masked papaya @glip@awoo.space

https://floraverse.com/comic/seeds/the-show-must-go-on/

I haven't been keeping up with posting page previews and stuff, but I've posted several pages since last posting here, and also a page that's going to lead into video update stuff this upcoming month

it's hard. people don't want to be open and honest because that is IMMEDIATELY wielded as a weapon against whoever is being open. but that is the best way to actually move forward in net culture at the moment - it's scary to be open, which is why it NEEDS to happen. the less people do it, the scarier it seems. but it is very freeing when you stop trying to enforce your personal dislikes on every other person - just talk about things that happen to you without condemning people, so they can learn

i think this will start to change when we demand that people be in charge of their own emotions, and that honesty be required in people's campaigns about whatever. the most frustrating thing for me has been dealing with people being openly dishonest at me over and over, in order to have their feelings validated. I hate being used as a fake person in order for someone else to feel like they're doing something just - when they're really just avoiding their issues. it supremely sucks

it's difficult to watch this happen to the internet. people are so scared of making mistakes that they constantly are looking for others who make a mistake in order to show that person off as, "look guys! this is what *I'M* *NOT* like!" which is... it means people stop becoming people, and start becoming symbols, or roles. just something to "use" in order to bolster your own social standing. how do you fight this?? people like expressing their feelings, but they too often make it a vendetta

our memories are fuzzy, but we have access to a tool that lets us reach for any event as if it just happened. this means any given person with an internet history becomes permanently branded with their mistakes, which NORMALLY get absorbed into growing as a person, but has been used online in order to "make examples" of people - pressuring/intimidating people into acting in self-serving ways. it's frustrating to witness over and over

it's so hard to put your own personal feelings aside to guide someone into taking actions to be a better and more compassionate person. it takes SO much personal understanding to stand in the face of people doing hurtful things, and to go, "okay, you messed up. how can we help you not make this kind of mistake again?" - especially because the internet LOVES to lock people into the role of "person who made x mistake" - humans weren't built for this kind of setup really

no matter how you look at it, groups that endorse any kind of hatred are not ones where "helping others" is the top goal. when any other emotion muddles "helping others", it's going to do more harm than it needs to. it's difficult to have compassion for everyone, because people naturally want to get upset about someone not sharing the same bad feelings they have. and so enforcing behavior that is compassionate is very difficult and requires a lot of work/training on behalf of moderators

the kind of culture i want to see is one where people care about *actual* harm done, instead of wielding theoretical harm on fictional characters in order to hurt real people

it's so hard. that kind of culture is so difficult because it means everyone needs to be in control of their own emotions. and as we know, this is not something many people are very good at, because it requires taking a critical look at what their actions are actually accomplishing

anyway. boy. it's weird because i'd love to use social media more, but, i'm still a little allergic to it because tumblr and twitter have been using to harass me so much. so i'm not trying to be scarce, but, it's harder for me to remember to post here. i like getting to know people, but i really like people taking the things i say seriously and actually engaging with me? and that's so much easier to accomplish in chats, and not in places where people are intimidated for simply existing

and how do you combat this? people getting scared of ideas without actually engaging them, people wanting to force the rest of the world to conform to their fear -- how do you actually fix this? you have to fight fear itself. you have to exist despite how scary it is that people try to force you to hide your feelings. that shit is rough! it's so hard. you have to be the example of what you want to actually see exist, so that others follow in your footsteps. it's about change on a personal level

tumblr's been so good for spreading information quickly. the problem here has largely been people exploiting that for personal reasons in order to eradicate an idea that makes them uncomfortable. it's not about whether or not the idea should exist, but it's about "I don't have the emotional grounding to block this out and move on" - despite being given tons of tools to do so? it became overrun with people wanting to inflict their personal boundaries on others, without addressing their own issues

i'm so curious what will take its place? I'm curious about the gaps it's leaving open. I'm curious about the ways people will work to minimize abuse of other users, to encourage open dialog without allowing for expression being shut down. it's been a really difficult thing to manage with my group of like /70 people/ so i can't even imagine the effort of managing millions of blogs. it takes actually caring about human psychology, for one, i guess

but also i guess today's the last day that a lot of people are gonna care about tumblr huh. that's so weird. tumblr's been such an important (and awful/horrible) tool in advancing net culture? it's done a whole lot of good, but also leagues of bad -- like any tool. it's about how people use it, and the ways people used it were geared more and more towards abuse as time went on. it's such a shame it's going like this

yo sorry i've been dead in posting for weeks, ive been super inundated with working on stuff and managing community stuff and it's been nice but also... a lot??? i've got some vid update stuff in the works but it's weird as hell not to actually have updates going up in the meantime. still feel residual bad over not maintaining my ridiculous work schedule from before, but i know it's waaaay better this way - i can actually enjoy my life normally lol

patreon reward for someone! @eevee's char Ash

NSFW Forbidden Flora - Overtime??? - http://forbiddenflora.com/gallery/miscellaneous-comics/708-overtime/

Floraverse - The Show Must Go On p7 - http://floraverse.com/comic/seeds/the-show-must-go-on/782-the-show-must-go-on-p7/

been thinkin a lot lately about the concept of people trying to help and instead only hurting those they're trying to help. it's such a hard thing to guard against because, rejecting help is a difficult thing to do? especially if someone has lots of "good reasons" for helping... but if their motivation is bad, it can do a lot of ripple-effect damage when the motivation leaks out

Floraverse - The Show Must Go On p6 - http://floraverse.com/comic/seeds/the-show-must-go-on/781-the-show-must-go-on-p6/

NSFW Forbidden Flora - Sludgey goop -
http://forbiddenflora.com/gallery/pinups/707-sludgey-goop/