I know I’ve talked about this a lot the past few days. Every time there’s an update I usually end up making a billion posts about the large amount of over-reacting that happens along with the update.
But this is just… it’s just too good to be true.
So, like, nearly a year ago now, Tumblr decided to update their Terms of Service/Terms and Conditions. This was because the old one was messy and outdated, so they updated it to match the more present trends that go on on this site. However, a lot of it remained the same, it was just re-worded to be more appropriate. The whole “granting a sublicense to create derivative works” thing was always in there (I know this because I actually read the ToS before the update) because that’s what enables people to reblog images. Ya see, without that, it means any time someone reblogs art onto their blog, both that person and Tumblr are creating a derivative work of art they have no right to do that with. Which means EVERY single reblog of art is a potential lawsuit for Tumblr. This site would be purely text-based without that. It likely wouldn’t exist.
However, some people on Tumblr, as always happens, read the ToS, decided Tumblr was trying to steal artwork (despite it VERY clearly saying it wasn’t) and made a petition to demand answers and re-write the ToS.
Fast forward to a week or 2 ago, news broke that Yahoo was pushing for an updated video player (which 90% of Tumblr have wanted since the first video player came out) to help promote video uploads to the site.
A week later, Tumblr decided to update the layout of the page. I imagine this was to try and keep in line with current web design trends, but I’m not a web designer so that’s purely conjecture. However, I do know that web design trends do change and people need to keep up with them. However, this update was KINDA (and by kinda I mean really) badly implemented, in that the resizing images twice thing screwed over a lot of people.
Then this post broke. It provided absolutely no proof, but threw out a bunch of conjecture basically saying that Yahoo was trying to drive away Graphic Designers from the site. The post says that Yahoo made a corporate decision to get rid of a vast majority of it’s established user base in order to bring in a potential new user base. I know, it makes no business sense, is a ridiculous idea, and should’ve just been laughed away. However, it wasn’t, and people started to believe it. So now there’s this recurring idea that the layout change is part of some big conspiracy to drive away graphic designers, even though there’s literally no proof of that.
The layout change and this ridiculous conspiracy have led to a “strike” happening tomorrow to protest Yahoo trying to drive people away.
THEN the petition from nearly a year ago seems to be resurfacing and gaining traction again. So, now Tumblr users are, once again, demanding that the Terms of Service be changed to get rid of the whole “granting a sub-licence for derivative works” thing that allows people to reblog art work.
I mean, it’s just beautiful. It’s like a piece of artwork itself. A conflux of events that have created this… this… moment where Tumblr users are literally attempting to destroy the site whilst thinking they’re saving it.
If that doesn’t make sense, let me put it another way.
Some Tumblr users believe Yahoo are trying to drive them from the site, so in protest, are striking from the site, effectively not using it for a day. They are going away from the site in protest of Yahoo wanting them to go away from the site.
And whilst this is going on, some other Tumblr users, and I imagine some of the same Tumblr users, are bringing back and signing a petition which, if successful, would remove Tumblr’s ability to allow people to reblog artwork, effectively destroying the graphic design community on this site.
Some people on Tumblr think that Yahoo wants to get rid of Graphic Designers from the site, are protesting by going on strike and leaving the site, whilst at the same time signing a petition to try and stop Graphic Designers from being able to upload to the site in the first place, all whilst thinking they’re helping Graphic Designers stay on the site.
And people wonder why Tumblr never listens to it’s users.
Soup.io – well-known alternative to Tumblr. Reblogging, post types, themes, collab blogs, dashboard, artsy, great community already there. Soup can auto-import everything you’ve posted on Tumblr.
TypePad – Includes reblogging. Dashboard and post types similar to Tumblr.
Because of the increased width as well as the smaller padding, when you try to place 3 images next to each other they would have to be 177.3 pixels wide each, which is impossible hence the 1 pixel gap on the right hand side.
oh um next time your internet doesn’t work and you get the little chrome dinosaur, click in the window and press space bar for a little jumpy cactus game 🙂
When does your world believe the world was made? You don’t have to create a timeline, but you can. Your characters don’t even have to give an actual time period. If the creation myth is about the creation of humans rather than the world itself and if the story involves nearby mountains, they might say “before the mountains were here”.
You can get as specific as you want with the timeline. For example, someone studied the Bible and concluded that the earth was made in October in 4004 BCE.
Come up with different ways to measure the timeline of the creation myth in your world. If one world has three moons that represent three deities, they might believe that it took three thousand years to create the world, giving one thousand years to each moon/deity. Each thousand years could add something new to the world (the natural world (planets, stars, water, rock, etc.), living things (plants, animals, etc.), and magic or something).
WHAT HAPPENED?
It’s quite common for creation stories to start with “in the beginning there was X”. X can refer to a character, a place, nothing, darkness, silence, or anything else you want if it relates to the story. If you start with this structure, something needs to disrupt, change, or add to what was.
Creations can be accidental or intended. If creations are intended, come up with a reason for why they were intended. A deity might have made the world as a gift to another deity or they might have created a volcano as a prison to hold some type of creature that shoots up lava every now and then in an attempt to escape.
CHARACTERS INVOLVED
Literally anything can be a character in a creation myth. Water can interact with deities and animals can talk. Humans can reproduce asexually and giraffes can be stretched until they have long necks.
If you have created deities, consider putting them into your creation myth. Create relationships between these deities and make sure the events of the creation myth have an impact on the deities as well.
Other times, the creation myth creates deities and other mythological or supernatural beings. In this case, some type of being who is above the created deities will need to exist.
EXPLANATIONS
The creation of the world is not the only thing that a creation myth can explain. They can explain a number of phenomena, such as rain, death, sunrises and sunsets, stars, mountains, and other parts of the natural world.
The creation myth does not even have to be about the creation of the whole world. It might be about the island where your characters live or it might just be about humans.
lanablack 