According to screenshots from this post since Dropout is part of SAG they have ceased all productions in solidarity with the strike.
Now, this is where I’m at: the fact that they are on strike means it’s even more important for people to subscribe to Dropout. Because (AND PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG OR IF SAM REICH AS SAID OTHERWISE) Dropout is an independent company that is not owned by ANY of the studios SAG or the WGA are striking against.
And even tho neither unions have called for a boycott of streaming services (yet) I, personally, would still not give any money to any of the major studios while the strike is happening (and it’s not just bcuz I’m a broke ass bitch 👀). I’m not saying that everyone should go cancel their subscriptions right this second, if anything I agree with what others have said; everyone should WAIT to cancel their subscriptions, because then if a boycott is called - and there is a very high likelihood it could be - then an EN MASSE subscription cancellation across every major streaming platform will send a GIANT “Fuck You” message to the studios; a giant neon middle-finger sign that not only are we the Audience - their beloved, coveted “general audiences” - behind SAG and WGA, but that we are fucking ORGANIZED too.
You think the studios seem desperate and terrified NOW?! Could you IMAGINE how much they would be SHITTING themselves if that happened?
Anyways, sorry, I digress- Dropout is an independent company that is not owned by any of the major studios - not by Disney, not by Paramount, not by Warner Bros., etc. It’s owned by CollegeHumor Media, which is owned by Sam Reich. So subscribing to them ($6 a month, no ads, unlimited access to their entire library of shows) would not be supporting any of the major studios in any way, shape, or form, AND (again, PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong because I really am just a random person making educated guesses here) it WOULD be directly supporting people who are a part of SAG and who are on strike right now!
So yeah, Dropout is on strike, meaning all productions have ceased (but, as Sam Reich said, they film all of their content MONTHS in advance so they’ll be able to keep putting out new content that’s already been filmed for a WHILE; they just won’t be able to start or continue production on anything they were working on in this moment due to the strike), they’re an independently owned company that makes amazing content, their sub fee is only $6 a month, you should all go support them.
your favorite youtubers and content creators are about to be offered some tantalizing tv/streaming deals so we’re all about to find out who the real working class allys are
someone’s gonna get cancelled doing this and they’re gonna cry crocodile tears over how difficult it is to make a living as a content creator and i’m telling you right now we are NOT going to buy it, got it? scabs deserve no sympathy
It is hard making a living being a quote unquote “content creator” still not an excuse to be a scab
This.
Trying to make a living from YouTube is like constantly running along the edge of a knife in clogs, it is incredibly stressful, it is mentally destructive and you do a truly obscene amount of work for genuinely very little compensation relative to the hours put in.
A big one-time payout from a streaming deal from some desperate studio jackoff could be life-changing, but it does not come for fucking free. The money they are offering you is money they have ripped directly from the hands and mouths of other creatives.
If you saw someone rip food out of someone else’s hands and then offer it to you, you wouldn’t fucking take it, would you? If you have a shred of decency you’ll tell the guy to give the fucking food back and go get fucked. And if you were the one getting food ripped out of your hands, you’d reasonably expect the people around you to have that same solidarity with you and not accept it.
The industry will try to abstract this as much as possible - they’re doing it in the press right now, “oh it’s just a bunch of rich, selfish Hollywood elites making a play for more money!” is EXPLICITLY an attempt to get you to see the union members as something other than your fellow workers - and they’ll try to pull shit like “oh the strike has nothing to do with you, you’re not a member of the union and you won’t see the benefits so why should you sacrifice this opportunity for them” and so on.
They’re trying to make the issue more distant and abstract, to alienate you from your fellow human beings. And in response we must make it closer and more concrete.
The money they offer to a scab is taken from the hands of a union member. They are offering you a union member’s student loan payments, their rent, their food budget, their kids’ college funds.
Do not take it. It is not and can never be worth it.
Right now, you have to be a team player. You cannot complain about AI being used to fuck over your industry and then turn around and use it on somebody else’s industry.
No AI book covers. No making funny little videos using deepfakes to make an actor say stuff they never did. No AI translation of your book. No AI audiobooks. No AI generated moodboards or fancasts or any of that shit. No feeding someone else’s unfinished work into Chat GPT “because you just want to know how it ends*” (what the fuck is wrong with you?). No playing around with AI generated 3D assets you can’t ascertain the origin of. None of it. And stop using AI filters on your selfies or ESPECIALLY using AI on somebody else’s photo or artwork.
We are at a crossroad and at a time of historically shitty conditions for working artists across ALL creative fields, and we gotta stick together. And you know what? Not only is standing up for other artists against exploitation and theft the morally correct thing to do, it’s also the professionally smartest thing to do, too. Because the corporations will fuck you over too, and then they do it’s your peers that will hold you up. And we have a long memory.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “your peers” are only the people in your own industry. Writers can’t succeed without artists, editors, translators, etc making their books a reality. Illustrators depend on writers and editors for work. Video creators co-exist with voice actors and animators and people who do 3D rendering etc. If you piss off everyone else but the ones who do the exact same job you do, congratulations! You’ve just sunk your career.
Always remember: the artists who succeed in this career path, the ones who get hired or are sought after for commissions or collaboration, they aren’t the super talented “fuck you I got mine” types. They’re the one who show up to do the work and are easy to get along with.
And they especially are not scabs.
*that’s not even how it ends that’s a statistically likely and creatively boring way for it to end. Why would you even want to read that.
your favorite youtubers and content creators are about to be offered some tantalizing tv/streaming deals so we’re all about to find out who the real working class allys are
someone’s gonna get cancelled doing this and they’re gonna cry crocodile tears over how difficult it is to make a living as a content creator and i’m telling you right now we are NOT going to buy it, got it? scabs deserve no sympathy
Reblogging again because I got an anon last week whining cause they did this to one of my unfinished series and the bot killed Y/N so now they want ME to give them a happy ending. Like. No. Suffer, bitch.
AI is the death of creativity. Anyone who does this to my stories and is stupid enough to brag about it will be blocked from ever reading my work again, AND I’ll let everyone on tumblr know that you do this. We’ll see how much fic you get to enjoy when every author blocks you forever.
Fic is a gift. I’ve said it before. Don’t shit all over your lovingly handcrafted gifts, m'kay? This should be fucking obvious, but apparently for some of you it’s not.
Tumblr is unique bc like. It’s collaborative shitposting and you can’t opt in or out. You can just say something about your day then an evil wizard shows up to turn your post into something humorous
Every other site is just one and done, but here a post is a welcome mat to be funnier than you
yeah or sometimes you’ll see a post that hacks into your brain and forever rewrites your instinctual reaction to seeing a pineapple explode