requests open, no promises

Just in time for Valentine’s Day... 💔 

Ready to break up with Google?

So are we!

We’ve rounded up a bunch of privacy-centric alternatives for everything Google.

Check out the full list over on the blog!

- The Ellipsus Team xo

Fun fact, on top of being staunchly against genAI, ellipsus literally has an Export To AO3 button. I do the majority of my writing in LibreOffice, but I've been moving all my GDocs over to ellipsus for a bit and I really love the interface. If you're looking for an alternative to GDocs, this is The One.

i've started to use ellipsus for editing my novel! having a really good outline menu on one side and tabs of related documents in the other feels a lot better and more organized than gdocs.

Trying to inflict psychic damage to a tumblr user is like trying to irradiate a cockroach, like it can be done, but the lethal dose is not safe for humans either

Besides the point, but you could always try physical damage?

You’re right Gomez, bring me the flail

One small but extremely annoying effect of Tech Modernization or w/e is how UI contrast is garbage anymore, especially just, like, application windows in general.

"Ooh our scrollbar expands when you mouse over it! Or does it? Only you can know by sitting there like an idiot for 3 seconds waiting for it to expand, only to move your cursor away just as it does so!" or Discord's even more excellent "scrollbar is 2 shades off of the background color and is one (1) pixel wide" fuck OFF

I tried to move a system window around yesterday and had to click 3 times before I got the half of the upper bar that let me drag it. Why are there two separate bars with absolutely nothing to visually differentiate them on that.

"Well if you look closely-" I should not!! have to squint!!! at the screen for a minute straight to detect basic UI elements!! Not mention how ableist this shit is, and for what? ~✨Aesthetic✨~?

and then every website and app imitates this but in different ways so everything is consistently dogshit to try to use but not always in ways you can immediately grok it's!!!! terrible!!!! just put lines on things again I'm begging you!!!!

I know I sound like a broken record when I praise Windows 95 UI, but holy fuck Microsoft figured this shit out already about 30 years ago. It's all there, black and white, clear as christmas:

So much of modern UX woes stem from not knowing, or intentionally ignoring the genuine design study put forth into GUIs in the 90s.

3D elements are 3D in a specific way with lighting from a specific side to make it obvious where a window element begins and ends.

The gradient always should from from one side, and keep it consistent.

Make your color shading and shape of scroll bars consistently side and easy to press. I have a 4K display, don't make me hunt for the magic activation pixel that makes your 3-pixel wide scroll bar appear.

It's a desktop application, I've got the screen real estate to spare to have the actual GUI elements present on screen at all times (I know, heresy).

The moment aesthetic takes precedence over form and function, you've failed as a UI designer.

And any argument about "we don't have the resolution" can go right out the window, we were having nice, clear and legible interface widgets on nine inch screens in 1984. We continued to have nice, clear and legible interfaces on machines vastly less powerful than today's and on screens vastly less pixel-dense than today's. We used to know what the hell we were doing. At least one of these examples even has on-screen instructions in case the widgets functionality isn't immediately apparent.

(images sourced from The GUI Gallery)

since this has come back to my dashboard again i want to call attention to one more thing that these GUIs have that modern ones don't even try to do.

RESIZE WIDGETS.

Do you tire of trying to grab and resize a window whose border is literally only 1 pixel wide?

Do you see how large the corner widgets are in those clips above? Those are at least 16x16 pixels. They're almost as large as the Close buttons on a modern GUI. If you can see the bottom right corner of your window, resizing it is a snap. You can aim much more easily at a 16x16 widget than you can at a one-pixel-wide vertical line.

OK, maybe technically Windows' borders are wider than 1 pixel. They're technically 3 pixels. That is still just really goddamn tiny compared to 16 of them.

We used to be a society. Look at this. Look at this.

WINDOWS FUGGIN' 95 HAD THE CORNER WIDGET. Why the hell can't Windows 11?

btw every time i say 'oaaough' or some variation of that i am trying to convey this emotion

Winter has arrived on Poob.

Start your 7 day free trial of Poob today, and watch smash hit Martin Scorcese's Goncharov.

never thought Disney would be bold enough to address the strain on Nick and Judy's relationship after the abortion

This is why it's essential for new players to meet a funny little goblin/gnome/talking skeleton/other little weirdo on their first outing.

No, I'm serious

You as the DM have control over many things at your table, and that gives you a lot of authority, especially when it comes to establishing tone. By showing new players that in addition to being a grand storyteller/forgiving mentor/neutral arbiter of the rules you can also be a silly little guy™️ you also give them permission to be silly.

Lack of judgement is the first step to people feeling brave enough to try new things, and by making yourself out to be a clown, you signal that the d&d table is a (mostly) judgement free zone where they can put on a funny accent or do wacky things in character...or even (if you could believe it) be silly enough to invest in this story of wonder and whimsy that you're all telling together.

[OC] 🐞🐞 Zayd+Santiago drawings, at various points in their relationship.

I keep sketching them while working on commissions, so it was finally time for me to finish a few of those : -]

Oh, you hate abstract art and think pointless/dumb? That's crazy man nobody has ever had that opinion before. I think you're the first person to ever think that thought. It must be all the genshin impact and baldurs gate 3 fanart you reblog that makes you so smart.

If you grew up on the internet, I request that you fill out this survey about your experience with online safety education. Your responses are anonymous and the data from this survey will be used in an upcoming video.

You Were My Joker That Night

I've always wanted to do one of these I hope that's okay

theyre neat eh

commissions are back on the menu boys!! i have a year to save up all the travel costs for my top surgery and i need all the help i can get!

if youre interested in a comm from me, here's a form with all the info ill need from you to get started

if youre feeling generous but arent quite in the mood for a full commission, heres where you can throw a couple dollars to help out

im looking forward to getting back into making art for people, and i really appreciate any support people are willing to give. it means the world to me <3 thank you so much!!

btw if you miss out on a round, dont worry - im aiming to reopen slots on the first of every month, so if you cant catch one round then the next wont be far away!! thank you so much to everyone whos bought a commission so far!!!!

day (really big number) of missing them :(

what I think will happen if I message my mutuals

the image was making me really sad so i drew the little guy being taken care of

i think as adults it’s our responsibility to be nice to kids and treat them with the respect we wish we got at that age and im not kidding or exaggerating in the least