I am halfway done with Soulsmith and so far, these books feel like a slog to get through (idk if it’s just my ADHD or what). My mom got me the first 12 books as a present for my 21st birthday (I heard a lot of good things about Cradle) and it often feels like I am only reading this in order to not feel like I’m being wasteful. Does this series pick up soon, because I really, really want to get hooked enough to start devouring the series soon.
It feels really weird how the CM and MB tropes have been basically trapped in amber for almost 2 years atp. If the mods hate the culture surrounding Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard, why don't they just rip the band-aid off and delete both tropes?
It's literally never helpful, usually recommends an obscure-ass sub that has nothing to do with my post (this post in the picture had literally nothing to do with Godzilla, Kong, or anything adjacent to that), and just makes me disappointed when I think I actually got a notification only to see this crap instead.
This is a hyper specific question, and possibly an extremely stupid one, but I had an idea for an urban fantasy story where much of the protagonist’s interactions are on a discord-knockoff he joins (mainly because he is a bit of a lone wolf and has very few friends offline). Probably a dumb idea, so I have a question or two to ask. Can you even have a group of characters who aren’t seen physically (at least, at first) and still have each character be distinct? And can you make interaction on social media in fiction be realistic without making the “cast” of said forum feel too large and cluttered? And is it even possible to have these interactions be regular without grinding the pacing of a story to a screeching halt?
I know, a lot of people got a bit of a kick out of the whole “vermont demographics in a rally in Detroit” thing from last night. But, in all seriousness, young black democrats tend to be about as progressive as young white democrats, and Abdul has gotten quite a lot of endorsements from influential black figures and orgs within Michigan. You think people are overestimating how much Black voters will side with Stevens?
Sorry in advance if this was supposed to go into the megathread.
I think everyone here is pretty well aware that there have been many incidents of people using leading questions in order to trick writers into buffing the Ninjago verse in some way, which has caused a ton of controversy as to where the hell the verse scales. Now, I know VSBW (very untrustworthy source, I know) decided to take a rather extreme approach to dealing with this by banning all use of online author statements when scaling Ninjago, and, on the surface, that would seem like a smart idea. But, not only have there been relevant verse-buffs from Doc's Bluesky that were not simply the result of leading questions (most notably, that one statement about the Grasslands that kinda made people start taking Outer Ninjago arguments more seriously), but the Ninjago wiki (once again, not an authoritative source) has cited these leading questions before in non-scaling related contexts (for example, citing a leading question about if the Source Dragons have conceptual physiology for evidence that the Balance source dragon doesn't have complete control over the balance). So, it is very obvious that word of god statements shouldn't be discounted entirely.
My question is, what exactly is the standard for if a WoG statement is too much of a "leading question answer" or is too outrageous for it to be considered valid when it comes to scaling? I know that there is no definitive answer to this but I am interested in some opinions on the matter.
I have heard whispers that the NPC of the national DSA did some sort of change to some way that the DSA does things that people have been accusing of being done to ratfuck the NYC-DSA, AOC, or both. I admittedly am not very well informed on how the NPC works (other than rumors that Ultras are overrepresented on there while the NYC branch is underrepresented), but I really want to know what is going on and how high-stakes is this whole debacle?
Whenever I phonebank, I tend to stumble over my words and act extremely embarrassed whenever I say that I am calling in support of a politician. I have crippling social anxiety and phonebanking just seems to tax me. But I still want to phonebank. Any tips from people more experienced in phonebanking on how to be more confident and more effective?
He was talking to a young black activist at the time and also he apologized.
Edit: he has since made a more extensive apology on Twitter https://xcancel.com/WeWill2026/status/2076015931227250722#m
Okay, for context; yes, he already promised to drop out the other day. But Platner was seemingly trying to intentionally slow-walk signing the paperwork to drop out officially (fittingly, dude doesn’t like taking no for an answer). But now, it’s official, we can leave this pest behind us.