search by subject - so if you want to learn more about leftist feminism, or colonialism, or etc, you can do so). I’m not the most well read marxist unfortunately so I can’t give you detailed recommendations from the lists they give. I have read a bit of Lenin and found him to be quite funny. Also sorry this is skewing communist, I have only read a few bits of anarchist literature and wasn’t impressed with it (not a dig at anarchism in general, I just did not have a good introduction to it and because of my schooling I tend to spend most of my time with more critical/marxist lit). So don’t let that sway you, this is just my own bias and theoretical instincts.

Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton (this is a book, sorry I don’t have a link) is fairly accessible, as is Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher (this is very short, like under a hundred pages).

Also I KNOW I keep bringing this up but Discourse on Colonialism is such a fantastic essay (you can skip past the introduction in this pdf if you like and go straight to the essay). You don’t need to know all the theorists Cesaire is talking about or get all of his references. I think this is a very good introduction to colonialism as a force in the world. Cesaire is a fantastic writer, extremely witty and scathing while being incredibly insightful, truly a level of hater we should all aspire to become

There’s also the communist manifesto, which is very short and easy to read. You don’t have to pay too much attention to the historical stuff they bring up imo. This just answers the basic question of like “so what do communists believe exactly?” Even if you’re not a communist I think it’s useful to see these beliefs articulated in plain language.

If you want a book to read, there is Black Jacobins by CLR James about the Haitian Revolution (~200 pages). This is a history book written from a leftist perspective. I find reading about history very instructive because it alerts you to a lot of the problems with mass organising, all the sticky ways that class conflict manifests at all levels of society, and gives you context to a lot of leftist thought that, when detached from its historical circumstances, may seem weird or abstract.

I hope this helps!

#asks #book club #I’ve gotten a few asks in a similar vein so I am just consolidating all that here #thank uuuu kyra also if you want a specific pdf but cannot get it I can probably get it for you #so just lmk

[netherworldpost]

Hey Atty, I've seen a few creators starting to use Substack for their stories. I was wondering if you'd heard anything/have any opinions on it since i usually find your take on this sort of stuff interesting

I actually wrote a huge, long, rambling review --

-- VERY POSITIVE REVIEW UNTIL--

via SUBSTACK SUPPORT

...what. I'm sorry. What?

"Note: Substack charges a one-time $50 USD fee to use a custom domain for your publication."

Without exception: If you are creating content, you need to own your domain.

The gears behind-the-scenes will almost certainly belong to someone else, but you need to own the address.

To market it, be it on one social app or many, in print or in t-shirts or in skywriting, you need to say "Find my stuff at My Website Dot Whatever. Sign up!"

This domain needs to belong to you and cannot be tied to a service you cannot get away from.

What if you decide Substack sucks?

What if they say "hey we are doubling our rates"?

What if they go out of business?

What if you want to branch out into other things beyond newsletters?

To be fair. You are not being locked into Substack's system.

You can pay them $50 USD, then walk away in 3 years and point your domain somewhere else, the cost being this one-time fee.

But I want to talk about something.

When you get a domain, from Google Domains or any other the other billion companies that sell them, the registrar says "okay where does this thing point to?" -- as in -- Substack is not doing the work. The registrar is. That's part of the roughly $12/year fee you pay them for.

I have never seen a company charge you to point a domain to their service before. I am suspicious.

Notice how Tumblr is not charging to use a custom domain?

At this point, I am admittedly guessing, but the only reason I can think of a charge is to make authors second-guess if they leave the platform.

Evil Supply Co. closed in the summer of 2019, I am writing this in February 2023, I still get traffic on the old domain. It diminishes month-by-month and yet it is still a valuable "I am rebranding!" tool.

I plan on keeping the domain forever. It costs me very little per year because no one has charged me to point it at the address of the new project. I can change gears once a week and point it somewhere else without fee.

I have never seen a site charge to have a domain pointed at them.

Prior to writing this answer, I had never looked into Substack's business model.

Having found this point, I would never recommend them to anyone for any reason, even if their newsletter is going to be free forever.

In contempt and anger at this bullshit, I offer a non-affiliate link to MailChimp's blog on launching a paid newsletter.

I'm not so much saying "you should use MailChimp" as "there are other solutions that won't charge you."

I have used MC in the past to great enjoyment and success.

I've used other services too. They won't charge you for pointing a domain to them.

Because this is Tumblr which is owned by Automattic which owns WordPress and because I am super fucking mad at this Substack bullshit I will close with saying WordPress.com also has the ability to launch a newsletter and they won't charge you for a domain to be pointed at it.

I hope this is helpful.

It has been an illuminating experience to research for you.

#substack #newsletters #marketing #digital marketing #newsletter marketing #small business marketing #small business

[copperbadge]

Current Events Reading Reccs

I had a couple of people asking me about my “current events” reading in general (news aggregators, podcasts, etc) so I figured I’d just list them off here. 

I don’t read any tumblrs that are specifically focused on current events, I just kinda get news from various people I’ve followed, but I’ve found in general it helps to find people for whom the news is a hobby, not a consuming habit. I have communists and anarchists and prison abolitionists on my dash, but they aren’t people who have made that their identity, which removes the “You are insufferable” factor. So I guess find fandom weirdos with strong political views and follow ‘em. 

Also I want to state at the top that part of why I’m on top of shit that I get through Tumblr is that I have a policy of never reblogging or reacting to anything until I have 1. read the article being linked and 2. done my own research. This has saved me a vast deal of embarrassment, because sometimes I’ll save something outrageous to research and before I can even research it, it’s been rebutted. I cannot stress how important the process of reading and research is -- you can’t get your news from headlines and particularly not clickbait you see on Tumblr. 

As far as I know there’s no single tumblr clearinghouse for good high-level current events reporting and analysis (the analysis I think is a vital part) but if folks have resources they use, drop ‘em in the comments or reblogs.  

Anyway, some mailing lists I belong to are:

Quartz Daily Brief: finance and tech, mainly. Back when they were for-pay I paid for them, this newsletter was that entertaining. I believe they’ve now gone fee-free but they sometimes link to paywalls. I get it as an email newsletter, that’s just a link to the web version. 

Breakfast with ARTNews: Obviously a bit niche but I really like keeping up with the art world and they cover art crime too. The link is to the all-newsletters signup page, I only belong to Breakfast. 

The Futurist: This is the most insufferable nonsense masquerading as news ever. The ads are indistinguishable from the content. But it does help me keep a finger hard on the pulse of what irritating tech bros are into. Watch scams unfold in real time! 

I also follow a number of local interests -- community centers and neighborhood organizations primarily -- in Chicago, so those are always good to hunt up. Most major cities have a “citycast” podcast (just search “citycast [your city]” in your podcatcher) that is also good for local news.  

Some websites:

Longreads: Since longform.org went under, the best place to find the current longform pieces that everyone’s talking about.  

Brand Eating: Extremely niche, but I really love reading about “brand” food trends. It covers new food releases and sales and such in the areas of packaged food (potato chips, candy, etc), fast food, and casual dining. It’s also great as a resource for cheap eats. 

I stopped reading Bon Appetit recently (they ran this appallingly sympathetic story about a dickhead hiring manager) but like, honestly, if you want to track food trends, the BA email newsletter is kinda the way to go. If you’d like good food news in podcast form, I recommend The Sporkful (it’s in the podcast list). 

I used to read the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Fortune Magazine (which mostly scraped the not-awful stuff from Forbes) but I’ve cut it down to just the Trib; I don’t really need Fortune to keep me current and the NYT has morphed into a creepy proto-fash nightmare. The Trib has pretty good national/international coverage so if you don’t have a decent local paper it’s not bad, but I don’t know how much access you get as a nonpaying reader (I subscribe). 

Podcasts:

Quartz has a podcast, Quartz Obsession, which is off-and-on in terms of when episodes come out but very interesting when they do. 

Planet Money is a once-weekly podcast about economics, and has a daily show called “The Indicator” which is daily “small bites” current events coverage. 

The Late Show and the Daily Show both have an “ears edition” podcast that’s just the show audio; I’ve stopped listening for the most part but if you want good cultural commentary, that’s the place to go. 

The Journal by the Wall Street Journal is a weekly podcast focusing on one or two news stories, generally pretty relevant. 

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is a panel show but it’s a fun way to get bite-sized news you can look up later in more detail if you want. And it’s taped in Chicago! If you listen you can hear me in the audience laughing. :D (I’m going to another taping in a few weeks!) 

Behind The Bastards is actually a history podcast but if you’re listening current he does a bit of current-events commentary, and also I just really like it as a podcast.

Stuff You Should Know is a trivia podcast but they occasionally do current-events stuff.

The Sporkful is pretty good about current food news, although I run hot and cold on it.

I used to listen to a really good “professional” medical podcast, but it went full paywall when it started to offer certain forms of professional credit, so I found The House Of Pod as a very good free replacement. It’s not really for non-doctors, but as a non-doctor I still find it accessible and informative. (For medical history and curiosity, I do highly recommend Bedside Rounds, but I wouldn’t call it a current events cast.) 

So that’s how I get my news -- it’s not what I would call fully comprehensive but it’s reasonably informative! 

#bread-tab #auressea #tigerist #current events

[rohirric-hunter]

I feel like something is missing from the discussion surrounding AdBlock which is the fact that YouTube used to be free. I tried to address this in a previous post but I guess I wasn't clear enough because everyone got on a tangent and obsessed over my use of the word "charity." Really, it doesn't matter if the original owners of YouTube meant to make money off of it. What they released was a free product with no ads. Their intentions don't matter as much as what they actually did.

Like, it wasn't like a free trial for a paid program where they were like, "You can do X, Y, and Z with this for X long and then you have to pay for it!" It was just free. It wasn't free with ads like most other websites that were always up front about that. It was just free.

They set up their terms when they launched the website. They don't get to change them now.

This is why I have no problem with the idea of paying for ad-free Tumblr but I do object to paying for ad-free YouTube. When I joined Tumblr ten years ago, it was free with ads. As far as I know it was always free with ads. The original developers of Tumblr were never stupid enough to think they could just operate a website without some kind of funding. I now have the option to pay to get rid of the ads. Awesome! This is a good deal! YouTube, however, is asking me to pay for what I used to get for free. No. Screw you. I'm not paying for it. You bought a website that had set up bad terms for itself when it was founded. That's on you, not me.

#they should do other things to monetize their platform #like leaning into improving their twitch and patreon knockoffs so they can earn % of that money

[acertainmoshke]

Let's Talk About Notion

So, I use Notion for plenty of non-writing things to keep myself organized, but the main thing I use it for is writing. And I love it because it can be simple--just pages nested within pages and including lists or paragraphs--or as complex as you need. The template I use for keeping track of my novels I did pay $20 for, but that was to the random person who put in all the time and effort and not to the company. There are free templates and if you put in the time to figure it out, you can make the complex ones yourself. And I do have a side page to just add pages for random ideas and not clutter my official system.

Anyway.

This is the front page of my favorite Notion template ever, WIP. I can add as many projects as I'm working on, complete with cover pages (which I use just to be thematic but if I had actual covers I could upload those too) and summaries, but those aren't the practical parts. Based on the word count goal I entered, it tells me how close I am, as well as calculating how many book pages each takes up and how long it would take to read.

There are also tabs for concept stories that I'm still planning and don't want to count towards my word count goal yet, and archived ones that I'm putting on hold.

under the projects section, still on the front page, I have word count cards where I can enter my daily word count and it automatically updates the goal based on the end word count goal for all active projects and the date I said I wanted to finish each.

If I open one of my projects, it gives me all this info in what is technically the header. I entered the summary, genre, dates, and goals, but it calculated the rest.

That page includes chapters, which I can put in different stages of development, name, and move around; characters to keep track of, which I can attach to relevant chapters, and tasks I don't really use but they work as a checklist. That may be more useful when I'm in the 3rd draft and editing.

Below all of that there's also a storyboard. I don't use it for TDATS and I don't really want to share the one I do use regularly, but basically they're pages attached to various chapters and you can use them as scenes or events to plot out the story, move things around, and get an idea of what's happening before writing.

I prefer to write my actual stories in Word, but I could write them here directly in the chapters. There's also a spot to include specific words used or introduced in a chapter. Most of what I use these for is keeping track of word count, because you have to add them to the chapters for them to be added together into the project total. But it calculating how long it takes to read each chapter is certainly fun.

Anyway, you should definitely use Notion--there are other writing templates if you want something free or just different, and you don't have to use templates at all, but as a chaotic neurodivergent author, this has seriously helped my organization and planning.

The website is notion.so and there's desktop and mobile apps and the service itself is free. I guess there is a pro version but I think that's only useful if you're trying to use it as a team for work.

#moshke writes #writeblr #notion

[placid-platypus]

Kinda funny and kinda sad seeing people on Reddit whining about YouTube cracking down on adblockers and also refusing to pay for the subscription to get it ad-free. I mean, I get it, getting shit for free and having other people pay for it is great, I do some of that too when I can get away with it. I'm not judging people just for using adblock.

But, like, that doesn't give you the moral high ground, right? You don't get to then complain that you're being oppressed when they try to stop you from taking advantage of the free service without giving them anything in return. If you don't give them any money, and don't watch any ads that they make money off of, why should they give a shit about you?

At the end of the day, like any other online service(app, website, etc) either YouTube makes money or it shuts down. If you get value from using it, and want it to keep existing, it's worth thinking about where that money should come from. I'm of the opinion that customers paying directly is usually more healthy than relying on ads (and I know @argumate has mentioned that too, for example) but at the end of the day money has to come from somewhere; websites aren't free.

(Relatedly I think the zero interest rate environment of the 2010s has given people some pretty fucked up ideas of what's normal for companies to give away for free. A lot of people don't realize how unsustainable a lot of that really was and they might be in for a rude awakening now that it's ending.)

I guess the other consistent principled position for someone who opposes both ads and a paid subscription is to get AoOO to spin up a video hosting branch. But you better be ready to do a hell of a lot of fundraising if you want that to work out because video isn't cheap.

#youtube #capitalism #tech #zirp

[sweettoothedtrickster13]

How to Start a Commonplace Book

Since I have zero desire to start a YouTube channel or a separate website blog, I guess I'll throw this here.

What is a commonplace book?

It's a simple question with a different answer from anyone who keeps one and/or knows what it even is. In very basic terms, a commonplace book is a physical book where you write down quotes you find interesting. That's the extent of what some people do, but I say take it a step further. Add your thoughts on the quote. This helps in a few ways- it helps put the quote in context in your life, and it trains your brain to really think about what you find interesting.

Why a physical book?

There have been tons of studies about handwriting vs typing, but really I can only give you my own experience. I really like the act of writing longhand. It helps cement things in my memory and gives me an actual record of my life. I can look through old notebooks and see what was important to me at that time in my life.

Another reason I think a physical commonplace works better is that it takes time. And that's the point. Re-writing a quote and then your thoughts forces you to slow down and examine yourself to see why you react the way you do. And slowing down in this age of super-fast information is something I think most people would benefit from.

How do I keep one?

Take a notebook- any one will do- and a pen. It doesn't matter if you choose a super fancy $300 notebook and a fountain pen, or a composition book and a ballpoint pen. If you want some cheap options until you find out if you even like the process, I suggest hitting up your local school supply store and getting the cheapest notebook and box of pens you can find. I prefer black ink, but you do you. I like Bic ultra round stick grip pens, but again you do you. The best pen I've come across is the click pen I got for free when I voted. So really any pen will do. You might have to experiment a bit to figure out exactly what you like as you go along. If you want some other advice, I recommend checking out this post. Fair warning, I haven't checked out the brands listed because I have a truly ungodly amount of unfinished notebooks hanging around.

Then you need a source to pull quotes from. You can use books, podcasts, youtube videos, friends, family, countrymen, movies, TV shows. Anything that strikes your fancy and contains quotes that resonate with you in some way. Don't worry about if it isn't 'scholarly' or 'high brow' enough*. I've had quotes from children's cartoons stick with me.

*and 'enough' is really a stupid term because really it only has to matter to you. Fuck everyone else, they shouldn't matter in terms of how you judge yourself. If you like it, that's reason enough.

Why should I keep one?

Expressing any thoughts to yourself and self-examination is a hard process but a worthy one. Only through self-examination will you figure out who you are and what you believe. And figuring that out is crucial, because it's so much easier to just absorb the qualities and thoughts of the people around you instead of standing on your own two feet. Knowing yourself deeply and truly means that you can control your own future better. When you really know yourself, it's really hard for people to try to convince you to do/think something that is antithesis to who you are/who you want to be. Knowing yourself is the first step to knowing who want to be at all. At least in my opinion.

How do I even start?

I recommend your favorite media. As I said before, I don't care if it's a book or a cartoon. Consume it again, and really pay attention to which parts you like. Write them down in your notebook and examine why you like it so much. It will feel weird and awkward and hard at first. You'll automatically want to stop. I say give yourself at least a week of doing this regularly to decide if you want to continue or not.

I also suggest pulling from more than one source of media- if you read a lot of books, try podcasts. If you like TV shows, try movies. Just diversify your intake. You don't have to branch into genres you don't like, but knowing how different media can accomplish different things is a worthwhile endeavor to me.

What if I don't have any thoughts on the quote/can't pin down why I like it?

Leave a blank space after the quote. You might not be able to examine the feelings now, but there will come a time later where you will. The subconscious is a miraculous thing. Often, writing down the quote helps your brain recognize that it's important and worth thinking about. Don't ever feel bad for not figuring it out right away. It will take time.

How do I keep up with the habit?

It doesn't matter if you come across a good quote every day or every week or once every ten years. Just keep your ears and eyes open, and you'll find good ones along the way. And when you find them, write them down.

My commonplace book isn't as pretty/organized as other people's. Why bother?

Fuck others commonplace books. Take inspiration if you want, but your commonplace is just that- yours. You don't have to add drawings or keep an index or have a theme if you don't want to. Just the fact that you are thinking about what you consume puts you ahead of the pack.

Other thoughts

Starting a commonplace book is one of the things that helps me know myself, other than journaling. Both are good in different ways, and I might do a journaling post in the future. Taking a close look at why you react the way you do to certain things is the best way to figure out what the purpose the creator of the media had when they created it. Propaganda isn't just in the news- it's everywhere. Taking the time to examine your reactions to others' words is the best way I've found to recognize it. And if you don't want to go that deep, that's fine too. Consider it a way to keep your favorite quotes close.

So happy commonplace book keeping.

#real life adventures #commonplace book #about writing

[quartztwst]

May I humbly ask about your animatic-making process?

i got you

1. Find an idea

I usually get my ideas from tiktoks or some songs.

I kinda try to fit the song to the character I want in it lmao

2. Download the audio

I’m an android phone user so downloading stuff is really easily.

I usually use YTMP3.com to download my stuff

there is a lot of websites with that link but l usually pick the second or first one

Then insert the audio in Alight Motion. I use Alight Motion a lot since there’s a lot of choices there.

Also I use the APK version so I don’t have to pay for premium features. ALSO THIS IS ON MY PHONE. I use an Ipad to draw….

3. (Optional) Storyboarding

GUYS TBH IN MY ANIMATICS I DON’T STORYBOARD

EVERYTHING IN MY ANIMATICS, I LITERALLY JUST WING IT LMAOOO

The only animatic I did need to storyboard was Floyd’s little minecraft song angst video LMAOOO:

a lot of people happen to storyboard their animatics so they have a plan but i literally storyboard in my head and if i think it looks good, i just put it in 😭😭😭

I literally have to go on my old tablet to fetch some of my old content here

4. START DRAWING

In my drawing process, it’s kinda easy unless I’m using a bunch of colors.

I also try to change the styles up so you can differeniate the animatics from eachother like how in Jade’s Laufey video, the colors are warm and soon turn pale and cold. And in the To Love a Boy, it’s like pt 2 of Jade’s Laufey video but in MC’s perspective and in which the MC does not return his feelings so the colors aren’t warm as Jade’s perspective.

And then in Azul’s Laufey video, the appearance and color palette’s looks very sweet and valentiney since it’s in the MC’s perspective on having a FAT FUCKING CRUSH on Azul

Epel was the hardest because during that time, I was not that active on TikTok and school took my time so it took a lot of time to gain back the motivation and finish it

ALSO, i literally draw on my Ipad now and I send the pictures to my phone to edit them so it’s an annoying process since I DON’T WANNA PAY FOR ALIGHT MOTION WHEN I CAN GET IT FOR FREE

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT TOOK ME A YEAR?? My “I Wanna Be a Princess!” MUSIC VIDEO… it’s not animatic but that took like a year to finish because I forgot about it but I did so well on it.

AND YOU CAN TELL HOW LONG IT TOOK BECAUSE THE MC APPEARANCE ALREADY CHANGED

5. Editing

Okay, I’m so happy that I actually got into editing for a bit because my videos would’ve looked so trash bro

LMSOOO but editing animatics aren’t really that hard unless you’re going for a specific transition or movement

I guess the transition that pissed me off the most were the ones in Jade’s Laufey video when it switches from warm to cold and Epel’s MLP video where it switches from silly to dark.

My editing process isn’t that unique. I just insert the song, move the pictures, and done 😭😭😭

6. Touch-ups

Touch-ups include subtitles, effects, filters, etc

I don’t really use filters for my animatics unless i’m going for something

BUT SUBTITLES?? yeah I use them a lot lmao

But also trying to fit the subtitles with the animatic is hard bc IDK WHAT TO GO FOR so i literally pull them out my ass

7. Post

I don’t do much about posting or what to say with my animatics

i just post them

[safety-pin-punk]

hello! i saw someone point out that the blackout (the indefinite version, anyway) would isolate a lot of disabled ppl during disability pride month & what would hurt tumblr most is actually not buying any of their stuff, not blazing posts not buying ad-free stuff like that, instead of a blackout. so uhh heads up i guess lol

Hi! Thank you for pointing this out, I’ve seen a few posts like this and I just haven’t gotten around to addressing these things on my own blog, though I guess nows the time lol

1. I do not plan on doing an indefinite blackout. Only the 48 hour one. This has actually aligned with me wanting to take a break from tumblr a bit anyways, and at least this way I’m kinda supporting a cause (even if it may be in vain). Its kinda funny, I think this is the same weekend I did my own ‘blackout’ type thing last year when I took a trip to Gettysburg. So yeah, I do not plan on doing a blackout indefinitely, because a) I do like tumblr and the people I know on tumblr and b) that would be a very shitty thing to do basically just during disability pride month. I do like how poetic it is though that the 48 hour blackout is at the end of queer pride and beginning of disability pride though, it feels like we are standing in solidarity as the torch is passed, ya know?

2. I disagree with not buying their stuff hurting them more. Think about it, this site is already unprofitable from people NOT buying those things. Most people dont pay to use this website to begin with, so ‘boycotting’ it wouldnt do that much. However, they do make money off the ads, if you click the ads, the more ads you see the higher the chance you click and engage them and the more revenue they make (especially with how broken mobile is and it gets wonky when you try to scroll past and sometimes you accidentally click them). If we do blackout for 48 hours, thats 48 hours they cant make money off of us seeing ads or engaging with ads, and I think that would hurt them more than just boycotting buying stuff that most people ignore anyway. Alternatively (or rather in conjunction with the blackout) I also think we should be leaving 1 star reviews on the app stores

#mail tag #blackout #tumblr blackout

[artichow]

Hi, how are you doing?

My sister seems interested in doing commission work, and she's asking me for help with it, but I don't know anything about it. Could you help me help her?

How does the process of commissions work?

There any tips/recommendations you could give her?

Hello!

I'm definitely not an expert and definitely winging it as I go and taking what i see other artists do into consideration, so bear that in mind and take what i say with a grain of salt! I also assumed while writing this that this is about art commissions? If it's not sorry I kind of went on a tangent at the end about it but most of the advice still apply!

I'm guessing your sister has a product in mind they want to sell. Most people make a little website either pointing to the platforms they use to sell or to google forms they have for clients to fill out. I use carrd, there's a free option that lets you have a lot of creative freedom and enough elements to make a good website, and boom! Now onto selling commissions. To sell those you can either use a platform for selling stuff online, i use ko-fi because it's the most practical option, there's also v-gen, which i haven't tried but heard good things of. With that option it's easier to have fixed prices, so if something seems to hard to draw for that price it's harder to ask for more but most clients are okay with tipping an additional fee through that same platform. You can also just have a google form available where you ask the potential client to describe what they want, leave their email adress and you can get back to them and offer an accurate price for their commission idea. If they want to purchase that commission you then can send them a paypal invoice and they can pay it.

Most people I know use paypal, I saw people using Stripe or Venmo too. Ko-fi only allows you to link a Paypal or a Stripe account though. While using Paypal i would advise you to find a website that tells you how much Paypal will take from the commission, because they have a fee, and it usually stings. That way you can take that into account and raise your prices according to that so you still get the amount of money you need by selling your service. However I gotta say that Paypal always takes more than what those paypal fees conversion websites say it will, idk why.

Another website i use a lot to do pricing is calculpourcentage.com (sorry it's in french but i'm sure there are varients in other languages). It's pretty handy to calculate pricings along with the good old trusty phone calculator.

A very, very important part of selling commissions online is to have a solid Terms of Services written and available for clients to read through. It's like when you download a software or game and you have to check the litte box that says you agree with their terms of services. I know we pretty much all just scroll down and tick the box without reading but commission clients should never do that. Read the TOS!!! In your TOS you should put anything you need to make sure the client knows what their getting, any behavior or commission inquiry you will not accept, your rights to decline any commission for any reasons, your rights over the finished product, etc. I know it sounds daunting said like that but don't worry too much, it takes some time to put together but most people take whatever they need from other artists' TOS, you can frankenstein them and tadaa! perfect TOS for your needs and what you offer. You can and should absolutely update it whenever you want or need to. Here is a link to my TOS for inspiration if your sister needs some, but again, I think it's best to look for other artists TOS to maybe find some points I didn't write in mine.

Finally, to talk about the action itself of doing commissions for people, I have some advice as well. Firstly if you can, only offer things you feel up to doing. This might seem like a given but anything that makes the process less stressful and puts less pressure on yourself, you should do it. Commissions should be fun, especially if you're starting out. I know not everyone has the luxury or privilege to be able to, but if a commission inquiry makes you uncomfortable for any reason, don't accept it. I've had mostly good experiences with clients so far but there are stories going around online about scammers or people who ghost commissioners or clients, so my advice is to stay informed about possible scams, stay honest and communicate with your clients about possible delays and stuff like that.

And very important point that I almost forgot, commissioning art is a luxury, and any work needs good pay, no matter your skill level. I think every commission artist starts out by underselling themselves, and you probably will too, and it's okay. My advice is still to try and look at the price you settled on for a commission and add a little more. Keep in mind how much time you're taking to draw, gather references and so on. You will probably have to adjust your prices as times goes on. Everything I listed so far are things that can and probably will change with experience, it's how most of us learn and adjust the way we work.

Another thing is that for the majority of artists, commissions we do get are very sparce and for artists who can make it their job it's an immense workload and very hard to manage. I know it's easier said than done but my advice is to try and not let your commissions order number get you down or reflect your art's worth in your head. In my opinion art is priceless and deserves all our love and time regardless of if it's "good" or "bad", but it's pretty antithetical with literally putting a price tag on my work :') Anyway, commissions can feel demotivating or have a negative impact on your health in many ways, so if you can feel free to close them anytime you want to and try to keep time to yourself for your personal art too!

I think that's all I can come up with right now, I hope it helps you or your sister, and good luck to them if they do try out offering commissions!!

#I really hope this is somewhat clear? and it helps maybe? #this took way longer than i thought it would fgdjhd #anyway all the best! #art commissions #commission advice #arti talks