Miles is ONCE AGAIN here with the jokes

"We didn't take the proper consideration for how this cost would affect you."

NO SHIT, TESLA BOY

you know shit went down when it’s three ex buzzfeed employees apologizing on a couch

Absolutely AMAZING response by Watcher imo.

They acknowledged that they made a mistake, made the wider context more clear, and addressed basically all of the criticisms brought forward by the community as far as I know.

THIS is how you respond to backlash, especially this widespread. Take time to collect your thoughts, take the criticism into account, and change your actions going forward.

Great job Watcher 👏

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

@matzahball

For a second I didn’t realize it meant “high” as in a stoner–I thought “High Geologist” was like a rank of geologist or something and he was insulted you would challenge him to naming stones

great poast every one👍

I have drawn him…. The High Geologist

Can’t believe he’s ace

He is now And here’s the photo evidence:

hey guys…https://twitter.com/MatthewLillard/status/1322648148364324864 so does this make it canon?

the high geologist has ascended

every time i see this post it gets…. better? but also weirder.

I always gotta reblog the High Geologist once in a while.

I love this too much.

Reblog to get to look at a cool rock from the High Geologist

king i think it is not fucking sufficient at all. wolftopia or bust

Also Wolftopia is gorgeous by the way

Wolftopia is nearly the size of Saturn and orbits two stars that closely orbit each other!

trans planet trans planet 🏳️‍⚧️

70 horrible questions ... Fuck it

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents? 02: Who did you last say “I love you” to? 03: Do you regret anything? 04: Are you insecure? 05: What is your relationship status? 06: How do you want to die? 07: What did you last eat? 08: Played any sports? 09: Do you bite your nails? 10: When was your last physical fight? 11: Do you like someone? 12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? 13: Do you hate anyone at the moment? 14: Do you miss someone? 15: Have any pets? 16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment? 17: Ever made out in the bathroom? 18: Are you scared of spiders? 19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? 20: Where was the last place you snogged someone? 21: What are your plans for this weekend? 22: Do you want to have kids? How many? 23: Do you have piercings? How many? 24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)? 25: Do you miss anyone from your past? 26: What are you craving right now? 27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? 28: Have you ever been cheated on? 29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? 30: What’s irritating you right now? 31: Does somebody love you? 32: What is your favourite color? 33: Do you have trust issues? 34: Who/what was your last dream about? 35: Who was the last person you cried in front of? 36: Do you give out second chances too easily? 37: Is it easier to forgive or forget? 38: Is this year the best year of your life? 39: How old were you when you had your first kiss? 40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked? 51: Favourite food? 52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason? 53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night? 54: Is cheating ever okay? 55: Are you mean? 56: How many people have you fist fought? 57: Do you believe in true love? 58: Favourite weather? 59: Do you like the snow? 60: Do you wanna get married? 61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? 62: What makes you happy? 63: Would you change your name? 64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed? 65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? 66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around? 67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? 68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? 69: Do you believe in soulmates? 70: Is there anyone you would die for?

We’re Leaving YouTube

check out http://watchertv.com !

i get people don’t like to pay for things that were once free. but paying people fairly and making a survivable living while making cool things is HARD. even with ads. i think what the fellows are cooking up will be well worth it tbh!!!

Sara I'm sorry, no hate to you, but it's not just "paying for things that were once free".

It's extremely tone deaf to say "Anyone and everyone can afford it" when the entire world is going through an economic recession and people don't have money for groceries.

There are literally thousands of people on Patreon, sponsors and ads on every episode, merch and live shows. I'm pretty sure those are hundreds of thousands of dollars that go into watcher.

You cannot talk about "making a survivable living" when there's a show where people eat 1000$ steaks and food coated in gold. Food normal people cannot afford in a thousand years. I'm sorry, again no disrespect to you, but it's ridiculous.

If this woman told me to bark, I would happily do it. 👀❤️

I wonder how many subscribers they've lost since the video. Right now they're at 2.88 mil. Does anyone know what they had before the video was posted?

According to social blade they're down 50k as of posting (20/4 9pm Italian time)

I think this post from Reddit really sums up what a lot of us are feeling, but these two screenshots in particular are what I’ve been trying to say in my last few posts.

But also, I think they’re neglecting the fact that, yes, you can get to a place where you make the quality content you want to create, but before you get there, you might have to make some sacrifices. I know I said before that I wouldn’t want to do art just to pay bills, but if it meant making art I wasn’t satisfied with to grow my audience first and help pay the bills, I wouldn’t exactly be against it. I really appreciate that they want to show the best, but when you’re barely starting out, you do unfortunately have to make sacrifices before you’re able to get to where you want to be.

Now, tbh, I didn’t watch the video, so I don’t know how they framed it. I haven’t heard of a timeline they’re giving. But they could do damage control by saying “this is what we were planning on having achieved in the next five years, we’re not actually going to go cold turkey on you, sorry if we weren’t clear,” to get people to relax a little.

I have no idea if I’m getting everything across as I mean it, and I know reading comprehension kinda is ass here on Tumblr but whatever I’m sleepy

To add to the Reddit post: they have 25 employees PLUS THE FREELANCERS THEY HIRE.

You're telling me you don't have people on your staff to cover the jobs?

They're throwing away stupid amounts of money for nothing

•Normalize Fanart for Fanfics Again You Fools•

It's not cringe anymore (it SHOULDN'T be cringe anymore), just do it. You're doing something you enjoy so who cares what anybody else says. So spread the words my fellow internet brethren.

Spread the Word :)