The Chinese authorities are seeking to host a meeting with the representatives of major international economy-focused organizations to discuss its progress and the situation around the globe, the Sout...

Change is definitely on the horizon. READ MORE...

By Matt Solomon Published: November 11th, 2024

By Keegan Kelly Published: November 12th, 2024

The post They Said “Give Weapons To Everyone” appeared first on English Russia.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Isis C, who volunteers as a wrangler and Support liaison for the Tag Wrangling Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

My volunteer work fits into three closely-related bins. As a tag wrangler, I connect users' character, relationship, and freeform tags to our canonical tags, and I make new canonical tags as needed. I wrangle about 70 fandoms, mostly historical and SFF book and TV fandoms, with a few video games and RPF fandoms thrown in there.

As a tag wrangling supervisor, I do all sorts of administrative and management tasks related to wrangling. For example, I help manage all phases of wrangler recruitment and training: I evaluate applications, send out acceptances, monitor training progress, and set up training schedules. Sometimes I mentor new wranglers or new supervisors, and there are always random administrative tasks to do.

As a Tag Wrangling/Support Liaison, I ferry user requests for tags to be canonized or re-wrangled to the wranglers of those fandoms, and I answer user questions about wrangling guidelines and processes. (If you ask Support why a search on Trans Danny Fenton returns a few Hawaii Five-O works, or how to find works with a particular AU Sans when they are all merged to Sans (Undertale), I'm probably the person who will answer.) There’s a lot about wrangling that isn’t obvious until you see it from the inside, but I like answering user questions because if users understand the process better, they’re more likely to tag in ways that will accomplish what they want.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

I have a very flexible schedule and a lot of free time, and I'm online a ridiculous amount of that free time! I find wrangling very relaxing, especially when it's easy - synning misspelled character names to the canonical tags, making relationship tags for characters that already have character tags, and other things that don't need research or a lot of thought - so I like to wrangle for a while before tackling real life things I don't like doing, like taxes or phoning for appointments or vacuuming, or even before writing fic or doing other things that require more brainpower.

Supervisor tasks require a bit more attention, so I like to do them when I have enough free time that I can concentrate on them. Of course I always warm up with a little easy wrangling!

Most of the Support tasks I take on require coordination with other wranglers, and Support requires communication with users to be beta-read by another volunteer before sending out, so I tend to do these in batches as well when I have a block of time. We have a lot of older wrangling-related tickets that have not yet been handled because there was too much work and not enough liaisons, so whenever I feel particularly motivated I try to answer the people who have probably given up on getting answers.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I'm old :-) and have been in mainstream science fiction and fantasy fandom for a very long time, although I didn't get into fanfiction-type fandom until 2002. (Which I realize is probably before many of the people reading this were born!) I get super enthusiastic about my hobbies and like to help organize things, so for example in 2002 and 2003, when fandom was mostly on mailing lists and fandom-specific forum sites, I coordinated an effort to help get fandom going on LiveJournal by collecting invite codes, which were required at the time, and distributing them to fanfiction writers and fanartists. I used to edit various fandom newsletter communities, back when that was a thing, too. Anyway, a fandom friend who was a wrangler encouraged me to apply during a recruitment, and that was all it took! When I became a supervisor, one of the tasks I enjoyed the most was helping out with support tickets, so when I got the chance to be a Support Liaison I immediately said yes please!

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

As I mentioned, I'm old, and I started out on mailing lists where tags were fandom, characters, and pairing, and that was it. I never managed to get into Tumblr, which I suspect is where the use of descriptive tags started. Often I look at freeform tags that reference memes, or Gen Z slang, or newer terms for sexual identity, and I am completely baffled! Fortunately, the wrangler chat is a wonderful research source, and other wranglers are always kind about helping this little old lady across the street decipher tags.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I write and read fic, although not so much these days as way back when. (But I still get a smile on my face when my old works get kudos or comments!) I used to vid a little, too, but even though I haven't participated in Festivids for many years, I still enjoy watching the vids people create for small fandoms, and recommending the ones I love best. I also really like to beta read fic, because that way I can help good stories become great stories.

But my most intensive fannish involvement these days is being a fanwork exchange moderator. I moderated a number of small single-fandom exchanges pre-AO3, and wow, AO3 makes it so much easier. I love small fandoms, and I participated in Yuletide nearly from the beginning, so I was super excited to be invited to become part of the moderation team some years back. I also co-mod the current incarnation of the Worldbuilding Exchange, and sometimes I help out with other exchanges.

Now that our volunteer has said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said there's not much opportunity for the oil industry to increase production in the short term.

Writing in dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said a lower court had disrupted state property tax revenue for schools and other government services.

It's pretty obvious by now that many Democrats are growing increasingly uncomfortable supporting charter schools. But New Hampshire lawmakers have taken the unusual step of rejecting federal charter school grant money.

Georgia football tumbled nine spots in the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday and fell out of the 12-team bracket. What committee chair said

A woman who says she was repeatedly denied emergency care last spring is blasting the Newfoundland and Labrador health-care system, saying she’s been left psychologically scarred after being told several times that her gangrenous appendix was simply anxiety or constipation.

Tencent Holdings and Ubisoft Entertainment SA's founding Guillemot family are considering options, including a potential buyout of the French video game developer, after it lost more than half its market value this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The planned action signals growing regulatory scrutiny of Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon when their sales are rapidly growing in India's $70 billion (roughly Rs. 5,93,614 crore) e-commerce market. An Indian antitrust investigation also found the two companies breached laws by favouring select sellers,

The US order, which is being reported for the first time, comes just weeks after TSMC notified the Commerce Department that one of its chips had been found in a Huawei AI processor, as Reuters reported last month.

Realme is reportedly gearing up to unveil the Realme 14 Pro Lite in India as its model number, RAM, storage variants and colour options have surfaced online. The upcoming model is believed to be part of Realm's 14 series. The Realme 14 Pro Lite is said to come with up to 12GB of RAM and a maximum of 512GB of onboard storage. It could go official alongside the Realme 14 and Realme 14 Pro.

Google is said to be working on an artificial intelligence (AI) feature that will let users get real-time responses and ask follow-up queries. As per a leak, the new feature is called conversational search, and it is being added to the Google app for Android. With this, when users ask a voice query, the app is said to show real-time responses as well as allow them to ask follow-up questions.

X (formerly known as Twitter) is testing a free version of the platform’s native artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok, several users posted. On Sunday, some users claimed to have received access to Grok despite not being a paid subscriber on X. There are some limitations to the free tier of the chatbot, as per the users, and its availability is said to be limited to certain regions.

Amazon is developing smart eyeglasses for its delivery drivers to guide them to, around and within buildings. Such directions could shave valuable seconds off each delivery by providing left or right directions off elevators and around obstacles such as gates or aggressive dogs.

Following the launch of Oppo's Pad 3 Pro tablet, which boasted premium hardware, a new leak has surfaced online that indicates the existence of a lower-priced Pad 3 with watered-down specifications. Leaked details suggests that the mid-range tablet has specifications similar to the older OnePlus Pad, which was unveiled in the first half of 2023. Te upcoming tablet is said to get a MediaTek Dimensity SoC, an 11.6-inch display, and a 9,510mAh battery.

Vivo X200, Vivo X200 Pro, and Vivo X200 Pro Mini were launched in China last month. Vivo is yet to confirm when the global launch of the trio will take place, but a latest leak suggests that their India launch will happen next month. However, the report suggests that not all Vivo X200 series will be available in India.

Ishq was directed by Indra Kumar

For many soldiers on the front lines, the trauma of war can be as hard to fight as the war itself. To help, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has created a program to support Ukrainian women veterans, the families of internally displaced persons, and military relatives. The program is part of the USAID Self-Reliance Learning Agenda. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.

Matt makes twenty slices of toast. Josh is still fighting sewer rat six. Kelley's dog is NOT a baby. And Chris saves E3 with the power of...no...he can't do it. No GEX allowed.

The post RPG Cast – Episode 684: “Remember What I Said at the Fazoli’s Drive Thru?” appeared first on RPGamer.

A hotel worker called 911 to request urgent assistance before musician Liam Payne fell to his death from the third floor of the building in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.

The 31-year-old British singer and former member of the boy band One Direction died after he “jumped from the balcony of his room,” Buenos Aires Security Ministry Communications Director Pablo Policicchio told the Associated Press. He added that police had been called to the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital after receiving an emergency call shortly after 5 p.m. local time about an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

A transcript of a 911 call published by the BBC shows a worker at the hotel telling the operator that they have “a guest who is high on drugs and who is trashing the room” and the staff therefore “need someone to come.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Just like Eli Manning in 2004, Deion Sanders said he would tell NFL teams his son, Shedeur Sanders, won't play for them if it's not the right fit.