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Konohara Narise, translated

This is gonna be a quick and short update. I'm very pleased to find that there's been a translator translating Konohara Narise's BL Novels and has actually finished translating a number of works!

The translations are here: https://itoshiikoto.blogspot.com/

I've mostly experienced her stories through their audio drama adaptations. Of the ones translated on that site, I've heard Utsukushii Koto 1 and 2, La Vie En Rose, the Cold series (Cold Sleep, Cold Light, Cold Fever) and I've cried much tears (of sadness and anger) over them all. I've also read Hako no Naka, translated by a different translator here. Parasitic Soul is currently not translated but I love it too.

Someone described her works as a bruise that stays, and yep, that's accurate. She writes very human characters in sometimes unusual situations, and her characters are always flawed. She's also really, really good at writing selfish people and obsessive love that feels very, very real. Kinda like a heightened reality in terms of emotions? She doesn't write her main characters in a way that inspires love (I don't know if I can say I love any of them), but you will be hoping that they can achieve some sort of happiness by the end of the story (at least, her less dark stories).

And for people who are interested in early danmei influences, Konohara Narise was one of the popular authors during early danmei days (I'd cite the papers, but I am lazy to pull them out right now... perhaps later I'll edit with citations). Danmei has moved away from that style, and I read that Japanese BL in general has also moved away from heavy psychological dark works. So, if you're interested in some of what got disseminated in the CN BL circles in the early days, check out Konohara Narise (but also please heed all the content warnings)!

As an aside, people who translate/have seen the current state of CN->EN webnovel translations might find this rant by the Hako no Naka translator very relatable.

Indonesia

If you live in SEA and/or have the Grab app installed, you can support the people in Indonesia by sending medical supplies and food. Details here on Twitter with an xcancel link so you can see without logging in. Send only in the morning and afternoon because evening/night can get dangerous.

I personally have sent medical supplies to this address and can attest that cross-border Grab works:

Jl. Pangeran Diponegoro No.74, Pegangsaan, Menteng, Kota Jakarta Pusat, DKI Jakarta 10320, Indonesia

These are the things asked for, last checked Aug 30:

1. NaCl
2. Oxygen
3. Omeprazole
4. Gauze
5. Mineral water
6. Face mask
7. Goggles
8. Oven mitts
9. Betadine
10. Plaster
11. Paracetamol
12. Minyak kayu putih (local ointment)

If you like, you can send a message to the Grab driver, saying that you are not there and this is a donation: "Aku tidak ada di sana. Ini ialah sumbangan."

(Pardon my terrible Malay but that should get the message across.)

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2025_Indonesian_protests

Note that this is a developing event so the wiki page will most likely undergo lots of edits.

On Fedi, this account is regularly summarizing recent events.

Hashtags to follow: #WargaJagaWarga #RakyatJagaRakyat

(roughly translates to the "people takes care of the people.")

Edited to add:

halfcactus posted a link to a method for PH people to help here. Note that it hasn't been personally vouched.

Code deploy happening shortly

Per the dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

Mississippi site block, plus a small restriction on Tennessee new accounts

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.