squidgestatus: (Default)
[personal profile] squidgestatus
Let's get the fun stuff out of the way first. With thanks to the 53 distinct donors so far, Squidge's Hot Fic Summer Fundraiser is nearly there!  So far we have raised $2,269.82 out of our goal of $2,500. Hitting our goal means keeping the lights on for another year. So if you've been sitting on the fence about donating and can spare a few dollars, it would be awesome if you could donate. But remember - if you're struggling, take care of yourself first. There's a reason flight attendants always say, "Put your own mask on first before helping others." While we'd welcome all of you as donors, we're glad to have you as Squidge users and visitors.

Second is discussion over on SquidgeWorld about possibly disabling guest comments from here on out. This is due to a commission spammer feeding fics into ChatGPT and then having ChatGPT spit out questions that might engage the creator(s). While we can try and prevent AI from scraping our works, we can't prevent someone copy & pasting said works into an AI engine for their own use.

But disabling guest comments is a big step toward that.

There's a whole discussion on SquidgeWorld if you'd like to read there. If you have an account, you can comment there, or you may comment here as you like. I'd like people to be a part of this conversation as opposed to telling people what can and can't be done as part of their access to the open Internet.

TV Tuesday: Help Out

2026-07-07 10:06
yourlibrarian: Spike and Dru See What's On TV (BUF-SeeWhatsOnTV-stolenglimpse)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk



On our Saturday post [personal profile] solenne mentioned the upcoming loss of TV Time, which is used for tracking shows to watch. Given all the networks or streamers in use, this has become complicated to do.

What method(s) or service(s) work for you? How transferable is your data? Have your tools/habits changed over time? What problems have you run into?

Crafts

2026-07-06 13:08
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] crafty
Today I came across some references to making hex quilts by starting with circles and folding the sides. This approach works great with hand-sewing.


Hex Quilts Video

Hexagons from Circles

Hexie’s From Circles

Read more... )

Speak Up Saturday

2026-07-04 15:35
feurioo: (music: günther cover)
[personal profile] feurioo posting in [community profile] tv_talk
Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

Overnight Outage

2026-07-03 12:38
squidgestatus: (Default)
[personal profile] squidgestatus
Sometime during the middle of the night, there was a power blurp here in the Pacific Northwest that took out our little datacenter. Things started coming back up around 5am Pacific Time (12:00 UTC) and all services but SquidgeWorld are now up. SquidgeWorld takes about 2 hours to process everything and finish coming up, so we anticipate everything to be operational around 7:30am (14:30 UTC).

If you have questions, please let us know. And if you see any service that's down, also let us know.  Thanks!
osteophage: photo of a leaping coyote (Default)
[personal profile] osteophage posting in [community profile] meta_warehouse
For July/August this year the theme for the Gender Exploration Carnival is "Gender in Canon – Movies."
The idea of gender in canon is intentionally broad here and can cover a character within a canon, worldbuilding details of a particular work, design choices, role casting, or other details that evoke thoughts about gender. This doesn’t have to be a review or positive recommendation, and any submissions don’t have to be a minimum length.

This could be a good prompt for gender-related metacommentary. Check out the call for submissions post for more information: 

Call For Submissions: July/August 2026

 
matsushima: (doll collection (Hoshi))
[personal profile] matsushima posting in [community profile] allkindsofdolls
discussion prompt: Let's talk about handmade/artist dolls! Do you make dolls? Do you collect artist dolls? Have you ever digitally sculpted and 3D printed a doll?

photo prompt: Please share photos of handmade dolls and/or handmade doll clothing and accessories!

(no subject)

2026-07-01 15:04
babycoric_boygirl: A light grey and white kitten with a rounded square frame in the colors of the babycoric flag. There's a white sparkle graphic in the corner as well as some simplistic pink cloud shapes overlaying the border and small parts of the cat. (Default)
[personal profile] babycoric_boygirl posting in [community profile] findingfriends
Is there an interesting story behind your username?: my username is just two gendery terms that apply to me. Babycoric is a xenogender related to the aesthetic 'babycore.' And 'boygirl' is a term that I feel really resonates with me when it comes to how I experience gender. I'm bigender and while none of my genders really count as binary male and female, my main two genders are pretty close, in a way.

Location and language(s): United States, only English (unfortunately. I wish I could learn others, but it's very hard for me.)

Age range (e.g 20s, 30s, etc.): 20s, but I'm not really a typical young adult either. My internal identity is weird when it comes to that stuff because neurodivergence and trauma be weird like that. Also, I'm suspicious of people who only want 18+ interaction because there's no easy way for me to tell the people who'd dislike me (due to me not being 'adult enough' for them) apart from the people who have legit reasons to have that boundary.

Hot button/deal breaker issues that will likely lead to unfriending: Bigotry, even if it's against groups that are commonly seen as fine to be bigoted towards. I'm the type to get annoyed at a leftist show for having ableist and adultist jokes, so if you dislike people who are 'too woke', then you don't want me as a friend.

Do you have an "About Me" post new friends can read to get a sense of who you are, the people you talk about regularly, etc.?: Not yet, but I have considered making one. I do have a bit of info on the mini bio on my profile, though.

Is your profile up-to-date or at all useful?: I assume so? I didn't join that long ago.

List a few things you think it's important new friends know about you right away: I'm queer (the kind that's cool with however you identify even if some would call it 'contradictory'), I'm part of multiple groups on top of that that people find cringe (ex: agere, otherkin, furry), I've got audhd, I'm struggling a lot with some pretty intense mental health stuff, and I don't really care that much about meeting society's ridiculous standards anymore. (For example, I'm of the opinion that people who are averse to eye contact, whether it's due to being autistic or something else, should get to do whatever. I'm not a liar just because I don't make eye contact, I just don't wanna feel uncomfy for people who aren't worth it.) (Sorry if that counts as more than 'a few things', I'm kind of a yapper!)

You mostly write about: I'm still making up my mind. I don't have a specific theme for posts, but I'm really interested in being able to yap about my interests. It'd be kinda hard to give a list of those simply because some of them very much depend on how much energy I have to do things like engage with my hobbies.

You never or very rarely write about: I'll never post about detailed sex stuff because I'm a sex repulsed ace and the kinks I have are the types of things that I wouldn't wanna post about.

Is your journal mostly public, locked, or a mix of public and locked?: mostly public.

Do you use filters for certain types of posts (e.g. fandom-related posts, or posts about sex, or mental health issues, etc.)?: I try my best. And on anything that I think has a high possibility of being triggering, I add a warning or disclaimer on the first line even if the triggering thing is something that seems pretty small to me personally.

Your posting frequency (e.g. daily, every few days, weekly, etc.): It varies. My mental health struggles have made it hard for me to process time the ways most people do. Sometimes I'll think I made a post yesterday and then look at my profile and see that I haven't posted in two days. This will probably get better in the future, but for now please don't count on me having a reliable internal sense of time.

Does your journal frequently include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc?: Not really? And odds are if I include anything approaching that stuff, I'll be linking to it rather than having it as part of the post.

What do you enjoy most about journaling?: Having a place to yap in the way that feels most easy and natural to me, aka through typed words. My communication issues are much worse when I'm having to verbally communicate with people in situations where there isn't much time to think stuff over.

How often do you read your friends list (e.g. daily, every other day, once a week, etc.)?: I haven't been on here very long, so I don't really have many friends at all, therefore there's not much reason for me to check it. If I had more friends on here then I don't know how much I'd check it.

You really enjoy reading about: people pondering things (especially if those things are major big picture type things like 'is it ethical to convince people that the world has rigid rules inherently when that simply isn't true?'), people being unapologetically weird in ways that I know would likely get them hate comments on toxic platforms like Tiktok.

You have very little interest in reading about: explicit sexual content (if it's only every now and then and I can easily not view it, it's fine, I guess), posts that discuss things like intense child abuse and sexual harm with no warnings (I'm fine with posts like these sometimes, but I need the warnings.

Your thoughts on journals that regularly include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc?: It depends. If the links are to things like actually helpful mental health resources then I might love them. Videos I likely won't look at simply because the bluetooth on my laptop isn't working right and my only corded headphones broke.

When it comes to comments on your posts, what matters more -- quality or quantity?: I definitely like quality comments, but I also don't mind people just responding with a heart or a very short comment if they gotta. I'm very bad with social things so I don't want people feeling like they have to overthink whether or not their comment is 'good enough.'

Do you unfriend people who don't comment much, even if you know they are reading you regularly?: Nope, I'd never do that. There are so many reasons someone could be in a slump when it comes to social stuff, even 'smaller' stuff like commenting on posts, so I wouldn't wanna unfriend over that. Also, I post about a variety of stuff, so the lack of comment could easily be the person simply having nothing relevant to say because they don't know much about the topic. I don't wanna assume.

What is your approach when it comes to commenting on other journals?: I wanna comment when I can (like when socializing in general isn't something that'll screw with me) and when the topic is something where I feel like I can actually contribute something to the convo, even if it's just a 'you made good points when you mentioned X about Y.' I am prone to overthinking and spiraling over things, though. Odds are when I do comment it'll be after I have reread my comment several times at least. Don't worry, it isn't personal, I'm just an anxious wreck.

When you friend someone, but things don't really click, do you unfriend them without warning, or do you send them a note first? How do you prefer to be unfriended in similar circumstances?: I have no idea the social rules for this. I'd be the type who'd be very anxious about sending a note because I'd be scared of coming off as rude. I don't really mind if people unfriend me without warning, but like, is that because I assume that's the default? I don't know.

AND LASTLY

Friending memes often ask people to list their favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., but more often than not, those aren't things people actually write about in their journal. Do you have any favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., that you DO often write about -- not necessarily in a fandom sort of way, just in general?: I have no idea at the moment. I haven't had the energy recently to get super into anything, so I don't know if I'll ever be into a piece of media enough to wanna post about it.

Any final thoughts you'd like to share with potential new friends?: I'd very much love to have friends who have the same 'cringe culture is dead' type of mindset that I have. For me, it's more like 'cringe culture is alive but we should all kill it together.' People still do get hurt by those types of mindsets, but I fully support encouraging people to throw those mindsets into the trash to make room for healing. Also, I go by they/it pronouns! I get how me seeing myself as a boygirl may cause some confusion there, but I don't go by either of the binary pronoun sets.

TV Tuesday: Happy Pride?

2026-06-30 09:28
yourlibrarian: Brian and Justin know they're hot (QaF-BrianJustinHot-raelala)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk



An article about declining representation of LGBTQ+ characters on TV noted “We saw this huge peak of queer characters in 2022, and since then we’ve seen a reduction in making programs overall. The market was totally bloated, but because we’re in very uncertain financial times, programmers become much more conservative and go for things that have that mass-market appeal. In general, people think mass-market appeal doesn’t equal complex, queer shows.”

Have you also felt there’s a representational decline or is it just the ebb and flow of storylines and new show development? Are there particular shows or characters with queer representation that you miss? If so, which characters or shows would you most like to see return?

Allbingo and Crowdfunding

2026-06-27 23:42
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [site community profile] dw_community_promo
[community profile] allbingo provides a space for creative people to share their work, using bingo cards for inspiration.

[community profile] crowdfunding is a community for creators, patrons, and fans of cyberfunded creativity.

Further details below ...

Read more... )

Speak Up Saturday

2026-06-27 17:17
feurioo: (Default)
[personal profile] feurioo posting in [community profile] tv_talk
Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

(no subject)

2026-06-25 23:36
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
Folks may have noticed that the site has been slow for logged-out users over the last while. This is partly because we separate traffic by logged-in, "logged out but have visited the site before", and "logged out, never visited the site before" and assign the fewest resources to the last category (because we're pretty confident the overwhelming majority of it is bot and scraper traffic, even if it's often impossible to say for sure). The flood of garbage traffic is a plague and a scourge the entire internet is dealing with, and it's hitting small sites the hardest as operators get better and better at cloaking their requests to look like real, authentic use. We long ago hit the point where adding more resources is a possible solution (because they just eat them up as soon as we do), and splitting traffic lets us keep the site usable for our actual users without wasting too much server power on garbage.

We've now, lucky us, reached the point where the "logged out, have never visited the site before" path is just flooded all the time, and the "logged out but have visited the site before" path is suffering some of the overflow. We've made some changes to the routing to try to improve things for logged out users who have visited the site before and keep it at "it may be a little bit slow, but at least it works" instead of "it keeps timing out", and we've seen some improvements, but if you're accustomed to browsing the site while logged out, I'm really sorry but it may continue to be a little miserable.

You will get the fastest page loads and the best performance by browsing the site logged in. If you are having trouble loading the front page to log in, bookmark the direct login page. We can't route the front page to the "more power" server pool, because it's a common target for garbage traffic, but we've switched /login over to "more power" and we'll try to keep it there as long as we can unless it starts getting slammed, too.
squidgestatus: (Default)
[personal profile] squidgestatus
Let's Catch Up!

We often find ourselves answering the same questions over and over again - so let's post this for everyone to read.

First off, it's been way too long since we've given everyone an update on our fundraising. We started at the beginning of June, 2026, for our "Hot Fic Summer" fundraiser, and we have raised $1,600.97 out of our $2,500 goal - or 64%! This is AMAZING! Thank you to everyone who has donated! And if you haven't, please consider. We all know, with the economy the way it is, that it's hard to part with your dollars. So the fact that almost 30 of you have stepped up to raise money for us is amazing.

We thank each and every one of you!

Second, image hosting. A while back, when we were unsure of what we were doing with image hosting, we locked down the signup process and asked people to come to us for an account. Whoa, that was not the right tactic, because it was. A. LOT.

Everyone needs to know now that account creation is once again open. Actually, it's open twice a day, from 10 am to 2 pm Pacific Time (that's 17:00 to 21:00 UTC), and again from 10 pm to 2 am Pacific Time (that's 05:00 to 09:00 UTC). During that time, you can go to https://images.squidge.org and click on the icon on the upper right, which allows you to either sign in or create an account.

There's no need to email us to request an account. Wait for the account creation period.

Our commission spammer seems to be taking a break from hitting the archive. He's pretty sophisticated, but our script destroys his comments almost as soon as they reach the database. And because he's using throwaway email accounts and a VPN to rotate his IP address automatically, there's no easy way to keep him out of the archive. But rest assured - if he leaves a comment, we see it. We actually get notification of every single comment made in the system, so there's not really even a reason to let us know you've received a commission spam comment because we'll get notified as soon as you do. You can, but you don't have to let us know.

Lastly, the SquidgeWorld Archive goes down every Sunday from 7 am to 9 am Pacific Time (that's 14:00 to 16:00 UTC) for maintenance. So if you get an error message trying to reach the website during these times, that's why. Maintenance helps us refresh data and ensure processes run as they should.

That should be it. If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact us. Thanks. And thank you for being a valuable part of Squidge.org!
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