“with Eyes Closed”

now yall know what time it is

PSA regarding tumblr’s latest Censorship Nightmare

For those of you who haven’t seen this announcement, tumblr recently made some changes to the iOS version of the app, purportedly to comply with Apple’s content guidelines. These changes took effect on Dec 21, starting in version 22.5.1 of the iOS app. As some of you may recall, Apple’s strict guidelines were the driving force for the infamous Great Purge of 2018, which coincidentally also happened around this time of year, but it seems banning all of the female-presenting nipples wasn’t good enough for Apple.

Below is a summary of the important changes. Note that these changes technically ONLY affect those using the iOS app. If you’re accessing tumblr through a different app or operating system (Google Chrome, Android app, etc) it won’t affect you directly but it will affect your followers who use iOS so you should definitely be aware of it.

The list of banned tags has been expanded. As before, there’s no way to know which words or phrases have been banned until you try searching for them, in which case you’ll either get no search results or the following message: “This content has been hidden because of potentially suggestive or explicit content.” You may think this doesn’t concern you if you don’t post explicit material, but do not make the mistake of expecting the banned tags to be logical or reasonable. I’ve already encountered multiple completely innocuous posts (random fandom gifsets) that seem to be hidden on iOS for no discernible reason.

Blogs that have been flagged as explicit can no longer be viewed. Previously, flagged blogs just had their posts hidden from searches, but if you knew the username you could still visit it after clicking through a warning about sensitive content. Now you can’t access it at all.

Likes and reblogs from blogs that have been flagged will no longer show up in your notes. This one won’t affect most people’s user experience as much as the others, but it does mean you may be missing notes. It’s unclear if likes and reblogs from flagged blogs will still count towards the overall note total (and only be missing from the activity feed and note viewer) but I suspect that’s the case.

THE BIG ONE: ANY POST TAGGED WITH A BANNED TAG WILL NO LONGER SHOW UP ON YOUR DASHBOARD. Previously, if you tagged a post with a banned word or phrase (even if the words were used inside another tag), that post would not show up in searches, but your followers would still be able to see it on their dashboard. Now those posts are hidden from your own followers as well. This includes both original posts and reblogs. And if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s the real kicker: even if you don’t tag something with one of the banned words, if the OP used a banned tag, any reblogs of that post will not show up on anyone’s dashboard (on the iOS app). The only saving grace here, and I hate to even call it that, is that the blocked posts are still visible if you visit a blog directly or if you have post notifications turned on.

As usual, tumblr was extremely unclear and evasive about all of this in their official announcement. Not surprising, of course, since if more people were aware of these new draconian tactics I can’t imagine there wouldn’t be more of an uproar about it. Tumblr claims that these changes are somewhat temporary and that they are currently working on something that will allow for a less restricted iOS experience, but they refuse to say what that something is and when it will be implemented. And let’s just say, considering their track record, I’m not hopeful.

All of this is horrible and infuriating for many reasons, but the worst part is how insanely counterproductive it is to creating the “safe” environment tumblr (or more specifically Apple) supposedly wants.

Tags have always been used for both blog organization and filtering purposes. Tagging posts with triggers and content warnings is a common practice that gives users the ability to filter out content they may find upsetting or just don’t don’t want to see for whatever reason. By choosing to ban a bunch of unlisted “sensitive content” tags, all they’re doing is encouraging people who want to share that kind of content to come up with alternative less well-known tags or simply not tag that content at all anymore if they want it to show up on their follower’s dashboards, thereby making it more likely for someone to encounter it when they didn’t want to.

So really, with all of the alleged concern for safety and “protecting the children,” all they’ve done is make tumblr less safe for everyone. Typical.

The Death of the 3DS (and Wii U)

Last year, Nintendo removed the ability to make purchases on the 3DS/Wii U eShops. This month, on March 27th of 2023, is the end. You will be able to redownload previously purchased content "for the foreseeable future", though.

To be crystal clear: if you ever wanted a digital version of a 3DS/Wii U game or it's DLC, you have less than a month to obtain it legally. That's it.

So, what do you need to do? Simple. You need to download the following free software to future proof your 3DS:

1: PokeTransporter If you literally ever want to play pokemon games older than the 3DS and move those pokemon forward, you NEED this app to transfer from DS to 3DS.

2: PokeBank This software transfers pokemon from 3DS to Switch, and is going to be free after the eShop closes. It currently has a $5 subscription fee, but again, this will be removed after March 27th. If you want to transfer any 3DS pokemon to Switch, you NEED this app.

3: Pokemon Picross The save data for this software is used to hack the 3DS. Even if you don't want to hack your 3DS, you may someday want to play a 3DS game that is digital only, like Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation. This is the current software used to hack your 3DS using the excellent 3DS hacking guide.

On a related note, my guide on what to do with a hacked 3DS is available here, and my Wii U guide is here.

It is impossible to brick your 3DS or Wii U with modern hacking solutions, but you should still follow the instructions closely to make sure you don't scare yourself.

Once again, either you download Pokemon Picross or you are committing to never playing any digital 3DS game you don't already have.

If you have questions, my inbox is always open. Nintendo may have given up on these consoles, but we never will. Rock on, tumblr.

Omnomnom, Reddy Pie!

Y'all have no idea how much I think about Redacre and Cleff on a daily basis lolol

They're both weirdos, bizarre in their own ways with one perhaps seeming a lot more "normal" than the other, but they found each other and that's all that matters.

Little Miss Ethics Committee and Big Mister Reality Anchor, they mean the world to me in ways you wouldn't understand and I would love to talk about them more at some point :D

@pokeblog123

Fellow epileptics, I have some fantastic news for you. There’s an add-on that makes the internet safer for us. It’s called Epilepsy Blocker. The creator had me test it out, give feedback, he made adjustments, and it works great. It may even help those with migraine disorders that are triggered by the same thing that messes with those of use with photosensitive epilepsy (mine is a case of being absurdly sensitive).

This is the only add-on I’ve encountered made specifically for those of us with epilepsy. It’s not a well known add-on, but I hope to see that change.

all video games should have a “I’m shit at video games but I’m curious about the story and I don’t want to watch a let’s play” mode

i love having mutuals who are the authority on a specific fictional character

🦀🦀🦀 Data celebrates a holy day 🦀🦀🦀

Here's a full-screen version of the pic I made for my ask blog!

Stars are very got dang hard to do, so it's a damn shame I'll probably be making a lot more in the future!

Hope you like this either way.

The French really don’t fuck around.