#based on reddit and twitter experiences

[takemetomybrothersarms]

Here by popular demand (1 request)

[sistersorrow]

I honestly think that the correct way to interact with any social media platform is to low key hate being there

I say this largely based on how some people on Tumblr have gone from calling it a hellsite (derogatory) to a hellsite (affectionate) and not only treat this site as if it lacks the flaws seen in every social media site, but that it's absolute worst flaws are actually "part of the charm"

The moment you actually like a site like Tumblr, the brainrot may be terminal

[gingerteaonthetardis]

calling tumblr 'hard to use' because it doesn't directly funnel slop into your eyeballs and you're allowed to curate your own experience is frankly incredible to me. like, that's not a fucking bug. that's the only feature that makes this website worth using

[sisterdivinium]

Not to be "Old" on main but the people comparing a beta "communities" feature to a bunch of websites that are younger than the concept itself is very funny to me.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

Madam Lillith Shelterdog, may I make a request? You've been asking for transmasc theory, could I get your opinion on Trans Masc Misogyny and the Red Six of Spades by Jude Ellison S. Doyle? I've seen a post floating around with multiple people in the notes saying it debunks transandrophobia, but the writer notes that transmascs also face misogyny and abuse for their gender? I think they're just reading what they want to read into it

I've never read that article before, but I'll give it a read through and provide my thoughts on the article:

Alright, so he knew some trans guys that were assholes. We all know people like that, and it's common knowledge in group psychology that people will often dogpile in an attempt to "fit in" and gain the approval of the group. This can happen with any group, hell, I've seen it a lot with my fellow transfems. Trans guys are human, big deal.

Are their actions ok? I can't say for sure as I don't know the transgressions being cited. But are they normal? Sure.

Not sure why you're using the name "donglord" as an example, other than an attempt to mock the hypothetical trans guy for his masculinity.

Not gaslighting. That's not what that word means. You're not attempting to make the woman question her sanity, you're apologizing for members of your own group, something that everyone fucking does

Comparing the alt-right pipeline to a bunch of people being dicks online and dogpiling like any other Reddit, Tumblr, or Twitter user is quite the fucking take there bud. One group advocates for genocide, the other gets upset too easy. Not even close.

There's the TMRA name drop, something that I've debunked before on my blog. TLDR: talking about transandrophobia isn't the same as being an MRA. The author clearly hasn't hung out in actual MRA circles like I have.

Nobody's having the conversation because it's not an issue Cis people don't give a fuck "Twitter feed" right so your whole article is based off of Twitter, a known shithole for actual discussion, and known for being sexist as fuck. Cool. So, these aren't actually activists, these are just assholes on the asshole website.

???

Trans women aren't going to be experiencing misogyny before transitioning/telling people that they're women, because up to that point, you're going to be presenting male, and males typically don't experience that (save men being punished for being GNC and wearing nail polish or a dress, then sure, I could see that, but the author never elaborates on this point). Also, homophobia is different because that's more about how you act and not what you are or how you're perceived. The two are not comparable.

Is this article just the Bible for the people on here who deny transandrophobia? This point has been discussed at length by transmascs on this site, so I'm not gonna talk too much about this, other than say that - no, acknowledging TA isn't misgendering, nor is acknowledging your oppression the same as pulling a fucking "Birthday Boy"

That's not what's happening when transmascs talk about their oppression, nor does transmasc people talking about it drive transfems up the wall, I'd fucking know.

No transmascs, aside from some weirdos on Twitter are treating women like shit. There may be some outliers here and there, sure. But not enough to write an article attempting to kiss the feet of some transfems who hate you for being transmasc.

Nice fan fic, what's your AO3?

Not gonna bother indulging this point because it literally never happened.

Hi, yes, I'm some people.

You should cite your examples, if they really do exist. You did it for Jonah Hill, do it for the "t makes me want to rape people" example you so confidently cite as a specific example

Earlier you talk about how trans men are told that they shouldn't experience emotions, but here you shame them for displaying weakness and "sad boy sensitive soul bullshit", thus shaming them for experiencing emotions. Even going so far as to calling it a form of misogyny. Hypocrite much?

Trans men don't get access to privilege under patriarchy. Again, some weirdos on Twitter who try to cancel people for every single fucking thing isn't representative of trans men IRL

Hey so, Serano's theory of oppositional sexism doesn't hold weight, in actual academic circles. I'd know, as I literally took gender studies courses in University, and we had a lecture where we learned about why her theory doesn't hold weight.

Long story short, I'll provide the most relevant portion here - sexism against women is two pronged, it can be positive or negative (hostile sexism (i.e. women are whores who belong in the kitchen) and benevolent sexism (i.e. women are wonderful, but weak and need to be protected by a big strong man)), so her binary view of how genders are viewed is pretty shallow

Y-you can be masculine and a man without thinking you need to prove yourself by dominating feminine people... Has this author ever heard of positive masculinity, or the Men's Lib movement???

This author is a self described feminist as per Wikipedia, and doesn't even know about the Men's Lib movement?

Hi yeah, so even Butler has moved on past performativity theory as per her latest book which I happen to actually own, and have read. So, you're a bit behind on your theory there buddy.

This is just bullshit.

Wow, you just discovered intersectionality, congrats!

Trans men sharing traits with cis women, cis men, or trans women isn't a bad thing? It's also entirely possible to carve your own space, while acknowledging the shared issues between groups. Yes, trans men (typically) will have a vagina, and can get pregnant and therefore share the need for rights with cis women. But there's still unique issues around reproductive rights that aren't faced by cis women, that affect trans men/mascs, and thus are deserving of conversation in their own spaces.

Strong disagree. There are men that trans men can look up to, who have good values and treat women right. To say that there's no men that trans men can look up to and strive to be like is laughably stupid. I'm sorry that the author never met a strong male role model, but they do exist.

So, in conclusion, this essay reeks of "I went on Twitter, met some assholes, and all I got was this shitty Weltanschauung". His criticisms of transmasculinity, transmasculine spaces, and trans men who talk about rights is completely divorced from how most normal transmasc people talk and act.

There's some decent points in the essay, but nothing you don't hear from actual activists who actually talk about actual issues.

[bittycmd]

It's already have been over a week since ch1 post, huh?

Thank you all so much for kind words about OSC! as this project will be a beginning of my hobbyist 'carrier' (read as: passion project) that will probably take my free time from work whenever I'm not playing video games (I am afflicted by a curse that makes me do 100% achievements) or studying or doing any other passion or hobby projects.

here is a cover page that would have started the au; if not for a surprise that tumblr actually has an image limit of 30! (I got lucky huh?)

(tumblr refusing to upload this to my chapter 1 post is actually the reason why this post exists, so you guys get a lot of info now lol.)

Thank you again for supporting me on this journey! Below is just more info and plans and all that, for you who love reading that.

The first chapter changed and grew, firstly from a much different point of origin, having other chapter names and growing from a just 10-15 page chapter to a 30 one, and from planned 1 month to taking 3 months!

So what's next? Well... Chapter 2 which I'll probably not post as a whole chapter, but in parts. It will provide me probably more motivation and you all more frequent posting of story. (if you love getting whole chapter drops, dw, there probably will be chapters that I'd prefer to post as a whole)

ok, let's try a fun format of Q&A!

Have you started work on chapter 2?

yes. for the whole week i've managed to make...

check notes — 1 page...

oh god...

What? One page!? In over a week?!? Are you lazy???

I actually have been drawing like crazy and it's just i don't put that work on comic pages. Instead I've put it on sketches based on MD RP with my friends, that I have not posted here, because posting rp stuff without context is like trying to make drone drink water without dying.

Will you post the MD RP stuff you talk about??

... maybe... if you ask nicely (￣y▽￣)╭ ..... (it's some good stuff)

why are you talking about MD RP you do with your friends in OSC au info post?!?

no reason... -v-

will OSC au be outside the tumblr? Or you have any other social media?

maybe on bluesky? i should post more on bluesky, i haven't posted a single art there, instead i posted about mickey 17 there... and escape from pork belly. god i should post more there.

twitter is out of question, i'm not going back there. I no longer post on reddit and i don't even have a tiktok or other social media. I'm mainly tumblr boy (I love it here) with bluesky side that I should post on more often.

I should also learn how to AO3, so it's archived and easily searchable!

What is estimated time of work on chapter 2?

I cannot estimate that, unfortunately. I work when I can, and when my body allows me. And it usually refuses when I want to work on the comic, which frustrates me too often.

Will the au be easily readable???

there is a plan to set-up a master post that will list, (and link to,) all the chapters/parts of them, and it'll be always reachable from any chapter post and from the pinned post. Also each chapter will have standard links for first, prev and next post. This, of course, is for convenience of reading! (fueled by spite to one of my fav au's not doing that bare minimum.)

I miss OSC random skit comics, will there be any more? :(

Most of those skit comics i had to cut because my brain decided they were perfect for the overarching plot so now I basically soft locked myself from making more.

BUT! With more chapters uploaded I'll be free to create more outside of plot OSC au skit comics.

THE OSC AU SUCKS THE AA AU IS BETTER WHEN CHAPTER 1 OF MD&AA AU WILL COME OUT!?

woah there! The md&aa au will actually have much different plans. they are only plans and nothing has been set in stone yet. But when I'd start putting it into place you guys will know :3 and I hope it'll be awesome.

will you monetize it in the future?

uhhh probably not. I see art as something that should be free to experience (even if it's some fanart au webcomic based on existing series). but that's also a weak excuse! Because the real one is setting up patreon or ko-fi is terrifying to me! I'd be so lost, and then paying self employment taxes! oh god the horror!

don't even get me started on commissions! ',⊙﹏⊙'∥

(i'd love to make comms or set up tip jar one day but without a super detailed step by step guide for dummies, i'd probably be lost with doing all that)

all those general questioned sucked! i want a very specific question answered!

well those are what asks are for! I am also trying to be active in comment section but I get bad anxiety, so unfortunately no promises.

Also my inbox is filled with mostly drawing requests, which I will need to state now, that I'll no longer will prioritize them, and I'm not promising to do them, maybe even ever.

[sailorsoons]

HI IT'S HALI. Unfortunately on Thursday night, @sailorrhansol was deleted. I currently have a Tumblr support ticket open will be patiently waiting for some help trying to get my blog back, as I'm pretty confident it was a glitch in the system.

It is super stressful and I am very nervous I will never get that blog back, which really sucks because I have a ton of works on there and a ton of amazing feedback.

I have decided to full integrate to this blog. I will be reposting my deleted works, and you can find the schedule for that here. Should my blog come back, I will edit my works to redirect to this new blog. It will be a very slow process, but necessary if I'm able to retrieve that blog.

The decision doesn't come lightly - the thought of having to repost works and hope that they are found again by readers/loved as much as the first time is really stressful and scary. But based on a lot of people's experience on Twitter, Reddit and other threads right now, most people are having trouble getting their blogs back, so I feel like this is the best option.

If you feel so inclined to share this post so people know where to find me, that is also appreciated!

★ Hali

Edited: Jan 19 @ 9:20pm

[lizardsfromspace]

What's the worst thing about fandom in the last 20 years, and what's the worst thing about fandom that's always been true of it?

The worst thing about fandom in the last 20 years has been the incentivizing of fandom-as-conflict: not merely as a field in broader culture wars but as the field for endless intra-group battles.

This manifests in many ways: as seven hour videos complaining about The Last Jedi, as Twitter backlash campaigns, but also as stans defending their faves from any and all criticism real or imagined, as the endless boom-and-backlash cycle to any fandom meme or joke you see on Reddit, and as the drive for people to look for evidence other people discussing a thing they like are hysterical illiterate dolts, before anything else.

Or, in other words: a lot of fandoms are full of assholes these days, whose main interaction with fandom is using it as a reason to be an asshole, and to defend being an asshole. The actual “fandom” part of fandom no longer really exists for them. The discourse more or less is their fandom; someone whose main fandom activity is sharing videos about how Steven Universe is a fascist (?) isn’t in the Steven Universe fandom, they’re in the videos about how Steven Universe is a fascist (?) fandom. I mean, the chief fandom for many people is their side in the fandom war. What type of fanfic you write is secondary to what your affiliations are vis-a-vis battles over fanfiction

(One trend I've noticed is people who aren't at the stage where they only talk about what they hate and not what they love, but are at the stage where they can only talk about what they love in relation to what they hate. "I love this movie...and it proves this other movie is bullshit made by a hack". No ability to say just "I love this movie", period, end of sentence. This is how like two-thirds of Film Twitter talks about film, the remainder are all the grindhouse people going "man you've GOT to see Wrong Turn 5")

Another one, that I think is related, is that fandom’s become...more transitory, maybe? There’s Big Fandoms that are inescapable and then everything else feels like it’s here for a weekend and then it’s gone. And we’ve always had fandoms that endure and fandoms that vanish quickly, when the show runs short or turns out to be bad/boring, but we did use to have a lot of enduring if small fandoms for Okay shows most people hadn’t heard of and now you don’t really. Or they burn themselves out fast.

So we’ve reached this stage where fandoms are either so big they have seven hour long discourse videos, or they’re a smattering of fanart over the course of two weeks last August. But that isn’t really the fault of fans so much as modern media release schedules.

A lot of fandom activities of old are just...impossible now, with many shows? The slow build of speculation and fan works and in-jokes and theorizing and analysis simply can’t exist in a world where the premiere comes out the same day as the finale, and you can’t talk about the finale because you have no way of knowing if the person you’re talking to binged it all in one weekend or is still on episode four. That was the kind of thing that sustained the fandom of something that wasn’t a big hit, or even something that was. My fave fandom experience ever was watching the online Lost fandom wildly theorizing for all six years of Lost, and we’d never get “and what if the Smoke Monster is a dinosaur but only the head?” under a Netflix release model. Now at a base level, we either have shows nobody can discuss because nobody’s sure who’s seen or what, or shows where everyone just discusses the finale right away, and where you get One Week of Show and then a massive hiatus, which either kills all momentum or...drives fandom in the direction of hyper-analyzing everything and fighting because, well, what else is there to do? And that plus the outrage cycles of social media plus the fact that “man who yells at Star Wars” is now a viable career choice result in, well. *gestures upwards* All that

(Really, shout out to Cartoon Network for engineering the Steven Universe fandom to Be Like That through their inscrutable strategy of dropping episodes during one random week every five months or whatever)

As for something that's always been with it...cliques and a certain fannish elitism, like, that sees engaging with media in a fandom sense as more creative or analytical or intelligent than your average person. You see it now in the form of, like, people holding up fanfic above published fiction as more representative or authentic (I’ve seen more than one post on here strongly implying queer rep doesn’t exist in mainstream non-fic storytelling???), or going “well, we think about shows, unlike those normies watching sports”. But that was probably way more pronounced a thing in the past, in the 40-50s sci-fi fans were calling non-fans "mundanes" and calling themselves "slans" as an in-group signifier (a reference to a book with superintelligent psychic mutants known as slans). Like at the very least we should be happy no one’s calling non-fans “muggles” anymore. In the evolution from “mundane” to “muggle” to “normie” normie’s probably the least bad one

[theshadowsingersraven]

I feel like E|riels genuinely don't realize how much their reputation precedes them and that enough people in the rest of the fandom (not just relegated to the Ship Wars) have had so many negative interactions on multiple different platforms with them, as well as them flat out refusing accountability and saying people are making fake accounts despite ones (especially on Twitter) existing for years and proudly proclaiming themselves as E|riels matters more than the Elain Week account saying "Everyone (except people who want to include Tamlin and/or Beron in their portrayal) is welcome!"

Because I remember people getting harassed on their own Tiktok videos about Gwynriel/Elucien regularly from the same 8 or so E|riel accounts. I remember self-proclaimed E|riels harassing the cosplayer who was hired to play Gwyn at Gauntlets and Gowns' event, body shaming her to the point where she had to make a video about it. I remember E|riels on Twitter insulting real people and calling them empty-headed, insane asylum escapees, and saying that users should try and claim mental instability in order to get their money back via health insurance claims for buying commissions of the "wrong ship". I remember E|riels on Reddit claiming that NSFW Elucien art should be considered depictions of SA, since Elain is "saying a clear "no" in canon to Lucien" and completely undermining the entire basis of fandom creativity and shipping. I remember those same E|riels excusing the harassment Gwynriel-related accounts with large followings get because they "don't defend E|riels" or something along those lines, shortly followed by more E|riels saying that the harassment and threats people have been getting on multiple platforms are "carefully coordinated to make E|riels look bad" and fake. I remember E|riels refusing to adhere to tag courtesy and understanding when they are not the target audience for something.

That is just my memory as someone who has been in this fandom for about two years now. Let alone the people who have been here from when the series first came out, or even any time before ACOSF.

E|riels are not operating with the clean slate they seem to believe they are. Cosplayers have had bad experiences with E|riels (even ones who make E|riel content!), for example. As well as fanfic authors, fanartists, average Tiktok users who make videos, Twitter users, Tumblr users, Reddit users, etc. Hell, I've even had my Tumblr account for upwards of 10 years, and it's never been wrongly deactivated by Tumblr before. Not until I started posting anti-E|riel content did my Tumblr ever get reported and then reinstated because Tumblr staff admitted they wrongfully terminated my blog.

So...how are they surprised or offended that people didn't feel comfortable participating in their Elain Week when so many of them are on thin ice as it is? How are they upset when people don't conveniently wipe their memory and trust their week that's already banning certain submissions (as if that alone isn't enough for people to not want to submit their art there? I don't even ship Tamlain but still recognize selectively banning ships is wrong) enough to participate? Saying people are welcome isn't enough when you're based in a community that regularly thrives on shaming and mistreating others, claiming they're the only "true" Elain stans. It's further not enough when people felt like their concerns were validated by the overwhelming amount of E|riel bias in the week's submissions.

If they don't like the fact that they're on thin ice, maybe they should actually do something to remedy that instead of fumbling every single chance they have to improve their god-awful fandom impression. Elaingate was their chance to prove they aren't as bad as the worst of them, and instead of standing for fandom integrity, creativity, and the right for all Elain appreciation and art to celebrated, even if it isn't how they would personally celebrate or appreciate her they doubled down and insisted on excluding others. And now they're playing the victims because they weren't the priority of Elain Day after they already had their preferred Elain Week? They weren't excluded, they just weren't the main concern because they weren't excluded from the Elain Week held this month. The concern was uplifting the people who were shamed or told they didn't care about DV or DV survivors because they felt that censorship for an entire community event based on a mod's needs is wrong and does not cater to the community enough, or because they're triggered by characters that aren't Tamlin or Beron and yet Elain Week didn't deem them worthy of the same "protection" that they "offer" to survivors triggered by Tamlin

They are why a second Elain Week exists. And the more and more they prove it necessary, the more and more I'm glad it exists for the people who want that safe space they were denied. To anyone hurt by elaingate, know that you are seen and there's a safe space in this hostile fandom for you and your art.

[yumeka-sxf]

I have plans for upcoming posts, but I've been recovering from a minor surgery this past week and haven't had the energy to work on them. So in the meantime, please enjoy this short post featuring my two favorite family moments from the Operation Diary game ❤️ (I've shared these already on Twitter and Reddit, but not Tumblr yet!)

First, this adorable video of Anya, Yor, and Bond enjoying bubbles at the fountain plaza (while Loid watches "for the mission" 😅)

And since I can only embed one video per post on Tumblr, here's a gif set instead, graciously created for me by @piracytheorist (since I have no experience with making gifs, lol). In this one, Anya asks Yor to pose like one of the statues at the art museum...and of course she gets embarrassed when Loid notices! (his double-take in the 8th and 9th gif 😂)

If you want to see the original video of this gif set, I shared it on Twitter here and Reddit here. Auko on Twitter even made a cute fan art of the scenario here (though it was based on a reupload of the Reddit video).

There's still some more content I want to share from Operation Diary, plus new essay/analysis posts that I've been planning for a while! Once my brain is no longer fogged from my surgery soreness and all the medications I've been taking, I'll get back to it! 😁

[photomatt]

Post-acquisition, dir a proper, dedicated ad sales team ever get hired for Tumblr? Not something shared between other a8c properties but a group of people who knew Tumblr's uniquely weird culture and could work with brands to craft the kinds of ads that were highly effective on Tumblr before we got bought by Verizon.

Yes, with some great people who had worked on Tumblr before and also been part of successful teams at Twitter, Reddit, etc. I think at one point this was a 20+ person team. However it didn't work. We still have dedicated direct, but programatic drives the vast majority of the advertising revenue. My best guesses for why:

The advertising world has changed quite a bit from Tumblr's peak.

Tumblr had declining traffic for a while, which doesn't excite advertisers. (It's now growing again.)

Custom campaigns were too different for advertisers to spend a lot of time on them, they were long and expensive to implement.

Often advertisers were attacked by the user base, in targeted harassment. Really gross, horrible stuff. Terrible brand experience.

Advertising in general with ATT, cookie changes, etc has changed in a way that mostly strengthens the duopoly of Google and Meta, makes it incredibly hard for independent networks to compete.

On the bright side, self-serve advertising with Blaze has gone well, we can re-use the tooling across Tumblr, WooCommerce, and WordPress, it's faster and preserves privacy better than third-party networks, and there's a ton of demand particularly on the ecommerce side of things. So that group is actually being promoted to its own thing that will sit in parallel to Tumblr, vs being under it.

I think there could also be something that would more easily allow advertisers to duplicate campaigns they're already running elsewhere, with similar formats, that would raise the quality of ads we're able to run by making it easy for advertisers to shift a few % of their budget away from Twitter/etc to places they want to support more, more aligned with their brand and values, which Tumblr and its focus on art and artists is.

[floral-atom-collective]

Hii! What is a system?? /genq

I've been often seeing this term but I don't fully know what it means, I suppose it has something to do with multiple personalities but I don't wanna jump to conclusions and end up accidentally making people uncomfortable, so if you could explain with details I'd appreciate it ^^

hi! Glad you asked

You're on the right track there with "multiple personalities" but it's a bit more than that.

Important note!

We are not professionals, we know little outside of our own experience. If someone sees this and knows we are sharing misinformation, please correct us!

Systems, in their simplest definition, are when someone has multiple beings [ headmates, alters, whatever they call them ] that inhabit one body.

There is a ton of variation as being plural [ being part of a system/are a system ] is a very diverse condition.

This will likely get long so more info will be put under the cut. If you need any more clarification we are more than willing to provide information.

There's a lot of different types of plurality.

While it's a bit of a controversial opinion [ even though we believe it's entirely true ] there are non-disordered, disordered, non-traumagenic/endogenic, traumagenic, and many other subcategories.

Keep in mind that our syscourse stance will change the type of info we add here. Anti-endos are allowed to use this post for information if they want to but please remember we are traumaendo. And we ask that hate isn't directed at us on this post [ or in general ].

Lets start with:

Disordered traumagenic plurality

I do not know much about this being we are not one. Disordered traumagenic plurality is something that can actually be diagnosed since it is disordered. DID, OSDD, and other disorders can be defined with these labels. Traumagenic refers to how a system has formed by trauma. Trauma is inherently a very complicated topic. Many different situations causing trauma and certain traumatizing experiences nobeing validated as trauma male it this way.

Non-disordered traumagenic plurality

This kind of plurality could be caused by healing from disordered plurality [ losing the symptoms that makes a system disordered ] or not having enough symptoms to consider themselves disordered. Despite it not being disordered it is still just as valid, as are any other types of plurality.

Non-traumagenic/Endogenic plurality

"Endogenic" is a blanket term for any system that formed without/regardless of trauma. Meaning there are many subcategories within the term. It's so diverse that I would suggest doing your own research on specific terms if you want to.

Willogenic means a person willed their headmates/system into existence. They created it intentionally rather than by chance or to cope with trauma.

Resources

-PluralPedia. Very helpful, helps with many terms!

-r/plural, r/pluralsystems, r/plural_irl (memes and community), r/pluralmemes (on Reddit), r/DIDinclusivity

-the multiplicity wiki on fandom

-simply plural resource page

[ ^ edited, from @ plural-dictionary ]

[ ^ posts/websites proving endogenic plurality if I remember correctly ]

These sources will be/lean pro endo as that is our stance. You are allowed to do whatever other research you find necessary though.

[ ^ some of our own posts explaining our experience ]

We hope this helped!

[trappedinafantasy37]

There is a trend that I've noticed amongst fandom spaces around games, and it isn't a trend that is unique to Baldur's Gate. I have seen it happen in my other fandom spaces like Fallout, Cyberpunk, Dragon Age, etc. But people have a habit of having very strong opinions about companions/characters that they do not know.

It is comical to watch the abject lies people create about companions and use them as justification to dislike said companion because they know they don't have a valid reason to do so. This isn't unique to Minthara, this happens to ALL companions (ironically, the funniest and most egregious lies I've ever heard actually aren't even about Minthara). It's just glaringly obvious when it comes to Minthara as she is the least recruited and most killed companion in the game and is thus the least known. So the lies and mischaracterizations pop up more often, and there is an abundance of them. And it gets exhausting having to constantly fight these lies all the time. Especially when so few people actually know her and thus there are few who are able to defend her.

I remember there was a poll a few months ago that overwhelming voted Minthara as the least loyal and most likely companion to cheat on you. To me, that just screams that the people who voted for her in that poll have never had a conversation with her outside the goblin camp. Minthara is the most loyal companion. That is not an opinion of mine. That is a fact. That is canon to the game. She is canonically your most loyal companion. And it's not that she's the least likely to cheat. She never will. Again, not an opinion. That is canon to the game. But this is information people don't know, because they've never spent a single moment getting to know her. This is a lie being spread about her that will be used as justification to dislike her and to justify not recruiting her or justify killing her.

I have also seen people admit that their opinions about her is formed solely on social media posts from YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, or Tumblr because they just can't stomach having her in their party. As ironic as this is going to sound, but your opinion about a character should never be based on social media alone. The people who do this are missing out on the context of that post and often fail to use it in comparison with the rest of the character (especially since there is a high risk of a social media post containing misinformation or just straight up lies). People will take this one snippet of a character, and use it as if that it is all that character is. Posts on social media, including mine, are meant to be supplementary to your experience of a companion, not the sole foundation.

When it comes to these social media posts, no two people are going to have the exact same interpretation, which may cause confusion for an outsider looking in. Even amongst us Minthara enjoyers, we do not always agree, and that is to be expected. We are all different people who have lived different lives and thus have different experiences informing our interpretations. Even amongst my mutuals we do not always agree, and that's normal. But at least we have taken the time to get to know her and come to our own conclusions and can understand how someone else came to a different one. My posts, or anyone else's, should not be your sole source of information about Minthara or any other characters. You still do need to form your own opinion and that can only be done by actually spending the time to get to know them.

Recently, one of my old posts in which I talked about the relationship with Minthara and Karlach has exploded again. And I see the tags that people are attaching to it. The game has been out for 10 months now. And it makes me sad that people still have the wrong opinion about Minthara. It makes me sad just how little people actually know about her. It makes me sad that people are only now going to go recruit her for the first time, even though the knock out exploit has been here for months. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that my post has changed the way people see Minthara and encouraged them to want to get to know her. But it breaks my heart that I have to use another companion to convince people to get to know Minthara, because to them, Minthara alone just isn't good enough. They have already made up their mind about her, even though they don't even know her.

People are allowed to have whatever opinions that they want. But don't get online and share those opinions about a character you don't even know to people who do. It's like highschool level petty nonsense where people would rather believe and spread rumors about a person, rather than getting to know the person themselves and forming their own opinion. And, no, I don't care if your opinion is a positive one because even positive opinions can be inaccurate and wrong if you don't know the character. Again, this isn't just about Minthara but all characters and companions. And I'm only scratching at the surface level here. This essay would be significantly longer if I actually took the time to talk about how implicit bias, racism, homophobia, and sexism have all had a negative impact on fandom perception of Minthara and the other companions.

I will never tell anyone to do anything with their game they don't want to do, I will only encourage people to try new things. If you truly do not want to recruit Minthara or interact with her, that's fine. It's your game, your world, your rules, your vision.

But, I will say this. If the only conversation that you have ever had with Minthara is the one in the goblin camp, shut the fuck up about her. This cruel, heartless, evil person that floats around is a twisted version of Minthara that only exists on social media and was created by people who do not know her. This bastardized version is nothing like the version that actually exists in the game. And you would know that if you ever spent a single second of your time getting to know her.

[destinationtoast]

*waves shyly* Hello!! First off, I absolutely adore all of your stats and get excited when you post new ones -- thank you so much for all that you do!

Secondly, a friend and I have been discussing fandom longevity lately, and I wondered if you have thoughts? Subjectively, it seems to us that new fandoms tend to have more quick bursts of fandom activity when a new season/movie/book/etc comes out that fades quickly with time, whereas older established fandoms have more staying power. I'm curious if you have any insight about whether this is objectively true in most cases or not, and as to whether or not the type of canon source material matters (eg show-based fandoms vs book-based fandoms). I hope you're having a great day <3

Hi there, and thanks! :D This is a great question, and one I have been having a bunch of conversations about lately.

I share this subjective experience -- it sure seems like the attention span of fans and lifespan of fandoms is shorter than it used to be, when I think of how quickly people stop talking about a bunch of newer movies and TV shows these days. And then I see some of the older fandoms like Harry Potter still producing a ton of new fanworks, and I think, "Wow, maybe new fandoms just don't have the staying power of older ones." At the same time, I also question how objectively true/simple that story is for a few reasons, including:

Memory bias: When we look back on the past, the fandoms we remember most are usually the ones that lasted a long time. So our estimates of past fandom longevity may be overly generous.

Changes to fandom size: Maybe any changes to fandom lifespan are mostly due to some other change, like fandom size... Attention is more splintered these days than it used to be across more streaming services/etc, and I think there are more, smaller fandoms than there used to be. Maybe if a fandom doesn't get really huge, it's just not likely to last that long.

For TV fandoms -- changes to canon release schedule: most TV shows used to have seasons that lasted most of the year, so they had a lot more reason to stay in the public mind longer. Now many seasons are shorter and sometimes drop all at once. Perhaps if we compared popular TV procedurals with 22 episodes/season from now vs. ~a decade ago, we'd see similar patterns of fandom activity?

I've been thinking about ways to try to gather quantitative data about the changes, and testing out a few methods. A few ideas I've had:

Look at the Tumblr official lists of top fandoms and see whether the top fandoms tend to leave the top 20 rankings faster now than they used to. (The Tumblr rankings go all the way back to 2013 on a yearly basis, at least -- I'm not sure how long they've been releasing the weekly lists; those may have started later.)

Look at AO3 fandom activity after new canon infusions - how quickly does activity drop off after a new movie/book/video game release, or after a TV season ends? How has the rate of activity dropoff changed over the years? (And how much of that seems to be explained by other factors, like fandom size?)

See how quickly AO3 authors/creators tend to migrate to new fandoms, and how that's changed over time - many authors tend to be active in multiple fandoms, so we'd have to define what it means to migrate to a new fandom, but I think we could do so in a way that would allow us to look for changes.

Look at Tumblr, Twitter/X, and/or Reddit activlty after new canon infusions - same as AO3, but on a platform where people are posting shorter content and there's more of a discussion. (This data would be harder to collect, though.)

I'd love to also hear other ideas. I think I'm going to need some volunteers to help gather data if I do any of the above, though... Readers, if you'd be interested in helping to gather data for an hour or more to help investigate this question, please reply/DM and let me know! And/or join the new fandom-data-projects community.

Also if any readers know of anyone else who has looked into this/similar questions, I'd love to hear about it!

[yukirayu]

These I've also shared on Twitter, but I thought I'd share them here before someone tries any sort of libel.

You know what's funny about this whole discourse about the Slow Damage patch ? The whole discourse reminds me of game mods, in a way.

Game mods are made by fans, for free no less, for you to download, and only if you wanted, to help improve your experience with a game.

Whether it's improving the aesthetic (character or background design) or tweaking some of the gameplay elements itself. Or adding new elements, or even changing things purely for shits and giggles.

That way, mods are akin to patches. More often than not, mods are made because the base game had flaws in their design (technical or otherwise) that the mod intended to fix or improve.

But these mods are optional. And naturally, most mods are going to use preexisting assets from either the game they're modding or from another game, assets that they'll either refine or combine with other assets to make something better.

While some mods earn a raised brow, if the mod isn't to one's liking, most generally just ignore it.

Except in this specific instance, some don't like the mod that is the patch and feel that it doesn't sit right with them for whatever reason, believing that its existence would be "spitting" on the original game or because it no longer sounds as snarky as they themselves would like to read it as.

But instead of ignoring the patch, which they were explicitly advised to do if they take offense to it, they decide to make their dislike everyone else's problem, and by poisoning the well, no less.

And one quick way to ensure that is to accuse the patch of bigotry towards the LGBT community.

I'm already aware that this same accusation is spreading like wildfire, both in Reddit and especially in Twitter, and in some Discord spaces, most likely.

But did anyone, and this includes the accusers, even play at least 40% of the patched version, and intensively at that, before making that claim?

Oh, I'm all too aware that bigotry is a real, serious and widespread issue.

But in most online circles nowadays, accusing something of bigotry right off the gate is also one surefire method of turning people off of it before they can even check it out for themselves.

I mean, what better way of publicly dragging something you don't like through the mud than to spread accusations/misassumptions that are quick for others to believe before anyone can even try and personally fact-check anything?

Especially in a place like the internet itself.

The note stating the avoidance of using a specific pronoun for some characters to not assume their identity could've been phrased better, yes, and the patch team did clarify their stance on the matter. Alas, anything can still easily be misinterpreted and used as flame bait.

But what's odd is that the people who first touted this claim (either here or in other platforms) have one thing in common: they never checked out the patch (let alone played through one certain route in full) to personally confirm if that really is the case.

Taking all this into consideration, I think that no matter how the patch was presented, it'd get backlash.

Even long before any of us knew this patch was even going to be a thing, even giving constructive criticism about the localization and any mistakes/goofs it made already drew ire, and it's those same people who took offense that are spreading the hate about this patch.

It all really boils down to the matter of the patch even existing, since - as some detractors point out - it's what they call to be a disrespectful spit to the face, even without factoring the false accusations of transphobia and plagiarism.

Let's say they used the JP game files instead and have the patch work with that version. They'd get decried for copyright infringement and they risk a C&D order.

Use the EN files? We already get the claims that they barely did anything to the text, among other things. Why?

Because they didn't adjust every single syntax and change every single word in every single sentence… when English isn't exactly the most versatile language and there's only ways you can translate something, especially in the simpler sentences like "Who are you?".

Using a thesaurus on everything would make it sound weird. Heck, the patch being more verbose and detailed and impersonal (which is what's to be expected when it's third person and in a visual novel, no less) already got it accused of being no more than a fancy MTL.

And it doesn't help that many already assume that the statement that MTL can be a helpful tool is also the same as "MTL being the superior translator of all time", and people will find anything and I mean anything to hate on something and discredit it.

And as for the preferring 1st person over 3rd person and vice versa? It's a matter of preference, yes, and that can't be helped.

But let's get one fact out in the open: Out of N+C's 5 main VNs, only one is told in first person POV in the JP/original version, and that's DMMD.

The other game that used 1st person narration is Slow Damage's spinoff game, Clean Dishes, but not the main/parent game itself.

And even years before they got licensed, the fan patches followed the intended narration viewpoint of the first 4 VNs. Third person for Togainu no Chi, Lamento, and Sweet Pool, and first person for DMMD.

Their respective localized versions (except Lamento), also followed the intended narration viewpoint, and nobody complained because that was all they knew.

But because Slow Damage's localization took the creative liberty of changing the narration from third to first person, with people exposed to it, it's not really surprising some have gotten accustomed enough to end up preferring it.

Even when another version that retells the game in original narration comes up, for the past two years, the localization has been what they knew, and that is what many usually then decide to stick to.

In the scenario where the localization - even if it would still be a mess - never changed the narration, would people still say "Oh but they should've changed it to 1st person since it would've enhanced the story"?

It's telling that it never happened with Togainu no Chi, Sweet Pool and DMMD, no?

And before anyone tells me that I just hate localizations overall, you don't hear me complaining about the official translation of any of the BLVNs that Mangagamer licensed, do you? I also have plenty of gripes with DMMD's fan translation over what it did to Mink.

[riacte]

Re: popularity and clout gap, this thought has been lurking at the back of my mind but it didn’t hit me until a friend pointed out it was like how some parts of the audience used to treat hermits in MCC. As in: the hermits could achieve something technically amazing but were ignored simply because they weren’t popular (see False’s back to back win being ignored post MCC12) when the exact same achievement would cause them to lose their minds if it was done by someone who was more “popular”.

Post Demise 2, I joked this was like Blue Bats over again in which False (and Ren) won with the power of friendship in a wholesome storyline yet some parts of the audience chose to be salty their fave didn’t win instead. Sometimes you can see such a severe cognitive dissonance because people watch different hermits. Like that post on Reddit innocuously asking about Perry when I’d seen him around for weeks now and people pointed out Perry had been featured in the Neighbourhood’s videos for a while. (Nothing wrong with the post but it shows how vastly different the viewing experience is.)

It’s kind of like we’re back to 2020/21 era esque “hermit erasure” but it’s (unintentionally) done by some hermit fans. Okay, actually I’ll erase the unintentionally. Plenty of people only watch a few hermits and I emphasise that is fine and you can do anything you want forever. Enjoy HC in any way you like. Be free. The problem only surfaces when people pretend their corner is the only corner that exists and everyone else are the side characters. Like, it’s really fine to admit you don’t know everything. Someone on the MCC Reddit tried making teams and admitted they didn’t know the hermits well but somehow their teams ended up being more hermit accurate than most teams I’ve seen.

This situating done by some parts of the audience of some hermits as “main” and some hermits as “side” to the whole production of Hermitcraft makes me think of 2020/21 MCC again. In which people were discussing protagonists and villains and cannon fodder. Which was why I wrote Battle Scars, a parody / satire / sincere piece of work / whatever, to show that my faves (Blue Bats) could be the protagonists too. And it feels like I’m back. Scrambling to script my faves as characters worthy to have their stories told. Why are we back again.

And why does it lowkey feel worse because this is happening within the same fandom.

… And now I realise that’s also part of why I wrote Feel It Still, another crack treated seriously fic. Because it’s a Superhero AU proudly situating my faves in the lead roles based on canon stuff, while the typical protagonists of Superhero AUs in this fandom are delegated to side characters and are the trainees under a main hero. It’s this sort of twisting of canon that I keep on (subconsciously) doing, attempting to give some sort of spotlight to my faves by mimicking / parodying fandom trends and tropes, trying to make them more palatable and spread propaganda or whatever.

Tldr: it feels like we’re back to “hermit erasure” era and there’s a lot of fanon attention on a few. And you just know certain events would receive significant more attention if they were done by the popular hermits instead of the less popular ones. But it’s mostly crickets outside my circle and the people that I know of. Like hey yeah this is someone I know from chat and someone I know from Twitter. And I know about “being the change you want to see” and “make stuff you want to see” and “promote your faves”. I know. We all know.

It just gets tiring sometimes.

In the end, a number’s game is a number’s game.