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Post a Random Thought written Sept 18, 2024 21:06:13 GMT
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Sept 18, 2024 19:22:20 GMT said:
If anything I'd like to talk about skewing back towards lower expectations and making rp a "free" hobby again. Not everyone has the money to fork over for expensive custom skins, templates, or graphics. If they do and they want those things it's fine but too often I see someone turn their nose up because someone doesn't have as pretty of graphics or has an edited skin that many sites have used so now it's simply not good enough.

Even premades cost money, and a good chunk of money too, if they aren't the free variety. Not all people have that kind of money to toss at a hobby that's meant to be relaxing. It's not supposed to be a popularity contest or pissing match.

Maybe some people need to step back and remember that. It's almost like some people forget what having fun is...
tbh if we want to start having free skins be standard, we need to severely lower graphical expectations for sites. a skin with full HTML templates takes many days to code, and it's fine to want compensation for that amount of work. i tend to side-eye people that complain about cookie cutter skins b/c they're contributing to a problem that's causing sites to not open as often.

the only time i'll pass on a site because of the skin is if i literally can't read it, because the purpose of a site is to read text, and if I can't do that, I can't RP. This is also why I have a tendency of not joining sites that use external templates; having to nag people to remember to use legible font sizes is exhausting and I'd rather just not. honestly it's made me want to include !important for a 1rem font size for every skin i create so no one can make the text smaller.
last edit on Sept 18, 2024 21:07:58 GMT by illidan main

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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 0:06:45 GMT
aliaspor, sef, jdawg
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*comes walkin' in the saloon with the cowboy outfit on*

word vomit in spoiler. prob is nothin' i ain't said before.

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hi. i'm late. (maybe).

i think the lack of sites being made or sticking around for longer periods of time has a lot to do with the lack of attention spans as well as a high demand for instant gratification. a lot of people desire (or even need) fast turnaround on things like posts or events. seldom few are content with waiting or taking it slow. this is something that is more of an overall societal issue, not excluded to only the roleplay community.

aesthetics are important but i think so long as the information needed to read is easily accessible, lack of an amazing skin can be overlooked by more of us than we might realize. like jungler, i couldn't count on all my fingers the amount of times i've clicked off a site that i would have joined if not for the font size being too small or the colors being too saturated. people don't even need to know how to code to remedy this on a free skin. a lot of coders who make free skins offer free assistance. as well as the swell of other coders in the community who might lend their aid.

what i see a lack of from sites in modern time is loyalty and true investment. as soon as activity gets low, people tend to abandon their creations or seek other sites right away. i started back in 2018 and joined a forumotion site (with a basic, somewhat ugly skin) i followed until it's perceived death earlier this year. we had a solid community who stuck around and wrote, even at the lowest points of it's activity. even through some serious drama. this went on into our adulthood. everyone had their hearts in that site and were committed to keeping it alive. not to say that level of commitment doesn't exist (looking at sites like you, hoenn, going strong!!!). but it's not something i've seen as commonplace in my more recent experiences.

though, i haven't been in the scene on public forums in a year now? so not sure how the current forecast is. i might be outdated on the current flow.

regardless, i think a lot of these issues people voice can be fixed (even my own). it's just the matter of pushing the envelope. staying positive. and bringing what you desire into reality.


also, on topic but off topic... i'd love to see people bring back transferring ownership of sites??? like, if i get tired of running my site and a member wants to take over, i'd hand it over on a silver platter. keep that shit alive for yourself and everyone else. pass the torch back or to someone else when you get tired too. i'll be honest, it can be a little messy but i've rarely seen it go so poorly that it was too detrimental.
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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 1:05:15 GMT
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what do you want to know? my height, hobbies, quirks, the color of my underwear?
rip palworld, we knew you weren't destined to be long for this world but man it feels like it should've happened long before this-
last edit on Sept 19, 2024 14:44:51 GMT by Kuroya

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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 1:47:55 GMT via mobile
praise the cats!
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this is my murder mittens ^-^
its not just aesthetics standards that have gone up, it’s also accessibility, the very thing touted as the bottom line, is extraordinarily time consuming as well. the fact that our accessibility standards have gone up is a good thing in my view, but it’s also something that takes a lot of planning and time to incorporate. even “ugly” skins take time and effort to make responsive if they’re not already so simple as to be a vertical slide down anyway

that’s another thing - even skins that aren’t as aesthetically pleasing use fairly complicated scripts and html template set ups compared to the past. its not just aesthetics, it’s the way we structure our forums these days that necessitates more work done. the way we want more accessibility requires more scripting and more extensive css files that take a long time to load. (i’m serious about that - at a certain point, the css page gets so big in jcink admin or codepen, i type one letter and it takes a full second before it spits out the next)

this all represents a lot of time and effort and planning for something that has nothing to do with aesthetics that deserves compensation. this of course only scales with how complex the site is but even then, these are things we have to plan ahead of time and code in a way that’s much more tedious even for simpler sites. it’s easy to point at the increase in aesthetic complexity as a reason for a lack of free skins, but frankly rl skins have not become anywhere near as complicated as animanga and they have also seen a dearth of free skins. there are more affordable paid pre-mades than animanga definitely - as a consequence of the high complexity of animanga making customs the most viable - but it’s still all paid; in part because coders have less time on their hands and therefore would like compensation to keep making skins, but also the fact that many premade skins come with light/dark modes, and an expectation of responsiveness, plus incorporating css variables, etc.
last edit on Sept 19, 2024 1:48:23 GMT by bc
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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 3:57:06 GMT
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VOLITION [Medium: Success]
Honestly I've sort of floundered the past two years in terms of trying to write and gather muse for roleplay, and that was because someone very close to me had died and I've come to realize how deeply it had affected me. And it wasn't just with my muse for writing, but I found it really hard to find joy in most of my other hobbies because I was still grieving—and I still am to this day.

I think about this person everyday, but I also think about how much I missed rping and that alone still gives me enough motivation to at least try.

On a lighter note, my sweet fat chungus-shaped cat is finally coming home this Saturday. The lil trooper had flown all the way from Canada to Australia and he's finishing his quarantine soon. The facility workers told me he's been doing so well. It's been over a year since I've seen him and I honestly can't wait until I get to inhale that sweet kitty smell again. 🥹
last edit on Sept 19, 2024 3:57:28 GMT by ninelie
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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 14:33:57 GMT via mobile
sdkvnklweanl;
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maybe wallace being my fav was foreshadowing
kinda wild how one of my earliest thoughts about sex was being sad over the facts boobs and dicks exist. I remember distincy thinking how much better life would be if they werent around

Maybe becsuse i was too young (~11) or maybe bc i am ace. But now that im a trans man with top surgery on the long term goal…. It is kinda funny. I may have normalized how much i hated having boobs and ignored it. Like i just thought being unhappy and uncomfortable about it for 30 years was part of being a woman and how i never liked seeing the woman in my reflection when there’s a focus on the boobs-

And im still figuring out if im aro or not too…0


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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 16:27:28 GMT
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Sept 2, 2024 4:20:59 GMT said:
sauron literally is the only "good" thing abt prime's ring's of power

but man... i need less of his "dark lord fair form" and more of his homeless traveller/aragorn cosplay


i take it back... dark lord "fair form" sauron with the bleach blonde wig is hawt
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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 16:50:16 GMT via mobile
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what do you want to know? my height, hobbies, quirks, the color of my underwear?
game wtf do you mean "touch him in the bath"?????? game????????

edit: it's joining your li in a hot spring but also hey game i don't think that's a good way to translate that interaction
last edit on Sept 19, 2024 17:30:39 GMT by Kuroya

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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 17:32:15 GMT
the wheels are singing
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Sept 19, 2024 14:33:57 GMT said:
Maybe becsuse i was too young (~11) or maybe bc i am ace. But now that im a trans man with top surgery on the long term goal…. It is kinda funny. I may have normalized how much i hated having boobs and ignored it. Like i just thought being unhappy and uncomfortable about it for 30 years was part of being a woman and how i never liked seeing the woman in my reflection when there’s a focus on the boobs-


as someone who is... possibly not cisfemale, but close enough to identify as it because none of the other options fit right

I can promise you that hating boobs (and ovaries, and uteri) is not exclusively part of the trans experience

best wishes with your transition!
last edit on Sept 19, 2024 17:32:57 GMT by Jenesis
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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 17:53:07 GMT via mobile
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maybe wallace being my fav was foreshadowing
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Sept 19, 2024 17:32:15 GMT said:
I can promise you that hating boobs (and ovaries, and uteri) is not exclusively part of the trans experience

best wishes with your transition!



Oh for sure. Can’t tell if it’s gender dysphoria or patriarchy.

I’ve been musing how it feels like a slider than went too far into female and i ended up as a woman with enough masc traits that don’t make me feminine, yet neither makes me masculine. I’ve always been mistaken as a boy when i was young, and my mom’s prior pregnancy before me was said to be a boy. but i am grateful it ended up this way bc if i were born a boy, i would’ve definitely put on skirts and dresses and probably be stabbed for it. i can dress however i want as a woman and just be passed off as being weird and quirky.

And thanks! I might have gone through this lifetime staying as a woman and be okay. Gender isn’t that big of a deal for me since i neither want to be strictly femine nor masculine. Yet i don’t exactly feel non-binary. But having realized i havw the choice to be a man and still be as feminine as i want, i def 100% want that. It just sounds more fun, and the fact that i so look forward to fully living that perspective as i transition socially fills me with excitement the more i process it 🙌🏼

Edit: also i probbaly should’ve never ignored the fact every time i was mistaken as a boy, i would actually be happy than offended lol (excet when i was like 5 years old when adults were saying it as a way to mock me 🤷🏻‍♀️) (also i just realized this too after typing this post) (my slow ass never comprehended that maybe thinking it was cool ppl thought i was a guy meant something… and how i just feel cooler overall…. And more confident…. When ppl thought i waz a dude… wtf how did i… not connect the dots) (as a ps i never tried to pass off a guy intentionally. i just… didnt want to be seen as a girl…..)
last edit on Sept 19, 2024 18:17:30 GMT by steam users born in jan


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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 18:17:57 GMT
the endless hunt
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in turning divine, we tangle endlessly

i meant to say this a few posts ago, but i'm really happy for you wrt the exploration and evolution of your identity! know that you have a trans sibling in me that is rooting for you and your journey
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Post a Random Thought written Sept 19, 2024 20:38:59 GMT
the wheels are singing
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Sept 19, 2024 17:53:07 GMT said:
And thanks! I might have gone through this lifetime staying as a woman and be okay. Gender isn’t that big of a deal for me since i neither want to be strictly femine nor masculine. Yet i don’t exactly feel non-binary. But having realized i havw the choice to be a man and still be as feminine as i want, i def 100% want that. It just sounds more fun, and the fact that i so look forward to fully living that perspective as i transition socially fills me with excitement the more i process it 🙌🏼


so this is permission to post a wall of random gender thoughts, right?

As a child I was into masculine things because I thought that it would get me taken more seriously (was such a Mulan fankid, practically know the entire movie by heart at this point) but as an adult I realize I'm not actually a man and I don't want to be one. I get very aggravated when I get assumed to be male on the Internet and I'm not especially masculine but nor am I feminine.

However (thanks patriarchy) I still think if I could have done it all over I'd prefer to be amab instead of afab. I'm a nerd, men tend to be more accepted in nerdy hobbies/professions in general, and there isn't any especially feminine thing I like that it would be seen as unmasculine for a man to like. (maybe cats? do men who like cats still get stereotyped as feminine?) plus, there's just male privilege in general, the pay gap, the pink tax, doctors understanding/listening to men's health problems more than women's etc. the only thing I'd probably be sad about is not getting to get married to my husband, because he is straight.

To be fair, I don't really feel oppressed, harassed, or discriminated against for being female in my day-to-day. So I'm not exactly part of the in-group of angry feminists either. The worst I get to be is annoyed that women are perpetually sidelined in all the media genres I like.

On the other other hand even without the patriarchy I'd still probably want to get rid of my fem-assigned organs, I never want to birth biological children so those things are USELESS to me, all they do is cause me pain every month, I'd gladly donate them to a good cause if someone wanted them.

"ok have you considered nonbinary" I did, I discovered I really don't vibe with they/them pronouns, and all in all it doesn't give me enough "gender euphoria" (I still have no idea what the actual heck that is supposed to feel like, fwiw, because I sure don't get it from being female) to be worth my time to try to socially transition and get other people on board with it.
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