hotlinecafe
5 hours ago
Thanks so much!! Your site is very cool. I'm glad Randall got to enjoy a moment of peace with his Swedish fish on Mount Rubicon. I've added your site's button too :)
tabf5
1 day ago
Just have her email me if you want the free stickers, no extra account needed. I'll know it's for you! Thanks for checking
a9scorner
8 hours ago
thanks! I probably wont sed an email for a while, but I just wanted to know for the future
tabf5
1 day ago
Unfortunately due to AI email spam, the Free Stickers project has ended (unless you are an active Neocities user.) There's a full write-up of my thoughts on the Updates page, but I'm really bummed out I had to do this so soon. Thought it would be at least until 2027 until the spam would get bad. Oh well
tabf5
1 day ago
Also here's a good resource on how to sniff out AI sites on Neocities: https://resrc.neocities.org/posts/how-to-tell-whe If you're already on here, chance are you'll be fine going forward since anything weird you notice in the future compared to now is probably a fake person. My heart weeps for future people that would want to join Neocities though- they probably won't be able to tell who's real by the time they join
pluhm
1 day ago
heartbreaking that a wonderful project built on good will is being exploited like this :((
zhongvie
1 day ago
damn that actually sucks ass :( hopefully i'll be able to grab a sticker myself to help spread them around (albeit im just good ol canada) but that's disheartening that it has come to this
mr-pibbs-site
1 day ago
man what a shame :( i hadn't checked for a while and just now am seeing the new design... it looks so cool
oopsiedoodle
1 day ago
I get odd emails about the free stuff on my site sometimes too. I've been thinking about adding friction to my process, maybe by having people request what they want by mail. That adds a cost (in the form of a PO box or virtual mailbox) and potentially annoying logistics, and fewer people would participate. But I think there are some possible benefits, like the potential for trade. And supporting the USPS lol.
killing-machine
1 day ago
its genuinely amazing how much thought, effort and care you've put into this sticker project. im sorry ai has been infecting it though, i hope that maybe in the future there could be better ai detection that can help filter these assholes out.
tabf5
1 day ago
Thanks everyone, I should emphasize though: I'm still giving out stickers to people on Neocities (who don't have a suspicious-looking profile) but 90% of the people who asked for free stickers were just normal people looking to escape big social apps. I hate how I have to exclude real people that just want to stop by for a cool free souvenir, but at least the project is still somewhat alive
tabf5
1 day ago
Also @oopsiedoodle that's a really smart idea, definitely gonna consider that... (though I wish PO boxes were cheaper! $40 every 3 months for an Extra Small box is kinda high)
adriandonut
1 day ago
:anguish: I'd really hate for the free stickers to end due to AI. alas, I suppose it's another thing to add to the 'AI ruins everything list' (also i hope that the problems with international shipping in the US get resolved because that transparent sticker looks so cool!)
shpeck
1 day ago
aw man, first the take the guarantee of knowing anything you see is made by a human with a heart and soul, and now they take my free stickers, this CANNOT continue.
diamond-brain
1 day ago
sucks to see this happening to you, i hope you'll be able to spread your stickers to everyone again (not just here)
ofeliafirelight
1 day ago
Completely agree with your decision! In many ways it's much better as it's something more specific for necoties/Indie web, and maybe as a little incentive for someone to start their own website and get on with it hih!
music-by-margaruine
2 days ago
Idk why but reading this guide gave me motivation to keep working on my website. It was as if John/Jane Neocities themselves descended upon my 0.01 square meter bedroom and told me “you’re doing fine m8”
hsquare
2 days ago
my site passed the sniff test and now I'm almost glad for my unlabeled mess of css with class names that make no sense
turbuggy
2 days ago
Damn, this is how I discovered a site I really liked uses AI (used as an example in this guide) :']
tabf5
4 days ago
TL;DW The opposite of addiction is community, not sobriety. So you're already doing something right by being on Neocities
tabf5
4 days ago
(and also "community" means just being in the presence of other people in any pleasant digital or in-person third space, NOT pressuring yourself to make friends. yes, just being around other strangers frequently is all you need. friendships eventually happen from repeated exposure to others. the full video does a better job arguing all of this lol)
astersarchive
4 days ago
Saving to watch! man i used to have a playlist of these sorts of videos and then my channel was deleted. rip. gotta start new.
teremonic
4 days ago
Oh man, thank you for sharing this video! It's a really nice breath of fresh air from the usual detox slop that i've seen on youtube. Having a community and a presence with other people absolutely is a solution to this problem. I have an example: playing Space Station 14 (or, any roleplaying game in general) helped me feel happier. Scrolling youtube wasn't as enticing anymore! For a while, atleast.
strawberry-transneu
4 days ago
I knew what video that was before i clicked on the link because i watch this womans channel for several years now. Glad shes finally getting recognition she deserves since she gives good advice on the topic! All her videos are worthy of your time not just this one!
shittymeat999
4 days ago
I know you were referring to neocities peeps when talking about strangers, but its got me thinkin about how i need to be friendler to strangers irl. I truley lost any energy to do that and i need to figure it out
barracudachan
4 days ago
I joined almost 10 months ago, and I can assuredly say I'm never leaving the Neocities hood
cottonjewel
2 days ago
Eh hot take but a lot of those kinda videos are just nostalgia blindness/revisionist history about the 2000's and early 2010's was perfect and how we should go back to "the good ol' days" which were just as bad if not worse in many aspects, also just designed to make you extremely stressed and pessimistic so you keep watching them to be "updated". Yes there are issues but it's really not that bad.
cottonjewel
2 days ago
By "not that bad" I mean they make it seem like this is some life threatening emergency, where absolutely nobody of the 8 billion people on Earth has a personality anymore and everyone is possessed by a device and it's all hopeless and doomed and the only solution is to doomscroll and be elitist. Also they take a few short video clips and think it represents an entire country or the whole world
tabf5
2 days ago
@cottonjewel I agree with the sentiment that the 2000s/2010s are not something to fawn over or reminisce, and that you actually need to start listening to the advice of these videos instead of watching 10 people give the same advice. But I do think the dark patterns embedded in modern mainstream social patterns have never been this bad in history, and people need to learn (or re-learn) how to be more discerning with
tabf5
2 days ago
how you spend your time online and where you get your information from. Also this video addresses the usual empty points people parrot like "just put down your phone" and "find community" which leads to further inaction. I strongly think this is life-threatening
cottonjewel
2 days ago
"But I do think the dark patterns embedded in modern mainstream social patterns have never been this bad in history" well if you were Muslim, Arab, "looked Muslim" (Sikhs for example were mistaken as Muslim) or you were high needs autistic it was bad, REALLY bad. Worse than now. Like people threw the r word left and right, and regular Muslims were blamed for 9/11 even if you weren't Muslim but "looked Muslim" to them
cottonjewel
2 days ago
Like the people saying how the 2000's weren't as bad were either kids, they weren't born and learned about it through TV and aesthetics, or they were sheltered or lucky to have a good life. Or they were Western/White/upper or middle class/thin/fit beauty standards/able bodied/neurotypical which of course they're gonna have a good time.
tabf5
2 days ago
*social MEDIA apps. I typo'd real bad sorry. I'm only talking about the apps. I don't disagree how much worse people were back then, it's the questioning-what-you-read-online part that's super dire for everyone to learn. Especially as AI ramps up
cottonjewel
19 hours ago
Aaaaah. Well yes AI is getting so much more convincing. I think Gen Z is better at realizing something is fake. But I guess this was always a problem, cuz before the internet was accessible to everyone, there was only the news which is very biased and they just trusted the news (even now, for example they only show Israeli perspectives and not Palestinian perspectives) (also sorry if I sound mean accidentally)
tabf5
1 week ago
I do not know why I feel most alive updating my site at 5 in the morning the day before work, but I do. New sticker countries and /100 tablings and site buttons and an @irutashi fan art and I'm gonna go crash now
zhongvie
1 week ago
what is the highlight of life but losing sleep doing something that has u alive and wired? hope u get some good rest after!!
moon-room
1 week ago
Nothing better than working on the site or making art when you should be sleeping (it is 6:13 am as I type this)
tabf5
1 week ago
Ended up using a sick day to catch up on sleep. I try not to stay up on work nights but I was behind on site updates and it felt so good to finally catch up that I lost track of time lmao. Damn I love Neocities @strawberry-transneu Happy to see you again too!
I mention (in tiny text on the Free Stickers page how that one is a little bit of a cheat! There's open PO boxes to several American bases in Antarctica that you can just mail stuff to at https://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarctic-stamp-collecting. It's mainly for stamp collectors but I sent them a sticker to see what would happen. It takes over a year for a reply apparently so fingers crossed I'll hear back in 2027!! lmao
Wow that's so cool I never knew that and I hope they do get it!! Well if you made it to Antarctica then that means you made it big cuz there are very few people in Antarctica!