What Are Some Chronic Illnesses That Can Only Occur In A Fantasy Setting?

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

🇵🇸GAZA ESCAPE FUNDS🇵🇸

(Emoji description: two uses of the Palestinian flag emoji, end description)

This is a running list of users in Gaza who have reached out to me to ask to share their campaigns. They are all vetted campaigns, but not by me. That credit goes to users el-shab-hussein and nabulsi, and most of the verifications come from this spreadsheet that they compiled.

I will try to keep this list updated daily with any new users who reach out to me, as well as with the amounts raised. I’ll also try to keep the urls of each person up to date, as staff keeps banning Palestinian users and forcing them to remake.

Please follow all of these users and donate what you can to their campaigns!!

🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

(Emoji description: three Palestinian flag emojis, end description)

Laila Shaqoura: €17k/€45k

@lailashaqoura, number 152 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Wafaa Alnhal: €11k/€35k

@hebsnhel, number 171 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Ruba Shaban: €23k/€65k

@rubashabansblog, number 90 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Issam Aziz: €15k/€20k

@haifaaziz98, number 179 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Amneh Sharif: $6.7k/$90k USD

@amnehsharif10, number 140 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Nada Saftawi: €6.3k/€16k

@nadasaftawi, number 182 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Iyad Sobhe: £9.4k/£60k

@iyadsobhegaza, number 173 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Dr. Nasser Mohammed: £4.9k/£50k

(terminated, formerly nassermohamed9), Verified by nabulsi

Nahla & Amal: €2.5k/€80k

@jrk85, number 178 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Ahmed Iyd: £9.8k/£150k

(terminated, formerly ahmediyds), number 116 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Renad Magid: £14k/£25k

@renadmagidnew, number 128 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Amira Alanqar: €7.8k/€20k

@ameera-anq, Verified by nabulsi

Mohammed Hilles: €14k/€20k

@hmzamahamed3, number 176 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Rania Ibra: £13k/£35k

@ranibra71, number 154 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Malk Al Zaeem: $15k/$50k CAD

@malkzaeem, number 129 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Amal Abu Shammala: €54k/€60k

@amalisam, number 24 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

NOTE: Amal’s family has been evacuated to Egypt, but Amal is continuing to raise funds to support her displaced relatives and to recover from losing her job and being scammed out of $20k in the process of evacuating her family. Please keep on donating to her both the above campaign and this second campaign, which has raised $2.4k/$10k!

Nael Helles: $15k/$50k USD

@nael-helles, number 85 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Ahmed & Dina: €11k/€35k

@zinaeleenyamin, verified by nabulsi

Hani Al-Hajjar: €27k/€50k

@skatehani, number 75 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Mohammed Alanqer: €12k/€38k

@mohamedalanqer, number 174 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Salaah Bilaal: €40k/€70k

@bilal-salah0, number 132 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Shahed Muhammad: $4.3k/$50k USD

@shahednhall, verified by nabulsi

Nader Shoshaa: €5.6k/€120k

@nadersh0, number 153 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi (thank you to @rubashabansblog for sending me this campaign!)

Donate €5 to Nader to enter a digital art commission raffle run by rafflesforpalestine!

Iman Eyad: £6.1k/£60k

@imanblogs, number 150 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi (thank you to @rubashabansblog for sending me this campaign!)

Aya Maher: €2.9k/€25k

@ayamaher44, verified by 90-ghost

Hamsa Mohammad: €4.7k/€30k

@hamsamohammad, verified by nabulsi

Alaa Al Khateeb: £24k/£56k

@alaaalkhateeb, number 99 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Mohammed Hoboub: kr6k/kr300k SEK

@mohammedhaboub, verified by 90-ghost

Youssef Helles: €634/€23k

@omaryousef, vouched for by skatehani

Amani Hasan: $7.7k/$17,732 CAD

@amani93hasan, number 169 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Ahmad Turk: €6.5k/€70k

@ahmadturk00, number 96 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Ahmed Ziad: £1.4k/£30k

@ahmed-ziad, verified by nabulsi

Mahmoud Helles: €315/€50k

@mahmoud92hells, verified by nabulsi (thank you @magnus-rhymes-with-swagness for sending me the verification!)

Sujood Odeh: £50k/£70k

@sujoododeh, number 64 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Mohammad Al Manasra: €1.5k/€40k

@save-mohammad-family, verified by ibtisams

Mohammad Awni: €1.5k/€45k

@mohamedawnisblog, verified by nabulsi

Raghad Qanou: £1.1k/£55k

@rhq274, verified by nabulsi

Iyad Sami: CHF231/CHF20k

@eyadsami, vouched for by mohamedalanqer

Ahmed Al Ostaz: €10k/€70k

@ahmedalostaz, number 125 on this spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi

Yousef Hussein: $1k/$50k USD

@06679799, verified by 90-ghost

Nesma Ahmed: $61k/$80k USD

@nesmamo, verified by nabulsi

Abdelrahman: €693/€20k

@anqer, vetted by el-shab-hussein

Mahmoud Balousha: €12k/€50k

@mahmoud26, verified by blackpearlblast

something my mum always taught us was to look for the resources we're entitled to, and use them. public land? know your access rights and responsibilities, go there and exercise them. libraries? go there and talk to librarians and read community notice boards, find out what other people are doing around you, ask questions, use the printers. public records offices? go in there, learn what they hold and what you can access, look at old maps, get your full birth certificate copied, check out the census from your neighbourhood a hundred years ago. are you entitled to social support? find out, take it, use it. does the local art college have facilities open to the public? go in, look around, check out their exhibit on ancient looms or whatever, shop in their campus art supply store. it applies online too, there is so much shit in the world that belongs to the public commons that you can access and use if you just take a minute to wonder what might exist!!!

Cards Against Humanity Pays You to Give a Shit

Cards Against Humanity Pays You to Give a Shit

Didn't vote in 2020? Cards Against Humanity will pay you to apologize.

This is the most chaotic good thing I’ve ever seen

we won

my goodness thank you your art looks amazing

pandering to my audience bu drawing gunntech ocs :}

Close ups under the cut

Kailani from @mysticarts

Lottie from @got-saged-intheprocess

Orion from @banana-birb

Sun Arley from @sh1n0buloverrr

Liêm from @senseihuy

And Dolores accompanied by Flint-Shot from @thefaeartist

I also drew Kit from @ambriel-angstwitch but I didn’t do her justice so no close up sorry

—-

discovered a new method of low - effort sketches so that’s nice :}

au by @kitsuneisi and @xmaruu11 :D

Free tactical medicine learning resources

If you want to learn first aid, emergency care or tactical medical care for real, you will need to practice these skills. A lot. Regularly. There’s no way to learn them just from books. But if you’re looking to supplement your training, can’t access hands on training, are a layperson doing research for your writing or otherwise just curious, here are some free resources (some may need a free account to access them).

TCCC

The current gold standard in the field is Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), developed by the US army but used by militaries around the world. There is also a civilian version of the system called Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC). Training materials, Standards of Care, instructional videos, etc. can be accessed at deployedmedicine.com. You’ll need a free account. This should be your first and possibly only stop.

There’s also an app and a podcast if those are more your thing, although I haven’t personally tried them.

More TCCC (video) resources

STOP THE BLEED® Interactive Course

TCCC-MP Guidelines and Curriculum presentations and training videos

EURMED’s Medical Beginner's Resource List has suggested list of video materials (disclaimer: I haven’t watched the playlists, but I have been trained by nearly all of the linked systems/organisations and can vouch for them)

Tactical Medical Solutions training resource page (requires registration; some of the courses are free)

North American Rescue video downloads

Emergency medicine

WHO-ICRC Basic Emergency Care: approach to the acutely ill and injured — an open-access course workbook for basic emergency care with limited resources

Global Health Emergency Medicine — open-access, evidence-based, peer-reviewed emergency medicine modules designed for teachers and learners in low-resource health setting

AFEM Resources — curricula, lecture bank, reviews, etc.

Global Emergency Medicine Academy Resources (links to more resources)

OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology textbook

Open-access anatomy and physiology learning resources

OpenStax Pharmacology for nurses textbook

Principles of Pharmacology – Study Guide

Multiple Casualty Incidents

Management of Multiple Casualty Incidents lecture

Bombings: Injury Patterns and Care blast injuries course (scroll down on the page)

Borden Institute has medical textbooks about biological, chemical and nuclear threats

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Prolonged field care

When the evac isn’t coming anytime soon.

Prolonged Field Care Basics lecture (requires registration)

Aerie 14th Edition Wilderness Medicine Manual (textbook)

Austere Emergency Medical Support (AEMS) Field Guide (textbook)

Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) Guidelines

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines

Austere Medicine Resources: Practice Guidelines — a great resource of WMS, PFC, TCCC, etc. clinical practice guidelines in one place

The Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal (you can read past issues without a membership)

Prolonged Field Care Collective: Resources

National Park Services Emergency Medical Services Resources

Guerilla Medicine: An Introduction to the Concepts of Austere Medicine in Asymmetric Conflicts (article)

Mental health & PTSD

National Center for PTSD

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Combat and Operational Behavioral Health (medical textbook)

Resources for doctors and medical students

Or you know, other curious people who aren’t afraid of medical jargon.

Borden Institute Military Medical Textbooks and Resources — suggestions: start with Fundamentals of Military Medicine; mechanism of injury of conventional weapons; these two volumes on medical aspects of operating in extreme environments; psychosocial aspects of military medicine; or Combat Anesthesia

Emergency War Surgery textbook and lectures

Disaster Health Core Curriculum — online course for health professionals

Médecins Sans Frontières Clinical guidelines

Pocket book of hospital care for children: Second edition — guidelines for the management of common childhood illnesses in low resource settings

Grey’s Quick Reference: Basic Protocols in Paediatrics and Internal Medicine For Resource Limited Settings

The Department of Defense Center of Excellence for Trauma: Trauma Care Resources (links to more resources)

Since the holiday toy drive post is circulating again, I figured this would also be helpful! Food insecurity is such a massive problem in America, in general, and if you have the means to help feed others, I think you should take that opportunity. Here are some other tips:

1. If you’re planning on donating items from your own pantry, please check the expiration dates on the packaging. Think of your donations as gifts to bestow, not castoffs to be rid of. It’s awful to think of people feeling like they got scraps someone else just didn’t want. Everyone deserves dignity with their meals.

2. If you’d rather give money to a food bank, that’s also great since they buy food in bulk and know what items are most wanted/needed!

3. Not everyone has access to appliances like stoves or microwaves or hot plates so if you can donate items that don’t need to be heated up, that would also be greatly appreciated!

🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽

Magical girls kill monsters all the time, but they're not allowed to kill humans. But you're not a magical girl; you're her older brother.