THE (SUPER DUPER INCREDIBLY UNOFFICIAL) IN STARS AND TIME-THEMED PACK IS NOW ON ITCH.IO FOR DOWNLOAD!

there’s a website where you put in two musicians/artists and it makes a playlist that slowly transitions from one musician’s style of music to the other’s

it’s really fun

these are pictures from before and after the floods. these are 2 days old:

these other pictures are more recent, mostly from yesterday:

Rio Pardo, RS / Eldorado do Sul, RS

Canoas, RS

Porto Alegre, RS

this is a nightmare.

I've been meaning to permanently retire my fanart prints that I only sell at cons, so I've listed leftover stock online! the rest of my shop is still closed, only these prints are available right now. there's only a handful left of some, my stock is VERY low

50% of proceeds will go to PCRF!

store

Hello. I’m sorry for begging again but my situation is pretty dire.

Recently, I’ve been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, stage 4. It came out of nowhere and was caught by sheer luck on an unrelated test. Stage four means my kidneys are shriveled up and almost dead - currently at only 17% working condition. When it drops to 10%, which is stage 5 (prognosis is within a year) I will require a kidney transplant and/or dialysis. You can not live without it, and prognosis for dialysis/kidney transplant patients are 10 to 20 years. I’m very young and I really would like to continue having a peaceful life and work on my art. I’ve had many hardships before - I’ve fundraised to get money for rent because of a homophobic attack I’ve suffered, I’ve fundraised to escape my country, all within 2-3 years. I’m really grateful for all the help I’ve gotten and I believe in people’s kindness.

Please, if you’re able, share or pitch in to my gfm campaign made by my fiancé. Link in the reblog.

My comms are also still open if you’d like to help in that way and get some art.

young artist posting your work online, heed my warning. im holding your face so gently in my hands, you have to stop caring about numbers right now and start caring about making the weirdest and most self-indulgent art you possibly can

Crazy how, time and time again, fundraising posts get the least amount of notes. A random errant thought I had during the day will, on average, accumulate more notes than a fundraiser that I actually push for engagement. Why is that? Are other human lives not worth a millisecond of your effort? Are they not even worth your spare change? What makes my humanity (or yours) more compelling than theirs?

instead of continuously over-donating to ao3 when those running the site are racist zionist sympathisers who shut down support of palestine from its volunteers 1 / 2 (among myriad other issues that u should NOT be funding) please direct your attention to these incomplete fundraisers for people in gaza and various tangible operations doing work. this is a call that if u have donated even a cent to ao3 to a) match that in your donations to palestinians/causes and b) stop donating so uncritically and unconditionally to ao3, pressure them. id like to direct u to @end-otw-racism

fundraiser masterpost by @el-shab-hussein

mona

care for gaza

help gaza's children

operation olive branch

the palestinian children's relief fund

unrwa

the palestinian red crescent society

buy an e-sim / donate for mass buying

reminder that donating just a few $ to gofundme campaigns actually helps, you don't have to donate huge amounts if you don't have the funds, every little bit is useful. give $10, $5, even $1. it all adds up. don't scroll past because you think you can't help. help in your own capacity. donate a dollar. share and speak up.

Oh my gosh

This is pure evil. They say 12 employees participated in Oct 7th so they have to stop feeding the entire population????

United States Department of State

Statement on UNRWA Allegations - United States Department of State

The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations that twelve UNRWA employees may have been involved in the October 7 Hamas terrori

Fans and Creators of Webtoons!

I want to talk about Line Webtoon’s new “Super Like” program and why it sucks for literally everyone.

What is a “Super Like?”

According to their website, super likes are a new way for webtoon creators to monetize their work. Readers can pay real money to buy a super like for their favorite webtoon, and the creator gets a fraction of that money.

Wait, a fraction? Not all of it?

Yep! Webtoon skims quite a chunk off the top.

30% goes to Webtoon, and then another 30% of that amount goes to the payment processor.

So what do creators get? 49 cents for every dollar their fans try to give them. Literally half.

That’s pretty ludicrous, right?

Interestingly enough, they announced that they had a “tipping system” in the works in the same email they ended the CANVAS creator rewards program (and many comic creators livelihoods)

They said tipping system in their social media posts too

Obviously this tipping system is referring to super likes right? They say they’re going to do a tipping system, and then this rolls out.

But “tips” are not something that buisinesses can just take a cut of, at least not in the United States. According to the Department of Labor, it is illegal for any amount of tips from customers to go to an employer.

Webtoon is trying to walk back this language, of course. You won’t find the word “tip” anywhere on their website page explaining how it works. But those old social media posts are still up.

This is all pretty scummy

But wait, it gets worse!

They removed the Patreon button at the end of episodes and replaced it with this:

Yep! That’s right. Webtoon really said “what if we replace the tipping system that already existed with a shittier one where you only get half of it 🥺”

Unsurprisingly, they faced a ton of backlash.

Webtoon was quick to point out that the Patreon button was only removed from the end of episodes and there was still a button on the creator’s homepage. But of course, the end of episodes is where that button matters the most.

Creators know this. Webtoon knows this.

Eventually, after days of continued complaints from creators on social media, Webtoon went on damage control mode and announced that they would be putting the Patreon button back at the end of episodes—

As of right now (May 11th, 2024) the Patreon button is still not back.

***

So…Super likes are “super totally not a tip.”

But if they aren’t tips…what are they?

Well there’s a bit more to the story of what a super like actually is. After announceing the program, the app updated to reveal a new ranking category on the front page

When you click on this ranking tab, you can see that there is now both a daily and weekly ranking

If you’re a CANVAS creator, you know how difficult and seemingly random it can be to get your comic on the front page of the app—so my immediate worry was that comic creators were going to buy superlikes on their own series to get in this ranking and…

Yep, that’s already happening.

But why would webtoon even allow creators to buy superlikes for themselves? How does that make sense?

Surely goading desperate creators into buying superlikes can’t be that lucrative, can it?

No. I think there’s another, possibly even worse reason.

Fandom wars

If you’re into music, you probably are aware of how common it is for super fans to make concerted efforts to get their favorite musician to the top of the billboard charts. They coordinate over social media, stream music on loop as soon as an album drops to inflate the numbers, buy albums in bulk to increase sales, all so that they can say their fav is number one. It’s especially common among K-pop fans and swifties

This phenomena is well documented

Fans of Webtoons can be just as ravenous as K-pop, so I think Webtoon is trying to capitalize on this. They want to encourage fandom war and make money. That’s why they have this ranking. Not only can super fans brag about their favorite series topping the charts but they can wear their super like proudly on their reader profile that webtoon will be rolling out soon.

They’re just testing this super like stuff out on CANVAS right now, but once this starts up with originals? Oh. It will be a very profitable, very terrible mess.

(Oh and I mean profitable for webtoon, not creators, in case that wasn’t clear.)

***

Anyway, if you’re a creator, do yourself a favor and don’t enable super likes.

If you’re a fan of a webcomic, just donate to that creators patreon or Ko-Fi to show your support. Don’t give a red cent to webtoon because they did not do any of the work to make the series you love, alright?

Also check out my webtoon haha.