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hhssyyaa · 7 months

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Is blogging still relevant in the age of TikTok and Instagram?

Hello everyone! Something that I think has been slept on for quite a while now is blogging and its time to talk about it. Living in a generation that is captivated by large social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, we tend to get so caught up in current trends that previous trends get drowned and forgotten. Now, strap up because we are going to dive deep into it.

Blogging: The beginning of online content.

Blogging was a worldwide phenomenon when it comes to having online content in the early days on internet. It was one of the main sources of content where people can share anything one can imagine in the internet. So, what is blogging and how is it the start of online content creation? As stated by Maulidina (2023), a ‘blog’ which is short for “weblog” refers to an online diary or informational website, made by an individual or group. Bloggers were the original influencers as blogging help express people’s thoughts on things online. According to Gunn (2023), it is believed that the first blog created was back in 1994 by a student named Justin Hall. This shows that blogging has been around for a very long time in internet history. From there, blogging has been a thing for people to creatively and freely express their personal lives and thought in their own blogs.

The appeal of blogging

There’s no denying that blogging has its own unique appeal to it since it was quite a big thing on the internet way before TikTok and Instagram. So, what makes blogging interesting in this day and age and is it still popular now? The appeal in blogging stems from the depth it provides that no social media can compete to. In blogging, the opportunity to dig deeper and truly explore a certain subject is completely feasible. This will also allow a more personal connection between the blogger and the audience. According to Bretous (2023), in terms of lead generation and brand exposure, blogs are still quite helpful. And consumers continue to like them. 60% of people read blogs at least once a week, according to a HubSpot research. Therefore, blogs won't be obsolete for marketers very soon.

Authencity and connection

Blogging in the public’s eyes is often synonymous with authenticity unlike their predecessors such as TikTok and Instagram that is always plagued by misinformation and false facts. Blogs are a great space where people can be their own true self. The audience will appreciate the authenticity which will then establish a more personal connection. Not only that, it builds a trust and a good credibility which is important in online content creation and having a following on the internet. With being honest and transparent in witing a blogpost, it could also give a unique voice to the blogger and also to those who could relate to it.

The rise of TikTok and Instagram

Of course, not long after, we see TikTok and Instagram being more popular nowadays than blogging. Not a person in this day and age who does not know what is a TikTok or an Instagram as it is that prevalent today. It has taken over anyone and everyone’s screens but we can’t deny its appeal. In my opinion, I think social media now would be very different without blogging ever appearing. Blogging walked first before 30-seconds clips could ever run. People are encouraged to speak their minds freely on the internet now because of how blogging was designed to be. We, now, should appreciate it more and maybe explore it more.

The hybrid approach

I’ve seen more and more content creators are adapting the blogging format into their online content now and I think that is exciting. They have found a way to merge the old and new in TikTok and Instagram to compliment their short clips with creating a blog to offer a deeper context to their content. It's a perfect harmony of mediums.

Conclusion

So, to answer back the big question, is blogging still relevant in the age of TikTok and Instagram? I’d say it is a resounding yes. While the internet has changed a lot from the start of it, blogging still lives on until now – just in a different look. It is still thriving and living and I don’t think it will be leaving anytime soon. There is no question that blogging has earned its place in the online content creation space on the internet regardless whether that impact is positive or negative. Blogging still holds its own credibility and niche community with its own appreciation. As the saying goes, nothing beats the classics.

References:

Bretous, M. (2023, March 13). Are Blogs Dead in 2023? We Asked 10 Marketing Experts. Hubspot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/are-blogs-dead#:~:text=Blogs%20continue%20to%20be%20extremely,of%20marketers'%20toolbox%20anytime%20soon.

Gunn, D. (2023, July 13). The history of Blogging: From 1997 Untill Now (With Pictures). Themeisle. https://themeisle.com/blog/history-of-blogging/#gref.

Maulidina, M. (2023, August 9). What is a Blog? Definition, Blog Types, and Benefits Explained. Hostinger tutorials. https://www.hostinger.my/tutorials/what-is-a-blog.

#MDA20009 #Week4

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oumakokichi · 4 years

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Hello I am the Tsumugi love hotel anon Thank you for answering my ask it's great to know that other people have the same problem Sorry if this sounds strange but it's hard for me to enjoy V3 without thinking about this I love Danganronpa and I like Tsumugi but this really really bothered me And I kinda don't want to assume that someone who created a series I like so much is like this I guess as a fan Do you have any advice? So sorry but I have this habit of overthinking things and just want help

Hi again anon! It’s not a strange question at all; this is sadly kind of a common dilemma to run into in most fandom spaces, and it’s perfectly normal to have conflicting feelings about these things.

The best advice I can give is to view everything through a critical lens. By this, I don’t mean “you can’t ever enjoy things casually” or “you have to hate the media you consume in order to be a Good Fan™.” I simply mean that it’s important to be aware that pretty much all media is going to be flawed on some level, and that it’s important to not brush aside those flaws when having a real discussion about the content we enjoy and consume.

Part of the reason why I love meta and analysis so much is precisely because it’s a really good way to sort through some of these more complicated feelings I have on certain topics. For as much as I love DR and as much as it’s been a huge source of enjoyment and comfort to me for quite a few years now, I’m never going to sit here and act like it doesn’t have its fair share of flaws. It’s certainly not for everyone, and I can completely understand why some people may not like it.

There’s a very fine line when discussing media too, between raising awareness that all media and content we consume is inherently flawed in some way, and simply dismissing it as okay because “well, everything is problematic in some way so it doesn’t matter.” These things do matter, and I feel like discussion of them is a very important part of critical analysis, especially when it raises awareness of potentially upsetting subject matter to people who may have been unaware of it before.

The entire love hotel scene with Tsumugi is undeniably in extremely poor taste, particularly when incest is a very real and terrible form of abuse that real survivors have suffered through. Seeing it used for nothing more than skeevy fanservice to pander to an otaku audience is deeply upsetting, particularly coming from a game that explicitly touches on the ways in which fiction can and does impact reality in very real, tangible ways.

It doesn’t help that the love hotel scenes themselves hang in a weird sort of limbo as far as their role in the game goes, either. There’s been a lot of debate in the fandom as to whether these scenes can even be considered “canon” on any level—and even if they’re not technically canon, which I think is a fair assessment given that none of the other characters even remember them after waking up and they have no real lasting impact on the plot, the decision to include them at all is still gross on some level.

In my personal opinion, the best way to determine how comfortable you are continuing to support a series or not, is to try and gauge authorial intent: why are these topics or themes included in this piece of media? What purpose do they serve? Are they contributing to a larger narrative by being included here?

To take a topical example… let’s compare this with Harry Potter. DR certainly has its flaws, and ndrv3 is no exception. Not only are certain unsavory “tropes” like incest played as either a punchline or a tool for fanservice, but even earlier parts of the series don’t hold up particularly well (like Chihiro’s “gender reveal”). These things are definitely not enjoyable parts of the narrative—but their presence in the narrative seems to stem from a larger issue of fanservice tropes in visual novels and anime overall, rather than some overarching attempt to either demonize any marginalized group or normalize harmful behavior in real life.

By contrast, through watching JK Rowling’s downward spiral on twitter in the last few years, we’ve seen her become more and more brazen about her hatred of trans people, and trans women in particular. Though she often attempted to brush these tweets aside at first as “middle-aged moments” or “accidents” where she wasn’t aware of the content being spouted by the people she was following, she’s become perhaps one of the most unapologetic T*RFs in the public consciousness.

No matter how much a series like Harry Potter may have shaped my and many other people’s childhoods in the past, it’s really impossible for me to go back to it nowadays as a trans individual. Re-reading the series with a much more critical eye shows that many of Rowling’s most harmful, offensive beliefs are not only something she spews on twitter every other month, but also downright woven into the narrative. Lines about “boys pretending to be girls to try and sneak into the dormitories” and Rita Skeeter’s “rather large, mannish hands” while she “disguises herself” to infiltrate the school premises just hit differently, knowing Rowling’s stance on trans issues and the disgusting harm that she advocates for with her huge platform.

I suppose that’s the biggest line I try to be aware of in deciding where I draw the line between enjoying a series while remaining critical of it, and just flat out refusing to support said series anymore. This line is understandably going to be different for different people, no doubt—but I think being mindful of what creators are actually doing with their platforms is the biggest indicator about the potential intentions behind their works.

The only other piece of advice I can think of to offer, and perhaps the most important one, is to simply support small creators with all the enthusiasm and love that you would for a large series. As long as we maintain a critical eye and awareness about the flaws within popular works like Danganronpa, I think it’s okay to keep enjoying said works. But there are so many content creators out there trying to contribute all kinds of meaningful works with better representation than anything we’ve seen in mainstream media, and it’s incredibly important to support these people so that their works can become better-known.

My best recommendation is to make sure you’re striving to support these smaller content creators: especially black artists and trans artists, who often get overlooked even when hashtags on twitter to support smaller artists are trending.

This sort of became a lengthier response than I was intending, but I felt your question deserved more of an in-depth look at the topic. I hope I was able to get my points across! Thank you for the question anon, and I really hope I could help.

#ask #anonymous #incest //#transphobia //

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digitalbhaavesh · 3 years

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Best image creator tools online (On web, no need to install programs)

We live in an era when visual contents get more attraction than the normal ones. You can apply your creativity to attract your audience’s attention towards your contents.

It’s very important nowadays to create attractive and well designed images to enrich your written contents. Patent issues and piracy also need to be taken care of, to avoid legalisation issues.

Just like me, most newbie digital marketers start with MS paint and rely on it only for most of their image content needs. But once you come across beautiful tools available online, your life becomes much easier.

You don’t need to hire a designer for making good designs. There are few image creating tools available in the market. Some of them are free, some are partly free and some are paid tools.

Don’t confuse these tools with “Image Editing Tools”. Image editor tools require altogether different features. Please visit our article on “Best image editing tools”.

Remember, these tools will be used online only and you don’t need to download and install applications (programs) to use them. Just to make the designing simpler for newbies, this is the most important.

Let’s look at them one by one.

1. Canva

It’s easy to use drag-and-drop software. Create, mix, match, try whatever you want. Even if you haven’t created any image in your lifetime, just no need to worry. Canva is there for you.

From high-end design to logo to visiting card to letter head; you can create anything very easily. Almost all your design related needs can be fulfilled by Canva.

There are preset sizes for every purpose of images like Facebook Post, Instagram post, etc. Canva’s giant library with lots of images, icons, layouts, text styles and shapes will help you create your ideal images. You can upload your own graphics also.

Their premium plans offer even more of the resources to enable you to create professionals like images.

Price:- Free for 8,000+ templates, 1GB storage, and up to 10 team members; from $9.95/mo per user for Canva for work, which offers unlimited storage, access to 300,000 assets and templates, custom fonts, transparent backgrounds, and more

2. Stencil

Another easy-to-use graphic design tool for you. Stencil provides with you 650+ pre-designed templates, over a million images and few lacs icons and graphic elements to choose from. Free and simple image creating tool for beginners, social media marketers, bloggers and small business. With a free plan you can create upto 10 images per month.

3. Snappa

Snappa is another quick and easy graphic design software similar to Canva. It offers a free plan which includes 40,000+ free photos and upto 5 downloads per month. The free plan contains limited design templates to choose from and integration with 2 social accounts. You can upload your own graphics too in Snappa editor as well as import your custom fonts. Connecting your social media account allows you to share the graphic on the social platform right from the app.

Snappa goes all-in for this design, building its app around making vibrant, polished share images as quickly and easily as possible. While Snappa, like many similar apps, includes a thorough template library, they put more emphasis than other apps on getting the background image just right. With a library of free (and royalty-free) images, choosing the perfect background image is just a few clicks away, whether you’re using one of Snappa’s images or uploading your own. From there, Snappa offers an effects sidebar that helps you create the perfect image effects for your post–whether that means darkening or coloring the background image to make white text pop, or brightening the image to highlight dark text. (It’s important to note, however, that while Snappa has a library of additional graphics and shapes, these features are more limited compared to other apps.)

Snappa is similarly thorough when it comes to text. Easily edit your text from the sidebar, adjusting font, size, alignment, line spacing, opacity, and—my personal favorite–an optional drop shadow effect. It’s not an overload of features, but it’s more than enough to make your text, and therefore your message, really stand out.

Unfortunately, Snappa’s free plan is more limited than similar apps, allowing only 5 shares or downloads per month, which won’t be enough for many brands. You also cannot save designs in Snappa’s free plan. However, the free plan is a good way to test the app and see if it’s right for you.

4. Desynger

One of the easiest application especially for your phone, be it iOS or Android. Desynger can create graphics as smooth as Canva. Starting with a template or from a scratch, create a smooth design. Desygner’s library of free images and design elements will leave you speechless.

Even in its mobile app, Desygner doesn’t skimp on features. Multiple menus allow you to hyper-customize image and text settings, while never becoming cumbersome to use on a small screen. You can even pull up a list of all layers, making it even easier to select, deselect, and rearrange image elements with a few taps.

Desynger’s web app works almost identically, with sidebar menus to help you select the design assets and effects you need. The tool is simpler than Canva and provides fewer templates, images, and assets with its free plan, but combined with the mobile app, Desygner becomes a very versatile tool for quickly creating unique, professional social media images.

Desygner Price: Free; from $6.95 for more templates and assets, as well as features like versioning.

5. Pablo by Buffer

Pablo Created by the social media scheduling tool, Buffer, Pablo is as minimalistic as they come, making it drop-dead easy to add a nice-looking, customized graphic to your social posts.

Pablo has only a few features and really only one workflow. Choose a template or just an image for your blank template—all free and royalty-free, provided by sites like Unsplash and Pixabay. Pablo’s keyword search is fast and precise, so you can pick the perfect image for your post. From there, choose from one of three sizes, each fitted specifically for Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook/Twitter.

Image customization is limited—choose from a few preset filters, designed to provide the right level of contrast between your image and your text. You can also add up to three text boxes. Pablo displays them as “Header,” “Body,” and “Caption,” but you can adjust size and font to redesign the text as you see fit. Add one adjustable logo or graphic, and you’re good to go!

When you’ve finished your image, you can either download it, put it into your Buffer queue, or share directly to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Pablo Pricing: Free—Buffer subscription not required (but certainly recommended!)

6. Crello

Crello is an alternative of Canva and offers similar features and functionality. This free online graphic design software allows creation of design using pre-created formats such as social media covers, ads, posters etc. Crello offers over 5000 free designs and collection of over 60 million images.

7. Gravit Designer

Gravit Designer includes many of the classic graphic design functions of tools like Photoshop, Sketch, and GIMP—such as layers, drawing tools, grouping, shapes, text, effects, and more—with a much more simplified, easy-to-learn interface.

As a self-described intermediate (on my best days) designer, Gravit Designer suited me perfectly. All the controls and effects I needed were easily available, so I could really make the design my own without spending a lot of time starting from scratch with Photoshop and its overabundance of tools. A tutorials tab in Gravit Designer’s main view also gives you ready access to all the knowledge you need to get started.

While Gravit Designer is ideal for building your own designs from scratch, it does come with a small library of templates pre-sized for uses like blog posts and social media images. Start with one of these preset canvases, or define your own. The app also offers a small library of shapes, illustrations, and icons. While not comprehensive as the asset libraries included with some other apps, it’s nonetheless a handy addition to a tool that already does so much.

Want to backup your design files or make them easily shareable with your team once you’re done? Gravit Designer is built to sync with the Gravit Cloud, which is also free. Simply create a Gravit account, enable the sync, and you’ll be set!

Gravit Designer Price: Free

Read full article on here

#digitaldesign #digital marketing #design #online

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architectuul · 3 years

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Zoo Story: The Future

Have an online walk through the past, present and future of the Lisbon Zoological Garden with the Gulbenkian Foundation, which was online before the online event started.

Map of the original edition “Guia do Turista em Lisboa” (1929) [property of Manuel dos Santos and Ascenção Araujo, Lisbon] modified by the curators with the satellite image of Lisbon (2020).

The project for the Future Architecture Platform 2020 will take you to the Lisbon’s Zoological Garden designed by Raul Lino asking questions like what role is the Zoo expected to fulfill in the contemporary city and what will it be in the future? For more check up online virtual exhibition “Staged Nature: Zoo of zoos” curated by Enrico Porfido and Claudia Sani from País(vi)agem with Arian Lehner and Theresa Margraf from Mies.TV, with whom we had a short talk about it.

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How do you see the future? Enrico Porfido: Do you mean the future of the zoo or the future in general? Because I don't really see any future coming... In this direction, with such a pessimistic interpretation of the imminent future, it doesn't make sense to make many plans for the future. But hidden somewhere, there is also an optimistic point of view where, “thanks” to COVID-19, this crisis represents an opportunity to change our way of living, interpreting and reading our realities. During the study and research phase for the exhibition in Gulbenkian Foundation we understood that the Zoo is not only a place where animals are kept, but it is a place where different themes can be discussed. For example, our approach to nature, its valorisation and the relationship with the historical city. It’s not only an issue of animals in a cage, but our anthropocentric approach to reality! If we can start changing it in the zoo, we might be able to change it also outside it, in our everyday life.

The original map of the Lisbon Zoological Garden, designed by Raul Lino at the beginning of XXth century | Source © Archive of Gulbenkian Art Library

How did you develop this project in the time of pandemics? Arian Lehner: The whole development of this project was very interesting, because we were all apart, in different cities. In the process of creating the exhibition we had a lot of discussions, where we very early understood how to talk about the zoo as an urban piece in the city. One important point which triggered an idea and vision for the future, was the thought of a biologist, who said that the zoo is showing naked animals itself without their natural environment. Such spaces like a zoo might in future show a variety of glimpses into different places of the world, where it won’t necessarily be needed to keep living animals in cages.

Why is then important in the whole environmental context? Arian Lehner: A zoo can transform into a condition of heterotopia which creates different worlds inside it. Animals will be linked to their environments to understand what is relevant to survive. It is a glimpse into the world, within your own city so you don’t have to travel around the world to understand other ecosystems.

Zebra, elephant and giraffe pavilion house designed by Raul Lino. | Source © Archive of Gulbenkian Art Library

You used different media for dissemination of the project, could you explain more? Enrico Porfido: More than innovative, I would rather say that we were complementary. We are two groups that cover different dissemination channels and networks. AtPais(vi)agem we are more traditional-academic, while Mies. TV has a more digital approach. I think it worked well because we mixed those two worlds!The main idea was to enlarge the public audience of the Gulbenkian Foundation’s archive within sharing their drawings via digital tools. So, we decided to drop an old-fashioned-paper archive in a contemporary digital media! This goes in the direction that the Gulbenkian Foundation took even before COVID. Indeed, they already had in mind those virtual exhibitions as instruments for making their archives accessible to as many people as possible.

Which types of media did you use? Arian Lehner: Because of the huge variety of new media, we did not fear of putting theoretical architecture-content in this new digital field. If you can buy shoes on Instagram, why can’t we use the same platforms for academic discourse as well? Our goal was to bring the content of Pais(vi)agem to as many people as possible in an understandable way. The exhibition consists of short and long texts, short and long videos, animations, sounds in order to make it understandable. Our exhibition is not closed but it’s a kind of open source, where you can learn and link to many other sites. Such as the cooperation with postcards by Modern in Belgrade

Postcard from Belgrade: "Belgrade Zoo's Ark: A Voyage to the Great War Island" designed by Hristina Stojanović, Modern in Belgrade.

The cooperation with BINA - Belgrade international week of architecture? Enrico Porfido: The collaboration with BINA was a nice experience, although we couldn’t develop it as much as we planned due to COVID restrictions. During the digital talk in September, we compared the zoo situation between Belgrade and Lisbon with local experts and this was really inspiring. And it also ended up in an ephemeral collaboration with the collective Modern in Belgrade, that supported our project sending some “postcards” from the Belgrade’s zoo.

Creating an open-source exhibition? Arian Lehner: This is a process of democratisation of information. We created a digital exhibition that doesn’t translate everything into representation through worlds or images drafted by the curators. What we have is live interviews with experts in the zoo, we didn’t do any representation or transcripts but left the video without the filter so you can listen directly to the experts themselves.

Map "A walk to discover Raul Lino's architecture in the Lisbon Zoological Garden" designed by the exhibition curatorial team

An amazing change of discourse and presentation coming from an institution like Gulbenkian; what did Future architecture bring to you? Enrico Porfido: From our experiences, there are many new synergies coming out from this adventure. During the Future Architecture fellowship, we started to build new connections and to consolidate our network. This platform has this big added-value of generating interesting synergies. In our small collective, we decided that there is no more time to work for somebody else or being employed for somebody that you don’t want to work for. We decided it’s time to do something different, because we have limited time to express ourselves. We are aware of what our generation of architects is doing today and which are our opportunities to raise our voice without being arrogant.

Arian Lehner: This current fear or the future has a global dynamic. It is not restricted to one nation alone, but the entire planet is facing challenges. Future Architecture Platform is some kind of global dynamic too – obviously a positive one – which is very important because we work within a transnational network and dissemination of information and knowledge.

The Rhinoceros' pavilion | Photo, illustration by the exhibition curatorial team

What would you say about the future after this talk Enrico? Enrico Porfido: That we have a long way to go! Especially for making people understand that architects do not only design houses. Architects are not just builders! Our superpower is to read reality and territories. There are many tools that we can use, in such a way architects can work as coordinators. We can gather and guide different experts from biology, ecology, anthropology, history, etc. because we can understand the territorial dynamics and coordinate different expertises. Territories have different scales within themselves and architects have the sensibility to understand, observe and work within them.

Is this something connected to a generation? Enrico Porfido: I guess it’s the approach we have to reality. The oldest architects’ generation would probably answer this question in the same way of how they work – alone.This is why we had so many names, the archistars of the recent past and present. But there are not 30yo archistars, why?

The Elephants' pavilion | Photo, illustration by the exhibition curatorial team

How could we develop tourism so that it could work as a creator of new destinations? Enrico Porfido: We can change the way of planning tourism but there is one thing that we all need to understand:we are all tourists at somebody else’s place. You don’t like to hear chatting in the bar under your place, but how is it when you visit another city? I don’t think you care much about the residents.I am obviously generalizing, but here in Barcelona we see the tourist issue as a really strong problem. I can agree that the massive tourism brings along some negative aspects, but we all need to learn how to cohabit. We need to be more tolerant as residents and more educated as tourists. We need to find new models for tourism. I have no clear idea how we should plan the tourism of the future, but I guess people will start to travel more for knowledge and for experiencing the reality of a specific place. Tourism is a social phenomenon, so when the society “goes massive” also tourism does it.

The Giraffes' house | Photo and illustration by the exhibition curatorial team

Arian Lehner: Psychologically speaking: I travel to somewhere far away because I want to experience different smells, sounds and newspaces. This uniqueness makes travelling attractive, rather than staying at home in the monotony of one’s own life. The important part of visiting places is that you are “only visiting” and many places you just want to see but not live there for the rest of your life. It’s really like a refreshment and before coming back to your monotonous life, which is also safe. Are there different ways though that can create the same effect of travelling somewhere else, diving in a completely different world, place, space? Maybe this could in future be visiting your local zoo because everything will look different, because of different elements that this place is composed of, maybe it is a techno park with different robots. In this way you don’t need to fly away somewhere else to be yet again in a city that has the same Starbucks, the same looking Airbnb – but you can have a different psychologically effect like visiting a different place. That is an interesting challenge.

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Staged Nature: Zoo of zoos: A walk through the past, present and future of the Lisbon Zoological Garden, Gulbenkian Foundation via Future Architecture Platform, 2020 (illustration exhibition curatorial team)

País(vi)agem is an independent research group, which aims to investigate the relation between tourism, landscapes and local communities, co-founded by Enrico Porfido and Claudia Sani in 2015. Enrico is based in Barcelona and working as researcher and freelance consultant on tourism and strategic planning. Claudia became a project manager in the office Urban Act in France, dealing with urban ecology and social district regeneration. In 2020 Elisa Brunelli joined the members’ board.

Mies.TV is a documentation and investigation platform with the goal to initiate discussion on the topic, resolve understanding and reflect on how the role of an architect is changing. The channel has filmed over two hundred interviews ensuring a vast archive of data to enable a thorough and widespread illustration of different standpoints and how these are positioned within a global perspective. Through open screenings, architecture festivals, television shows and panel discussions aims to communicate architecture to an audience internal and external to the realm of architecture with the use of modern tools.

#interview #future architecture #gulbenkian

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comicteaparty · 4 years

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April 8th-April 14th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from April 8th, 2020 to April 14th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

Has gatekeeping ever affected which comics you read? If so, how so? If not, do you think it could in the future?

DanitheCarutor

You know, I usually don't care about the person behind the work, although there is an exception. During the Twitter Pride Month event if a webcomic creator I'm following says asexuals/pansexuals/non-binary people aren't allowed/can't follow them either due to not being oppressed enough, or not being real LGBT+ people, I will stop reading their work. Afterall, it wouldn't be right since I'm not queer enough to read their work. -coughsarcasmcough- There are instances where I'll still read their comic, but with a feeling of mischievous excitement for doing something "against the rules". Although there will always be this understanding of that person hates me, coupled with a slight feeling of 'yikes' whenever I see their work. Lol It's about the same with any other type of gatekeeping, although admittedly I'm more lax about unfollowing someone if I'm not being targeted since I'm narcissistic like that.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Thats ridiculous to think an author would try to control which demographics can read their work. Artists shoudn't discriminate against certain groups in who can access their art.

RebelVampire

It does happen a lot though as all my gatekeeping experiences are about that as well, creators kind of directly shunning a specific demographic (granted not exactly @DanitheCarutor 's experience)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@DanitheCarutor Man I've never seen anything like that. I thought this post was about "only true gamers will understand" comics and such. I guess I'm lucky I've never stumbled into that side of the internet. If someone holds such views and expouses them so loudly i probably wouldn't like what they write, anyways.

RebelVampire

To answer the question more thoroughly, there have been plenty of incidents of gatekeeping that have affected how and if I read certain webcomics. However, generally speaking, they come in two specific flavors. Flavor 1: Creators basically pushing for their target audience too aggressively to the point they're either: A) insulting anyone who is not in that target audience or B) dismissing anyone not in that target audience and treating them as someone who isn't a "true" fan. which usually means their opinions are basically treated as auto invalid and not worth anything. B is more the experience I see for this flavor on my end, though honestly I don't think a lot of the creators I see do it on purpose. This particular flavor usually just effects my engagement because I generally just don't want to engage with the work at all if my opinion is going to be auto invalidated anyway. Flavor 2: Creators basically saying "Don't read my comic if you don't 100% agree with my political view(s)." This is a nope for me. A guarantee I will never read that comic again and will immediately mute said creator on my social media - even if I do 100% agree with their specific view. I cannot stand it when people literally cannot tolerate the fact that people who may think the opposite of them (or even have nuanced opinions that aren't full agreement) can still enjoy their work. Out of principle, I will not support this, and out of practicality, the audience that stays after that will probably be equally closed minded and probably not people I want to hang out with on a regular basis anyway.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't get the "don't even read this if you [x]" thing. I can understand if they just don't want to hear disagreements, but even silently reading?

RebelVampire

What I don't get is half the time said political view has absolutely nothing to do with the work whatsoever. So it's not like people would be going into the comic commenting disagreements anyway?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Who knows, maybe they've actually had weirdos making political comments in their comment sections and they finally had enough one day.

I do know at least one person whose (very non-political) comic has attracted a lot of politically vocal readers, and it has been a source of headache for them for a long time.

RebelVampire

Yeah I mean I don't doubt there's some comics. Usually in the little research I've done it wasn't really the comic that was getting view. THey just saw something on social media that made them angry thus had to comment on it.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

In the case I'm thinking of, it wasn't that the fans got angry at the creator's views. The fans were just openly talking about that stuff? They didn't seem to understand, nor care, that the creator didn't share their views. It's..... weird is all I can say.

My only guess is the comic got shared in a politically oriented space (forum, a FB group, whatever) and attracted some vocal readers from that space. Maybe.

RebelVampire

Possibly, although in my experience it's pretty easy for comment sections to devolve into some random political discussion. People tend to be very passionate about their viewpoints, so it really only takes one person being mad

and then relevant xkcd comic https://xkcd.com/386/ happens XD(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It might not be relevant in this case because the readers weren't arguing with each other XD just vocally agreeing with each other in someone else's space

Though yeah, I have seen it happen too, political wars in some completely non-political comic's comment section

There was a semi-infamous case

The Tiny Hippo comic in which the hippo knifes a raven that stole its toy got littered with Koreans arguing with others about the Korean-Japanese political tension. The comic... has absolutely NOTHING to do with Korea, Japan, or even Asia.

RebelVampire

omg now thats extreme

DanitheCarutor

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Yeah, be prepared if you ever dive into the LGBT+ artist/comic side of Twitter during the Pride Month events. There are far more nice, inclusive people, but the exclusive ones are very loud and make long rant threads. Also you may get someone responding to your promos with nasty shit if you use the hashtag. This has never happened to me personally, but has happened to webcomic creators and illustration artists I follow who are very open about being asexual/non-binary/pansexual.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

To be honest, I am usually the one LGBT+ creators keep from reading their work in those scenarios. It has happened before where a creator has said something similar about ace people or hetero people not being allowed to read because "they wouldn't get it." Or sometimes even more offensive. Even if I wasn't both of those things, hearing someone be so exclusive of any group just makes me not want to support them. So yes, haha, I have definitely been affected by gatekeeping.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Theoretically, I can see where gatekeeping can be done in good faith, and possibly even respectfully. Like, there's a reason why support groups for a specific thing only allows people who are directly affected by that specific thing. Trying to educate other people on that issue, and including the allies, those things are extremely important, but a gated safe space is also incredibly valuable. You can do BOTH of those things (just not in the same place at the same time). It can definitely go wrong, though. It really can.

like "we need a safe space for lesbians to talk about their struggles" is not the same thing as "if you're not a lesbian, you don't count as lgbt" (which would be... no???)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

yeah.. I've also seen lesbian only spaces turn terf-y

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I think there is definitely a difference between gatekeeping against bigotry and blanketsweep gatekeeping against a specific group of people that you've stereotyped as bigots

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean, it's not always about keeping the bigots out

sometimes you need a safe space specifically for that group, and not the supporters of that group. That serves very specific purposes.

DanitheCarutor

@Cronaj (Whispers of the Past) Oh gosh, there is this one artist who's words I remember to this day. During Pride Month they made this looooong thread about how they didn't want ace people following them, how they are not allowed to use the hashtag or even be part of the LGBT+ community, then went on about how they were all just heterosexuals. The they talked about how non-binary people are damaging the trans community with their "fake gender". Very ignorant, very weird, I totally unfollowed them after that even though I really liked their art.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But yeah, Twitter is probably the wrong place to do that.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

God

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@DanitheCarutor wtf ._.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

That's part of the reason I don't participate in Pride stuff

Because I know I would get skinned alive

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

lol, I already got skinned alive for that reason even though I wasn't advertising my comic as lgbt. That's getting off topic for reader_favorites though.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

In regards to comics, I haven't seen other readers gatekeeping a story before

But oddly more creators

Which completely boggles my mind

DanitheCarutor

Fffff yeeeah. I still try to participate in Pride stuff when I remember, but I never specify anything. I just say I'm a queer person and everyone is fine with it. Lol

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Because you'd think they want more readers, not less

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Mmm, not everyone wants more readers (or at least, it's not a priority for them)

RebelVampire

I'm kind of glad about that too. Readers gatekeeping is even worse sometimes in mainstream. So to a degree it makes me glad that the only people hurting a creators work is the creator themself, if that makes sense.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yeah, definitely

When fans of a specific TV series try to gatekeep against specific groups, it makes me so angry

It's usually for entirely stupid reasons too

"If you're not (insert race), you're not allowed to watch this show. It was not made for you."

Haven't really seen this yet for comics, but if I ever do..... YIKES

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean I can get "It was not made for you." But that's.... not really a reason to actually disallow anyone from enjoying it.

DanitheCarutor

Oh god I'm getting SU and Rick and Morty fan base flashbacks.

RebelVampire

I think when it hits webcomics (cause I won't pretend it won't someday), I think it's gonna be in the same regard where I see it more. In that readers will be saying "If you don't agree this webcomic/ship/something is the best, you're not really a true participant in the webcomic community!"

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Honestly, I think educating people outside of these marginalized groups is just as important as validating the groups

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like I do it all the time, I check out stuff whose target audience does not include me. I just don't openly criticize it for failing to cater to me.

@Cronaj (Whispers of the Past) It's absolutely important. But one can support both education and gated safe spaces! Like I can totally imagine the same people moderating a gated safe space, and holding educational seminars where everyone is welcome. Those two things serve different functions.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yeah, I was talking about media tho, haha

Not gated safe spaces(edited)

DanitheCarutor

I imagine if it happens with webcomic it will be an extremely popular comic that will have the readerbase size of something mainstream. I've stumbled across a couple small instances where webcomic fans have been gatekeepy about fanart and such, but not real big, crazy instances.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

That would likely be one of the biggest curses about having a webcomic that's popular.

RebelVampire

Actually when I think about it more, I've seen readers start to get gatekeepy about ships on super popular comics

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Actually, yes

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Oh man, shipping wars X'D

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Ship-gatekeepers are kind of scary

Especially popular romance comics that include love triangles(edited)

DanitheCarutor

Yeah, a couple of the popular Webtoon webcomics I've followed like Gourmet Hound have had big ship wars in the comments. Actually if you want to see a good example of ship gatekeeping, you can look at any popular romance comic on Weboons, the comment section will probably be insane.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yep

True Beauty is just FULL of gatekeepers arguing about the male leads

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I like to think a lot of the seemingly vehement shipping war comments are made in jest. But even if like, 80% of them are just having fun... you know there's 19% that are actually serious... and the dreaded 1% who will actually commit a crime IRL for their ship

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Ewww... Yep

DanitheCarutor

No, Keii, you're wrong. Most of the readers on Webtoons are horny children, they are going to be very serious about their ships.

RebelVampire

Yeah that is like the problem with a lot of things on the internet. It's hard to tell who is the 80% not being serious, and who is the other 20% who is super serious and thinks the 80% are completely serious about it too(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Omg, don't call the readers out like that

DanitheCarutor

Someone's gotta tell it how it is!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@RebelVampire Yeah, that's definitely the hardest part. Trying to tiptoe around the fact that a specific commenter very well COULD be serious.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

yeeeeah

DanitheCarutor

@RebelVampire That's definitely the crappiest part about being on the internet. You can never tell just from reading words, especially if they type in a super anal way like myself most of the time. Personally if I have no idea if a reader is serious I default to responding with a dad joke or a meme... which has caused a few upset responses.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I have definitely been attacked for what I thought was an innocent comment

RebelVampire

I've learned if I don't know if the person is serious or not to just ask. Sometimes make them grumpy and you get "well obviously i was joking/being serious", but at least saves the headaches of assumptions.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

oh jeez @DanitheCarutor that sounds horrible gatekeeping

DanitheCarutor

Opinions, MMMM gotta love'em.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

A comic creator I really respected, someone I thought was super supportive of the community at large, made a blanket statement forbidding cishets from joining their big new webcomic server. The server wasn't meant for LGBTQ+ webcomics only - all comics were allowed to be discussed - so it wasn't incredibly stringent on its content, just its membership. I know it's small beans compared to other bits of gatekeeping, but it definitely made some people feel left out, and it made me feel really sad. Made me feel like... even if I somehow became friends with the creator someday, I would always be considered an other/outsider, so... why bother, you know? I haven't really felt like keeping up with their work since. It doesn't quite feel the same. I don't know if had the 'right' reaction, but the experience definitely took off my rose-tinted glasses.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Honestly I think it’s really counterintuitive to gatekeep?(edited)

Like you want people to read your work don’t you? So can you really be so selective of people with such standards?

And if you’re a reader, gatekeeping is just going to harm the creator and make you look bad

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

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howveryheather · 4 years

Text

good time (the 2010s + me)

10 years of Heather... YESSSSSSS.

I mulled over various drafts of what you’re going to read today.

There was a draft where I summed up everything, literally everything, that happened to me over the last 10 years. The more I read that draft, the more it felt increasingly like a diary entry that did not warrant publishing of any kind.

I had a draft where I was only going to recap the good things that happened to me. That read like I had the world’s worst blinders on.

I weebled, I wobbled, I tried to organize my thoughts using bullet points. None of it worked and all of it sounded like noise, even though I was technically going in order of the last 10 years. So, I’m just going to keep it simple and focus on the basics.

I went on two pivotal journeys in the last 10 years. The first is the start of my writing career and the second was repaying my student loans. Note that the latter half of that sentence is written in past tense. In 2019, after nine years in debt, I paid off all my loans in full!

I want to talk about the loan journey first because it had an expiration date, even though I did used to think I was gonna die with those loans. Rather than sound like a broken record rehashing the story of how I paid everything off again, I want to share two aspects of paying off student debt that nobody talks about online.

The first one is that once it happens, after your debt is paid in full, you’re not rich. You have a little more money every month, but you can’t go out and change your lifestyle radically. If anything, you have to remain in place a little bit longer and remain on a budget. There’s certainly irony in debt repayment. The debt is gone, but you are not exactly free yet. You have to recoup the losses.

The other aspect of student loans is how quickly you forget about it once it’s paid off. And I mean all of it — the emotions and experience associated with loan statements and making monthly payments. I spent years lying in bed unable to sleep at night stressed out about my loans. I never think about it now.

Paying off my debt alone was really difficult, but deep down I think I always knew that this was going to be my journey. My debt was not going to disappear, no matter how much I wished for a genie’s lamp or hoped a dead relative would throw me some bones in a will or I could magically find a spouse to marry who would assume the payments for me. I made a lot of lifestyle sacrifices to get out of debt. I prepared a few years in advance because I knew that what was ahead was going to be miserable. I remained disciplined, I treated my life with a Spartan mentality, and I crawled my way out under the 10-year deadline to freedom. Sometimes that’s what freedom looks like. It’s not a climb or a sprint to a finish line. It’s a crawl.

Onward to writing!

I was still in college at the start of 2010. Back then, I was an extremely green writer with few clips under my belt outside of an internship at the Ventura County Star and a column in The Echo (CLU’s newspaper). As a post graduate, every writing experience I have had has been a combination of good luck, timing, location, and the willingness to push myself and work hard.

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to write in the entertainment space. I always loved reading the pop culture section of the USA Today and soaked up my subscriptions to Entertainment Weekly and Premiere Magazine like a sponge. I was determined to break into entertainment however I could, and I got in on the ground floor of BettyConfidential and HelloGiggles as a contributing writer in 2011.

The early 2010s was a short-lived timeline before most of the major media moguls began buying these sites out. I remember this time as one — and everyone who started during this time will say the exact same thing, trust me — where everyone really was each other’s friend in the media space. Content felt fresh. It was new. It was also really kind. There was a lot of room to share your story and experience and receive incredible, positive feedback from readers.

BettyConfidential... What a wonderful group! Was there anything better than waking up at 5 AM the morning after the Golden Globes to email over my best-dressed picks? (Sometimes emailed over the night before, I must admit.) I wrote my heart out in that LA Correspondent gig, covering fashion and celebrity news. It gave me so many opportunities to lead the kind of life most people who move to California never get the chance to have. I had the good fortune to go to red carpet events and awards ceremonies and gifting suites and sit in on movie sets and chat with celebrities (often in more candid spaces than is the norm) that I would never have had otherwise. Betty gave me a much-needed glimpse behind the camera of celebrity and the etiquette for how to be a reporter in this space. My experience at HelloGiggles differed from Betty in that it was much more social media driven. That was definitely the site where you earned your following and found your people in the Twitter space.

Collectively between Betty and HG, my favorite memories were...

1) The first time I went to New York City to cover Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. I went to as many shows as I possibly could in Lincoln Center, took photos with my iPhone, stayed up writing and writing with my photos at the hotel afterwards, and did it all over again the next day for 3-4 days. I also packed very poorly for February 2012 weather. A trench coat and flats in 20 degree weather with snow... but I still looked good!

2) I went to an event celebrating L’Oreal’s 40th anniversary of their “Because I’m Worth It” tagline (an early foreshadowing of my future in writing in advertising). I wrote a nice article about the event, shared the story, and went about my merry way into the rest of my workload. A few weeks later, I received a gift in the mail from their team: a huge gift card to Saks Fifth Avenue! There has never been a Cinderella moment in my life quite like the way I spent this gift card. I went to the Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills and bought a beautiful designer day dress that I wore everywhere (and still have in my closet).

3) The first time I went to, and covered, the Pillsbury Bake-Off for HelloGiggles. (Look at all that foreshadowing!) The Pillsbury Bake-Off is such a delightful experience and not just because there’s a life-size Pillsbury Doughboy walking around either. The events are held in hotels with convention-sized rooms where one can fit 100 ovens. 100 finalists all bake at the same time and compete for a chance to win a million dollars with their recipe. Bake it like you mean it! I even had dinner one table away from Martha Stewart at the Orlando Bake-Off.

I tried not to decline any opportunities. I made everything work, as much as I could. As far as regrets go, the only event I turned down was an opportunity to go backstage and cover the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. The logistics and timing were really off. There was absolutely no way I could have flown to New York in time for it... but I will always wonder what if!

In a post-Betty and HG world, which is where I was in 2014 when both gigs wrapped, I began pivoting toward a new vertical: advertising. My discussions with Advertising Week began in late 2014 and I started writing for the website in 2015. Initially, this was a situation where I filled in the gaps with whatever content I was asked to write. A lot of it had pop culture tie-ins with Mad Men. (Shout out to my brain for already being a fan of the series and intricately understanding the ins and outs of its characters that tied in with advertising’s heyday!)

The first major series of articles I worked on were sponsored by Adobe, so there was an increased expectation to go above and beyond in the manner I wrote, the amount of research conducted in each article, and understanding the audience. I was ready to meet the challenge and was met with high praise for this hard work. During this time, I also briefly worked in transcription for Flaunt Magazine. I transcribed interviews for one of their writers, which made me feel as though I came a little full circle yet again to entertainment.

In March 2015, I received the opportunity to go to Chicago to the Museum of Broadcast Communications. It was for an event called “A Salute to Advertising’s Greatest Icons” which honored 10 of the greatest brand mascots in advertising. My favorite character, the Pillsbury Doughboy, was one of the honorees. Even more exciting, the creator of the Doughboy Rudy Perz would be in attendance. I immediately asked AW if I could cover the event and they agreed. However, a great tragedy occurred days before the event. Rudy passed away. I was completely crushed. As a lifelong Doughboy fan, I realized I would never get the chance to tell him how much of an impact that character had in my life.

In the 24 hours I spent in Chicago, I got to tour the museum space, meet and spend time in the studio of JoBe Cerny (the voice behind the Doughboy’s giggle!), and attend the event and its dinner. Each menu course was inspired by the 10 brand mascots. It was so much fun! I promptly wrote up the article and gave it to my bosses.

This article sparked the beginning of how I have carved a name out for myself in advertising. Brand mascots. We started discussing how to create content about characters, which I jumped at the chance to write. Before long, I had written so many character-based articles that the content spilled over the website. It required its own platform, PopIcon, which officially launched in 2016.

The greatest joy of my writing career so far has undoubtedly been PopIcon. There is so much to cover that I have gone through stages in writing. The initial stages of introducing the character to the world, the stage of updating everyone on the character’s current events (these critters are more active than you think!), and the historical narrative behind the mascot. There is only so much information a PR person can provide you before you can’t work with a one-sheet condensed timeline anymore. You have to get out there and behave like a journalist, finding creatives to talk to and share their stories. My favorite thing is when someone tells me that they have nothing to say. Then, they launch into a narrative of what life behind the scenes was like animating Lefty from Hamburger Helper or recruiting a voiceover actor for an ad campaign. That’s a lot to say! There is no absolutely story that is too small. Every bit of it is history and it has a place to be shared.

I struggle to pick my favorite PopIcon piece. At any given point, every article I have written has been my favorite. They are all jewels in a crown to me, which is a unique way to view your writing. Really, it’s how I hope every writer views their body of work as it grows and progresses.

However, if you must read anything... try these pieces on for size!

Leo Burnett’s Oral History, As Told By 8 Former Creatives (Part One & Two)

Putting The “Kool” Back In Kool-Aid

How Seth Werner Turned A Cluster Of Grapes Into The California Raisins

Monsters! A Brief History Of The Monster Cereals Icons

Ken Stewart, Creator Of The Coca-Cola Polar Bears, Reflects On Their 25th Anniversary

AW has been responsible for sending me back to New York City. In 2017, I went to New York to attend my first #AWNewYork event. My articles ran in their print publication, I hosted a panel, and I appeared on NASDAQ’s Closing Bell ceremonies live on CNBC and HLN. In 2018, I did the same rounds plus an Icons Gala which I worked on at the same time I was paying off my student loans. The Icons Gala was a massive success and I am so proud of it because it was really tough work. And in 2019, I came back for another #AWNewYork event and celebrated with all my mascot buddies once again.

Outside of PopIcon, I have my hand stuck in a series of freelance honey pots. I always like to keep the wheel rotating, as a means of avoiding stagnation and growing my work. It never ceases to amaze me where the wheel naturally rotates next. I wrote for Brit + Co when I lived in Orange County in 2016. I had a few pieces run on The Drum. I wrote for Ed2010 for two years, which felt like a return to my roots because Ed was the reason I got in with BettyConfidential. I still write with Business Insider, Coin, and Fairygodboss, all outlets I’ve been with for a few years now (minus Coin which started in 2019). Weirdly enough, I was fact checked in an obituary this year in The New York Times.

“Dabble in something new” was my fortune I received from a fortune cookie in the spring of 2019. Good timing. What could I do next that felt new? Where could I start to grow?

I have had my eye on weddings for awhile now, in more ways than one. You can’t help but notice when everyone you know is getting married. You really can’t help it when you’ve been a bridesmaid three times. When I think of the last frontiers of verticals where pure joy exists, it all goes back to basic life rituals. Marriage is one seeped in love, history, and etiquette. I started writing with the aptly-named wedding app Joy a few months ago. Finally, I was able to break into modern wedding editorial.

That has been the last ten years of my writing career, in a nutshell. Upon writing this out, I realized just how lucky and fortunate I am that everything looks so neatly tied together. The gaps have been few and far in between. Regardless of what was going on in my personal life or when things were difficult, doors kept opening for me. And I did everything I could to walk in when it happened.

Doesn’t it look like the land of Oz over here sometimes? It has been 10 years. If you juggled this much writing on top of a full-time job, nonstop for a decade while aging from a twentysomething into your thirties, you would probably run into some issues keeping your self-sustained sausage factory running. It’s not a realistic story if the heroine isn’t facing growing pains.

I am not a perfect writer. I’m never going to act like the Heather cup of tea is for everyone to drink up because it’s not.

I have had countless nights where I have been up late writing, researching, or editing drafts. My interviews with creatives sometimes last for a few hours. I have procrastinated my workload until the last possible minute, leaving me frantically pinned against a wall pushing all the puzzle pieces around until they fit in the eleventh, in the twelfth, hour.

I’ve had my brain switch completely off into a “duhhhhhhhh” setting. In this setting, I shut myself in and watch reruns of TV shows I have already seen before. I have to mentally peace out from the world. This is because operating at eleven every single day takes a lot out of you.

I have been rejected by a few outlets. Totally happens. I have also been told I am overqualified on more than one occasion.

In 2019, I finally seized the opportunity to buy my domain, which was not previously available, and create a space for my work.

I’ve learned a lot about one other person in the last decade: myself.

I know exactly who I am. I’ve hit reset on my life multiple times over the last 10 years, switching jobs, cities, and freelance work. I can reinvent some of me, but I can never leave myself behind. Nor would I ever want to do that. I love myself. She is still a work in progress, but it is progress I will do anything for, even if it means crawling alone for years on end. I do it for her.

Everything is up to timing. In time, everything will be as it is supposed to. That time will be the right time.

If you are ever unsure of what to do next, look to the past for guidance. Everything I loved as a child is coming full circle into my life as an adult.

I think the greatest thing I can do, now and in the next decade, is to continually work at making the younger version of me happy with her adult self. If the 10-year-old version of you could see you now, what would she think? Would she be proud of the person you grew up to become? Certainly I think the younger version of me is probably a little upset I don’t read as many books as I did in my Scholastic book club days (I’m working on it!). But, I do think she would be pleased with the woman I am in 2019. The things I have already accomplished and feathers in my hat. My personality and work ethic. The dreams ahead of me and the goals I still have left to achieve.

While I have no idea where I will go in the next 10 years, I am excited to see everything that comes my way in 2020 and beyond. I will keep writing. I will keep working. And I will continue to keep not telling anyone what I’m doing until it happens. I have found life is a lot more fun when you whip out a good, unconventional “surprise!” on everyone that nobody saw coming.

Keep your pen at the ready. It’s gonna be a good time.

#personal #2010s

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maejoylove-blog1 · 5 years

Text

Collaborative ICT Content Development

Platforms to Host Newsletters and Similar ICT Contents

A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication that is generally about a main topic of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters but today, a newsletter may be hosted in different online platforms as follows:

1. Presentation/Visualization (e.g. Prezi, Mindmeister)

2. Cloud Computing (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox)

3. Social Media (e.g. Facebook Pages, Tumblr)

4. Web Page (e.g. Wix, Weebly)

5. Blog Sites (e.g. Blogger, WordPress)

Collaborative Development of ICT Content

Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. Synthesize previous learnings into an integrated ICT content through collaboration with classmate and teacher as both peer and partner.

Team Structure and Dynamics for ICT Content

Online collaboration on an online environment allows people to generate content, reflection, review/modification, while making modifications process visible to others.

A team of writers, editors, designers, team manager may work together even though they are located in different areas with the use of collaboration tools. The writers and designers can easily get feedback and approval of the content that they are working on.

How to develop ICT Project Contents?

There are many ways to develop ICT contents. You can get a team who are either staff or outsource. You can write the contents and design it yourself or you can hire a copywriter or a designer to do it for you.

1. Planning and conceptualizing the content. – Generate content ideas and identify content opportunities based on the target audience. Have a clear plan of action, persons responsible, work required, timeframe and budget. Start with an outline or draw a mind map of all the sections required, as well as how they link together. There should be a title/headline, theme and topic, a link to the coverage, number of social shares earned, and number of linking roots domains earned.

2. Resources – Find online collaborative tools that you will need for the development of the ICT content, especially if the team is working from different places. Determine the best platform for your project.

3. Research for content – Identify the current trends, what competitors are doing, what formats are working, popular authors, and popular topics.

4. Audience profiling – Consider the demographics and psychographics of your intended audience. One method of audience profiling is demographics, which defines the population from A to E by determining the work that they do, where they live, their gender, age, income level, education level and knowledge level. Psychographics is the classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, values, tastes, and other psychological criteria.

5. Copywriting for ICT Projects – To write the web page of your website, you should be able to express yourself, write creatively and with passion to promote the advocacy you are promoting. Collect ideas, make outlines, decide on the message and make your writing interesting and positive.

6. Designing the Layout – Layout is the arrangement of elements (type, art and graphics. The layout should be easy to read, functional and organized. Design in good proportions, attractive color, clear font style/size with white breathing spaces, and columns to make reading easy. Art and Images will help to hold attention. Use good quality images that are appropriate with the target audience.

7. Developing and Constructing the ICT Project – Learn the skill of search engine optimisation on how to rank highly with search engines. You also must understand web page architecture and how you will approach laying out your content.

8. Curating content – Process of gathering information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest. Use alerts to curate contents and RSS feeds.

Team Structure

A project team is a team whose members usually belong to different groups, functions and are assigned to activities for the same project. A team can be divided into sub-teams according to need. Usually project teams are only used for a defined period of time.

Team structure consists of the persons involve in creating the contents of the project. Team structures may differ, depending on the organization or type of work involved. Below is an example of a team structure.

1. Team Manager – or Content Strategist sets priorities, communicates with the executive team at the same time contributes/creates content. Keeps the team organized and motivated.

2. Editorial Manager – implements the strategy. Maintains an editorial calendaer and hires/guides content writers and content producers (video and audio creators) and designers.

3. Content Curator – inputs ideas into the organization by searching the Web for any interesting news, developments and resources, regularly watching and listening for information and filtering the best material.

4. Content Syndicator – does the process of sharing out the content with third-party sites or in social media.

5. Analytics Expert – constantly looking at data to determine what is working. Checking whether the content is meeting the objectives and goals of the site and determining the reaction of the visitors or viewers.

6. Website Manager – organizes and puts the contents onto the website, or uploads it to YouTube, or syndicate podcast on iTunes. Makes regular updates, monitoring, and assessment to ensure the website’s functionality and performance.

The following positions may be combined with other positions:

Writer – writes long or short form content. Maybe a staff or a hired copyrighter.

Editor – edits the work of the Writer. May be a freelance or staff.

Producer – creates video and audio. May be a freelance or staff.

Designer – creates and lays out visual content. May be a freelance or staff.

ONLINE COLLABORATIVE TOOLS

There are various collaborative tools that may be used for the development of ICT content. Collaborative online tools allow writers, editor, designers, and team manager to take part in collaborative work in real time. Collaborative tools support online collaboration. They are usually stand-alone applications that are “cloud” applications, which means that the content is backed up online. You should be online in order to participate in these applications. If you are offline, you may sync up once the internet is connected.

Basic examples of collaborative tools are:

1. Voicemail – is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone.

2. VoIP/Video Call – is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over internet protocol (IP) networks such as the Internet.

3. Email– is a method of exchanging digital messages between computer users.

4. Instant messaging – is a type of online chat which offers real-time text transmission over the Internet.

Social Chat

The team can collaborate and interact using online social chat. Examples are:

1. Google Chat – allows you to send and receive instant messages with anyone in the group or team.

2. Google Hangouts – allows you to talk face from your computer. Make free video calls with up to 10 people. Can make free calls from your Android, iOS or desktop to other Hangout users.

3. Skype – provides video chat and voice call services. Users may exchange digital documents such as images, text, video and others. It may transmit both text and video messages. Skype also allows the creation of video conference calls.

4. Viber – is an instant messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) app for smartphones. It can also exchange images, video and audio media messages.

5. Kakao Talk – is a free mobile instant messaging application for smartphones with free text and free call features.

6. WeChat – is a mobile text and voice messaging communication service. It is one of the largest stand alone messaging apps by monthly active users.

7. Line – Windows Apps on Microsoft store. In Windows 10, you use free, high quality voice calls and video calls whenever and wherever you are.

Social Media

Another way of collaborating with the team is with the use of social media. Examples are:

1. Facebook – allows users to have access to messaging, connect with different pages and groups within the site, respond to discussion, polls and interactive presentations. Outside information can be linked for discussion, images, and videos can be embedded in the discussion.

2. Blog – allows users to produce daily information quickly or developed as content management system. Blogs are recognized for their reverse chronological entries with the ability to comment on them.

3. Microblog – allows users to make short, frequent posts, link videos, photographs, leave comments and share posts.

Cloud-based Collaborative Tools:

1. Google Drive – is a free collaborative tool that allows you to create and edit documents, spreadsheet, presentation online while collaborating with other users in real-time.

2. Zoho – is a web-based free collaboration tool containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, web-conferencing, customer relationship management (CRM), project management, invoicing and others.

3. Prezi – is a cloud-based presentation software based on a software as a service model. The product employs a zooming user interface (ZUI), which allows users to zoom in and out of their presentation media.

4. Microsoft Office Online – presents a suite of applications that allows it to collaborate with others in Word, Excel or Powerpoint as well as sharing files through SkyDrive, video chatting in Skype. It may be used by subscribing to Office 365. Office 365 can store, access, and share documents, photos, videos, and music.

5. Adobe Creative Cloud – where all Adobe products like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign are available. Adobe has introduced a collaborative other services like Story CC Plus which is a collaborative screenwriting application.

Other Online Collaborative Tools:

1. You can use Facebook groups to create a group page that will allow people in your group to communicate your ideas.

2. WordPress also allows you to multiple contributors for a single blog.

3. Google Drive and Microsoft Office Online allow multiple people to work on different office files and even have their own group’s cloud storage.

4. Microsoft’s Yammer offers companies to have their own social network that allows sharing and managing content.

5. Sites like Trello offer an online to-do checklist for your entire team.

Project Management for ICT Content

Content Management Systems (CMS) is a computer application that supports the creation and modification of digital content using a common user interface, thus usually supporting multiple users working in a collaborative environment. Some CMS are built on top of separate content management frameworks like Java, Microsoft ASP.NET, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, and Perl.

Examples of CMS are:

1. WordPress – is a free and open source content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.

2. Drupal – a free and open-sourced content-management framework writtenin PHP and distributed under the GNU Public License, provides a back-end framework for at least 2.2% of all Web Sites worldwide. – ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political and government sites.

3. Joomla – is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) for publishing web content.

Curating Existing Content for Use on the Web

Content curation is the process of gathering information or content like blogs, news, images, audio, or videos, relevant to a particular topic or area of interest from different sources. Curation services can be used by business as well as end users to share information, discover, publish, promote and analyse contents. It uses alerts to curate contents and RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds tha uses a family of standard web feed formats to publish frequently updated information.

Examples of Tools to Curate Content for Social Media or Newsletters

1. Pinterest – is a web and mobile application company that operates a photo sharing website. Uses pins to curate images, items, moments or quote.

2. Trapit – is a comprehensive content curation service for business that offers content discovery, curation, and publishing to web, iPad, and social channels through its web application.

3. Feedly – is a news aggregator application for various web browsers and mobile devices. It compiles news feeds from a variety of online sources for the user to customize and share with others. It uses RSS feeds to bring all of your favorite sources together.

REFERENCES

https://emtechsqnhs.wordpress.com/2018/12/24/collaborative-ict-content-development/

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douxreviews · 5 years

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Babylon 5 - Series Review

"Now get the hell out of our galaxy."

J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 was the last, best hope for a rival sci-fi television franchise to challenge the dominance of Star Trek. It failed. And let’s be glad it did. Last thing we needed was another bloated franchise knocking out a never ending cycle of naff spin-offs. Instead let’s be thankful for what remains to this day as one of the finest sci-fi series ever made. But it did take some time before it became that.

[Warning: This review contains spoilers]

Season One - Signs and Portents

Straczynski envisioned the series as an epic novel for television told in five volumes with each episode being an individual chapter. JMS wanted to tell a universe changing saga of heroes and villains, epic battles and the rise and fall of empires. Something akin to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, only in space with aliens instead of hobbits and on a limited television budget. Surprisingly, this didn’t turn out to be as impossible as it might have seemed.

The year was 2258. The name of the place was, duh, Babylon 5, a massive five-mile long space station built by humans after the devastating Earth/Minbari war -- a place where aliens could meet to talk out their differences. Straczynski presented us with a future that was a far cry from the optimistic utopia of Gene Roddenberry. Crime, poverty, corruption and prejudice still existed. The various races were constantly at each other’s throats. Many of the alien races felt genuinely extraterrestrial, not just a load of humanoids with bumpy foreheads and pointed ears, although the station did have its fair share of those.

B5 first aired in 1993 with the (not very good) feature length pilot ‘The Gathering’. A year later the first season began airing with ‘Midnight on the Firing Line’ on the now defunct PTEN network, the show’s home for its first four seasons. In truth the first season is not the series’ strongest. No doubt in an effort to not alienate a potential audience, the season is driven more by predominantly naff standalone episodes, than the show’s signature story arcs. These standalone tales were often just sub-Trek nonsense that did little to help B5 to stand out from its rivals. Nevertheless there was still some good to be found in amongst the crap. After all, as rubbish as ‘Mind War’ was, it still gave us Walter Koenig as that slippery Psi Cop Bester (still B5’s finest villain).

In the second half Straczynski gradually started to move away from alien of the week tripe like ‘TKO’, ‘Believers’ and ‘Infection’ and began to lay the foundations for the awesomeness that was to come in episodes like ‘And the Sky Full of Stars’, ‘Signs and Portents’ (the introduction of Mr Morden and the Shadows), the two-parter ‘A Voice in the Wilderness’ and ‘Babylon Squared’ in which the crew investigate the sudden and mysterious reappearance of the missing Babylon 4 station. The big season finale ‘Chrysalis’ is a veritable congregation of ‘holy shit, did they just do that?’ moments as earth shattering cliff-hanger follows earth shattering cliff-hanger. Sinclair’s final lament “Nothing is the same anymore” couldn’t have been more appropriate.

At this early stage the characters were also something of a mixed bag to be sure. While G’Kar and Londo arrive practically fully formed (despite some rough early make-up effects) the rest of the cast all needed a little more work. Sinclair was too often stiff and po-faced while Ivanova had yet to develop something resembling a sense of humour. And I can’t be the only one who thought that Jerry Doyle looked like the product of a failed attempt to clone Bruce Willis?

The first season was certainly a patchy start for Babylon 5. Much of it hasn’t dated well. While they were groundbreaking and innovative at the time, much of the CGI effects now look rather primitive but still manage to stand up a lot better than most of the shows from the time (Space: Above and Beyond for example). The costumes and alien make up are all a little rough. And the dialogue constantly veers between clunky and cheesy. But the series potential was still there for all to see. By the second season the show would improve by leaps and bounds, culminating in some of the finest TV drama of the last 25 years.

Season Two - The Coming of Shadows

It was a year of change in season two of Babylon 5.

Due to illness, Michael O’Hare amicably agreed with creator J. Michael Straczynski to depart from the show. He was replaced by Bruce Boxleitner as the new station commander, Captain John J. Sheridan. The former Tron fitted in quite well on B5 and after a few episodes you’d easily be forgiven for thinking he’d been there the whole time.

The first episode ‘Point of Departure’ serves to introduce and establish Sheridan as the new station commander and show how he handles a crisis. It’s not until episode two ‘Revelations’ that JMS got around to resolving all the cliff-hangers from the previous season. Delenn came out of her cocoon with L'Oreal hair (because she’s worth it) and instantly caught Sheridan’s eye. Garibaldi woke from his coma to expose the man who shot him in the back. And G’Kar returned to the station with grave warnings about the darkness to come (that no one would listen to until it was too late).

Season two has the look and feel of a show more assured of its self, more confident in what it can accomplish. This was the year Babylon 5 stopped looking like just another Star Trek clone and became a small screen sci-fi epic to be reckoned with. There were still a number of rubbish standalone episodes such as ‘The Long Dark’ and ‘GROPOS’ to put up with, but they weren’t as bad as they had been in the first season. Besides, when you have episodes as good as the Hugo Award winning ‘The Coming of Shadows’, ‘In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum’ and ‘The Long Twilight Struggle’ what are a few duff ones here and there?

Walter Koenig returned as Bester in ‘A Race Through Dark Places’ and continued to make us forget he was ever Chekov. ‘And Now For a Word’ looked at life on the station from the perspective of a news program. Later in the season Lyta Alexander, not seen since the original pilot, would return in ‘Divided Loyalties’ to expose a sleeper agent on the station that had devastating consequences for Ivanova. And ‘Comes the Inquisitor’ sees the Vorlons test Delenn with the help of Jack the Ripper (no, seriously).

With the addition of Boxleitner the main cast was considerably stronger this season, albeit there were still a few redundant characters that needed to be gotten rid off such as Lt. Keffer, a hotshot fighter pilot character the network insisted that Straczynski add to the line up. But JMS was not one to let even an unwanted character go to waste and used Keffer’s fate to further along the Shadow War arc. The same could not be said for G’Kar’s aid, Na’Toth, who just sort’ve vanished after two episodes without anyone, her boss included, noticing.

It’s no small thing to say that Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik were the series' best actors and this season they took their performances to another level. For most of the first season Londo was nothing more than the comic relief, but this season Londo’s story went in a much darker direction as he grew closer and closer to Mr. Morden and his ‘associates’. Similarly as Londo fell further into darkness G’Kar began his long and painful journey towards redemption and spiritual enlightenment.

The season finale ‘The Fall of Night’ managed to end the season on a suitably downbeat note, but lacked the universe shacking impact of ‘Chrysalis’. While the future looked bleak for the characters the show’s future looked ever brighter. With the flaws and weakness of the first season overcome Babylon 5 would continue from this point to go from strength to strength.

Season Three - Point of No Return

In my humble little opinion season three of Babylon 5 is one of the greatest seasons of television in the entire history of the medium. This was the absolute peak of Straczynski’s small screen space opera. Admittedly, it’s not 100% perfect. It was at this point that Straczynski started writing every single episode himself (an impressive achievement to be sure) so inevitable dreck like ‘Grey 17 is Missing’ gets sandwiched in between all the great stuff. And we were pretty much spoilt for choice with great stuff this season. After two years worth of build up this was the season where things finally started to pay off.

The season started quietly enough with a group of mostly standalone tales of varying quality and significance. But by the time we got to ‘Messages from Earth’ the fan was well and truly hit and hit hard. The entire status quo of the series was suddenly turned upside down and there would be no going back. Straczynski didn’t so much as jettison the reset button as completely obliterate it. ‘Point of No Return’ saw the Earth Alliance become a fascist dictatorship under President Clark forcing the crew of Babylon 5 to break away into an independent state. This all lead to the epic ‘Severed Dreams’ (another Hugo winner) in which our heroes fought to defend the station from Clark’s forces. From now on Sheridan and company were cut off from home on their own (and got some nifty new uniforms to boot).

The season settled down for a bit after that until the Shadow war finally kicked off in full. ‘Interludes and Examinations’ sees Kosh make a devastating sacrifice on Sheridan’s behalf. The two-parter ‘War Without End’ saw the return of Sinclair and finally revealed the true story behind the disappearance of Babylon 4. After the big battles of ‘Shadow Dancing’ everything comes to a head in the season finale as Sheridan goes with his not-so-dead wife, Anna, back to Z’ha’dum. They should really use this episode in media studies classes as an example of how to write a truly great season finale. It’s simply a breathtaking 45 minutes of television that (again, IMHO) no one has yet to come close to equalling or surpassing.

With so many big events jostling for screen time JMS wisely doesn’t let the characterisation get lost in amongst the explosions. Sheridan and Delenn kept making gooey eyes at each other. Ranger Marcus Cole arrived on the station and wasted no time hitting on Ivanova. G’Kar finally found inner peace and a new purpose in life. Franklin struggled with drug addiction and resigned. And Londo’s decent into darkness continued despite his best efforts to escape his destiny.

Season three was the middle chapter of Babylon 5 and the point in which it got seriously worse for our heroes before it could eventually get any better. Creatively the show was riding on a high. From the acting to the special effects everything was at its absolute best. Sadly the show would never be this good again. Outside factors would eventually derail Straczynski’s carefully constructed five-year-plan. But season three still stands as a shinning beacon of everything that was, and still is, great about Babylon 5.

Season Four - No Surrender, No Retreat

So much for best laid plans, eh?

When he first conceived of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski had a definitive five year plan for the series. By the fourth season that plan was in serious danger of falling apart. The Prime Time Entertainment Network, the series’ home from day one, was not long for this world and as such the future of the series was uncertain. Fearing that his show would be cancelled before he could conclude the story, Straczynski went in to emergency damage control and started wrapping up the all major storylines far earlier than he’d initially planned. As a result season four is the most densely packed season of the show’s entire run, as barely a single episode is wasted in Straczynski’s mad rush to bring his story to what seemed at the time to be a premature end.

After nearly three years of planning and build up, the Shadow War, the very driving force of the entire series, was over in the space of just six episodes. The whole thing raced to an underwhelming conclusion that basically amounted to nothing more than Sheridan telling the Shadows and Vorlons off for being naughty and sending them to their rooms without any supper for the rest of eternity. Babylon 5 was the first notable sci-fi series to start using extensive story arcs (something that’s practically the norm nowadays) but it was also the first to bring its story arcs to a disappointing resolution (something else that's practically the norm nowadays).

With that major arc out of the way Straczynski got to work setting up the Drakh threat, built up the growing conflict between Sheridan and Garibaldi, dashed through a Minbari civil war in record speed before finally kicking off the war against President Clark’s fascist government in ‘No Surrender, No Retreat’. The conclusion of the Shadow arc might’ve been a letdown but the Earth civil war was Babylon 5 at its absolute best. Only problem was that it was over almost as quickly as it had started. Originally the plan was for the Earth conflict to be carried over into the fifth season with the fourth season ending with Garibaldi’s betrayal and Sheridan’s capture. But with the show’s future in doubt everything was wrapped up with ‘Endgame’ and ‘Raising Star’. Straczynski was all ready to end the series then and there, but when cable network TNT agreed at the last minute to finance a full fifth season the final episode 'Sleeping in Light' was pushed back a year and a new season finale was quickly shot on the cheap.

Despite it's ups and downs season four is still a strong season. Although there are no Hugo winners, there are still several standout episodes, most notably Sheridan’s brutal interrogation in 'Intersections in Real Time'. The acting was excellent across the board this season, but if there’s a single standout star without a doubt it’s Jerry Doyle. Straczynski sent Garibaldi to hell and back this season and Doyle rose to the challenge with gusto. Sadly this would be the final season for Susan Ivanova as a contract dispute would prevent Claudia Christian returning for the fifth season. With no time to shoot a proper goodbye scene her departure is clumsily handled in voiceover, a disappointing exit for one of science fiction's finest heroines.

Season Five - The Wheel of Fire

The last minute renewal for Babylon 5 was something of a mixed blessing. On one hand it meant that the show would continue and J. Michael Straczynski would now be able to complete his much talked about five-year-plan. But since Straczynski had wrapped up almost every single significant plot thread during the previous season he was now stumped about what to do next. Sure, he had a lot of great stuff with Londo planned, but that didn’t get going until towards the end of the season. So what the hell was he going to do until then?

Straczynski had twenty-one episodes to fill up and barely enough story material to cover a quarter of the season. Rather than relinquish some creative control by bringing in a load of new writers and some fresh ideas, Straczynski continued to write virtually every single episode himself even though it was clear by this point that he’d reached his burnout stage. Granted, the only time he did allow someone else to write an episode it resulted in Neil Gaiman’s dreary ‘Day of the Dead’ but that's still no excuse for not sharing your toys, Joe. Actually, in many ways the series came a full circle with season five as Babylon 5 went back to the sort standalone filler dreck everyone thought we’d seen the last of in season one. Worst offender being the abysmal Tom Stoppard homage ‘A View from the Galley’ which looks at an attack on the station from the perspective of two repair workers who sadly, unlike Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, don’t end up dead at the end.

The lack of decent episodes wasn't the show’s only problem this season, as its previously strong characterization seemed to have vanished entirely. They might’ve looked the same, they might’ve even sounded the same, but these were not the same characters we’d been following faithfully over the last four years. Despite now being President of the Interstellar Alliance (with all the power and influence of a UN Secretary-General) Sheridan still stomps around the station like he owns the place becoming the type of character you’d rather punch in the face than follow into the jaws of hell. Delenn, meanwhile, has been relegated to the prestigious role of ‘her indoors’. Elsewhere, Garibaldi roamed aimlessly around the station in a futile search for a decent plot line, while Londo and G’Kar spend most of the season working on perfecting their buddy comedy routine. And with Claudia Christian gone (but sure as hell not forgotten) Tracy Scoggins was brought in to replace Ivanova as Captain Elizabeth Lockley, the station’s new commander and Sheridan’s ex-wife (huh?). Try as she might, it is difficult to take Scoggins seriously as a tough military leader.

Now that the Shadows were gone and President Clark had been overthrown there were no more enemies to fight and our heroes were all getting ready to live happily ever after. As a result virtually nothing happened for the majority of the season. The only significant event in the first half was a limp rebellion by Gap model telepaths lead by Byron, a walking personality black hole. The only upside to this arc was more focus on Patricia Tallman's underused Lyta Alexander and the always welcome return of Bester, who even gets his own episode this season, the disappointingly bland ‘The Corp Is Mother, The Corp is Father’. Once all the dull telepath malarkey is done with the season finally starts to pick up some much needed steam as the Interstellar Alliance goes to war with the Centauri. But even this conflict fails to provide the same kind of high drama and epic battles the show used to give us. Only the tragic conclusion of Londo’s story in ‘The Fall of Centauri Prime’ makes any kind of emotional impact.

The remaining episodes are all used for some last minute wrap up and a shed load of teary goodbye scenes to rival anything Peter Jackson could come up with. After everyone has gone their separate way Straczynski closes the book with ‘Sleeping in Light’ an elegant and beautiful epilogue to the series and one of the best series finales of all time. Although it did manage to end on a high note (notably with an episode left over from the previous year) overall season five is a disappointing dud.

Despite this less than grand farewell, Babylon 5 still remains one of the greatest sci-fi series ever produced. Admittedly it was something of a flawed masterpiece thanks to the occasional wooden acting, clunky dialogue, dodgy standalone episodes, cheap sets and a tendency to get lost up its own mythology. But with this show Straczynski created something truly unique, an epic science fiction novel for television with a definitive beginning, middle and end. Yeah, the beginning was a bit uneven and the end part didn’t work out as planned, but that middle section, boy, was that good.

Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011.

#Babylon 5 #B5 #John Sheridan #Delenn #Susan Ivanova #Michael Garibaldi #Londo Mollari #G'Kar #Babylon 5 Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews #something from the archive

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totallyinnerperfection · 5 years

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Gilet Jaunes: Digital literacy and social movements in question

Digital technology is constantly evolving. Every day brings a lot of changes. Does the digital promote citizen action or does its use have little impact on the commitment to serve the common good? The new generations would be able to intuitively use the tools of the Web, which are claimed to be “digital natives”.

Every generation has a million faces and so many voices. On the one hand, such “digital natives” have their special model to expressing their voices. They have the essential access and the ability to create media for self-expression on the social media platform. Digital media enables digital natives an alternative form of social movement participation (Hargittai, 2009). In this blog, I would like to design them as “participatory audience”. Evidently, the development of social media and digital technology does effectively provide tools for audiences to engage themselves into social movements such as Gilets Jaunes[1] (Yellow Vest). This is a good example to better illustrate the concept of digital literacy and audience’s social participation with social media. The concept of “participatory audience” is raised by British scholar Livingston, under the context of media converge and diverge (Livingston, 2013). Even the social reality is mediated by the emergence of new media platforms. “Digital natives” have the access and the ability to create social media platforms for self-expression during the process of social movements, which is just the case of Gilets Jaunes.

The movement of Gilets Jaunes across several months in France is initiated and organised on social media platform. During this process, digital natives and audiences become participants of the social movements. They could directly intervene and influence the development of the event. They could express their demands and appeals, forcing the government to respond and to react. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms are frontlines of the movements. It is evident that the whole movement is originated from online appeal, at the same time, it is organised across the social network. Digital natives and audiences become the creator of online contents in terms of the events, messages, videos or topics (Napoli, 2011). The use of hashtag such as #GiletsJaunes symbolise people’s engagement into the social movement across the online platform. People try to use the #GiletsJaunes to collect people with the same appeals and the same purpose into the social movement.

Figure1. The Hashtag #GiletsJaunes of Twitter (Source: Twitter)

This online tool is provided by the development of digital media, which is supposed to be mastered people in this movement, demonstrating their level of digital literacy. The more participants joining the same hashtag, the easier it is become a prevailing and hot topic. More people would be attracted into the movement and the discussion, accelerating the process of the collective activity. I assume that the participation of Gilets Jaunes into the social movement is mediated, which is an alternative approach to engage in democracy (Hargittai, 2002).

Reflecting this issue through the perspective of digital literacy. By definition, digital literacy refers to the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology (Ribble and Bailey, 2007). This blog assumes that the Gilets Jaunes in this movements are digital natives with digital literacy, because they have essential features of “digital literacy”. Apart from the essential access to online platforms and creating online contents with hashtags and technical tools, these digital natives also knows well internal logics of social media platform. They engage themselves into social media culture and operate within the cultural structure (Justenhoven, 2017). The digital natives know well operation logics of the online environment, such as the dissemination of information through social media, the editing and publication of contents, the sharing of information. Gilets Jaunes know well the different function of social media platforms. For example, different from the hashtag on Twitter, they establish online groups and tagging function on Facebook. People could join the group and engage in the collective social movements with tagging and sharing. Digital natives are familiar with the purposes of various online tools and how they are different or similar to each other (Justenhoven, 2017).

Figure 2. Gilets Jaunes group on Facebook (Source: Facebook)

Compared to Facebook and Twitter, Gilets Jaunes use less of YouTube and Instagram in the social movement organisation, showing their digital literacy and capacity of using online tools. People organised an online “imagined community” and the movement goes from online to offline spaces. Different from Justenhoven’s online community, I prefer to consider it as a developing process, without the constraints of time and space. There is “fluidity”, “complexity” and “uncertainty” behind the online and offline activities. There is inherent links between digital literacy and the organisation of social movement. This is also what Justenhoven mentioned as “civic” function of digital literacy, where people participate in social movement of democratic process online. People join a larger movement through media organisation which is larger than themselves. In the social movement and democratic appeals of Gilets Jaunes, the digital literacy becomes an indispensable factor to determine the cause. On the other hand, the media literacy also influences people’s construction of the social movements without breaching the limits of laws.

However, I cast doubt on the increasing digital literacy. It should be noted that Facebook and Twitter are not absolute neutral. Apart from the above seemingly positive progress of “citizen participation”, I intend to raise another question about the digital literacy, its opposite side, the digital illiteracy. People are not born with digital literacy. Apart from the “digital natives”, a large number of people are digital immigrants, who do not belong to the net generation. For this group of people, there is a gap or transition between traditional and new media. People acquire the knowledge of digital media, making them in favour of a simple unlimited access to the Internet.

Here, I intend to raise the concept of digital illiteracy. The term “illiteracy” is necessarily essentializing in its diversity, to observe and question it on itself. Did the media and other think thanks listen to all the French youths before stating that today’s teenager is a “digital native”? I recognise that most young students are disconcerted by instructions as simple as open a browser, I have serious doubts on the fact that the handling of digital tools is, at home, an innate competence. There is gap of digital literacy between generations and between different social classes. As mentioned by Schradie (2018), when journalists and social movements organisers rely on social networks, it is in itself a form of social exclusion. They favour people who have the time, resources and skills to be online frequently and those who understand how algorithms work (Hargittai, 2009). The Internet has not become this magical place where social stratification evaporates, because social class is the most important demographic element in the production of online content.

I would like to pose the following questions: the movement of #GiletsJaunes is it a social exclusion to people of “digital illiteracy? Are those who are disconnected and who have no access to online resource excluded from democratic movements and citizenship? Those who are disconnected and those who are still convinced that they can exercise one’s citizenship away from artificial screens and intelligences are considered as “numerical illiteracy” in the digital media era. Every social change that takes root on digital lands and spreads in real life reminds them of the sad defeat of their thought. Today, refusing to participate in the reproduction of content on the social media platform seems to get away from the real world. New York Times would consult reactions on twitter to assess their quality of subjects and articles. As people we shape an increasingly connected world in which digital exclusion leaves “numerical illiteracy” on the edge of the path. People who are defined as “numerical illiteracy” are condemned to be “invisible” or “inaudible” in the GiletsJaunes movements. This is a whole cohort of fragile population in the digital world, who are condemned to be “digital immigrants”. This has become an obstacle of participating in democratic. Therefore, there is observed inequalities on the digital media usage.

In the end, another critical and pessimist perspective could enhance our understanding of digital literacy with the social framework. Fundamentally, the social class frames the competence and usage of digital tools. And behind this observation, we could introduce the approach of Bourdieu, which elaborates how power relations and reproductions of social inequalities are actually at the centre of digital tools. People’s social status builds and constructs their way of being and behaviour vis-à-vis the use of the Internet and new media (Schradie, 2018). I assume that social class are not soluble with the digital literacy. That is, the digital literacy could not totally reverse the existed social class order. Most of the participants in the movement of #GiletsJaunes are from unprivileged social class appealing for rights. Some of the contents by Giletsjaunes are not of high-quality, which would have negative social impacts.

In the public discourse, responsible digital citizen should enhance their numerical literacy when it comes to the participation and engagement of social movements. Civic participation is one central goal of numerical literacy. Through the analysis of #GiletJaunes across online media, I expect a more regulated online democratic participation. Digital literacy also involves the skill of analysis, questioning, evaluate the online content, distinguishing credible sources, etc. These are essential to effectively use the online tools and promote the democratic process.

[1] Here we prefer to use the original name of the movement.

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steadypaintercoffee · 2 years

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How Fandrum Is Taking Over The Celebrity Ecosystem With Its Unique Platform

Are You A Fan or Audience? Here’s How To Tell And Why It Matters

Blog about acting as a fan and being an audience.

Fandoms are made up of people who love something and other people who love the same thing. Fandoms are based on community, which means liking things that others also like or covering walls in posters or wearing cosplay. Fandom is what happens when fans unite with other fans or like one thing over another.

Fans call themselves “Star Wars” fans, but they also call themselves “Trekkies” and “Warsies” and “Hyperspace Crossroaders.” Fans wear costumes to conventions, and then go home. But with Fandrum, what happens in the overwhelming majority of cases is not just a small group of friends who like something alike getting together; it’s an enormous community that stretches across the globe, made up of thousands and thousands of strangers who have built a relationship around something they enjoy together.

There are many fandoms out there. Each one is unique and sets itself apart from the rest. But, something all fandoms have in common–what makes someone into a fan–is their sense of community.

But in the digital world, where fans, audiences, creators, consumers and influencers are more intertwined than ever, it's tricky to pinpoint differences between fandom and audience behavior.

Possessive for Favorite Character

You absolutely love your character, but why?

It’s because your fan community invests more than just their money in the characters. They invest their time, emotions, and energy. Fans want to feel as though they were a part of the creation process. In other words, many fans are possessive over their favorite characters.

Fans love to have their voice heard. They’re possessive, and the reason is that they form a close attachment with the brand, show, and actor. And it’s only natural that they wouldn’t rest until they were reassured that their beloved character would become its best version.

Fans Love Their Characters

Unlike the rest of us, fans don’t see themselves as a separate entity from the brands, people and things they love. They are die-hard supporters, they follow every single piece of news and they would go to great lengths to defend their loved one.

Fans can get so emotionally invested in their favorite franchises, tv-shows, games or bands that when something threatens to end what they have come to love so dearly, a protective shield is activated and an army of fanboys is born.

Fans Can Make or Remake Shows

Fans may not be the ones determining how a character/show/movie will evolve. But they are paying attention, and they are aware of the power they have to make or break (or remake) it.

Communities and Fandoms allow fans to interact with their favorite creators, to build their own passionate fandoms, and to connect with other fan bases around the globe can be a double-edged sword for those creators.

While these avenues for engagement are great for drawing in new fans, they can also bring to the surface issues in a franchise's narrative or fandom management that many feel should have been taken care of much, much earlier.

At their best, fan communities can be spaces where creators and fans can engage in thoughtful conversation about a franchise’s narrative and its world.

But now the point is, which platform provides the best opportunity to develop these fans who are too passionate about their favorite movies and characters.

FANDRUM- A Platform where fans are celebrated

Fandrum is a social media app specially designed for fans (Bollywood, Hollywood, and All Regionals ) which connect a fan to their favorite Actors, Celebrities, and youtubers. Fandrum is just not about uploading photos/videos but sharing your views about your favorite actor with other fans . Its an amazing experience when you get to interact with your favorite actor. You can join their fandoms and can redeem any reward by collecting Fan Tokens.

Fandrum is available to download free on Google play store. Fandrum App is a concept of connecting Fans with their favorite Actors and Celebrities across the globe.

Fandrum has famous actors from India and also from around the world and their followers. So, now you can share your photos on social media with actors and your friends just like any other regular social media app.

This app will definitely help bollywood fans stay connected with their favorite star from anywhere around the world .

The Fandrum app is not just limited for celebrities but for all regional actors too. Now, there is no need for an actor or celebrity to spend money in order to promote themselves as they can do it through fandrum.

Explore the features of this app:

Free access app

Two-way communication for fan and celebrities

Create fandoms/ fan pages

Create and curate fan art

Everything in one app

Latest news and updates about celebs

Reward fans with experiences

Superfan Contests

AI technology

Fan Value Calculator

Download this app now to explore the best of rewards and closets connections with your favourite idols

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certainfestfan · 3 years

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WatchDownload Movie Black Widow 2021 Full Online HD

STREAMING MEDIA

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream refers to the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, rather than the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies specifically to telecommunications networks, as most of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet. For example, users whose Internet connection lacks sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.

Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real-time much as live television broadcasts content over the airwaves via a television signal. Live internet streaming requires a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.

Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, a process in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to start playing digital video or digital audio content before the entire file has been transmitted. The term “streaming media” can apply to media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered “streaming text”.

Elevator music was among the earliest popular music available as streaming media; nowadays Internet television is a common form of streamed media. Some popular streaming services include Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, the video sharing website YouTube, and other sites which stream films and television shows; Apple Music, YouTube Music and Spotify, which stream music; and the video game live streaming site Twitch.

CLICK HERE WATCH | DOWNLOAD

Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.

Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders. [better source needed] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.

Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.

Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 100 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration. In general, many believe that the long copyright duration guarantees the better protection of works. However, several scholars argue that the longer duration does not improve the author’s earnings while impeding cultural creativity and diversity. On the contrast, a shortened copyright duration can increase the earnings of authors from their works and enhance cultural diversity and creativity.

CLICK HERE WATCH | DOWNLOAD

MOVIES or FILM

Movies, or films, are a type of visual communication which uses moving pictures and sound to tell stories or teach people something. Most people watch (view) movies as a type of entertainment or a way to have fun. For some people, fun movies can mean movies that make them laugh, while for others it can mean movies that make them cry, or feel afraid.

It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc. Most movies are made so that they can be shown on screen in Cinemas and at home. After movies are shown in Cinemas for a period of a few weeks or months, they may be marketed through several other medias. They are shown on pay television or cable television, and sold or rented on DVD disks or videocassette tapes, so that people can watch the movies at home. You can also download or stream movies. Older movies are shown on television broadcasting stations.

A movie camera or video camera takes pictures very quickly, usually at 24 or 25 pictures (frames) every second. When a movie projector, a computer, or a television shows the pictures at that rate, it looks like the things shown in the set of pictures are really moving. Sound is either recorded at the same time, or added later. The sounds in a movie usually include the sounds of people talking (which is called dialogue), music (which is called the “soundtrack”), and sound effects, the sounds of activities that are happening in the movie (such as doors opening or guns being fired). In the 20th century the camera used photographic film. The product is still often called a “film” even though there usually is no film.

A genre is a word for a type of movie or a style of movie. Movies can be fictional (made up), or documentary (showing ‘real life’), or a mix of the two. Although hundreds of movies are made every year, there are very few that do not follow a small number of set plots, or stories. Some movies mix together two or more genres.

Action movies have a lot of exciting effects like car chases and gun fights, involving stuntmen. They usually involve ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, so war and crime are common subjects. Action movies usually need very little effort to watch, since the plot is normally simple. For example, in Die Hard, terrorists take control of a skyscraper and ask for a big ransom in exchange for not killing the hostage workers. One hero somehow manages to save everyone. Action movies do not usually make people cry, but if the action movie is also a drama, emotion will be involved. Adventure Movies usually involve a hero who sets out on a quest to save the world or loved ones. Animated movies use artificial images like talking cartoons to tell a story. These movies used to be drawn by hand, one frame at a time, but are now made on computers. Buddy movies involve 2 heroes, one must save the other, both must overcome obstacles. Buddy movies often involve comedy, but there is also some emotion, because of the close friendship between the ‘buddies’. Comedies are funny movies about people being silly or doing unusual things or being in silly or unusual situations that make the audience laugh. Documentaries are movies that are (or claim to be) about real people and real events. They are nearly always serious and may involve strongly emotional subjects, for example cruelty. Dramas are serious, and often about people falling in love or needing to make a big decision in their life. They tell stories about relationships between people. They usually follow a basic plot where one or two main characters (each actor plays a character) have to ‘overcome’ (get past) an obstacle (the thing stopping them) to get what they want. Tragedies are always dramas, and are about people in trouble. For example, a husband and wife who are divorcing must each try to prove to a court of law that they are the best person to take care of their child. Emotion (feelings) are a big part of the movie and the audience (people watching the movie) may get upset and even cry. Film noir movies are 1940s-era detective dramas about crime and violence. Family movies are made to be good for the entire family. They are mainly made for children but often entertaining for adults as well. Disney is famous for their family movies. Horror movies use fear to excite the audience. Music, lighting and sets (man-made places in movie studios where the movie is made) are all designed to add to the feeling. Romantic Comedies (Rom-Coms) are usually love stories about 2 people from different worlds, who must overcome obstacles to be together. Rom-Coms are usually light-hearten, but may include some emotion. Comedy horror movies blend horror and comic motifs in its plots. Movies in this genre sometimes use black comedy as the main form of humor. Science fiction movies are set in the future or in outer space. Some use their future or alien settings to ask questions about the meaning of life or how we should think about life. Science fiction movies often use special effects to create images of alien worlds, outer space, alien creatures, and spaceships. Fantasy movies include magical and impossible things that any real human being cannot do. Thrillers are usually about a mystery, strange event, or crime that needs to be solved. The audience is kept guessing until the final minutes, when there are usually ‘twists’ in the plot (surprises). Suspense movies keep you on the edge of your seat. They usually have multiple twists that confuse the watcher. Western movies tell stories about cowboys in the western United States in the 1870s and 1880s. They are usually action movies, but with historical costumes. Some involve Native Americans. Not all films that are set in the American West are made there. For example, Western films made in Italy are called Spaghetti Westerns. Some films can also use Western plots even if they are set in other places.

#movie #film

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itscryptovision-blog · 6 years

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Welcome.

Hello everyone welcome to my blog. Herein, I intend to inform any who are intrigued, even by the slightest, about the wonderful world of cryptocurrency. I have been following cryptocurrency since bitcoin and the blockchain first came out in 2009. I bought my first bitcoin in 2010 for 11 dollars. This last December I sold it for 19,000 dollars. It was one of the best feelings I have ever had in my life. As a college student, every bit of money is as important as ever. I felt like I hit the lottery. I paid off a few college loans and had some of my investment left over. I thought, well it happened once, so I think it can happen again so I bought into more cryptocurrency. This time was much different though. Since 2009, over 1000 different cryptocurrencies have been created, all of which having their own unique use case. Before we are to dive into how each of these digital currencies can positively impact the globe, we need to take a step back again.

To enlighten those who are not familiar with digital currencies, or cryptocurrencies, they are virtual store-of-values, and behave similarly to an investment in the stock market. The general name for these comes from the root word “cryptography” which involves security embedding for computer programs and software. It is indication of the featured security bonuses. The actual currencies themselves take no physical form, which creates ease and sustainability in its production. Think of all of those lovely pennies laying around on the street that cost more to produce than they are worth in store value. Cryptocurrency includes ease of storage, transfer, and operation, as well as offering inexpensive and more rapid transactions. It gives users pseudo anonymity, privacy, and financial independence from governments and central banks, which serves as one of the many characteristics creating value for these digital currencies. At the moment there is no government or central bank that can issue cryptocurrency. The lack of central banks and government control allows users of cryptocurrency to maintain total decentralization.

Cryptocurrency started with three main coins - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Currently, as I mentioned earlier, there are over 1000 different kinds. Most of these cryptocurrencies can be broken down into three different groups. The first group, often referred to simply as currencies, are used for micro transactions. Given that these are the quickest and cheapest to transfer between parties, these are the most familiar and used. Currency cryptos are traded like fiat currencies like the US dollar or the Euro. The most common currency crypto by a majority is Bitcoin. Many different cryptocurrencies out there try to replicate bitcoin and add their own twist or try to make a better usable crypto. It is often speculated that Bitcoin is the most valuable given its “first mover advantage”, but the fact of the matter is that it is valuable, thus indicating global desire for fair and equal spending power. Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are examples of coins being used for micro transactions. These essentially work the same way a bank account works. If you want to buy something, you send an amount of a currency from your wallet to the person’s wallet you are purchasing anything from. A wallet serves as your very own, accessible only by you, bank. That’s right, you are your own banker. Putting people in charge of their own wealth, you will see banks around the globe step up to the challenge that will be suppressing this technology. Federal and international banks alike are nothing more than a business, and at the end of the day they seek to make money off you simply trying to live. Again, there is significant value that comes with that potential.

The second category of cryptos are the “utility” cryptocurrencies. Utility currencies exist to perform a function different than transfer of wealth within a blockchain; a blockchain is simply the name of the coding technology used in developing cryptos . Ethereum and Basic Attention Token (BAT) are prime examples of cryptos given value because of their utility purposes. Ethereum allows developers to create applications within a network of blockchains, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property. It is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference. Ethereum enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middleman or counterparty risk. Anyone with a vision can purchase some Ethereum and make it reality on the Ethereum blockchain. Basic Attention Token or BAT for short, is a blockchain based digital advertising browser and utility token that can be exchanged between publishers, advertisers and users. The neat thing about the utility of BAT token is that it is based on user attention as users view ads and content in the brower’s tabs.. BAT has a browser that is catered to the user on how they spend their time online. This allows publishers of ads the perfect way to engage specific audiences. BAT’s ads are anonymously matched with customer interests. Using learning algorithms, the browser caters less irrelevant ads to the consumer.

The last category of cryptos are the “app/platform” cryptocurrencies. These represent the equivalent of an app or platform. While this area is still being created as developers get more and more creative with blockchain technology, one platform that I am most thrilled about is one called Steemit. Steemit is nothing more than a social media platform, yet it offers so much more than any other social media platform currently in existence. As we all know by now, we are a product on most social media platforms, and we are sold out to businesses in the form of our data and contributions, think targeted advertisements. At the end of the day, isn’t it peculiar that we do not get a share of that wealth we create for platform developers? That is where Steemit intends to change the game. When a user of this platform presents something on their page, Steemit rewards the creator of the content based on how big of an impact it has amongst other users. This is especially valuable for two reasons; the first reason being that people with a genuine product to offer people can present it on this platform, and help fund their effort with the currency they recieve for bringing content to Steemit. The currency received is called Steem, and though not recognized as one of the greats, can be used for exchange of value between peers. The second focus in which we find value for this technology is in its ability to give back to the average user for the data they contribute. If you are on Steemit posting photos, and you have 500 users liking that photo, Steemit rewards you for offering something that other people liked. You are no longer creating wealth only for some company selling your data, but also for yourself as you are part of the reason that data has any value to marketers. As more and more platforms are created under this premise, there is opportunity for major shift in distribution of wealth.

Another app or platform coin that I am very fond of is called Siacoin. Most people in today’s day and age are familiar with the cloud, specifically the ICloud and Dropbox. Both platforms are popular and are used by many people. But how safe is the ICloud or Dropbox storing all of your information you please to keep in the cloud? Both of the platforms have been hacked many times, which makes you question if your information could be stolen as well. What if there was a cloud storage platform that couldn’t be hacked? There is! Siacoin is that platform. The platform separates your files, and encrypts them with a code that makes all of the files you choose to store, available to the users eyes only. This means no outside company or third party can access your files like many cloud storage providers do. To store items away on the platform, you can only use Siacoin tokens as means in exchanging for a place to store your files. Once exchanged, the users files are the spread among the platform and divided into smaller pieces that are then distributed in the decentralized network. Having files on the decentralized network secures consumers information from any kind of hacking or manipulation. Not only is it the most secure cloud storage platform, but it the cheapest as well. Siacoin’s service is about 90 percent cheaper than the leading cloud storage platforms like ICloud, Dropbox, and Amazon. Purchasing 1TB of storage on Siacoin’s network will run the user about $2, compared to the $23 that Amazon charges per month. I think we all know the better option here.

There are many more cryptocurrencies in this space that offer a unique potential to improve the world. The list is truly expansive and only growing as more and more brilliant faces get involved. I believe so much in the good that cryptocurrency could do for us if they were given the proper chance, as with the passage of time, there are always well defined waves of change and the zeitgeist of this forthcoming wave is indisputably cryptocurrency. Once understood, it only feels right that this technology holds an influential spot in history.

#cryptocurrency #news #MKT400UWL

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michaelandy101-blog · 3 years

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What's Twitter Areas? [+Why Marketers Should Care]

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/what-is-twitter-spaces-why-marketers-should-care/

What's Twitter Areas? [+Why Marketers Should Care]

All through the previous few months, Twitter’s been experimenting with a brand new function referred to as Twitter Areas.

And now, the highly-discussed function is finally available to all account holders with greater than 600 followers.

Areas, which allows Twitter users to listen to and participate in public audio conversations, entered its beta check shortly after the launch and $100-million valuation of the app Clubhouse — which equally presents an audio chat room expertise.

Now, as Clubhouse’s person base continues to develop, and entrepreneurs start to experiment there, many manufacturers with strong Twitter followings are additionally starting to pay extra consideration to the model prospects of Areas.

What’s Twitter Areas?

Twitter Areas is a function throughout the Twitter app that enables customers with greater than 600 followers to launch, host, and take part in audio chat rooms, equally to rooms hosted on the social media platform Clubhouse.

Why Entrepreneurs Are Watching Twitter Areas

As entrepreneurs acquire entry to Twitter Areas, we’re studying that it might provide model alternatives that Clubhouse hasn’t enabled but. Whereas each platforms are nonetheless evolving and you must hold each in your radar as they alter and enhance, listed below are just some strengths Twitter Areas already has over its competitors:

1. Twitter has main viewers attain.

Twitter has nicely over 330 million monthly active users. That person base consists of audiences that match into many various demographics all around the world. Due to this, manufacturers can attain goal audiences from all kinds of industries and backgrounds.

Whereas Clubhouse’s person base is shortly rising, it does not provide comparable attain to Twitter as a result of its considerably unique nature. The audio social app was initially designed to be invite-only and began with a small person listing of “elite” trade thought leaders, celebrities, and influencers. Solely lately did every-day customers begin to get invited.

On prime of Clubhouse’s invite-only exclusivity, the app is barely obtainable on IOS gadgets, whereas Twitter just announced that it could quickly roll out Areas to Android-based beta testers.

2. Twitter Areas might present a shorter studying curve.

Studying find out how to use and experiment with a very new social media app — like Clubhouse — may be time-consuming. Not solely do it’s good to discover ways to navigate it, however you even have to check its prime customers, manufacturers, and tendencies to discover ways to attain audiences there.

With studying curves in thoughts, entrepreneurs who’re skilled Twitter customers would possibly flip to Areas over Clubhouse just because they have already got a following on Twitter and solely have to discover ways to use one extra function, quite than a completely new platform.

three. Twitter Areas could possibly be extra inviting to manufacturers.

Whereas Clubhouse’s dwell audio platform has pulled in customers in search of genuine interpersonal dialog quite than model info, Twitter’s viewers is accustomed to seeing content material from manufacturers, similar to advertisements, marketing movies, and promotional Fleets. As a result of model promotion feels extra pure and customary to Twitter customers, these audiences may be extra more likely to settle for or have interaction with brand-owned Area.

four. Twitter Areas is visually interactive.

Whereas Clubhouse and different audio apps present listeners only a listener listing, Twitter has added options to make Areas extra visually interesting.

For instance, Areas listeners can use emojis to react to speaker feedback.

“[The reaction feature]’s great because I see it as the perfect balance of being accessible for introverts and extroverts. If you’re not comfortable speaking, use an emoji,” says Krystal Wu, HubSpot’s social media group supervisor and a Areas beta tester.

5. Areas gives a extra informal atmosphere than different streaming platforms.

“The pressure is off when joining a Space. In all the discussions I’ve been part of people are much more laid back no matter how casual or important the topic is that’s being discussed,” Wu explains. “I enjoy this because it removes the feeling of being ‘on,’ like most of us have been on Zoom during this pandemic.”

Due to Areas’ informal nature, entrepreneurs and audiences may not need to really feel as intimidated when talking in or launching Areas, which might result in participating conversations between manufacturers and their followers.

To discover ways to use this function and others inside Areas, hold studying for a fast how-to information.

Use Twitter Areas

Beginning a Area

1. Go to your Twitter app and maintain the “Post” button.

Out of your IOS or Android app, faucet and maintain the put up button to see posting choices. If Areas is offered to you, you may see an icon for it. Alternatively, it’s also possible to entry Areas by going to the highest Fleets bar of your feed, tapping the Add icon along with your profile image, and tapping “Start Space.”

If you happen to do not see any Area buttons or icons on this course of, you probably haven’t got entry to the function but and would possibly want to attend to create your first Area. Nevertheless, customers who cannot create Areas can nonetheless tune into them in the event that they see any.

2. Begin your Area.

Whenever you faucet the Areas button by way of Fleets or your Publish settings, you may be prompted to write down an outline to your Area. At the moment, it’s also possible to invite as much as 10 audio system. You may as well select to permit anybody to request to talk or talking requests to followers or handpicked Twitter customers.

At this level, Twitter notes that every one Areas are public. That is essential to remember as you propose your area and allow talking privileges.

three. Search for speaker requests.

When somebody requests to talk, you may get a notification and might select to provide them talking privileges or ignore the request. If you happen to unmute the listener, remember to introduce them to the viewers.

four. Take away or change audio system.

When you have greater than 10 company that want to communicate, you possibly can faucet one among your present audio system to take away their privileges. It will help you reduce the potential audio system or add extra audio system. This may be particularly useful if you happen to’re holding an extended chat and need a number of listeners to contribute to the dialogue.

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Moreover, if the dialog goes awry or somebody says one thing sudden, Twitter permits Area creators to report or block audio system if they are saying or do one thing inappropriate. This will help moderators create a protected and respectful atmosphere for all listeners and contributors.

5. Finish the Area.

In contrast to Clubhouse, a Twitter Area can solely be ended by the one that launched it. To finish a Area you created, all it’s a must to do is faucet the Finish icon.

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6, Obtain your Area’s knowledge.

In response to Twitter, the social media platform retains knowledge concerning the Area together with recordings and transcriptions for as much as 30 days after the Area in case there are any studies of audio system not following Twitter phrases.

As a result of Twitter does hold Area data, Area creators can obtain knowledge Twitter has on it inside 30 days of internet hosting, whereas audio system can obtain transcriptions for data of what they stated. At this level, Twitter doesn’t clarify how to do that in-depth. Nevertheless, more information can be found here.

Other than Twitter’s record-keeping Areas are ephemeral to non-speakers and conversations will disappear from the app as quickly as they finish.

Becoming a member of a Area

7. Attend a Area.

When somebody you comply with begins a Area, you may see it within the Fleets space of your Twitter feed. As an alternative of 1 small circle with their profile image, you may see an oval form that features a Area creator’s profile image, the variety of attendees, and the creator’s title beneath it.

Whenever you faucet on it, you may be given extra particulars about who’s within the Area and see a “Join Space” button. If the Area creator permits anybody who joins to talk, you may be requested if you wish to enter the Area along with your microphone on or off, as proven within the picture beneath.

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For listeners, an area seems to be a bit like a Clubhouse room with speaker names and pictures showing on the prime and audiences showing in direction of the underside. If the viewers is just too massive, you may see the variety of extra members quite than all of the individuals within the chat.

eight. Try to talk.

Some Areas will enable any attendee to talk if lower than 10 persons are unmuted. In the meantime, others will probably be extra personal and require you to request. You’ll be able to inform the distinction between every by trying on the microphone icon within the backside left nook of a Area. This icon will both help you request to talk or will flip your mic on instantly when tapped.

If you happen to see the phrase Request beneath the microphone, you possibly can faucet the icon to ask to talk. The Area’s host will probably be notified that you simply’d like to talk and might settle for or ignore the request.

9. Share the Area.

From the underside navigation of every Area, you possibly can faucet the icon exhibiting two individuals to ask particular followers to affix, or the share button to Tweet a hyperlink to the Area you are in.

10. React to the dialog.

If you wish to reply to one thing a speaker says in a Area, however do not need to communicate, you possibly can faucet the heart-shaped icon within the Area’s decrease navigation to see an inventory of emojis which you can faucet to point out a visible response.

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11. Share Tweet-based dialog starters.

Wu says one among her favourite issues about Areas is that attendees can share public tweets immediately in a Area.

“Any [speaker] in the Space can share a tweet, which will appear at the top of the Space,” Wu explains. “We can use it as reference points while chatting so that people can be more interactive in the discussions.”

Beneath is a have a look at Twitter’s personal “Space’s” area. Throughout the chat, which permits Twitter customers to provide suggestions on the Area function, a speaker shared a tweet from somebody about how Areas prioritizes attendees in its visible format.

To share tweets in an area, Wu says you simply want to reduce the area you are in, discover a public tweet, faucet the Share button, and faucet the Areas choice. From there, the tweet will seem on the prime of your area till the area host removes it or one other tweet is shared.

12. Go away or reduce a Area.

Not concerned about a dialogue you are listening to? All it’s good to do to exit is faucet the “Leave” button within the upper-right nook of the display.

If you would like to return to your Twitter feed, however need to hold listening to the Area dialog, you possibly can faucet the down arrow within the upper-left nook to shrink it right into a small participant that lets you see tweets with out leaving the Area.

Navigating Audio Social Media

If you happen to’re a community-centric marketer, Twitter Areas or Clubhouse could possibly be value experimenting and an effective way to achieve your viewers on a extra conversational degree.

When you’ll definitely need to think about testing out Twitter Areas, you also needs to proceed to comply with Clubhouse. Though Twitter may need aggressive benefits now, Clubhouse continues to be evolving, shortly rising its viewers, and will proceed to innovate within the audio-social area.

In the end, if you happen to determine audio social media is true to your model, you may need to have a look at every platform’s execs, cons, and viewers to find out which inserts your targets greatest.

To be taught extra about Clubhouse, which began the audio social media phenomenon, take a look at this put up on the app’s progress. You may as well take a look at this detailed how-to information to see how Clubhouse’s options evaluate to Twitter Areas.

Extra concerned about rising your general Twitter following and technique? Click on beneath to obtain a useful free useful resource!

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