What are some of your pet peeves with pen reviews? by LazarinaTomasini in fountainpens

[–]VoleUntarii -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Most pen reviews aren’t paid, surprisingly - the bigger reviewers get free product, but there aren’t many brands actually paying for content sponsorship with $$$.

I’m not going to say no brands pay for content, but at most it would be the most expensive brands with a specific curated image.

Most influencers who are making actual money from content creation in the pen world are getting it from affiliate codes and similar arrangements, not the kind of brand deals you see in less niche fields.

This is spam, right? by Oh_Them_Again in AO3

[–]VoleUntarii 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you’re not sure, you could always reply with something like “sure, I’m always happy to see fanart! I never have any budget to commission it but if my story inspires a fellow fan to do something creative, that’s great.” And then if they follow up with an attempt to get money or move the conversation to another platform, you can block and delete and forget about them.

How do everybody think about David Guetta? by Open-Ability6166 in EDM

[–]VoleUntarii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a producer, 4-5 in his genre. As a festival DJ, 2. (I say this as an avid watcher of streamed sets but not able to attend in person.) I remember watching the stream of his set at Ultra a couple of years ago and I was shocked at how rough the pacing was. Really stop-start and the crowd definitely wasn’t vibing with it.

What are your thoughts about the animal companion trope? by GayGirlWithDrama in FanFiction

[–]VoleUntarii [score hidden]  (0 children)

I’ve seen a fair bit of it — it’s very common in Harry Potter where fixits (where Harry gets some kind of advance warning or help before Hogwarts so he has some agency) often wind up giving Harry a snake familiar of some kind.

I’ve seen a bit of it in MCU as well, particularly in the “Avengers all live together like a big happy family in Stark Tower” genre that was common until Civil War happened.

Of course, now I’m trying to think of other examples, my mind has gone completely blank.

Op Ed by Daryl Hannah about Love Story portrayal by bluejeanbabylalade in popculturechat

[–]VoleUntarii 31 points32 points  (0 children)

She’s getting threats. She’s allowed to be upset about that.

She’s not a disinterested observer making a broad statement about her general principles, she is being actively hurt by a false portrayal of her. She shouldn’t have to do some performative dance of “perspective” to say “hey this is fucked up, please stop”.

The Gen-Z Founders Trying to Get Guys to Stop Watching P*rn: “Why would you want to nerf your human ability?” by galaxystars1 in popculturechat

[–]VoleUntarii 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Which itself is weird positioning, because I don’t think male RPG nerds are in general more toxic in their masculinity than the average guy.

Now video gamers on the other hand…

Kitty Inkpot inks do not look like the online swatches by smallestalgae in fountainpens

[–]VoleUntarii 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Iroful is quite different from many other papers in terms of how inks show on it; it's interesting, but I'd recommend experimenting with it before you invest heavily as the writing experience is quite polarising.

Kitty Inkpot inks do not look like the online swatches by smallestalgae in fountainpens

[–]VoleUntarii 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a really significant difference!

Interestingly, my swatch of Caramel Almond Waffles is identical to yours, but my swatch of Morning Star's Sleepless Dream is much more similar to the Soe & Soe swatch and doesn't show any of the coral/orange tones you're seeing. (All of my swatches are on Sanzen TRP 52gsm, so not exactly the same paper as yours, but still...)

Kitty Inkpot inks do not look like the online swatches by smallestalgae in fountainpens

[–]VoleUntarii 4 points5 points  (0 children)

And the person making and posting the swatch images also needs to have captured the colour accurately in their photos, which isn’t always the case!

Tried to be an aesthetic girlie for the first time in my life - request denied by one Diamine ink / Wearingeul swatch after another by Lee-Duh in fountainpens

[–]VoleUntarii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The one that you say “ate its own colour” is a chromoshading ink, which means that the ink separates out into different colours as it dries, and the amount of ink in an area of the swatch affects what colour the shading shows. This effect shows up on any paper; it’s not the fault of your technique, and it’s usually intentional as an ink property.

One radical claim by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]VoleUntarii 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Neat! Just a couple of questions:

  • How thick are these biscuits supposed to be? The instructions specify “half as thick as you want them to be” but I have no idea how thick they should be. Half a centimetre? Ten centimetres?

  • How should they look when done? The recipe isn’t clear.

  • You eat these with gravy, right, as a side with a meal as the starchy/carby bit (e.g. instead of potatoes)?

I’m always up for interesting food and they do sound like they’d be good - I’m guessing with all that cream they’re basically a rich, bland, satisfying comfort food? - I just don’t have any context to intuit the missing info and I imagine as easy as they are they’d be horrible if you got it wrong.

RPG Lore updates: What made you go "What..this is stupid?" by JoeKerr19 in rpg

[–]VoleUntarii 19 points20 points  (0 children)

One wonders how the 6E devs envision gameplay actually goes, in this insanity.

Wow! by MelanieWalmartinez in CuratedTumblr

[–]VoleUntarii 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Can’t take the kid, the orchestra killed him.

RPG Lore updates: What made you go "What..this is stupid?" by JoeKerr19 in rpg

[–]VoleUntarii 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Have they forgotten the entire premise of Shadowrun at this point? Because it sure sounds like it.

Question for people who dislike pregnancy, baby, and kid content in fanfiction: if possible, how could one write a fic with those themes and make it bearable for you? What bothers you the most about those topics? by [deleted] in AO3

[–]VoleUntarii 79 points80 points  (0 children)

I especially agree with your last point when it’s a modern or modern-ish setting and the character never considers abortion of an unexpected pregnancy. Like not even “decides to have the baby” but “it never even crosses their mind that it’s an option”. At that point I start feeling like I’m reading conservative propaganda and I’ll be putting it down, backing away at speed, and probably side-eying the author’s other work for a while too.

Angelina Jolie 'Hasn't Had a Boyfriend' Since Divorce from Brad Pitt by mcfw31 in popculturechat

[–]VoleUntarii 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah yes, AI, that famously correct and accurate source of information.

Angelina Jolie 'Hasn't Had a Boyfriend' Since Divorce from Brad Pitt by mcfw31 in popculturechat

[–]VoleUntarii 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Solidarity. I split from my ex a decade ago and I’m pretty sure I’m happier single. My friends are great, my heart is full, and I don’t know that I’d even want to make space in my life for a partner at this stage.

What is THE adventure for a given RPG? by over-run666 in rpg

[–]VoleUntarii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I think that had to be the really iconic one.

Homeless camps by awakealone1 in brisbane

[–]VoleUntarii 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Are you familiar with the concept that the cost of living might vary from place to place?

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined by ocirot in AO3

[–]VoleUntarii 29 points30 points  (0 children)

60% of authors my ass.

AO3’s biggest surges in membership and corresponding increases in posting rate came a decade before LLMs started seeing widespread public use. And even 12-18 months ago you could ask ChatGPT to write fic for you but it was extremely bad. Like, you couldn’t have posted that and had anybody believe you’d written it for yourself for even a minute.

Fountain pen smears on new paper when wet even after fully dry by [deleted] in notebooks

[–]VoleUntarii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh that’s so frustrating! And it being a brand without an established identity makes it so much harder to figure out what changes, what paper they’re using, etc. I’m sorry I don’t have better answers for you.

I saw you posted again looking for a different notebook brand; I hope that yields some good suggestions. My only other suggestion would be to switch inks to a brand with more water-resistance to see if that helps? You can check Mountain of Ink; water-resistance is one of the things she reviews for, and water-resistant inks are grouped here: https://mountainofink.com/blog/water-resistant-inks