Drew Linky
2nd of May
There have been some strange developments in the Twitter section of the fandom today, being the result of a variety of factors culminating together into a particularly dramatic time. More observant individuals have been describing some details about it for the last day or two, but the drama has escalated so much that the rest of us are beginning to take note now. This particular bit of drama relates to the overall identity of V.
V, first appeared (to my knowledge) as an author for the Friendsims. Ever since her simple grapheme attracted attention, an astonishing and sometimes uncomfortable amount of effort has been expended in figuring out who exactly they are. This is not to say that people have been trying to discover V’s real life identity, but rather who they are with regard to the Homestuck fandom. For the more paranoid among us, there was automatically an impulse to say that she was actually someone else in disguise.
Specifically, a lot of people openly theorize that V is in fact IPGD, an older official for Homestuck that’s closely involved with Hussie’s work. This link remains unverified, although plenty of people such as Bambosh or Toast paint it as a foregone conclusion at this point. The reality is that we simply don’t know if they’re the same person; at this moment, as far as official purposes are concerned, V and IPGD are not the same individual.
IPGD did comment recently though, in the wake of the Twitter drama that has been plaguing that section of the fandom. IPGD actually used to associate with the fandom rather extensively, and created all sorts of work--some of which have become rather controversial in the time that’s passed. One such piece of content is a fanfic that dealt heavily with themes of abuse from her own childhood.
As an aside: V has become increasingly prominent in her involvement with the fandom and is highly associated with the Epilogues, if not a pseudonymous author. The Homestuck Epilogues have been so controversial since release that various fandom members, irate with how it was written, are doing everything in their power to mudsling those responsible for them.
V has not escaped from this treatment; she, alongside other officials involved in Homestuck at this point, are suffering greatly at the hands of unhappy fans. To relate this back to before, people are still heavily under the impression that both V and IPGD are the same person. Thus, they peered back through the history of both personalities in order to dig up dirt on one or both of them. Thus, the fanfic I mentioned was discovered, such that V and IPGD have both come under fire for its existence.
V has not commented on the issue, and IPGD released a lengthy post on the topic describing why exactly she wrote it. IPGD is being accused of supporting taboo fetishistic content like incest, though she describes in her post that she is explicitly condemning such things. Yet, the rage machine rattles on, and while the Discord and Subreddit are more or less contented, the Twitter and Tumblr spheres appear to be wracked with infighting right now.
I recognize that this summary so far has been kind of confusing. The important part of all this is: Homestuck Twitter appears to be imploding right now, because there are fans who are displeased with the Epilogues. Said fans are trying to discredit officials by dredging up the past, which has inflamed the situation substantially. Normally we would take note of such things and talk about them, but it’s been so problematic that we are collectively ignoring it. We have enough baggage on our own; we don’t want to invite the problems of other people, especially not problems of this variety.
Nothing more for today.
5thof May
It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I wanted to take the time to describe a couple of people who I thought have been participating enough to merit comment. These individuals share an interesting quality, which is that they appreciate rational literature in much the same manner Makin does1. Though they’re less overt/forceful about it, they can still both be found on Alexander Wales’ Discord server, being fans of Worth the Candle and his other works. These individuals are The Wadapan and Daniel111111222222.
Daniel is something of a reserved figure: he seems far more interested in maintaining an objective approach to any given topic. There was a discussion tonight that transformed from a more aloof or distanced nature about crying into something that was explicitly revealing about instances in each person’s life. He selected a choice quote from WoC, responding sarcastically: “i dislike how this went from discussing crying to discussing how people cry so many times like you dont even know guys.” This was also slightly evocative of Makin’s tendency to shut down conversations that get too mushy.
Daniel’s contributions to the chat are somewhat uncommon, but he has overtly mentioned that, “i enjoy having a similar taste in literature as makin does / he links some random shit like conference call and i'll almost certainly like it too.” Indeed, most of his more substantial comments seem to center around such topics, especially when Worth the Candle or Worm pops up in discussion.
Looking at his post history, it’s actually surprisingly hard to gauge exactly what Daniel’s personality is like. He participates frequently enough that I imagine most people recognize him from the last few months--but offers little insight into any idiosyncrasies he might have. There is one exception to this: interestingly, he seems to post “fat husky” in #fathusky at least once a day. This habit is surprisingly consistent, going back literally to when the channel was created. I can’t point to anyone else in our2 coterie who does this.
Of the two, Wadapan seems to be a more carefree individual. Both of them have participated to a similar degree so far, but Wadapan seems to have involved themselves more openly in the politics of the place, or associated with people to a greater degree. A cursory glance shows that they share a number of ancillary servers with me and others, such as the Oceanfalls Discord Server.
Wadapan’s contributions show a dynamic range of behavior, from utterly silly to more serious. Their most animated discussion with us recently was about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which of course offers a lot to talk about given that Avengers: Endgame came out a couple weeks ago. They offered great insights into the construction and interpretation of a lot of these movies, something that they often do with literature as well.
Wadapan seems a little more willing to share their excitement and feelings in general with people. I distinctly recall them being one of the few voices of active anticipation shortly before the Epilogues were released. After some consideration, it seems that they have a pretty wide range of interests, or at least a broad taste in media. Thusly, they’re well suited for interacting with people here.
Both of these individuals have a pretty refined palate in comparison to the average newcomer. I find myself wishing they would participate more often; while I try my best to value all sorts of personalities and perspectives, it’s indisputably refreshing to have people who are capable of more serious, in-depth reflection on any given topic. There are some additional personalities that I feel like describing, but I’ll leave that for another day.
Nothing more for today.
6th of May
Yesterday, Makin announced that the Discord had reached 15,000 users and the subreddit had 40,000 subscribers. This has technically been true for a few days now, but it’s still an exciting milestone. It’s nice to take a step back and realize that the server has literally grown twice as big as when I first joined. The fact that the community continues to grow even this late into its history is of some fascination to me.
After mulling over the matter some, I think that a clear trend is emerging in user activity. The simple point of the matter--which I’ve reiterated a number of times now--is that ultimately user activity is based on the presence of official content. I used to worry that apathy had grown to the point that no one would care when new content was released, and there would be no discussion.
The Skaianet website at the beginning of this year, 4/13, and the Epilogues releasing have thoroughly proven me wrong in this matter: the fact that it was the 10th anniversary may have led to some sort of amplification effect, but it was literally the most active day this server has ever seen with 75,000 messages in one day. When there is nothing new to discuss that activity falls away, but when there is something fresh for us to talk about pandemonium ensues.
All of this contributes to a model wherein activity spikes severely during periods of new content. It does seem as if the average baseline of discussion is slowly declining, but this is balanced out by those periods of extreme activity. This latter effect can be explained by the server’s overall population: when there’s something for them to consume, I’m sure the average number of people who use the server also increases dramatically, and then the less dedicated fall away when they grow bored.
It seems reasonable to suggest that most of the users physically on the server are not actually using it on a day to day basis; indeed, I suspect they’re not even lurking. While the population of the server continues to grow, a vast majority of incoming users don’t contribute more than a few messages, if any at all. This drives down the actual rate of user activity (taken as a function of daily messages divided by server population). Thus, taking a leaf from a vaguely comparable phenomenon in torrenting, I will refer to this category of users as leeches.
Realistically there isn’t much that can be done about leeches besides removing them entirely; we’ve variously floated the idea of purging or pruning inactive users from the server, which at the time of writing would kick roughly 4,500 users from the HSD. Makin categorically opposes this idea, and I’m not fond of it either. Future estimates of server activity will have to rely on analyses that factor for leeches, which I haven’t been doing up to this point; there’s nothing else to be done about them for now.
That clinical diatribe aside, I’m actually quite comfortable with where the server sits for now. We have clearly seen that, when a suitable occasion arises, we will engage with great fervor. That is one of the ultimate things I was worried about: average daily activity aside, it is arguably more important that we are still invested enough as a community to discuss new content when it appears. The rest lies solely with the content producers.
That having been said, the future is looking murky again now that the Epilogues are done. Homestuck Twitter is still a complete shitfest, to the point that I think we’ve stopped discussing it (I can think of few, if any, situations where the drama has been so bad that even we didn’t keep tabs on it). To top it off, the next book with commentary was delayed a second time to October this year.
This news was met with the appropriate vexation: one delay is already concerning, but two delays for the same book is enough to sound some alarms. There was some discussion about why this could be happening: we suspect it doesn’t have to do with the editing process, as the upcoming sections don’t really have anything in them that would set them apart from the other books media-wise; we also considered the possibility that the books aren’t making enough money and they want to cancel the line, which would be devastating; the only other thing that makes sense is that Hussie himself is responsible for the delay.
Theoretically, these books are the only thing that Hussie himself must work on personally. The commentary should invariably be penned by his hand, although it’s difficult to tell exactly how much time that takes. Speaking on an official basis, there’s nothing else that Hussie is known to be working on right now, which makes these delays disconcerting.
Makin of course has re-asserted that one, possibly two more things are coming. He claims that “only one of them might be cancelled,” which is the sort of ambiguously bizarre shit that I’ve come to expect from him with such discussions. Regardless, it’s not inconceivable that Hussie is too busy working on one or more of these secret projects. If such a thing actually exists, then What Pumpkin might be busy trying to prep them for a release on the next meme date, June 12th. This would be a far more reasonable and happy outcome than “the books are being cancelled due to lack of interest.” Only time will tell what the reality will be.
I mentioned in the last entry that there are a few users I want to speak of. Rather than describe them individually, there’s a collected phenomenon that I felt is worth describing. Namely, it seems that erstwhile shitposters and altgen users are migrating from their original channels to mspa-lit, which is actually a pretty historied phenomenon for this server. The following users and more besides all fit into this category as of today: Velikiy, Rina, and 1neStar (currently known as Spider).
These users have attracted attention to themselves on occasion in mspa-lit through a weird combination of appropriate and then unacceptable behavior. It’s difficult to even begin describing the way they participate, because I can tell that they’re trying to fit in with the channel even though they sometimes don’t do it very well. There’s a level of shitpost in their messages that is just enough to bear comment sometimes, but in general they seem to control themselves well.
Makin and others will occasionally snipe these individuals when their shitposting starts to shine through just a little too much, but they’re pretty decent at receding and participating in a more normal fashion whenever they’re called out. Of them I don’t know as much as I would like, especially with regard to Velikiy or Spider, but Rina has been participating heavily for a number of weeks now such that I’ve noticed a couple of specific details3.
Rina has a very bubbly personality, somewhat Tipsy-like in disposition if I should say so. One amusing detail I witnessed is that her profile picture must be a static image that rotates through the entire color spectrum. This last point I’ve seen her finagle about for some time, trying to find just the right image to apply the effect to before she wears it. Before long she tries to find another such image, cycling through a few of them in a month, approximately. This isn’t really important, except as a small character detail that I enjoy.
This category of people has been interesting to witness coming around. I would compare them to Shitler: an unremittent shitposter in the past, he has since become a respected and admired figure in our community. It’s not exactly a common process for one to go through, but my point with this is that it’s not unheard of by any means. I am fully willing and eager to see or help people grow and start to participate in more meaningful ways; it is never a smooth transition, but it is always worthwhile to try and encourage people to become better at socializing with each other and to think more critically about how they behave. To this end, I hope this group of people all stick around and continue improving.
Nothing more for today.
9th of May
Homestuck Twitter and all of its various participants have been acting strangely. Normally this behavior is confined only to the fans, but the officials have been acting somewhat cagey. This has been slowly ramping up for the last week or so, with people making extremely vague hints as to something coming soon. Even the twitter account with the actual name “Homestuck” has been acting strangely, although before I explain I should describe in brief the history of that twitter account.
The account in question, @homestuck, has been around since December in 2009. Hussie had created his account on Twitter a year before that, but it’s widely known that @homestuck was not owned by him; a fan whose identity remains unknown to us had the foresight to scoop the account up. This fan offered to give the account to Hussie immediately, but he initially declined for whatever reason. Thus, the fan retained control on the account for many years.
While it was in their control, the @homestuck twitter was used for parodical purposes or to notify fans when an update had occurred. The account did not stray from this purpose until partway through 2018, when it seems that Hussie or WP official asked for it in earnest. There was no official mention of this; we only determined it after the @homestuck account started to post material that was openly advertising upcoming events, such as the release of the Friendsims.
To bring this back around to the current day, @homestuck has firmly been ensconced in the milieu of Homestuck Twitter, to the point that it’s looked at as an official font of news. To this effect, the account posted a rather cryptic message today that simply read: “hmmmmthursday.” Other accounts, such as those from WP officials, tend to post things like this to obliquely announce upcoming events.
Unfortunately, these posts are also used in a joking or trivial manner, such that none of us can rely on them too much as a litmus test for upcoming events. Makin was not impressed with the current PR, stating: “people are going to riot / if this is just aysha shilling her interview4 / instead of act 2.” While most of us were content to join in on the grumbling, for once it proved completely undeserving: before the end of the day, an update was uploaded to Kickstarter that said Act 2 is still in active development.
The actual content of the news update cannot be seen unless one is a backer for Hiveswap, but naturally the text was disseminated by fans at the blistering speed of information (a copy of which may be found here in the Related Materials). In brief, it promises that work is still being done to produce Act 2, although mention is made that they’re trying a different development method to try and speed up the process (as a result of experience from difficulties with Act 1).
Additionally, there was a link to a survey for backers that allowed them to submit a question or questions to Hiveswap devs. This link was also shared by backers, which no doubt means that the responses have been positively flooded by all manner of fans. I’m sure there is no shortage of responses that could be considered snarky: indeed, Tipsy submitted a response that simply said, “Who is working on the game????” a question that no doubt many people share.
Despite some well-deserved cynicism and snide undertones, the news is very welcome. Most of us had given up Hiveswap for dead, especially since it’s become known that Cohen and WP are on hugely negative terms with each other. The game is now being written by Aysha, and no one is really sure of the direction of the story anymore, or of the entire game really. Still, the announcement has lifted our spirits somewhat; we have yet another thing to look forward to now.
Nothing more for today.
10th of May
There is an incredibly bizarre livestream of Hiveswap: Act 1 on Steam today. It’s being hosted by Aysha as the writer of Act 2 and James Roach, as well as featuring a couple other people. I was alerted to this by Skyplayer and Makin, who notified everyone in mspa-lit when the stream started. As of writing it’s ongoing, and there have been some difficulties throughout, as well as some peculiarities I wanted to address.
After watching the stream for some time, I’m still having a hard time describing it fully. It has been characterized by an endless assortment of weird, maybe-sort-of jokes. It would be self-indulgent to not suggest the possibility that their commentary is better received by a different audience than myself or other people from the HSD. However, speaking for us personally, the way that this stream is going does not inspire a lot of confidence in the direction that the game is going in.
Homestuck incorporated a lot of attention to tiny, sometimes insane details in such a way that connecting them all felt satisfying and consistent--this is a hefty portion of the reason why we like it, speaking as people from mspa-lit. However, the jokes and casual conversation of this stream so far suggest something of a disregard for that sort of thing. Not to appear like what Tensei would call a “fucking turbonerd,” but there have been a number of relatively basic or even fundamental details that the hosts are getting wrong5 .
At this point it’s just not clear at all whether this is a bit or if the misunderstandings are genuine. Makin also shares the concern that it could be real, and I think we’ve subconsciously started prepping ourselves to receive a terrible game. This isn’t really a good attitude to have about it though; time has taught us that being overtly negative about something--especially when it hasn’t even come out--is a one way ticket to having people bitch at you endlessly.
To be sure, we’ll still voice our thoughts if the subject comes up organically, but aside from that we’re just going to wait and see what happens. The larger question for me today is the exact reason why What Pumpkin decided to host this stream today. I can’t tell if it was just something they were doing for fun, or if it was intended as some kind of perverse form of commercialization. In the absence of any more detailed reasons to dislike it, I believe I’ll just leave off on that remark.
Nothing more for today.
11th of May
Very little of note happened today, which for some reason I felt might be worthy of note for once. Rather than approaching this from a more pessimistic angle as I have in the past, I feel that a clinical approach is possible this time around; after thinking about it for a while I believe I’ve noticed a trend or two which may differ from how activity has worked in the past. Regardless, these observations will now follow.
I’ve had a general expectation that the weekend is a more active time for the server than the middle of the week. Contrary to this, keeping track of the actual numbers over the last several months has made it increasingly clear that the reverse is true. For some reason, activity actually tends to go down on the weekend and then rise again throughout the week.
I believe this is due to the fact that people tend to have their own plans for the weekend that keeps them away from the computer, whereas during the week most people are engaged with school or are in an environment where they have ready access to the internet. In the latter case, they are simply more prone to talking here. In following with this, it’s far easier to coordinate with others on the HSD to play games or watch a movie on the weekend. If no such plans exist, however, then people will surely be found elsewhere.
Such was the case today where we all watched Baby Driver. There was a high number of casual participants, with about 15 at the highest--this is owed to the fact that we set up the stream well in advance and advertised it appropriately. Yet, when we had finished, there was almost no discussion afterwards. People simply disappeared, so I assume they had their own plans as well. Then again, I suppose that’s only to be expected.
Nothing more for today.
14th of May
Yesterday, Griever briefly came up in conversation and I wondered aloud whether he was doing alright since his departure. Sky mentioned that he’s been hanging around on various Discord servers or other groups, and doing pretty well. I was genuinely glad to hear this; I’ve considered Griever a friend for some time, and when he left I was worried how things would go for him.
Then, ironically, Griever joined the server again today at about 3:30 AM. There was a cruel twist, however: he was not here to mingle and say hi. Instead, he instantaneously posted a rather lengthy diatribe about the server and Makin in particular. It’s clear that he had written this out and had to have put some thought into it: he pasted it immediately, and then without another word he left again.
The message itself was almost shockingly acrid. In it, Griever described Makin as an exclusively terrible person and administrator, beseeching people to seek other places to go if they’re not happy in the HSD. He also verbally recognized that he was being petty in posting such a thing, but did not care. Knowing him for a while, I had no idea that he was capable of something like this. It practically oozed spite; I’m more disappointed than I can say that Griever decided to do this.
Naturally we discussed it in mspa-lit for the remainder of the night. A large portion of us were genuinely upset, including Spiral and CyclopsCaveman. They were as taken aback as I was, not completely sure how or why Griever had suddenly resorted to such a puerile action. It would be one thing if we distantly heard that he had started to shittalk us, but to come back specifically for the purpose was another thing entirely. In the midst of all this though, Archie began meddling in the conversation and injecting the opinion that Griever’s assessment was completely on point, which did much to anger the rest of us.
We grew increasingly incensed with Archie’s manner of explanation, and no matter how many times we tried to explain why we took issue with it, he didn’t give it up. I wanted to maintain some element of cordiality to the conversation, but feelings were running a little too high on each side of the argument. I was almost too upset to even want to mediate things, although we managed to stay just below the level of sheer verbal blows to each other.
Finally, Makin came online at some point and reviewed everything that had happened. HIs comment was a fair summary of a lot of confused, angry messages across the night: in short, he described that Griever hasn’t been a part of this server for a long time. While his comments on Makin and the HSD may have been accurate at the time he left, they aren’t exactly relevant anymore.
I personally wanted to point out that--while there is still a ways to go--Makin has absolutely improved over the last year or two. I’ve made it my task to oppose him whenever I think it’s right to do so, and I believe it says something that such has been increasingly unnecessary as time goes by. Not much more comment is needed than that. As a last word, I stand by my statement that the way this began and unfolded was immensely disappointing. I don’t know what Griever is thinking but I hope that this isn’t the kind of person he was all along.
Nothing more for today.
18th of May
Eurovision took place this week. For Americans or anyone else who may be unaware, Eurovision is a song contest taking place in and involving countries from, unsurprisingly, Europe6 . To summarize it briefly, the contest has been in place since 1956 and was conceived as a way to bring Europeans closer together after the chaos of World War II. In recent years, some countries outside of Europe such as Australia have also been permitted to enter.
As far as we’re concerned, the Eurovision semi-finals were held on Tuesday and Thursday (the 14th and 16th, respectively). In previous years, Makin opened up a temporary channel for users to liveblog their reactions. One not familiar might wonder why so much interest is held around a simple musical contest.
To this there’s two answers: the most understandable or common is that the winner of the contest earns fame and glory for the country they represent, and potentially a huge boost to their career in general. As an example, ABBA is arguably the group to enjoy the greatest success and recognition thanks to Eurovision, after they gave Sweden its first victory in 1974.
The second and more personally relevant answer is that some (or most) of the performances are absolutely ridiculous. Makin has opened up the #eurovision channel for discussion and liveblogging, and while there are a number of songs that we genuinely criticize or praise for their quality, there are also a few that are completely bewildering and/or excellent meme material. Indeed, a widely recognized meme is Sergey Stepanov, also known as the Epic Sax Guy, who played for Moldova in 2010. Other famously bizarre performances include Verka for Ukraine in 2007, and this year Iceland has a particularly amusing song7 .
That aside, Eurovision is a wonderful occasion for friendly rivalries. As an American, I have no real cultural ties to any of the countries that are represented in the contest, yet I found myself actively rooting for certain countries over others for some reason8 . I had a particular fondness for any potential underdogs, as there are multiple countries who have never won Eurovision before.
As things go, the finals were held today, which are simply another performance of the same song each country did in the semi-finals. The real meat was in the voting that took place at the end. North Macedonia gained a pretty sizeable lead with the official judges, but with the peoples’ vote it came down between Sweden and the Netherlands. Tensei was seemingly unmoved the entire time, putting on an air of complete certainty that his country would swipe the victory.
Somehow Tensei was proven correct, and the Dutch won for the first time since 1975. Makin’s instantaneous response was: “FUCK NETHERLANDS / AND FUCK TENSEI.” Though he hadn’t actually been 100% certain that they would win, he was not shy of the cultural victory. There was some more cajoling, and many memes were shared; Tensei brought up that the contest may be held in Amsterdam next year, in which case he could go. Myself and a couple others jokingly floated the idea of meeting up for Eurovision next year if such is the case, although I think Tensei wasn’t very amused by the prospect.
As these things go, eventually the channel settled down as people went back to whatever channel they frequented most. Makin slated #eurovision to be archived tomorrow, to be revived again next year for another bout of this incredible nonsense. It was nice to experience something new and share it with people here, some of whom I already know and others I’ve never talked to in this server. It’ll be a real treat to see it again next year with them.
Nothing more for today.
23rd of May
In much the same fashion as the Great Homestuck Reread, Makin took up a fan suggestion and initiated another, similar thing today: Problem Sleuth is getting its own reread. Due to its shorter length and sillier premise/tone, this isn’t expected to take as much time or garner nearly as much attention. However, Problem Sleuth is generally regarded as a quality work all its own and it will be a pleasant experience for anyone joining.
Makin posted the first thread for this reread, but has tasked me with posting the remainder. I assisted enough with the Homestuck reread that I already know what to do, and I’m pretty happy to have a way to help out. He’s promised to demod me if I make even a single mistake, so I’m sure he’ll just make fun of me when that inevitably happens. I’ve told him before that he needs to start delegating more tasks to his mods so they can gain some experience and pick up the slack, should he ever be truly indisposed9 . I’m lucky that I know even this much to be frank.
Regardless, this reread isn’t quite as exciting as the previous one, but it’s still a nice community event. Makin organized it specifically so that it’ll end on the next meme day for Homestuck: the 12th of June. I suspect that he believes (or knows, as he claims) the next big announcement is coming then. Despite the overwhelming event of the Epilogues--now over a month behind us already!--I still find myself reluctant to believe in the possibility of more content. It’ll be wonderful if it happens, but better to sit tight and wait for legitimate confirmation.
Nothing more for today.
Makin
1 what does this sentence mean
2 (fucshia)
3 WRITE FASTER NERD
4 as context, the only thing announced elsewhere up to that point was ludonarracon and aysha's stream
5 thEY THOUGHT JOEY AND JUDE WERE TWINS
6 and israel and australia for some reason god I love eurovision
7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAh9NRGNhUU
8 because you have an american cultural tie to clap at the screen
9 REMINDER HE DOES IT FOR FREE