The Last Post Wins!!!!!

[Denissimo He/him]

Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausen­bergerdorff­welche­vor­altern­waren­gewissenhaft­schafers­wessen­schafe­waren­wohl­gepflege­und­sorgfaltigkeit­beschutzen­von­angreifen­durch­ihr­raubgierig­feinde­welche­vor­altern­zwolf­tausend­jahres­voran­die­erscheinen­van­der­erste­erdemensch­der­raumschiff­gebrauch­licht­als­sein­ursprung­von­kraft­gestart­sein­lange­fahrt­hinzwischen­sternartig­raum­auf­der­suchen­ach­die­stern­welche­gehabt­bewohnbar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wohin­der­neu­rasse­von­verstandig­menschlichkeit­konnte­fortpflanzen­und­sich­erfreuen­an­lebenslanglich­freude­und­ruhe­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­angreifen­von­anderer­intelligent­geschopfs­von­hinzwischen­sternartig­raum.

Good guy.

[Factor She/Her]

14 hours ago, Usseewa said:

Yis I did know!

It's alright, you shouldn't beat yourself up for "failing" or "giving in"

Something that kinda helps me is logging out when I'm done (by "done" I mean going off the Shard, even if I end up returning later in the day.) That way I don't see my notifs and stuff right away. Though I found I just browsed as a guest or logged in anyway... but another thing you can do is.. do you have a quick, possibly impulsive, muscle-memory type of way you access the Shard? For me on my phone it has a "convenient" shortcut button in browser (it put it there automatically) then i found myself just pressing even if i didn't rlly wanna go to shard. for computer, it's mainly new tab and type a letter or two and hit enter or something cuz it autocompletes. So.. I basically mitigated those by deleting shortcuts and trying to get rid of suggestions. The thing is, once I found joy outside the Shard (namely going on walks, learning Japanese, watching anime, etc.), then I found it easier to "resist the temptation" of "just a quick peek" at the Shard. Idk yeah.

Obviously, I still ended up coming back after a few days (but then leaving again), and coming back now, but yeah those days in between were pretty nice, even today where I spent like 3-4 hours or even more maybe playing this one videogame! It's not necessarily... something I'm proud of... but I did end up going on some walks today and stuff.

Anyway, if you want to spend less time on the Shard, you should find things you enjoy either IRL or even online too (though maybe not just other forms of social media/forums). Also, if you don't like how much time you spend online, you don't necessarily have to completely stop (though in my opinion it's kinda easier).

Also, if you end up taking a break and want to do it for longer but find yourself wanting to go on the Shard or something, you can either gamify it into a "streak" (though tbh it might make you feel bad if you break it), or tell yourself "one more day off the Shard won't be too hard!"

 

Anyway, hopefully I didn't sound weird or anything but that's just some advice. Feel free to follow or not follow any of it however you want etc. etc.

Yes I knew you knew, I just have this paranoid thing in my mind that always worries about how much people know, or if they told someone else, or what if they just forgot? *spirals*

And this is all great advice! Yes I have the shortcut too. I just have a compulsion to fill every moment with doing something (I used to read when this happened… people ask me how I read so fast and I say, “it’s easy, just any time you’re not being made to do something like schoolwork or sleep, spend all your time reading!” but lately I’ve been trying to put my reading on a schedule because I would spend time in the morning trying to think of what book to bring to school (I think I mentioned this to you?) or finishing a book at school and being abandoned without a book. And then that messes things up because if I fill everything with reading, and I don’t have a book, what do I do?

lately it’s been Brandon Sanderson. A lot. Because he has so much stuff and blogs and whatnot online, I would spend time with that. And now on the shard. But that’s a problem, because when you take the “I need to do something” compulsion that catapulted my reading to stormlight-level, what happens when you apply that to being online? I should probably stop. I’ll try to take your advice.

And *joke* I never think of anything as a streak. That makes me think of the Duolingo owl, then I never break it out of terror.

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

5 minutes ago, Factor said:

Yes I knew you knew, I just have this paranoid thing in my mind that always worries about how much people know, or if they told someone else, or what if they just forgot? *spirals*

And this is all great advice! Yes I have the shortcut too. I just have a compulsion to fill every moment with doing something (I used to read when this happened… people ask me how I read so fast and I say, “it’s easy, just any time you’re not being made to do something like schoolwork or sleep, spend all your time reading!” but lately I’ve been trying to put my reading on a schedule because I would spend time in the morning trying to think of what book to bring to school (I think I mentioned this to you?) or finishing a book at school and being abandoned without a book. And then that messes things up because if I fill everything with reading, and I don’t have a book, what do I do?

lately it’s been Brandon Sanderson. A lot. Because he has so much stuff and blogs and whatnot online, I would spend time with that. And now on the shard. But that’s a problem, because when you take the “I need to do something” compulsion that catapulted my reading to stormlight-level, what happens when you apply that to being online? I should probably stop. I’ll try to take your advice.

And *joke* I never think of anything as a streak. That makes me think of the Duolingo owl, then I never break it out of terror.

Sorry I can't say more right now, but also if it makes you feel bad about yourself or panic or something to think of how you shouldn't be online as much, then... you could also... not worry about it. Though it honestly depends if you legitimately need less online time. Also, you are your own person, you know?

For the streak, I literally thought of Duolingo as I was writing it haha.

 

EDIT: I personally think it's fine to read his blogs and stuff, and even hang out on these forums, as long as it isn't interfering with school or, like, relationships (friends, family, etc.) That's my opinion.

Edited April 10 by Usseewa

[Factor She/Her]

2 hours ago, Usseewa said:

Sorry I can't say more right now, but also if it makes you feel bad about yourself or panic or something to think of how you shouldn't be online as much, then... you could also... not worry about it. Though it honestly depends if you legitimately need less online time. Also, you are your own person, you know?

For the streak, I literally thought of Duolingo as I was writing it haha.

 

EDIT: I personally think it's fine to read his blogs and stuff, and even hang out on these forums, as long as it isn't interfering with school or, like, relationships (friends, family, etc.) That's my opinion.

Yes, thank you.

and all this Duolingo reminded me… I didn’t do my lesson yesterday. I have the freeze things, but… it’s scary. (joke)

And yeah, I usually feel like it”s fine, it just makes me think about, you know, do I really need to fill this time with so much? Should I?

(rhetorical question, you don’t need to answer)

[NerdSandwich she/her]

Duo? Scary? Ask Chips lol

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

Duo is terrifying. I can attest to that fact. Especially when it's like 10 at night and you haven't done your lesson yet. 

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

There is Duo when he is threatening, and then there is Duo when he is being cute/weird.

The cute is almost as bad as being threatened imo.

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

Hmmm fair fair. 

There are some strange things Duo does. Duo threatening is scary, whereas Duo being Duo is just kinda creepy sometimes. 

[Ink and Embers Any pronouns]

I don't give Duo permission for any more notifications than the bare minimum. If not, I think I'll probably get several nasty surprises from wherever he turns up. I have a friend who gets about ten emails a day from Duo.

Edit: this conversation also reminded me to do my Duolingo 

Edited April 11 by Ink and Embers

[Just-A-Stick she/her]

OMG GIRLY

I TOTALLY JUST READ YOUR ABOUT ME AND LITERALLY AS I CLICKED THE SPOILER BOX WITH THE SONG LYRICS IN IT THE EXACT LYRICS PLAYED AT WORK AND ITS CRAZY CUZ I THOUGHT I LITERALLY IMAGINED IT!!

-ANYWAY-

hi!! I'm Stick, so sorry that this is soooooooo random 

On 4/10/2026 at 11:48 AM, Usseewa said:

Sorry I can't say more right now, but also if it makes you feel bad about yourself or panic or something to think of how you shouldn't be online as much, then... you could also... not worry about it. Though it honestly depends if you legitimately need less online time. Also, you are your own person, you know?

For the streak, I literally thought of Duolingo as I was writing it haha.

 

EDIT: I personally think it's fine to read his blogs and stuff, and even hang out on these forums, as long as it isn't interfering with school or, like, relationships (friends, family, etc.) That's my opinion.

 

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

*Debates for a really really long time about what to say, decides on something to say, then retracts what I was going to say after thinking about it more, then waits for like an hour because nothing comes to mind. Finally decides to post a cringe post about how I thought about what to post and couldn't come up with anything*

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

21 hours ago, Through The Living Star said:

*Debates for a really really long time about what to say, decides on something to say, then retracts what I was going to say after thinking about it more, then waits for like an hour because nothing comes to mind. Finally decides to post a cringe post about how I thought about what to post and couldn't come up with anything*

I do this exact thing a lot. Except the last step. Now I’m wondering what else to add so I can add to the conversation, but since this seems to be the conversation might as well just say it.

[NerdSandwich she/her]

Heh sounds unfamiliar.

[Ink and Embers Any pronouns]

*summons a familiar*

If you had a familiar, what would it be?

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

1 minute ago, Ink and Embers said:

*summons a familiar*

If you had a familiar, what would it be?

Waaiiiitttt is that the book with the telekinesis cats? 

[NerdSandwich she/her]

What are telekinesis cats?

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

Well, I'm 85% sure there is a book called the Familiars where you get a pet with magic powers, such as telekinesis cats. (meaning cats that have the power of telekinesis, so they can levitate things with their minds)

Edited April 13 by Through The Living Star

[NerdSandwich she/her]

Cool

*google*

Edited April 13 by NerdSandwich

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

*already googled it because I was doubting my memory*

But yeah it's a pretty good book, from what I remember. 

[NerdSandwich she/her]

Oh on second thought I think my little sister is reading it. Ah

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

hmmm... well if you doth need other books to be recommended, I hath many to recommend- I am currently working on my list of all the books I've ever read

[NerdSandwich she/her]

*eyes pop out of skull*

YES YES YES PLS

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

Any type specifically? Fantasy, adventure, mystery, etc? 

[Keke They/he]

I WIN FOR EIHTER A FEW MINUTES IR SECONDS

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

A FEW MINUTES YAY!