u/SailorTexas

I've been thinking about how so many websites/organizations have apps. Like, my doctor's office has an app. Even just going to the CVS website, I keep getting asked if I want to continue through the app. So I'm wondering, what is the benefit for a company to have an app customers use rather than their website? Does it make it easier for them to collect data on customers? Are customers more likely to use or return to a business with an app? I figure for medical stuff maybe the app is more secure.

These companies get so pushy with them, so I doubt it's just *for a better user experience*. Especially considering apps are constantly sending out push notifications, unless they are turned off. Some sites won't even allow mobile access through a browser and just keep redirecting to the app store for their app.

Maybe I'm mixing up shows or I dreamed this, but I really think this happened. All I remember is this one scene (it randomly comes to mind and makes me laugh). Wilhelmina and Daniel were in a meeting. I'm pretty sure other people were in the meeting, but their exchange is what stands out. I think Daniel was making suggestions for a theme or something that had to do with maybe Black History Month, Africans, or Black people in general. Whatever it was, whenever he said the word or phrase he looked at Wilhelmina and she asked him why he looked at her when he said that. And it was so funny 😂

Please tell me I didn't make that up. Does anyone know what episode that happened in?

I'm looking for websites, videos, social media accounts, apps, etc. that do positive affirmations (preferably for Black women). I know of Dear Black Woman on tumblr (and I've saved other random posts listing affirmations there), Affirmation Flow, and We The Urban on instagram. I'd love to know of more. I need an arsenal of positive affirmations as I head into the fall.

Can any recommend nonfiction books about the Red Summer that are written by Black authors? When I searched online, I only found books written by white people or books specifically about the Tulsa Race Massacre (which confuses me every time it comes up cause that happened in 1921).

Thanks!

I'm looking for book recommendations with a Black FMC who experiences noncon multiple times with the MMC. If it's not multiple times, then at least once still works. Also, I prefer for the MMCs to be in their late 20s or older, but absolutely not younger than 18 and not in high school.

I'm fine with most triggers, but absolutely no incest, no cannibalism, and if there's an age gap then I don't want them to have known each other when she was underage.

Thanks!

Edit: Some books I've read with noncon and a Black FMC are: {Run by Eve Vaughn}, {Beauty and the vampire by Demelza Brown}, {A dangerous game by Leila Starling}, and {Diamonds and straitjackets by MT Addams}.

For those who love reading or would classify themselves as a "reader", did reading challenges help with that?

I can't remember a time I didn't love reading. I grew up reading for fun and Belle was my favorite disney princess *because* she was a reader. I also did reading challenges growing up, but I can't remember how much they helped me continue reading. I feel like I would have regardless. But I loved getting the rewards!

But I'm curious if anyone wasn't interested in reading before doing reading challenges? If reading challenges helped you develop an interest in reading? Did doing reading challenges have a negative impact on your perception of reading? Was there anything else that helped you develop an interest in reading?

Right before starting {Unhinged Titan by E.V. Olsen}, I looked at the trigger warnings and saw cannibalism. Usually that's a no for me so I'm wondering how much cannibalism is there in the book?

I did recently finish a book with light cannibalism (there was no trigger warning for that so I didn't know until it showed up when I was well into the book), but it only showed up a few times in passing so I was able to move past it.

Is it something I could skim over without missing anything? Does it happen a lot? Is it described in graphic detail?

Thanks!

I'm looking for MM books where both MMCs are BIPOC. I prefer for both MMCs to be in their late-20s or older, but I'll accept early-20s. If they are 18/19, no high school students and no age gap. I definitely want lots of spice too!

No incest, no age play, no creative anatomy, and no cannibalism.

A couple books I read that I enjoyed are {Claimed by Kora Knight} and {Tamed by Kora Knight}.

Thanks!

I'm looking for MM books where both MMCs are BIPOC. I prefer for both MMCs to be in their late-20s or older, but I'll accept early-20s. If they are 18/19, no high school students and no age gap. I definitely want lots of spice too!

No incest, no age play, no creative anatomy, and no cannibalism.

A couple books I read that I enjoyed are {Claimed by Kora Knight} and {Tamed by Kora Knight}.

Thanks!

Edit: BIPOC means Black, Indigenous, Person of Color

I hope this is allowed!

I'm writing a story and one of the characters is claustrophobic. There's a scene where they have a panic attack from being in an enclosed space and another character is trying to help them. While writing how the other character tries to help, I was thinking through how to help someone having a panic attack in general based on things I've learned previously. I considered physical touch as a way of grounding the person. But as I thought more, I wasn't sure if something like that or hugging would be counterproductive for this specific phobia. Like whether giving the person lots of space might be more helpful?

I tried looking online but everything I came across was about professional treatment for people with claustrophobia or about panic attacks in general.

I decided to ask here because I would like to hear from people experiencing claustrophobia. Do you prefer for someone to give you space? Or does physical touch help? The characters aren't friends, so I was also thinking that even if physical touch helped, it may not be welcome from someone you don't like. What I have right now is that the other character keeps their distance and tries to help the character having the panic attack with breathing exercises.

If my post is inappropriate, feel free to let me know!

This is more of a writing style question.

Have you read any books where the author keeps writing that something or someone is sexy, attractive, hot, etc.? Not like occasionally. I mean like, repeatedly throughout the book. What do you think about that?

I get when an MC is really attracted the other MC. But sometimes I think it comes across less like an author describing how a character feels more like they are trying to convince the reader. Like "trust me, this is super hot." And I wonder if there are other ways to demonstrate that, possibly in describing how the character feels, how they are reacting, more in-depth explanation of what is happening, etc. I occasionally come across a book where the author says variations of "the character is sexy", "sexy smile", "sexy body", this is so sexy", etc.

It reminds me of the saying "show don't tell." When I come across this a lot in a book, it feels like a shortcut to get the reader to think whatever is happening or the character is Super Hot™️.

I used to log into my pandora account when I went home and left it logged in for years. Long story short, I ended up with some stations for artists I wasn't interested in. After signing out of my account on all devices, I deleted those stations. But I just noticed the thumbs up playlists for those stations I deleted are still in my collection. And I am not seeing any way to just delete those playlists or remove songs from those playlists.

Based on what I've found online, the only way to delete those playlists is to go back into the stations and remove the thumbs up from those songs. Is that accurate?

Does anyone know of any podcasts on Chinese history? Preferably anarchist, but I'd accept leftist or just...not right-wing, pro-capitalist, **goes on and on** ...bonus if it is on ancient Chinese history.

I know this question was asked before but it was 3 years ago and there were no recommendations in the replies (maybe that means there are none?).

I heard about the book burnings during the Qin Dynasty (I understand there's doubt about whether it *really* occurred to the extent it's been traditionally told). But that piqued my interest. Maybe I should make a separate post requesting that topic too...

Recently I've been more interested in romance books with a queer awakening. And I've come across a bunch of books that I read cause they were classified as a queer awakening but they seemed less like a queer awakening and more like a "first experience" or coming out story. The scenarios I've seen the most in the MM books I've read recently: the MMC knows he's not straight but has never been with a man before. Or the MMC knows he's not straight but hasn't come out yet. Or the MMC knows he's not straight but has been in denial/fighting it.

So I started wondering if queer awakening stories are broader than I've been thinking. I thought queer awakening stories were when an MC starts experiencing new feelings related their sexual orientation. So an MC who thought they were straight who realizes they are bisexual. Or an MC who never cared about relationships/sex who realizes they are demisexual. Or an MC who realizes they are asexual. But are "first experience" and coming out stories part of the queer awakening trope?

I picked the flair I think this fits with most. Also I posted this in the Black people subreddit and it was auto-removed o.O

I live in the US and have a white friend who loves Canada and visits multiple times a year. When we start talking about politics and *gestures vaguely*, she always says she wants to move to Canada. We've had this conversation multiple times now, where she says she wants to move to Canada and how it's so much better there. And she says I should move there too. Each time I've told her no and that I don't think Canada would be any safer for Black people than the US. (I vaguely remember seeing some stories about Canada during the height of the BLM movement.)

So I'm curious to know what people's experiences have been like in Canada, whether you live(d) there or have visited. I suspect that Canada has just had good PR and that the anti-Black racism is just as present there as it is here. But I'm willing to be proven wrong!

I live in the US and have a white friend who loves Canada and visits multiple times a year. When we start talking about politics and *gestures vaguely*, she always says she wants to move to Canada. We've had this conversation multiple times now, where she says she wants to move to Canada and how it's so much better there. And she says I should move there too. Each time I've told her no and that I don't think Canada would be any safer for Black people than the US. (I vaguely remember seeing some stories about Canada during the height of the BLM movement.)

So I'm curious to know what people's experiences have been like in Canada, whether you live(d) there or have visited. I suspect that Canada has just had good PR and that the anti-Black racism is just as present there as it is here. But I'm willing to be proven wrong!

Can anyone recommend any smutty retellings of The Picture of Dorian Gray?

I don't have a requirement for the time period, but I prefer if it's historical and retains the gothic horror feel.

I prefer lots of MM spice scenes.

Ideally, it would be a more diverse retelling (races/ethnicities), especially if it's contemporary, but that's not a requirement.

It also doesn't have to be a one-to-one retelling, but more so hitting on the general premise of the story.

Some retellings I've enjoyed:

{Splinter by Jasper Hyde} - Sleepy Hollow

{Seeing Red by Shon} - Little Red Riding Hood (If I'm remembering correctly)

{Crucible by BB Reid} - Goldilocks

{Sex, Lies, and Sensibility by Nikki Payne} - Sense and Sensibility

{Immoral Cravings by Antoinette Sherell} - Snow White

I know this is similar to previous questions asked before but I haven't seen this exact scenario.

As the title says, I am only using 316.3gb of the 2tb of storage I have on icloud. It is a family plan with one other person who is only using 6.9gb of the 316.3gb that's used. The space used includes my icloud drive, photos, back up, family, and "other"). I tried to upload my 83gb music folder to the icloud drive (pc) on my laptop and I got an error message stating there's not enough space. But even with the music folder I should only be taking up less than 400gb, leaving 1.6tb, right? I'm trying to do the recommended three back ups for my music, and I wanted to use icloud as one of those backups.

I was thinking since I have a family plan the 2tb might be split between the two of us, but even still I should have around 600gb after I upload my music folder. I also tried uploading the music folder in batches, but before I got halfway through my collection I got an error message that I needed more space.

Does icloud storage only allot a specific amount of space to the drive? Like, hypothetically, 25% goes to the drive, 25% goes to photos, etc.?

I'm not even sure the title fully explains what I am thinking. I was talking to someone about how I feel like if I work too long without taking breaks I can getter mentally tapped out and that makes it harder to work the next day. Like recently when that happened, I didn't have the mental energy to do any work the next day. It's like when that happens, I use up all my mental energy for the day and start using my store of mental energy for the next day. So when the next day comes, I'm already depleted. Sometimes it's not even work per se. It could be that my mind is occupied all day with something bothering me or I'm thinking about what I have to do, and all my mental stores of energy gets drained.

I've seen other posts here about mental energy, recovery, etc., but I don't feel like those fully get at what I'm asking for (I don't fully know what getting at with this post). I guess, is there an explanation for what this is or why that happens? Is there a name for this?

Gonna preface this by saying I use romance.io constantly and I really like the site.

I know there was a post (I think on this subreddit) a while ago requesting tags people want added to romance.io. And a recent newer tag since then (told you I use the site a lot) is "no third act breakup" and I'm curious if a lot of people want to know about that before reading a book.

I do get annoyed with third act breakups. Most of the time it feels forced and could have easily been avoided. But I won't avoid a book for that reason (no judgment for people who do) and I feel like it's a semi-spoiler? So tbh, when I'm adding tags after I finish a book, even if there's no third act breakup I still feel weird about selecting it so I don't. But I also won't downvote it to get rid of it if there's already one vote. I just leave it alone.

So I want to know what other people think about that tag. Do you want to know ahead of time if there's a third act breakup? Do you avoid books with a third act break up? Do you intentionally select books because they have a third act breakup?

And I get that some other tags could be considered semi-spoilery, but for whatever reason that's the one that stands out to me. Though, I did see a sibling's best friend tag on a book I read recently and I felt like it was semi-spoilery cause that was a reveal in the book. And I wished I hadn't seen it before I got to that part. But, that could be a discussion for another day lol

Edit: I'm glad to see so many people like it! I hadn't seen a previous post another user linked in their reply with people celebrating the addition of this tag. As I said, I use the site a lot and really like it, and was curious about what others thought :)