Most Shows Need To End At Some Point, And In Many Instances They Benefit From Ending Sooner Rather Than

despite everything …. I’m grateful I got a chance to be alive… to experience love and good food and sunsets. isn’t that the point of it all really

Alice Te Punga Somerville, Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised - Kupu rere kē

re: tumblr

hello! I work in tech and here are some important things to know about "tumblr is going into maintenance mode." please note I do not work at tumblr, I've just worked at tumblr-adjacent sort of companies for my entire adult life and i've gone through this before.

what does maintenance mode mean?

literally what it sounds like -- Automattic is not going to be hiring new staff, investing in new product features, or doing anything new on tumblr. the staff that remains working on tumblr will be maintaining the status quo. most of the staff will be allocated elsewhere (or possibly laid off, though it looks like from that memo that's not what they're planning to do). it does not mean tumblr is shutting down. you should still buy premium, get merch, etc, because this is definitely step one of the shutdown process, but a maintenance mode designation is basically to see if tumblr will generate a revenue without putting more money into it than strictly necessary.

why did this happen?

obviously I do not know directly. from my observation, it's in part because Yahoo had absolutely no idea what to do with this platform, and then when Automattic bought it they also... struggled... but it is also in part because the user base has been so viciously anti-monetization that most attempts were killed outright.

yes, the user base is part of the problem. the absolute feral anti-premium, anti-ads, anti-tipping, anti-everything tumblr tried to do to make money is part of the problem. it's not the only part of the problem by a long shot, but I would be remiss not to mention it.

what do I do now?

use the platform. just like, keep using tumblr. do not abandon ship. buy premium, get yourself some badges, get yourself some merch, but use the platform. ad revenue is based on impressions and clicks. if a ton of the user base gives up, that revenue disappears.

--

tumblr is extremely special. I've never seen anything like it in my 20-odd years of being Very Online, and I was a minor BNF in WolfStar during LiveJournal days. I don't know that it can be recreated elsewhere. I don't know where fandom will go. I know that something else will exist after tumblr and that nothing gold can stay, but i don't think the specific kind of joy found here can be recreated. i say this not to be a downer, but to be realistic. I guess I should find a Bluesky invite.

I've been here since 2008. I'm not going anywhere as long as this site exists. hope you'll stay here with me.

Could you do the seriema? I love that they’ve convergently evolved little sickle claws like dromeosaurs and that they’re the closest living relatives of terror birds.

Its time... for the Seriema... SUPER POST!!!

Red-legged Seriema (Cariama cristata), family Cariamidae, order Cariamiformes, found in central and eastern South America

Seriemas were once placed in the Gruiformes, but in 2014 were elevated to their own order. They are most closely related to Falconidae, Psittaciformes and Passeriformes.

They are territorial, and some people ion South America use them as guard animals.

Seriemas eat a wide variety of small prey, and are known to pick up snakes with their beaks and slam them hard onto the ground repeatedly, to subdue/kill them.

photographs by João Menezes, Silvia Faustino Linhares, Brian Henderson, Manfred Warner, & Stephan Lorenz

Brazil - photograph by Djamel Milano

Uruguay - photograph by Silvia Viazzo

Tiffany couldn't quite work out how Miss Level got paid. Certainly the basket she carried filled up more than it emptied. They'd walk past a cottage and a woman would come scurrying out with a fresh-baked loaf or a jar of pickles, even though Miss Level hadn't stopped there. But they'd spend an hour somewhere else, stitching up the leg of a farmer who'd been careless with an axe, and get a cup of tea and a stale biscuit. 

It didn't seem fair.

“Oh, it evens out,” said Miss Level, as they walked on through the woods. 

“You do what you can. People give what they can, when they can. Old Slapwick there, with the leg, he's as mean as a cat, but there'll be a big cut of beef on my doorstep before the week's end, you can bet on it. His wife will see to it. And pretty soon people will be killing their pigs for the winter, and I'll get more brawn, ham, bacon and sausages turning up than a family could eat in a year.”

“You do? What do you do with all that food?”

“Store it,” said Miss Level. 

“But you-”

“I store it in other people. It's amazing what you can store in other people.” Miss Level laughed at Tiffany's expression. “I mean, I take what I don't need round to those who don't have a pig, or who're going through a bad patch, or who don't have anyone to remember them.”

“But that means they'll owe you a favour!”

“Right! And so it just keeps on going round. It all works out.”

“I bet some people are too mean to pay-”

“Not pay,” said Miss Level, severely. “A witch never expects payment and never asks for it and just hopes she never needs to. But, sadly, you are right.”

“And then what happens?"

“What do you mean?”

“You stop helping them, do you?”

“Oh, no,” said Miss Level, genuinely shocked. “You can't not help people just because they're stupid or forgetful or unpleasant. Everyone's poor round here. If I don't help them, who will?”

"A Hat full of Sky" - Terry Pratchett

October 6, 1998 an ordinary boy was beaten and left for dead, tied to a fence in a pasture in Wyoming. The people who came upon the body believed it was not human but a scarecrow but for the only part of his face not covered in blood were two white lines running down his cheeks where the tears had dried. His death was horrific yet not in vain. This ordinary boy set in motion a fight for equality, a fight for dignity. You don't have to be gay to understand this, you need only be human. Say his name…. Matthew Shepard

That's because you are amazing dear @cryptotheism

Being self taught and talking to actual academics is so funny. Like I have a deep and practiced knowledge of Plotinus, but I'm still not entirely sure on how Plato and Aristotle conflict.

We need Medicare For All. Remove profit from health care. End medical debt.

Your tax dollars should cover your needs.