gabby-i-guess

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When Ao3 (Tumblr's wife) is down...

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Twitter didn’t take the divorce well…

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Tumblr x AO3 gives me the vibes of ‘we were best friends for a very long time and have always been compatible, but you (tumblr) had a bunch of shitty relationships and needed time for yourself and I was more then happy to enjoy life as your friend by your side until you surprised me by making the first move’.

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Who decided to give me free will? Because quite frankly it was a terrible decision

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Yes, but also - learn to use the search function properly. If you're not a uni student you might not know this, but the search function works pretty much the same as a database search function. Which is. Fucking genius. No, it doesn't have the glitz and glam of google, but it DOES have incredible accuracy.

I don't have the time rn to write out full instructions, but here are a few tips to get you started:

Click on the question mark next to 'Any Field' - it will tell you some phrases and symbols to include in your search so that it will find exactly what you want. For example, you can use quotation marks around a phrase to find exactly that phrase, and no variations. Or you can use the minus symbol to find works with this tag/character/whatever but not that tag/character/whatever. Go have a look, I promise it's useful.

Under the 'Warnings' section, you'll see several opinions including 'creator chose not to use archive warnings' and 'no archive warnings apply'. The first means that one of the archive warnings may apply - the author didn't want to specify or wasn't sure. The second means that the archive warnings definitely will not apply. Use that one if you really really really want to avoid those topics.

The 'Word Count' section takes < and > symbols. As a guide, here's my personal estimation: <3000 is a bite-sized fic, maybe takes 10 min or less to read; >3000, <5000 is a comfy one-shot, maybe takes up to 30min to read; and anything above that will take me a few sessions to read. But obviously also base it on your personal reading speed and preference - go take a look at a fic you're familiar with and use that word count as a guide as well.

The 'Relationships' section is for, uh, ships. Please note! A '/' between the names means romantic pairing, an '&' means platonic. I had to be told this 🥲

The 'Additional Tags' section is where. It's. Motherfucking. At!!! Take a look through some fics you like and use some of those tags. Maybe even keep a list. But, you don't need to put in every single variation of the tag, bc the AO3 volunteers are angels and have 'grouped' tags together. E.g., unless you specify '-emotional', 'hurt/comfort' will give you 'hurt/comfort' and 'emotional hurt/comfort'.

If you're feeling zesty, use the 'Sort By' section to select 'Hits', and use the 'Sort Direction' to select 'Ascending'. This will show you fics with the lowest hits, so you might unearth a buried treasure!

Or, if you want to play it safe, use the 'Sort By' section to select 'Kudos' (or 'Comments' or 'Bookmarks'), and use the 'Sort Direction' to select 'Descending'. This will show you fics with the most Kudos/Comments/Bookmarks, so it's more likely to be good. (Note: which of those three you use depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for filthy smut, Kudos are best - people get shy about leaving comments on smut, and might not bother saving it for later. If you're looking for hurt/comfort, Bookmarks or Comments are better, because it shows that people are engaging. If you're looking for angst, Comments are best, because people love yelling at angst authors 🥰 Just use your own judgement)

Anyway, happy searching! 🫶

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The trouble with chasing after recs for fucked up media is that a lot of allegedly fucked up media is enamoured with the idea of being fucked up, but it's not actually fucked up about anything. The form is there, but not the substance. However, there's no way to communicate this to anyone who doesn't already Get It without sounding like a maniac.

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Reblog if your art project has not, does not, and never will make use of generative ai at any point in your creative process.

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Alright I have a question for the non-fit people in the room:

How often do you use some kind of stabilising device for your joints/muscles/etc? This could be a brace, kinesthesiology tape (KT tape), strapping tape, or something similar - anything that supports your body and reduces pain.

If you need clarification on anything, see more below 👇

Fit person: someone who works out more than, say, once a week, INCLUDING physically demanding jobs

Disability: a physical disability, in this case. Self-diagnosis is okay, as long as you are convinced it's what you have. This can also include long-term injuries and chronic pain

Why am I asking: I just had to strap up my shoulder with tape because it is so sore. I went to bed with it feeling fine, and woke up in the middle of the night with it feeling like I'd wrenched it. I didn't do anything notable yesterday. This happens to me a lot, probably every three months at least - I manage to injure myself doing the most mundane shit, or an injury that didn't hurt that much when it happened worsens significantly overnight, or persists for longer than it should. I feel like this isn't normal...? But I don't really know - my doctor hasn't been able to find anything wrong, and the injuries do heal eventually as long as I protect them properly. Should I look more into it? Or is this normal body stuff?

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Yeah so unfortunately, my friend was right. Muttering 'I'm gonna put on the greatest talent show this town has ever seen' darkly to myself is not only vastly funnier than saying I'm gonna kms, but is also somehow more concerning to anyone who might overhear it

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Well, folks, the numbers are in. We're in a committed relationShip with @ao3org, and it's called...drumroll...TagTeam! ao3blr was a VERY close second, so go ahead and use that tag too, ya crazy kids.

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So, the other day, when I was discussing AO3's policy on solicitation, a tumblr user came at me saying that AO3's "no monetization/solicitation" rules were "bullshit" because nexus mods allows fan created mods to get paid.

Look at me.

Look at me right now.

AO3 protects you.

AO3 protects you and your works. 

It protects your works from copyright strikes and DCMA takedowns.

It protects your work from advertisers.

It protects your work from overzealous legal challenges.

It protects your right to post adult content.

AO3 is non-profit and AO3 will never try to use you or your work to make a profit for themselves and AO3 will go to bat for you if someone tries to legally challenge you or your works.

Please respect AO3 and its mission.

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I don't know guys I did nsfw art or are we all just gonna pretend they're dancing? Also, should ao3 writers write you wedding vows? Cause we can.

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saw an elderly woman walking around with a tote bag whose design were the four AO3 fic category squares and she very excitedly asked if i was a reader or a writer bcs nobody else at the con had recognized it, and after telling her that i've been writing fic since fanfic.net, she solemnly nodded and explained that she'd been reading fic since "the days of personal websites" but that she only started writing fanfic when she was 47 and oh my god when i tell you that i genuinely teared up on the spot!!!!! like!!! HELL YEAH???? LITERALLY NEVER TOO OLD TO START WRITING. NEVER TOO OLD TO WRITE AND SHARE YOUR FIC.

her enthusiastic "i'm a very nice and bubbly person, i swear! but i love writing angst and major character death :)" nearly took me the fuck out.

icon. legend. diva. i wish her nothing but a kajillion million comments and kudos. i hope her fic updates crash AO3. i hope she knows i'm promoting her to my personal patron saint of AO3.

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in hindsight it’s kinda weird tumblr and ao3 waited this long to start self-shipping, right?

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The most expected and unexpected union I've ever witnessed