A lot of netizens nowadays consider their email more private than they may in the past. Email is niche social networking, more a place for business.

I don’t consider my email address sacred, and do hand it out often, but I don’t like handing it out to comment boxes. Weird boundaries yeah.

Handing out your email lets sites notify you of replies. I mean, maybe you don’t care.

It can also be used as anti-spam. I mean, its not hard to invent a fake address. I use a captcha to prevent spam here anyway. I also invent fake email addresses myself as a human.

Its the default option in WordPress, to ask for users emails. But I turned it off, or made it optional. Leave a comment if i forgot!!! in the mean time Consider making emails optional for yourselves, webmasters.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price.

bad. free (price) is vital to free (dom). where money is involved, poor people have less freedom, and in this license too. also, simply not wanting to pay for software for any reason is an example of free expression

this post is a bad idea . i should post this in four years so we can celebrate 30 YEARS OF GPL FLAME WARs BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!S

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html

cohost didnt do anything. it was like tumblr, but less functional.

using basic website functionality was called “css crimes”.

users were in a weird parasocial relationship with the staff, which was highly unusual behaviour for people my age. This continues after the site’s demise.

tldr rip bozo

We’ve reached an era of the internet where there’s a lot of reflection on old web reviwers. Channel Awesome and their ilk. I spend a week watching a shit ton of them. I was doing a no Youtube challenge and ended up watching CA shit on Archive.org, obeying the letter but not the spirit of the challenge.

These reviewers certainly have their shortcomings. Sometimes, the takes are bad. They often use slurs, which were wrong to use at the time. The angry review format is far more about righteous anger than empathy, meeting a work halfway, and understanding why media is how it is. You could call EA games fucking idiots and it feels good they deserve it, but it could be more constructive to direct rigorous anger to bigger issues than individual game devs. Granting empathy and meeting a work of media halfway can improve even the angry review. I think the more thoughtful video essay is a natural evolution, but this evolutionary shift also occurred over a decade ago – feminist media critique was in its heyday by the late 00s – but it took a little extra time to Pivot To Video. The first article I read about Super Mario 1-1 teaching you how to play it was written by feminist media critic.

Other people can handle the follies better than I can. I want to take a different critical lens: Things in old media reviews that I like.

I liked the swearing. A lot of old reviewers used swearing and slurs, the slurs fucking suck but the swearing ruled. It just wouldn’t be funny if reviewers called a game from 1989 a poo load of seggs, they need to call it a shitload of fuck. Word choice matters, and swearing is a good choice. The algorithm superstition that causes cOnTeNt CrEaToRs to hold their tongue is embarrassing. Note that I said algorithm superstition, these cowards of content creators don’t even act based on things that can be proven, if they even think the algorithm wants something they nod and obey. Its so embarrassing. Its embarrassing that I need to defend bad words on line as a concept, what is wrong on-line.

Nothing pisses my ears off like a swearing bleep, they’re always just grating and awful.

I liked how they’d use copyrighted music. It is a profound misunderstanding of fair use that any music is fair game if used as an aesthetic component of a review, even if the review has nothing to do with song choices. It’s an excellent one. I loved to learn about reviewers music choices, it said a lot about them and their interests. Just letting a song play for the fucking vibes. As with everyone else, reviewers were richer for breaking copyright law, and should continue to break copyright law whenever possible.

I liked the lack of pussy footing, and ways they treated their audience like adults. No “this is just an opinion guys” “its okawy is u think differently” padding: subjectivity was understood to be known to already be implied. These statements are added to reviews by media critics who are cowards. Or as algospeak, a form of speech to pad out cOnTeNt in order to earn algorithm points. Reviewers who make statements like these are embarrassing, and I prefer the certainty of older reviewers who didn’t bother with that trash.

I also like how older reviewers would just be mean to their viewers in some regards. Rack ’em (13 year olds sending weak flames supposedly on your behalf) instead of a weak “Pwease don’t harass anyone”. Call your comment box full of idiots, if they’re being fucking idiots. If some flamer comes at you like “thats just your opinion man”, fucking duh subjectivity was implied, get rude.

Channel Awesome itself was flawed and deserved to die, but its even slight human curation was amazing. Imagine an entire blog site telling you where the decent reviews were, instead of a machine learning algorithm slinging you slop essays. A lot of the bad reputation of video essays is due to algorithm slinging, dogshit essays with catchy titles make everyone roll their eyes at that bullshit. I do lurk forum threads which recommend videos – and that is absolutely the only way to do it.

I spoke of angry reviewers not granting empathy, so let me grant that empathy to the 10s. Most video media still believed it had to adhere to a schedule, and usually a weekly one. This encouraged the production of what can only be described as filler, to fit a schedule they convinced themselves they needed. Low effort, formulaic reviews. This would delay or outright prevent the production of more thoughtful media. I also need to point out that people working for Channel Awesome were working for Channel Awesome, which was shit.

Little Mermaid 2 (Obscurus Lupa Presents)

It’s a review thats tedious nitpicking, and knows its insincere and adhering to formula. The end section is pretty much dedicated to showing that fact off. I don’t think its a very good review, it comes off as annoying and nitpicky, even if it knows itself as such the self-awareness doesn’t make it good. What I like about it is the skits, the parodies of reviewers taking soft drink sponsorships. It seems prescient in the current day.

Trespasser: Jurassic Park’s Biggest Failure? – A History | Monotonal Lizard

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmgQsYUrxVk | https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=NmgQsYUrxVk

Ok so this is the video that made me write this article. I had these thoughts since the No Youtube challenge mentioned up top. This video contains a section talking about angry bloggers, who predate angry video reviews. Everything I’ve said here has nothing to do with the critics mentioned in this video – It’s a non-sequitur. But you need to shout out your inspirations. And this video made me want to say things.

Maybe one day i’ll write my “Old Man Murray’s popular take on the death of Adventure Games was always really bad, but it also aged like milk” post, but actually I think that sums it up.

Credit:

  • Doodie.com for art used as a divider.
  • Visit phelous.com for more Obscurus Lupa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loathe a lot of social media sites! But you don’t! Reposting my art helps me use the web I like, and you get to enjoy sharing cool things. Please, if you like my art, repost it. The permissive license is there for a reason.

I don’t like begging for engagement like this. I like to trust my audience and not treat them like babies who need “like and subscribe” jingled in their faces to know how to interact with a fucking website. However, with the amount of fucking embarrassing web artists who scream about theft if you use the same pose or something, I thought I’d make my position super clear: I would really, really appreciate it if you reposted my art. Or used my poses, also.

I like when these children in 1999 flame each other while writing trying out creative writing with a fanfiction about all the things they love.

http://hijola.fobby.net/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000049.html

Here’s a comic:

A special Female's Fanfic (in other words, Females only!)
All SNES RPGs are enabled, and SOME Pokemon.
Why girls only?
(BROCK, GET OUT!! DON'T ASK STUPID QUESTIONS AND ADD E-MAIL TO MY ACCOUNT FOR NOTHING. That goes for anyone else who dares to do that. That was ANNOYING, Brock, but here's you answer: Girls need their time in the light, so DON'T ASK THAT AGAIN!! Excuse the outburst, but I MUST make my point SOMEHOW.)

The end!

All rips via the Spriters Resourse and Starmen.net, of course!

Custom graphic Yuko Asou (Earthbound/MOTHER 2-style) made by Jon Gandee and shadowman44.

No additional rights reserved on this sprite comic.

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it fucking kills me that Dr Mario AI Brainrot is like if the first page of some gaming webcomic was actually funny. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw it: This AI Brainrot joke about Luigi shoving things up his butt is better than some dreadful webcomic I saw being mocked years ago. Dr Mario AI Brainrot hits every joke with a precision that some random 20 year old gaming webcomic couldn’t dream of. We’ve come a long way baby.

I’m too fucking old and remember too much

Continue reading

how many of these blobos can you name? (this is engagement bait btw. i hope it works 😉 )

Book Review: A history of webcomics by T Campbell, 2006.

This book is free to rent on the Internet Archive right now! Don’t download this out-of-print book from Anna’s Archive, that would be illegal.

A contemporary review of the book can be found on Fleen (original blog) (IA), and it makes an interesting companion piece to this blog. This review is largely negative, focuses on mistakes, and is clearly written by an reviewer as familiar with the topic as Campbell is. I think these mistakes are important, but this review won’t focus on these.

I am not Fleen. I was reading webcomics in 2006, but am not intimately familiar with the topics this book tackles. We are now almost 20 years removed from this History of Webcomics. And there’s been a couple of changes in that time. The book opens with calling 1993-2005 a Golden age. If one were telling the history of webcomics today, would this era be more a footnote? Maybe the value in this book will be to prove this is a time worth remembering. I don’t know.

Let’s get reading!

The b00k spends 2 pages explaining the history of nerdc0re, and ends it with this legendary comic page in complete earnest. Its worth remembering the times before irony poisoning. Forget irony poisoning! Forget it! And enjoy a classic! Here it is!

Does anyone here speak L337?

The book spends A LOT of time on Scott McCloud, of course. This is your invitation to re-read Choose Your Own Carl. It spends a lot of time on Dilbert, on Sluggy Freelance, on User Friendly and a drama involving hotlinking User Friendly comic strips. It keeps returning to this Nerdcore idea, which feels so dated, but I… I don’t think its an inaccurate description of this millennial zeitgeist, even if we’d use ruder words for it today.

It feels like its taken a while to get to the Gamer comics, the comics we’d most associate with this era today. PVP and Penny Arcade are most talked about, with a large section dedicate to the flame wars Kurtz of PVP would get into. Infamous webcomic CAD only gets a passing mention, in the same sentence as several other comics such as Real Life, which are both comics whose reputations have diverged significantly.

Characters from the websites Keenspot and Modern tales face off.

TWO PWNED L0Z3R5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The comic discussed platforms and businesses for several pages. Maybe interesting, but these are the same concerns all netizens are still facing. If you’re familiar with the encroach of capitalism on the web, you know the shape of this discussion.

When webcomics try to form collectives and unions, its worth pointing out there’s a turbulent history there. People will learn from experience, I suppose. The turbulence is platforms vs users, humans vs capital, and the natural interpersonal conflicts we all navigate. These don’t go away easily with time and change.

oh shit campbells on about the N3RDC0R3 again

There’s a section in here about Furry comics. I genuinely think some furries might find these pages interesting, even as they mostly litigate what are ongoing flame wars. “Is furry porn ethical” is touched upon, but it presents the phase “Furverts“. There’s some jargon for you. Never say I don’t do anything for my furry readers.

From the Furry section the book transitions into a brief discussion of adult webcomics. Furries and adult media were already heavily associated lol. Although the book doesn’t mention any adult comic by name except the paysite Slipshine. Lol there’s a short mention of Paypal dicking over adult comic makers. Paypal hasn’t changed, but you need to be pretty new around these parts not to know Paypal has always sucked.

The Ice Queen. Joe Zabel often uses 3D figures created in poser to startling effect
CHAPTER SEVEN: MONEY MATTERS AND
THE MODERN WEBCOMIC
There is no webcomics industry. There is no large commercial exchange of
webcomics. There are [only] a handful of people making anything more than
extra spending money from their webcomics.
—Scott Kurtz, 2005°”
I do webcomics as a hobby—I don’t do it to gain fame or popularity or earn
money, and it feels like too many artists are doing webcomics for the wrong
reasons. All I say is, I believe webcomics should be done for enjoyment and not
for money or fame.
—Space Coyote of Saturnalia, 2005°"*
Rare is the artist who cares nothing for success, i.e., survival! But [that] ideal is
alive in the hearts of many artists who may hope for success, but won't alter their
work to obtain it.
—Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics?”
Four of my favorite online cartoonists are Patrick Farley, Cayetano Garza, David
Gaddis and Mark Martin; and I can tell you with certainty (‘cause I know these
guys) that if their sites could support them financially, they'd be posting 5 times
as often! And so would |, for that matter.
—Scott McCloud in J Can’t Stop Thinking?”
Above: Ctri+Alt+Del sold out of its first printing before the first customer received his first book.

Space Coyote, AKA Nina Matsumoto, has absolutely turned her art hobby into a career. I’m familiar with her work. I wonder how she feels about these statements now. It doesn’t matter what this one random person thinks, I suppose. But its interesting.

The talk of monetization is also extremely obsolete. There’s talk of marketable plushies and print editions: yes. But there’s a lot of wondering if “donation drives” will ever work out. Can a comic be crowdfunded? is a question the book seems in doubt about, when we know the answer in current year is a resounding Yes.

It briefly mentions the feeling of being nickel-and-dimed, which is something I do feel. With so many patreons around, all with ever increasing price floors, supporting your fave artist feels more expensive then ever. I get that we’re in a cost of living crisis. We all are. The readers, too. Not that I don’t have a list of ppl im supporting – but this individualist pricing structure has its limitations. Support government funding for the arts, now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There’s also a lot of words on advertising, a venture in which the price floor has lowered considerably over the years. A modest page can’t get a nice chunk of pocket change with advertising alone any more – and the adverting nowadays raises massive privacy issues. Download ublock origin, now!!!!!!!!!

Not that webcomics remained breeders-only. Manga traditions had loosened up American preconceptions here, too; manga had genres specifically for gays and lesbians,
and even its mainstream showed widespread acceptance. More than one well-known
manga (Ranma ,
Futaba-Kun Change,
Sailor Moon) featured a
boy who spontaneously
changes genders. 
‘“Transgendering”
found its way into
webcomics like E/
Goonish Shive, where the
gender-switching was
similarly arbitrary, and
Venus Envy, which dealt
with real
transsexuality.’’”> Merely
gay characters were
relatively populous. Gay
authors were usually
positive or matter-of-fact
about being gay, so
Justine Shaw’s brutal
honesty startled the
field—but soon attracted
it. 
Naturally, gays, like women, found certain genres friendlier than others. True
gay-bashing was extremely rare, but most nerdcore and gamer strips either featured jokes
about heterosexual men doubting themselves or avoided the subject altogether. They
were under no obligation, of course, so long as other genres were there to pick up the
slack. In certain matters of faith, though, almost no one seemed willing to step up. 
EI Goonish Shive, above,
explores identity with
magical, temporary
gender-swaps, while
Venus Envy, right, tells a
more down-to-earth
story of a transsexual.

Nothing to add here, I just thought some readers might want to read about ‘transgendering’

There’s more to read, about race in webcomics and class in webcomics. Remember to not download this book from Anna’s Archive if you want to read all about it.

Although the book mentions bigotries in webcomics, I think remembering that webcomics always tackled progressive issues is something worth remembering and celebrating.

Exhibit of webcomics alternate futures past. including world domination, micropayments, and artificial intelligence.

hm

The future.

Did this book from 2006 predict the future?

Shifting hierarchy: This book predicts new comics will replace old mainstays. A very safe prediction, and one that is absolutely and obviously true.

Decentralization and DIY: I think the book unfortunately got this one wrong. But the future it predicts seems more rosy that the reality we got. Webcomics are almost exclusively on platforms now, as are most netizens. That’s not to say decentralization and DIY have completely fallen by the wayside, and are usually where the most interesting webcomics, if not the most successful, exist right now.

Short-form as a vanguard, long-form in development: Short comics continue to be shared and spread most on social media, as short form content is just more shareable. One-offs are just as likely to do numbers as shortform strips from a bigger comic.

Techno-art: Stagnation tbh, as art becomes #content for #platforms. Nothing wrong with PNGs, ain’t broke. Although I think new web technologies are increasing potential out there.

Generation One. Cartoonists who had grown up with the Web joined the field and began to change its aesthetic from the inside out: Yes, true.

Organic ties to readers: ok…

Demographic expansion: Other web media took some of webcomics attention. The audience for webcomics is no doubt larger, but that same audience has more web multimedia taking their attention. This is a good thing

The elite reader. For good and for ill, webcomics’ own creators and their biggest
fans exerted a disproportionate share of influence on their surrounding culture. Criticism
was difficult and fan-service was easy.
I’m not sure what the prediction here is, but uhhh,,,, true?????????

An industry in embryo: There’s more money in webcomics today compared to 2005. True I guess.

The book also proposes six broad scenarios for comics future. The sixth one is the web vanishing completely. Could still happen. Of all of them, “the expanding long tail” scenario is the most pressing and accurate. It predicts a move to platforms, who aggregate the efforts of artists into large platforms for themselves. It also proposes a scenario where webcomics remain populist and serve the lowest common denominator: an anxiety still expressed.

WHATS THE REVIEW, POINDEXTER???????????

pic goes hard, who drew it.

This pic that goes hard was on page 108 of the PDF. I’m lost in the credits.

from the bookcore

this is da nerdcore

its got L337

like a elite

comics

bcomics

the internet

moar liek teh splinternet

anyway heres this classic by beanytuesday

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I love government funding for the arts!

Its ok when an artist who receives government funding creates something ugly, niche, or bad. I’m just glad when money is spent on bad art, instead of the military.

However, its far more often that an artist makes something that rules.

I think we need more government funding for the arts. They can never spend enough on art! No arts budget is too big, its impossible to do.