On Day 12 Of This Challenge @the-wip-project Gave Us The Prompt:

Fun activities

It's very endearing to me how many people are willing to keep an eye on a video feed so they can push a button and let a fish in the Netherlands get to the other side of a dam.

The deal

An Open Letter to Tumblr about the Adult Content Ban and How it is Hurting Your Users:

Recently, Tumblr was removed from the Apple app store due to an incident involving child pornography. This incident is incredibly unfortunate, but it doesn’t stand alone. Tumblr was also removed from the app store due to the large influx of porn bots and pornographic spam, users claiming to be proud to be pedophiles, blatant Nazism, racists who are not deleted for sending hate and harassing users, and more. I myself reported someone for harassing me, but because I had blocked the person and couldn’t access the messages where they harassed me, they were still able to send me anonymous asks. Your support staff, with back doors to the website (presumably), claimed they could not access the messages, and I was left SOL. Many features on this website do nothing to actually protect your users from harassment, racism, homophobia, transphobia, Nazis, pedophiles, predators, porn bots, and more. 

You claim in your statement to us that you “have been working on these problems for a long time”. This is blatantly untrue. Please do not lie to us and patronize us. We’ve been here. We’ve seen you do nothing over, and over, and over again. 

We complained to you for months and months about the rampant porn bots, and you did nothing except add a report button on mobile which only reported sensitive content or spam at best. You could have addressed this problem with an effective algorithm, but you did not. We complained to you about being harassed and sent hate speech for being LGBT+, and you did nothing. We complained to you about blogs being randomly deleted, and sometimes you’ve restored them, other times you have not. We complained to you that there were people proudly claiming to be “Minor Attracted Persons”, or pedophiles, and you did nothing. We complained to you about people proudly claiming to be white supremacists, and you did nothing. All of these things are “against the community guidelines”, and yet over and over, you have not found effective ways to handle these problems or suppress the feeling of welcome that these users claim to get here. You have had a long time to work on these problems, but you haven’t addressed them. To say you have is untrue. 

 Multiple other social networking websites, such as Wordpress, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and others have effectively dealt with rampant pornography, racism, pedophilia, and other problems without causing massive issues for their users who are not misusing the platform. They are continuing to find new, effective ways to deal with these issues without causing problems for their userbase as a whole.  There is no reason that you are unable to do this effectively other than that you wanted to do it quickly. You have once again chosen your stock holders over your users. And we have had enough. 

You have already started to ban “Adult” content with a new algorithm. Here are screenshots of just a fraction of the posts you have flagged as containing adult content:

Your new system of simply tackling everything at once is not working. At all. And each of these screenshots is proof of your utter incompetence. None of these posts contain pornographic acts, “female nipples”, or any community violation of any kind. 

We, the users, have been asking you for months to deal with these problems - particularly, the porn bots and bots that spam. In order to block a bot from a side blog, I have to do it manually, even though they are in my side blog’s feed. This is a huge issue for mobile - only users. They keep cropping up in droves, taking over our posts and tricking google into making it look like a legitimate blog linked to a pornographic website. We have complained to you for months and months now, and your solution to simply “ban all adult content” is ineffective. I agree that children should not be able to access pornography - but this is not how you tackle a porn bot problem. Your system is utterly useless, allows for racists, pedophiles, porn bots, and Nazis to remain untouched. It also harms sex workers and real people who may use this website for some forms of adult content responsibly. Moreover, as seen above, it harms plenty of users who have in no way violated your terms of service.

 If you keep this up, you threaten your website and company as a whole. Many of us are backing up our blogs and planning places to go to. 

You already have a content filter for “sensitive” content (content inappropriate for younger viewers). You could have improved this, instead of attacking your entire user base. It seems to be a very lazy “solution”, if you could call it one at all, and one that harms your entire userbase.

If you are going to keep this filter in place and make Tumblr, a website that has never been known for being family friendly and has never claimed to be, you are going to lose millions of your users. We are already planning our exodus. It isn’t hard to follow. Censor us, and we will go somewhere else. That is not a threat. It is a promise. 

Sincerely, 

The users of your website. 

@staff @support

Dark Matter season 1 = Canuck sci-fi + Ruby Rose! Franchement c’est bien fait ça

hey so I finally made a scifi recommendations slideshow

stay tuned for a fantasy one

100% agree! Some of the fanfic I’ve read has better writing than the actual show. For example, Giant by @coeurdastronaute

Reblog if you think fanfiction is a legitimate form of creative writing.

Saves me everyday

I already thought he was evil. This confirms it.

what do you mean elon musk did a nazi salute on live tv at the united states presidential inauguration twice and is now erasing the evidence off the internet by replacing the footage with the crowd cheering instead?

would be a shame if people reblogged this, wouldn’t it?

Atomic Blonde: All that and more

I'd read a critique of "Atomic Blonde" that panned the film as plotless, that it was merely a vehicle for Charlize Theron to inflict gratuitous violence against a series of men between sex scenes with Sofia Boutella. (FYI: This description was not a deterant for me to see it opening night). What they failed to mention was the: amazing 80s setting, fashions, and music; and intricate plot twists. There were two plot points which I found ... weak (see spoilers below) but other than that, ATOMIC BLONDE was pretty awesome! I highly recommend the film. I’m still not sure who Satchel was/is.

I have two critiques though (spoilers): 

Sound engineers who are aware of the tech in 1989 may have to close their eyes at one point and choose to "believe" in sound mixing gods. 

After threatening someone, I would not wander around my apartment in lingerie wearing headphones with the window open. Just Saying.

Ummm, is it just me  but ...

Be warned: Slight spoilers if you haven’t watched S04E12 “The Chosen” yet

... I was surprised that Clarke didn’t say goodbye to Niylah in this episode. Worse, Clarke left Niylah in a room of scarred skaikru. Clarke didn’t even ask Abby to make sure that Niylah was in the lottery - like Emori asked to be. Wow! Clarke, what the hell. I know that people die after sleeping with you but don’t assume that is always the case. Yes, I know that Niylah is not Clarke’s soulmate but at least a, “thanks for the snuggles and being supportive even after I stole the bunker” from Clarke before she headed off in a hazmat suit, would have been nice. Just sayin’

Clexa || Go Your Own Way

This video ... my heart! I keep on imagining Lexa and Clarke singing this together at Karaoke. Sheer genius, thank you @eternalhedalexa.

15 Days and 45 Authors: Day 10

Happy Holidays Clexakru! For the holiday season, I am hoping you all can join me in sending out a giant thank you to our wonderful authors. It has been over 1,000 days since Lexa left us and our authors have continued to keep Clexa alive. Without them our ship would have sailed and we would be scattered to other fandoms. Without them, the impact of Clexa on the LGBT community would have been forgotten. Without them, I never would have met some amazing people. So, in no particular order, here is a thank you to some amazing writers for whom I am forever grateful.

Jude81 ( @bae-in-maine )

Known for: Three Loves (Pieces of Us)

My Favorite: Friday Night Pizza Delivery

Hidden Gem: Tell Her

Common Tags: Fluff, Humor, G!P

Jude’s writing is smart, witty, and filled with love. Her love for Clexa is reflected not only by her writing style but also by the extensive collection of Clexa stories she has written. Friday Night Pizza Delivery is a super fun and hilarious story of Clarke trying her hardest to entice delivery girl Lexa. Tell Her is a sweet, fluffy fic but it’s confused Lexa and her bromance with Raven that made me fall in love with this fic. Also, I must confess that Jude’s smut is fantastic. She knows how to get you wiggling in your seat.

KL_Morgan ( @entirelytookeen )

Known for: (my) Destruction Within Your Mouth

My Favorite: The White Queen Running

Hidden Gem: The Red King Awake

Common Tags: Slow Burn, Canon Divergence, Parallel Universes

I am deeply in love with KLM’s works. She has created multiple versions of Clarke and Lexa, each one true to the original pairing but under different circumstances. Her characterizations are deeply complex, realistic, and fascinating. She has created the most brilliant form of Costia. A character whose self-preservation was rooted in the unwavering devotion to another, even at the cost of her own needs. KLM’s works show that she understands who Clarke and Lexa are at their core; a feat that even the show creators have not accomplished.

OForion4 ( @oforion4 )

Known for: It Takes As Long As It Takes

My Favorite: It Takes As Long As It Takes

Hidden Gem: It Takes As Long As It Takes

Common Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn

Who among us did not squeal with joy when this fic was updated after nearly a two year wait? ITALAIT was worth the wait. OF has written a beautiful story that falls into the same category as Lover in Low Light and Except You, Love. ITALAIT is a heart wrenching exploration of a fractured relationship. OF’s writing truly shines as she uses flashbacks to examine what went wrong and move the plot forward with details of past love. This is the only work OF currently has on AO3. It is an outstanding piece and leaves me hoping to see more works from her in the future.

Beautiful image and great story by @aphrodites-law

do you think Lexa ever wore those skull masks that other Trikru warriors seemed to favor? who’s skull would it be? Full illustration here.