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luciusgerard · 2 years

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How to tell if someone is going to have the absolute worst Stranger Things takes:

If any of the things on this list apply to a user on any social media site (particularly Tumblr, Twitter, or TikTok) or a person IRL, chances are they're not worth engaging with because their opinions and theories regarding the show will be hot garbage.

This is just my opinion by the way, if you disagree you may continue on your merry way and continue having crappy opinions. That said, let's begin.

1. They stan this bitch.

Now, don't get me wrong. When I say this, I don't mean people who like Billy as a character because of what he adds to the show. I'm talking about people who have allowed themselves to become so obsessed that they make excuses for his abusive and racist actions. A place of understanding is not a place of justification. I'm also talking about the people who ship him with Steve (or anyone), believe he and Eddie would be friends, hate Max because she "insulted" their "baby," and the people who shit on Eddie and the Steddie ship as a whole because they view Eddie as some kind of carbon copy of Billy. You know who you are, and you suck.

2. They hate Robin or Lucas.

Neither of these characters have done anything wrong. I've never seen anyone justify their dislike of Robin for a non-ableist or non-homophobic reason (because they don't exist), and Lucas, one of two Black main characters in the show, gets criticised so harshly and so often compared to White characters who have done inarguably worse things. Y'all don't realise how damn quick you are to antagonise a Black boy in situations where he's behaving in entirely reasonable and rational manners, like when he was "mean to El" in season one when he's doing what the majority of people in his situation would do, meanwhile I hardly ever see people calling Mike out for being so needlessly rude to Max in season two. Case in point: If you hate on Robin or Lucas, your opinion is trash.

3. They're strongly against Byler and its shippers.

I honestly don't care whether you personally ship Byler or not, you can't deny that people who are 100% against even the idea of Byler are at least a little homophobic (well, technically you could, but you'd be wrong).

"Mike is straight!"

Has that been confirmed? Did Mike tell you that? Did the Duffer Brothers tell you that? No? Exactly. Besides, even if it were outright confirmed that Mike is only into girls, why is it so difficult for you to let people enjoy things that aren't causing you or anyone else any direct or indirect harm? God, please just make some friends.

"But Mike has only ever shown interest in girls!"

Tell me you have little to no media literacy skills without telling me you have little to no media literacy skills. Seriously, babe, that's not even remotely true. I can guarantee that if Will and/or Eddie were women, people like you would be all over the Byler ship and the Mike-having-a-crush-on-Eddie headcanon.

"Mike and El are in love, didn't you hear his monologue?"

See the first sentence of my last point and shut up.

4. They unironically refer to Will as "the gay one" or a variation of it.

This one is more specifically talking to the allocishets: Why is it that for three seasons Will Byers got to be referred to by his name like every other character, but season four comes out (no pun intended) and all of a sudden he's being reduced to his sexual orientation? Answer quickly.

Anyway, I'm done ranting. If you have anything to add, comment or reblog. Have a good day, people these points don't apply to.

#stranger things #stranger things fandom #stranger things opinions #byler #anti billy hargrove #anti harringrove #anti mungrove #steddie #robin buckley #lucas sinclair #steve harrington #eddie munson #anti mileven #will byers #mike wheeler #max mayfield

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polyhexian · 11 months

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Reply too big to keep in replies, forgive me

Flash emulation won't actually work with the way the site is coded. It's really difficult to truly illustrate HOW fucked the site is if you aren't familiar with it.

So the flash games are INTEGRATED into the site. They don't just play. They send scores and those scores are validated by the site and then affect the game in real time by awarding points. Thats backend stuff and it seems EASY. But flash EMULATION will not really let that process work. Not blanket. Ruffle is a browser add on for flash and you can play some games with it but every game has needed to be worked manually and individually to try and get it to play correctly and to let it send scores.

Here, so like. Last year you may recall having heard about the data breach. It was a long time coming. Neopets has terrible security and always has. So someone got backend access, downloaded the server and this had all of the usernames and passwords ever used. Were they hashed? Yes. Was the hashkey stored in the server and thus also available to the hacker? Also yes.

As a result neopets finally moved from http to https. Great!

Not for flash games.

Every game has links in it right. Backend stuff. Mechanics. But all those fucking links redirect to http, not https. And you cannot change that without editing the game and you can't do THAT without a program that makes flash elements. So they're basically unfixable on site. On one fell swoop, every single flash game broke at once. You could play them but scores were now unsendable.

The workaround neopets USERS found was, I shut you not, using developer tools to modify the way your entire computer communicates with the internet

"oh, that seems simple"

Look the fuck at what is IN the js file

It is 538 lines! It is manually overriding the links used in these games. This IS hacking. Technically this is against the rules, it's just not being enforced.

Don't worry, I'm terrified.

The workaround before this STILL had you download a new browser, modify it, take your internet offline and manually reinstall an old version of flash to create a jury rigged flash browser. Oh my God this is so dangerous and we Still do this. Did I do all this fiddler stuff? Yes! I did! Because neopets is very much like transformers in that there is a small user base but every single person there is fucking insane!

So.... Emulation is not a solution. Every game needs to be individually ground up REMADE in html5. And you can't just import the old game and tweak it. It has to be made from scratch. That's why there are so few html5 games. It's incredibly difficult and time consuming and probably not all that worth it when there's so much to be done.

This is what I mean when I say the site is virtually unplayable. This is the kind of shit that we have to do to make the site work. You basically cannot play unless you are accessing fan sites and communities to find resources that can offer fixes to everything that is broken. There are legitimately pages of this website that have not been updated since 1999. Until like two years ago you still could not say "gay" on the forums because the chat filter caught it. And do you know why?? Staff literally did not know where the chat filter was stored in the backend. They could not find it. The site traded hands and staff so much that no one remained who knew where it was.

There is LITERALLY a guy who found backend access several years ago and can, whenever he wants, get into the server and look at everything. HE could have stolen those passwords (which the other hacker was selling for $10,000!!) At any time he wanted. Instead he just made an anonymous reddit account where he would post info about how the fucking site works and why things are broken and "yeah they lied about fixing this its still broken" or "yeah actually they secretly shadowbanned a bunch of people from submitting scores to the big yearly event next year if you dm me I can tell you if you're on the list"

And he IS STILL THERE!!!! HE STILL HAS SERVER ACCESS!!! ITS BEEN YEARS AND THEY HAVENT KICKED HIM OUR BECAUSE THEY STILL HAVENT FOUND THE BREACH!!!!!!!

This. THIS is what staff is dealing with. THIS is the absolute shit storm they need to tackle if they want this site to work. The way pets are stored, the way accounts work, all of those things cannot be changed without causing severe issues conflicting with users accounts, pets, items, and all of that was originally coded in 1998/1999 and it cannot be changed. It cannot be modernized. They need to find ways to integrate old code that cannot be changed into a site coded for a modern internet. That is beyond the scope of normal site building.

All that is to say... I'm hesitant to believe things will improve, not because I don't think staff wants to, not because I don't think they have the drive and the passion to throw everything they have at it. Just because... Jesus dude I don't know if they actually have the resources to fix this mess at all.

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

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I saw someone on Twitter make a semi fair thread about about criticising Ao3 on their policy and their enforcement of it. (I say semi because they seemingly didn't know that blocking features were in the making of so yeah, they are moving slowly to empowering users or maybe the implication was that it wasn't specifically empowering marginalised users? Dunno. Big hole tho) It mentioned stuff I rarely really see brought up that I would consider gaps which people slip through that could use some patchwork. Like, someone sharing an instance where someone made a fix about characters talking about racism with no mention of any users but was taken down for... harassment? That's odd. That's concerning if it's happening with some regularity. Another was bringing up harassing fics that name drop people in the notes but aren't taken down? That's weird. That's concerning if it's happening with any type of regularity.

And... that's all what I found interesting. There were other parts of the thread that were very... eeeeh. I said semi but it was mostly unfair, there was also this undercurrent of thinking Ao3 can and will just do things in a timely manner like a lot of people who make threads criticising the site.. I don't know why? I would understand if they had a debacle they can point to where Ao3 staff and OTW got into some shit and then summon magical resources to push out a completely functional update in record time. But I don't think that's happened? Maybe an announcement but yeah.

I usually try not interact with these threads because they usually hang off of Stitch's words and I don't like her rhetoric, it reminds me of radfems. You have tiny kernels of truth surrounded by straight up intense emotions alongside broad strokes. Which is great, now you got me stressed and have to do the labour of detangling your thoughts about how we marginalized people are traumatized every single second, right? Right!? Right!!?

Thoughts?

My thoughts are that you cannot trust threads about AO3 deletions.

The Abuse team isn't allowed to talk about their work for obvious reasons, and it's very common for someone who was deleted for being a harassing asshole to pretend they were deleted for other reasons. IDK what's up with the fics that name drop and aren't deleted, but I'm suspicious of that story too. The team could have made some bad calls. They're people, after all, but I've seen a lot of flat out lying about what happened in Abuse cases.

If a thread is overlooking the blocking feature, they may be unaware of it, sure, but they may also be from the camp that feels this feature will shut down anti-racist activism... in the sense that they "need" to be able to go into an author's comments to tell them their fic was racist, and now their ass can get blocked for that behavior.

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hiimsociallyawkward · 3 years

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a servant of two masters

hi friends welcome back to me aimlessly ranting about merlin. up today we have 4.06 and this episode. wow. literally just the title gives me everything i need and i'm absolutley here for the chaos that will ensue. hi bestie @lady-ofmagic-andstars

i love them in their capes

i want a cloak

dude the 'oh it's not gonna happen' and then it happens trope is so dumb but i laugh every time

notice how the knights ripped off their capes

dude people are falling off of horses and out

MERLIN

ok ok but how is he injured. ik this is rated for kids but i really dk how badly merlin is injured. it looks like just his shoulder but he shouldn't be almost dying like his yk?

:,) arthru making jokes

ok but i love arthur taking care of merlin

alskdjflsadk them trying to make jokes to make each other feel better :,)

stop arthur. stop telling the truth merlin's not dying here 😭

bestie vibes only deadass

HAHA

a s s

side note, the site i get my screenshots from- this picture has 61 views while others average maybe like 10-15?? perverts HAHA just kidding

sok i'm actually really curious as to what merlin's injury is

alsdjf;lasdfjsaldfjsaldf merlin making the rocks fall

idk if it's jut the angling but i felt like the enemies were way too close for merlin to create an entire rock barrier. i don't have any screen shot evidence but so you're just going to have to take my word for it

ok but like who even are these men. they were working for morgana trying to capture arthur?

and what's morgana going to do once she has arthur? kill him and take his place on the throne? remember how well that turned out last time she tried that? no one wanted her. idk idk morgana is just confusing as to what she wants

pls die agravaine

haha strangely fond of the boy? there's nothing strange about it

ok i laughed but i also felt bad when morgana splashed merlin awake and flailed around like a fish

dude merlin is so snarky here and i'm HERE for it

ok i like the knights being competent. thank you thank you

and now they're riding back into camelot with their capes on? you're telling me they traced back their steps to find their capes, dusted them off to make sure that they weren't too dirty and didn't have any leaves or branches still sticking to it before riding back to camelot? iconic

poor gaius. ok he's the worst but he does think of merlin as his son and this makes me sad

ok i have a dumb question. do you think merlin understands whenever other magic users are casting spells? ok i feel like this is a dumb question now. but like, is magic a language? are all incantations in a different language, so when other person who knows magic is watching you- they know what you're trying to do and such? i feel like "of course they'd know" but i'm basing that assumption on hp where everyone knows that alohomora is alohomora and where everyone knows that lumos is lumos. but what about here? does merlin know what she's incanting? can he slightly understand it even if he's never seen/done it before? is magic a language like latin, and even if you aren't completely fluent, you and parse together things and make an assumptions?

arthur is just so sad here

i just, i have to have these here

yes bby figure out that we have a traitor

gaius is not slick in the slightest. yes. look at the traitor king

wow morgana being able to bond with the snake? i wonder how

ok question, does the fomorroh have some sort of loyalty to whoever calls them?

✨kill arthur pendragon✨

ok that snake going in his neck is actually scary

pretty castle counter: 5

btw this is actually my zoom background sometimes. it depends from call to call but it changes between this pretty castle and peeta mellark

G E O R G E

ok i've seen all the tumblr posts but it doesn't get less funny. the 'merlin's missing and we can't find him so we're going to replace him with another manservent dressed EXACTLY like merlin so arthur feels better' makes me chuckle every time

i would like to have that for breakfast

i like the loyalty arthur thank you. i love the loyalty pls. i love that they're friends. like, i love the romance but i love just people being friends too

ok this whole scene. arthur wanting to look for merlin because he has to at least try, gwen just wanting arthur to be careful and to come back to her, gwaine being buds. i love all the friendships in this and just yes thank you

ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok i'm not at the hug scene yet but i know it's coming and i'm beyond excited

ok this sound track is so cute.

saldkfj;asldkfjasldkfsd

matching icons for you and your best friends

deadass if someone wants to change their tumblr icons so we can match hmu bc i'm 100% down with that

another pretty castle scene

SASSY MERLIN PLS

ok ik this is dumb to comment on because i feel like it's not tremendously hard to execute but i love the differences that colin made in regular merlin and fomorroh merlin. it's the best

they say it later in the episode but i find it hilarious how bad of an assassin merlin is

dude pls you're pouring poison in front of EVERYONE else?

BOG MAN. ok guys i'm calling you guys bog mans now.

ASLDJFALSDFJS THE JEALOUSY SCENE

i am cringey but laughing at the same time you don't understand why am i this childish

ok but arthur is being so sweet right here. i feel like he's not trying to be showy in front of gwen, i feel like he wants merlin to rest and that's so sweet. he's so patient right here and i love him

i miss the gwen and merlin friendship actually

dude merlin is roasting gaius so hard today

leon geeking out over weapons is so cute. omg he's such a tiny nerd i love him

laskjflasdfj THIS SCENE. this makes up for the stew jokes that i may or may not still be mad about

i love that the knights LITERALLY turn a blind eye it's actually hilarious

LOOK AT MERLIN BEING COMPETENT?? HE'S SO SMART WITH THE ARROW RIGGING THING

it's literally treason leon pls and you're laughing you're the best 😭😭

i wish we had a pervical back story arc

ok i think it's dumb that i laughed when merlin ducked but i stand by that

ok why do i feel bad for arthur a little. he's talking abt some semi-deep stuff. not deep deep but like, he's trying to ask for advice from his friend, his close advisor. he would've never talked to merlin like this is season 1-2 but here he is, talking about trust. and MERLIN is trying to MURDER HIM. yes. i admit it's a little funny when i'm just watching merlin trip over things and such, but when i listen to arthur talking i feel slightly sad

literallly. merlin's passed out on the floor and arthur doesn't even think anything is wrong

gwen's face when she knocked merlin out is so cute

oop. why is arthur standing in agravaine's door way like an absolute robot

cyes arthur. figure him out

i hate agravaine. i just want arthur to be happy. he's only trusting agravaine because agravaine is family.

stfu agravaine 'you're all that's left of my dear sister' SHUT THE FRONT DOOR

ok there's a repeat of the castle from earlier but i'll spare you

pls this bath scene is so awkward. tt not being able to trust anyone anymore and we're laughing at merlin but arthur's talking so sad and deep

pls this bath scene is so awkward. that's all the notes i have

again, i miss gwen and merlin

merlin is MONCHING on those berries. i'm craving berries now

ok but like. yk that pouch that gaius is using to make the forromoh dormant? what if merlin tucked it in his neckerchief as a precaution. i'm just saying.

aslfkjasdaskdjf the tavern

yall why did merlin have to stop his horse to drink the potion

i want the knights to have a cool band name or smth yk what i mean?

i like that merlin is still a little in the camelot red. it's not the same shade but yk what i mean

HAHA LEON AND PERCIVAL BEING PUSHED TOGETHER. I JUST KEPT ON SCREAMING SUBTEXT SUBTEXT

damn morgana wants RESUKTS. i dont blame her

the frist interaction with merlin and morgana in the hut is so awkward. pls.idek how to comment on it

deadass morgana's dress is so pretty.

magic fight! magic fight!

stfu 'rightfully mine' pls

hehe there's a leaf in his hair

ok i feel like i should've commented more on the magic fight but idk bro

so ik that colin was in this whole episode but it really only just now feels like merlin is here and i think that's fun

arthur is the cutest. i'm loving this dynamic you have no idea. i live live live live LIVE off banter. pls

guys i'm sad apparently i can only put 10 pics in a post but pls enjoy this one pic of arthur right here 😭

ok idk abt you but i'd love to hear jokes abt brass

agaragvaine pls die already

YOU'RE SUCH A PERV LITERALLY

AWAY

NOW

dude that last scene was actually really pretty and i'm sad that i can't attach it now

anyways thanks for reading my long ass rambles. but i'll be back next week to the secret sharer i'll catch you on the flip side

#merlin #merlin bbc #colin morgan #emrys #morgana pendragon #king arthur #bradley james #gwen pendragon #angel coulby #morgana #katie mcgrath #gwaine #percival #elyan #leon #gaius

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