Good Intentions Buried

Oct. 4th, 2025 01:00 pm
yourlibrarian: DeadTuesday-smidgy06 (SPN-DeadTuesday-smidgy06)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) From [personal profile] osteophage, a post about The Good Web Graveyard, "a link compilation on departed websites that had marketed themselves in terms of ethics." I think one doesn't have to be an out and out cynic to assume that it's difficult for a company to do well when it's not on a level playing field with unethical companies. But it's good to consider that good intentions aren't enough in surviving long-term online.

2) My Britbox subscription has run out, and at an inopportune moment. I was speed watching Passengers, by which I was skipping some of, or entire, episodes and relying on their recaps to keep up with developments. Unfortunately I was interrupted near the end of the final episode and by the time I got back to it, the subscription had ended. Read more... )

4) Some interesting details of the AOL sale: "AOL's website traffic has grown 20% year-over-year among the users aged 25 and 54, outpacing the growth in the category of users aged 55-plus...The growth was driven by the introduction of multiple new content categories to AOL.com, including Health, Fitness, Animals, Science & Tech, Home & Garden, Lighter Side, True Crime, Local, amongst others"

I wonder if AI searches can account for this? Granted the nature of these new topic pages was designed to attract views, but I've hardly ever seen AOL as a site turn up in any searches I do.

"Bending Spoons... agreed a deal to take private video platform company Vimeo for $1.38 billion, its largest acquisition to date." I was also surprised to find out that AOL owns Last Pass, so that has a new owner now as well.

4) I know everyone's upset at the rising cost of everything. But sometimes it's the little things that make you mad. My main supermarket has recently switched its sales period from Wednesday to Tuesday after 20+ years (maybe always, for all I known) of doing Sunday to Saturday. This is making a mess of their shelf and data system, because the ad says one thing but there's nothing showing on the shelf and they don't ring up on sale. Read more... )

5) "Consumer Reports’ fourth annual digital assessment shows a 50 percent increase in texting and messaging scam attempts over the past year. Meanwhile, a 10,500-person poll from Talker Research indicates that Americans field around 100 scam attempts per month compared to an average of 84 in the United Kingdom. Australians, however, experience half the number seen in the US. But while scams continue to frequently target older demographics, one of the most dramatic upticks concerns younger populations."

The main reasons? Group texts which disguise unknown numbers, and quick access to money apps.


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Community Thursday

Oct. 2nd, 2025 06:29 am
vriddy: whatever (whatever hawks)
[personal profile] vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.


Over the last week...

Commented on [community profile] booknook.

Commented on [community profile] getyourwordsout.

Posted on [community profile] bnha_fans... Going to go back to doing that weekly for a few months as the watch-along for the FINAL (!!! 🤯) anime season begins this weekend!

Signal boosts:

Surprising News

Oct. 1st, 2025 03:47 pm
yourlibrarian: ArthurFrowny-miakun (MERL-ArthurFrowny-miakun)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) Some TV stuff: I've been watching the KenJennings Jeopardy run, and enjoying it. It seems to me the questions were easier than some of the ones I've seen most recently, but I guess those were largely the tournament of champions so that makes sense.

I tried out Match Game, Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Read more... )

2) Last week my partner went to Indianapolis for the weekend and on Sunday morning called me to say that the car wouldn't start. Luckily he was in the hotel parking lot and could just take his stuff back inside. All the dealerships were closed on Sunday but as he happened to be at an airport hotel, he took their shuttle there and I was able to get him booked for a week's car rental. Read more... )

3) Adding to fan image hosting woes: Imgur blocks UK access after the ICO notified it of a possible fine over its handling of kids' data

4) Thought this stat was interesting: U.S. streamers are increasingly sharing content catalogs across third-party services. In July, 39% of domestic titles appeared on two or more services, compared with 13% in the U.K. and 8% in France over the same period. Read more... )

5) I was amazed to see this story about boyfriend cosplay. "I cosplayed as the client’s chosen character and walked around with them, on the street, on a date. To be honest, I must confess that even as an experienced cosplayer, I found it challenging to act nonchalant in public while wearing a full costume and a light-colored wig. This difficulty was compounded by the specific nature of this commission: I was tasked with roleplaying as a romantic partner and caring for my "girlfriend." Though the date was challenging, I was obsessed with the sense of accomplishment I felt when I took care of someone and acted as their beloved character."

It certainly seems to be taking fanwork commissions to a new level...

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vriddy: Hawks smiling (small smile)
[personal profile] vriddy
Checked in for [community profile] getyourwordsout! It feels gooood to have met my monthly goal, for once :D I'm still desperately behind but it feels like I'm happily waddling along so it's all good. I'm learning and making progress!

Not having a title for the cursed witch is starting to feel like a loose teeth I can't stop poking at. I have a potential "series" title, although I just had an insight that if that feels like too much, I probably can smash the two sequel ideas I had into one book and make it into a hopefully more manageable duology instead, BUT also I know everything often ends up longer than expected, but also I end up thinking about how to contrast the book titles except that I have no titles at all yet!! Lol.

Come to me, title, come to me... *lays down breadcrumbs and hides around a corner in wait*

Progress, progress

Sep. 26th, 2025 08:24 pm
vriddy: christmas gnome (gnome)
[personal profile] vriddy
Chapter 3 was sooooo much easier to edit, breezy and took just a bit over 5h. A 3.5k words chapter is sooo much easier to wrangle than a beast that grew to nearly 10k XD Having said that, re-reading beta feedback, a couple of people did say that C3-C5 specifically felt not exactly "slow" but like it was only setup for the rest... This feels like pacing/stakes stuff which I'm too close to the text to easily see right now. I'm hoping that the big restructuring work I did at the start of this round (also based on beta feedback, thanks again!) will help in that the larger story's stakes get raised in a more proper crescendo now, rather than go "grumbles, grumbles, grumbles, SUDDEN FIRE EXPLOSION KABOOM" as they did in the previous draft. Also I'm fleshing out more secondary characters and connecting in small ways various background happenings, and I'm hoping that will also help hold up the reader's interest better. Hoping, hoping.

I'm having a good time and enjoying the process, which is rare enough for editing that it's worth saying! Things are actually quite strange right now. My "lighthearted" project when I need a break is fic for a new-to-me fandom, and so I don't know the characters very well yet. I had a full outline written up in a sort of a draft 0 way, with sentence fragments, bits of dialogue, and so on. When I work on it, I'm making all of this into proper prose but it's very plot-focused and lacking a bit of heart at the moment (I'll fix that in edits later!). So I'm not getting the same catharsis I usually get out of writing.

Meanwhile, a lot of the editing I'm doing right now is possible because I've refined the motivations both of the MC and of so many characters around her. So while I'm only adding a couple of paragraphs here and there, or a sentence to hint at more, there's a lot more heart going into it and I feel like I'm getting the kind of, hm, mental wellbeing boost? deep inner satisfaction? that I usually get from writing.

Additionally, I feel like I'm getting to know the MC a lot better, and the fondness I have for her only grows and grows. It's a nice place to be. I've wondered a few times if I should have gotten feedback earlier, but because of the way this particular story was written, I don't think it would have worked well. The first draft required so many changes including a personality transplant for the other main character so let's not even consider it. After the first round of edits (structural), while I had the plot and main relationship nailed down, the world was utterly empty. I had described no setting. The worldbuilding was barebone beyond anything that directly moved the story. Not a very interesting tale to read, and that would have easily confused what were the other necessary fixes that came up during the actual beta-reading, of the kind I did need an external perspective on.

I'm really, really enjoying what this round of editing is changing in the story. I really hope that when I'm done and have taken a step back, it all looks like well done embroidery on a tapestry, and not like haphazard patchwork on a story corpse 😅 Gently holding this feeling into my palms until I hit the next editing road bump... XD
vriddy: Rumi jumping up (jumping in)
[personal profile] vriddy
Via [community profile] fandomcalendar, there is a "AO3 is down" drabble event/prompt fest happening over at [personal profile] ao3_isdown if you'd like to pass the time there during AO3's maintenance window :D

Edit: And [personal profile] linky points to more resources as well :)

Community Thursday

Sep. 25th, 2025 05:33 am
vriddy: Studious, smiling Eri (studious)
[personal profile] vriddy
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted & commented on [community profile] getyourwordsout.

Timing and Distribution

Sep. 24th, 2025 05:16 pm
yourlibrarian: Hawkeye Shoots multiple Arrows-lady_kingsley (AVEN-HawkeyeArrows-lady_kingsley)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) Nothing like a Disney bundle price increase right on the heels of the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco. I wonder if they held off on the announcement until 24 hours after saying he'd return?

2) Having just watched the latest Death in Paradise spinoff, it struck me as curious that a successful show like Silent Witness has not done the same (though maybe it has? Anyone know?)

In a way though, it's like the show has had various spinoffs within the same show. Read more... )

I also thought about this issue given this article which argues that technology will continue to make the cost of content creation fall to where practically anyone can create marketable content, especially since consumer expectation of what counts as entertainment and information has changed due to cost and access issues as well as demographic changes. As a result, companies that invest heavily in it will expect to get paid in different ways. Read more... )

3) It's fun to see how many people over time at Board Game Arena have recognized my Merlin icon. It's a little fannish high five.

4) Sister Boniface's episode of Doctor Who struck me as a sign of changing times. Twenty years ago the fan would have been the geekiest cast member, probably the reporter, but here various cast members are fans and it's mainly the tall, matinee idol detective.

5) Interesting to see how U.S. films are getting less viewing overseas, mainly due to China's restrictions on how many can be shown there. I thought this bit was interesting as well: "The the top French films released were all English-language movies co-produced with the UK among other countries, and did more business in the UK than in the US or China." I didn't realize France even made films in English.

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50k words!

Sep. 22nd, 2025 07:15 am
vriddy: Hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook (writing)
[personal profile] vriddy
I did finish revising Chapter 2 over the weekend, as I hoped! The story now stands at 50.7k words. Is it okay if I think of it as a novel rather than a novella now? XD In my heart I will, but because it's fantasy and fantasy books usually land closer to 150k words, I suppose it still counts as novella-sized for the genre. Ah well!!

The next couple of chapters will have quite a few changes too, but even with that it should be easier going from now on. It should be. It will be. Yes. Totally!!
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