lukas-clost

[lukas-clost]

Hiya! I know it's been a little while but I just wanted to let you know I finally got around to making the web version of that fic poisoning tool I made about a month ago. It's at https://tricksofloki.github.io/ficpoison.html if you're interested :)

OHOHOHO!

Alright, I gave this a little test on my own fic over here. Quick little review/notes for anyone interested! (But the tl;dr is that I approve based on my initial review of the original code and based on using this web tool to automate running the code.)

This version is super easy to use. I'll be honest; I was struggling trying to figure out how to run the code locally before because that is not a coding language I personally use, and this website takes out all of the hard part of doing that. You need to do the one time task of creating a work skin to enable the "poison" CSS used, and you need to make sure that work skin is enabled for any work you're going to use this on. The code to put into your work skin is available at the link. If you already have a work skin you use, you can just add this class to it. (I think the tutorial I linked to does a good job walking you through how, but I'm open to doing a tutorial on this blog if anyone wants that.)

If you're poisoning an existing fic, first have a backup copy. Once you poison it, that copy is going to be annoying to UN-poison if you ever want to, so you should keep a private copy on your PC or phone or wherever so you have the unpoisoned version available. Once you do this, your copy on AO3 is poisoned, and it would take a fair amount of effort to unpoison as the author. Upside: as the author, you can see all the CSS stuff in the background, so if you really need to unpoison a copy as the author with full access to it, it's not impossible. Just really annoying.

For reference, here's what I can see as the author with access to the edit page:

I can clearly see where the poison is if I really wanted to go back through and unpoison.

And here is what I can see in a copy scraped with nyuuzyou's code:

You can definitely see it's messed up by looking, but you don't see an active callout to where exactly the poison code is. Keep in mind that not every scraper uses the same code as nyuuzyou, and more sophisticated code may pull something more sophisticated than the plain text from nyuuzyou's tool. Other scrapers may be pulling fics with the formatting and everything, and I don't know exactly what that output looks like. Depending on what their output is, if they can see the class for the poison, they can pretty easily code something to remove it. That's me being overly conservative, I suspect. I haven't heard of any scrapers who have bothered with anything more than plain text, and this isn't an issue unless they're grabbing the full HTML. (Translation: From what I know, this is NOT an issue. Yet. So this is not a weakness of the poison tool. Yet.)

Based on the output, anyone who's doing a half decent job of cleaning up the data they scrape would toss my fic out of the dataset. It's full of what look like typos because the poison got placed mid-word, so it looks like I just suck at writing. If your goal is to get tossed out of the dataset, this is perfect. If a scraper isn't paying attention at all, you can contribute some really terrible training data if they leave your fic in the set because your poisoned fic is going to be full or words that don't even exist thanks to the word placement.

As far as using the tool, I used an existing fic. I went into the edit page for the chapter, scrolled to the bottom and left the text editor on the default HTML mode. I copied everything in that box. (Easy method: click into the box where you can type out the fic, and press "Ctrl" and "A" to select all, then "Ctrl" and "C" to copy.) I went to the tab with all-hail-trash-prince's tool, and I pasted it into the box on the left.

I clicked "Apply poison" and the poisoned fic appeared in the right box. I copied the poisoned fic from the right box, went back to my fic on AO3 with my custom work skin already enabled, and I pasted the poison fic in place of the original fic. I clicked the preview button to make sure it would look normal, and it did. So I clicked to update the chapter with the poison block included.

I loaded the chapter with the default Microsoft screen reader turned on, and it didn't read any of the poison data, only the real fic that is visible on the screen, so success there.

So that brings us to applying this to a brand new fic. For those, you're going to go through the motions of posting a fic as usual, but instead of clicking post when you're done, you're going to swap that text editing mode over to HTML and copy everything in there. Take it to the poison tool, paste it in, and grab your poisoned copy. Go back to AO3, make sure your poison work skin is enabled, and then replace the original fic with the poison fic, making sure to stay in the HTML editing mode while you do.

(Sneaky quick edit after posting: sometimes the tool leaves you with a dangling <p> or </p> or <em>. Make sure you always preview the chapter after poisoning it, and you can go back in to the rich text editor to delete any of the floating tags that were accidentally put in by the poison.)

The last downside I notice is that your word count is immediately wrong. My 34k fic looks like a 43k fic after poisoning the first 16k words. Technically, you don't have to tell people the true word count of your fic but like. That feels a little rude to the reader, so I think it would be kind to briefly put the true word count either at the bottom of your summary or in your first author's note.

To me, the downsides of having to create a custom work skin (that trash-prince has kindly already written for everyone) and having the wrong word count displayed... are nothing. In comparison to having my fic be easy to scrape, I'll take those slight downsides any day. From what I know of the current scraping landscape, this is a reasonably effective way to make your fic useless to anyone who scrapes it because people are out there that will be scraping AO3 again.

I'm curious to hear anyone else's thoughts if they check this tool out or try it for themselves, so don't be shy! I'm one person, so maybe I can't catch everything. If you're seeing something that I'm not, I want to hear about it.

And if anyone wants a more visual step by step, you are welcome to yell my way. If this text post is clear enough for everyone, I won't bother, but if a more visual walkthrough will help anyone, then I'm happy to do it!

EDIT: Just tossing in a summary of feedback I've seen from others below!

The tool is pulling from a list of most popular English words, which means it may add inappropriate verbiage to G-rated fics. See this ask for info. trash-prince has made adjustments based on the initial words spotted, but please kindly report any other concerning poison words you find, particularly slurs and other wording that cannot be interpreted in a SFW way.

[lukas-clost]

WIP Week (Work-In-Progress Week) Returns in June!

WIP Week is a week dedicated to updating fanfic or other types of fanworks.  All fandoms are welcome to participate.  Original works are also accepted.  Please tag your entries with the #wipweek or #wip week tag. Since multiple fandoms and ships are participating, please clearly list the fandoms, ships, and content warnings in the post so that they can be properly tagged for any potential readers.

The second WIP Week of 2025 will be held June 22-28. 

Each day will have a theme, but you do not have to post every day. You are also not obligated to follow these themes. You can work on one fic or fanwork for the entire week if you choose. If you’re not comfortable posting full updates but still want to participate in the week, you can post your daily word count and/or a small snippet from your work.

Here are the prompts for WIP Week:

June 22: Your Oldest WIP

June 23: Your Newest WIP

June 24: Your Most Popular WIP

June 25: A WIP Featuring Your OTP

June 26: Your Favorite WIP

June 27: Your Previously Unpublished WIP

June 28: Any WIP

You can post completed/updated fanworks to the official WIP Week AO3 Collection!

[lukas-clost]

was any of it real?

…

AAA A ACTUALLY DIGITAL ART WORK WOW

Bear with me guys this one was rough and I was low key just like eh it’s good enough I haven’t drawn anything digital since like February so I’m a wee bit rusty

I think tumblr killed the quality so that sucks

[lukas-clost]

gonna be shifting over to @honeybunnybugg by the end of the month (maybe, if I don't procrastinate, lol) so I'll probably get rid of this one mis june maybe for no reason other than I wanted to have a separate blog that wasn't a sub-blog for fandom stuff

see ya!

[lukas-clost]

Perry the Platypus site skin!

So, two years ago I saw a fun tumblr post about a colour palette.

Like a day later, I started making a site skin.

Then I forgot about it for almost two years and made a bazillion other site skins and didn't think about this one until I was looking for something else I'd made.

Anyway, the code is on github now.

[lukas-clost]

✨ AOOOAOooooOAAoooAO³ updates!

It’s been almost a month since we opened our own Alexandria Library in our little corner of the web, and the FFF AO³ Collection has been so warmly welcomed—we want to thank you!

We love seeing all the incredible works you’ve shared over the years and the growing collection of fandoms we’ve built together. To help everyone make the most of this experience, here are a few friendly reminders about how the collection works ✨

Any work inspired by an FFF prompt is welcome, regardless of length or posting date.

Make sure to mention which prompt(s) you used—whether in the notes or summary, we want to know!

Check that your work is posted and not saved as a draft—we can’t open them!

If you have any questions about a submitted work, an unapproved piece, or whether your story qualifies for the collection (or how to add one to the collection), feel free to reach out! Our Tumblr messages are open, and you can also contact the Collection Mod at @endlesstwanted ✨

[lukas-clost]

cant stop thinking about this this was sooo crazyyyyy

[lukas-clost]

You are never letting a WIP rot. You are doing it a service. Your WIP is a sourdough starter and the five words you wrote that one day were all it needed to sustain itself. It will bubble and be ready when you are.

[lukas-clost]

diving back into msscribe lore made me remember this; imo one of the funniest things about the My Immortal fanfic is the context to which it was born in the HP fandom at the time. In the early 2000's, HP fandom was a veritable arms race of who could write 'the best' most 'sophisticated' HP fanfic and the BNFs (Cassandra Clare, for example) were elevated to their pedestals because they were seen as the most talented fic writers. There were pissing contests, passive-aggressive comments about so-and-so being 'a mediocre fic writer' just shared between supposed 'friends', like one's popularity currency absolutely depended on whether or not the fandom deemed one's writing 'good enough'. Everyone was trying to be the goddamn idk Jane Austen of HP fandom pretty much. Even by 2006 (and msscribe's fall from grace, if you even care lol) this was still more or less the case- so the fact that this absolute unrepentantly bad HP fanfic came out during that time, the fact that Tara just kept posting chapters and doubling-down on people's criticisms and abject horror, the fact that this fanfic gave NO FUCKS about spelling, grammar, keeping characters intact, or even the original context of HP at all makes My Immortal's existence so much funnier than it already is on its lonesome. My Immortal was a slap in the fucking face to the entire established system and it reveled in being so.

Tellingly, I think, most people online today aren't going to know those 'popular', supremely 'well-written' fics off the top of their head, but even some IRL people I've talked with know and love My Immortal. Hell, Tom Felton has read it for his IG! Amy Lee either read or reacted to it a few of years back! It has it's own wikipedia, countless illustrations, works inspired by it and a cult following even today! I can't say the same for any of those fanfics that came before!

Whether My Immortal was a skilled troll or an unapologetic teenage girl that was going to write whatever the hell she wanted to, goddamn it, doesn't really matter because the effect was the same. Maybe remember that the next time you're agonizing over whether or not your writing is 'good enough'. Sometimes, it doesn't even need to be.

[lukas-clost]

Needabeta FAQ!

Wondering what this is about, or how it works? This FAQ is for you!

What is a Beta?Here’s what’s Fanlore says about Betas.  The short answer is: someone who looks over your work to check for consistency, grammar, formatting, canon-compliance, who can brainstorm with you, and/or cheer you on! For more in-depth understanding, here’s @theirprofoundbond’s recap (Tumblr and AO3)

What is Needabeta? It’s a tool to facilitate connection between Betas and Writers. Writers can search the Beta File, find potential Betas, get in touch, and if the Beta volunteer is available and interested Writers can discuss their needs.

How do I find a Beta? Head over to the Beta File and do a search (ctrl+F for instance) ! You can then type in your needs in the search box: the Witcher, Dragon Age, a language… and see who comes up, what their Beta skills are, their languages, squicks, and how to get in touch! The more recent signups are at the bottom of the sheet; the first column will let you know when the Beta signed up. Warning: it is going to be less manageable on a phone screen due to the sheer amount of information. It’s a big spreadsheet :-) Here is how you can use filters. Tips: searching for “all” or “any” can help you find people who are okay with betaing in any fandom, and some fandoms have different names: Avengers / MCU / Marvel Cinematic Universe… We do not publish individual requests for Betas. That’s what the Beta File is for ^_^

Do I need to be on Tumblr?  Nope! Asks and submissions are open to anyone, anons included.

How do i sign up to be a Beta Volunteer? You can fill out our form! You can say what you’re comfortable with and what you will not work on, what fandoms you’re okay with (it can be any fandom!), what your skills are… Signing up doesn’t mean you have to accept any Beta ask, simply that you’re open to the possibility.

Are you still active? Yes ;-) the point of the blog is not to flood anyone’s dash; it is simply there as an easy home for the Beta File and Beta Form, as well as a way to get in touch with the admins.

I need to modify my info on the Beta File / delete my info… Send us an ask with two identifying elements: for instance, the row number, your fannish name used in the row… to make sure we modify the correct row! Without two identifying elements, we will not make the modifications: we do not want to modify / delete the wrong row! You can also choose to have it entirely deleted and then resubmit via the Beta Form if there are a lot of changes. This is fine :-) Anon asks are replied to publicly on the blog (no other option!), and asks coming from a Tumblr blog get a private answer. If you can’t send asks, then you can use the Submission form as a plan B!

Why can’t I edit my entry myself? Because we know that it’s easy to mess up a spreadsheet, even when you know how to use one. However, we reply to asks very quickly!

I can’t see all the information in a cell! That’s because there is a lot of information, in which case we change the formatting so it’s not making all the row unreadable. The information is still in the cell, as long as you click on it. (more details here and here)

Is this only for fanfiction or also for profic? Some Beta volunteers are okay with betaing original work. See our more detailed answer here!

Should I pay my Beta? This blog is mostly geared towards fanworks, and while gifts can never go wrong and don’t have to be monetary it is, generally speaking, not considered something one pays for in fandom.  If you’re looking for professional editing, Needabeta is not the tool you need. See our more detailed answer here!

How can I know my Beta / Writer is of legal age? You can’t, and we can’t either. We all have to operate on the good faith of everyone; whether it’s a question in the form or when you’re privately talking to your potential Beta, we can’t guarantee all parties are telling the truth. Legal age also means different things in different places for different activities. You can, however, give your age when filling in the form and/or when communicating with your Beta or Writer! See our more detailed answers here, here, and here!

I’m organizing an exchange / fanweek… and my event needs Betas, can you reblog? Sure! You can @needabeta​ us or leave a submission. You are also welcome to reblog this FAQ, or that post, or this post! 

Oh my, the Beta File is overwhelming… How can I find a Beta? > Ctrl+F will not work on every computer; on Apple it’s a different shortcut, for instance. You can also, on Google Sheets, use Edit > Search and Replace; you won’t be able to replace anything, don’t worry, but it will lead you to specific cells. You can then use the Tab key or the little up and down arrows in the search box to find specific Betas for a fandom, see if they fit your needs, when they signed up initially, and how to contact them. Bear in mind that you can have people entering both Supernatural (147 as of the time of writing this post) and SPN (4), for example. Many also list Any, All / Most fandoms, Just ask if they’re open to more than those listed. We regularly have asks to edit fandom lists!

> Another option is putting your mouse over the top of a column, where you have the letter, and looking for the little arrow to filter and sort the data; this will be useful for specific columns: if you’re looking for someone comfortable with mature content (column H), willing to work on a WIP (G), or cool with original work (J).

> More advanced but very useful to search is: Data > Filter View > Create New Filter View. You can Edit the range to select all the spreadsheet (as of the time this is being written: A5:J931) or simply select the whole spreadsheet first, and then find the little green arrow near the top of the column. Click on it, use “filter by condition” then “select by text” and type your request, and the the sheet will be resorted according to your request. We advise you to play with this to your heart’s content and try all the options and even other filters - you can’t break the Beta File if you’re not admin, and it won’t affect other users’ view! You can also see another explanation in Help > type Filter, and you’ll have Google’s own how-to regarding their use!

We’ll add to this FAQ if needed.

It looks like information is cut off from some entries Sadly, the Google Sheet does not automatically wrap cells, so we have to go in and do that manually. For more information, see this post.

What is ‘original work’? It’s a work which is not set in any specific fandom, but still is fannish in nature (not for profit, fannish tropes, etc.) See our more detailed answer here! FAQ tag!

[lukas-clost]

NEW FACES IN THE COMPANY OF NERDS! HAHA (I do not know what I am doing to be honest) By the way, can you guys write in the comments who from UT, US or UF you would like to see together in this series? [PREVIOUS]

[lukas-clost]

TIMELINES MUST PASS

Time Will Pass @forgettable-au fan animation :3

Decided to practice some animation with this wonderful song/animation meme/trend???

Inspiration credit:

@mannawanna on Youtube!

@Sherrickmadds on Instagram!

heheheheheHEHEEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAHAHAAHAHA I LOVE THESE GUYS SO MUCH AND THIS AUDIO JUST FELT TOO PERFECT FOR EM!!! ON WE GO TO THE ANALYSIS

The direct actions:

Sans smiles at Wingdings, who does not return it

Sans is bothered and upset by this, before closing his eyes and accepting it.

They go back to staring up at the ceiling, except Sans looks sadder now.

Wingdings continues to sing, content with this.

GASTERING TIME

Cut to the present day-post papyrus day,

Gaster is belting out happily while Sans is horrified at what his…brother??? has turned into.

Before they both come to a (reluctant on Sans’ half) acceptance at the situation.

What they’re supposed to translate to:

Sans encourages Wingdings to come out of his comfort zone. Instead of staying in the lab 247 and shutting out the rest of the world while still wanting to make it a better place with his inventions- why not grab some food at Grillbys?? (I just thought of how funny it is that Sans can’t get Papyrus to enjoy Grillbys either, for different reasons but still. CMON GUYS- GO GET SOME GREASY FOOD WITH YOUR BROTHER)

But he shuts this idea down constantly, no matter how subtle or direct Sans is, he can’t seem to stop his brother from going down an incredibly self destructive route. When he closes his eyes and looks back up at the ceiling…I wouldn’t call that “giving up on Wingdings” but definitely trying less hard. He cant force him to do anything so why try

(ofc Alphys comes in- BUT THIS IS A 24 SECOND ANIMATION, WE DONT HAVE TIME FOR THAT- CHOP CHOP!) (also just as an aside i love that when Sans realizes he cant force Wingdings outside he just brings the outside to him 😭😭)

But Wingdings is fully content with this “giving up”. He gets his way!!!

Thats when we see an interaction between these two, YEARS later. Sans is, needless to say, pretty horrified at whats happened to him (we’re ignoring lack of memories in this situation btw) but Gaster is thrilled and tells Sans that basically “I wont be here for long, i just wanted to say that despite my actions I promise I loved you” which Sans feels many emotions at- but “grief” bundles those all up in a nice trauma bow.

Gaster then goes on to say basically “this has been fun, but this is probably the last time we will ever interact because I have business to attend to, and you have Papyrus’ to attend to!!!” Sans reluctantly accepts this. Again. Gaster always staying within his comfort zone and Sans just going along with it because he cant force his stubborn as hell brother to do anything.

Basically long story short, Sans is not happy in either of these situations. Both times Wingdings puts his work above his brother.

[lukas-clost]

Fanfiction is great because you can see so clearly how people learn to write.

Some people, it's clear, learned almost entirely through absorbing the world around them. Grammar and punctuation will be all over the place, spellings are approximate, but the voice of the narration will come through so clearly. You can hear the dialect of the people around them as of they're telling the story. It's not a written story, it's a transcription of how they talk in their day to day life.

Some people learned through reading a gazillion books as a kid. Grammer and spelling will be rock solid, formatting occasionally based on the single tab of physical books rather than the double tab of online scrolling, but dialogue is often stilted and overly formal. You might notice a lack of contractions and very rigid rules they made for consistency that actually have a lot more flexibility than they think. They tend to have a fantastic grasp of sentence flow, though.

And other people formally learned how to write. This could be anywhere from taking school classes seriously because they enjoyed writing stories as a kid to literal certifications and jobs in the field. Grammer is flawless. Punctuation is triple checked. Foreign words are in italics. Characters have distinct voices. But their self indulgence is tempered by perfectionism. They know precisely what they want from a fic. Authors notes often feature mutterings about their happiness with the chapter. Kaomojis often appear! They seek a style to their writing, and it makes for some wonderfully clever plots! These are the ones most likely to get fun with formatting!

And some people.... Some people examined it all. They dissect dialogue, people watch, cross reference behaviours and compare characters to people irl. You can tell almost immediately who had formative experiences with Terry pratchett and/or ghibli, because it's these people. While others see writing as fun, expression, craft, they see it as art. Plain and simple. Sure, the grammar is occasionally sacrificed on the altar of creative freedom, and the occasional sentence might miss a full stop, but these people seem to self reflect on themselves as part of the art making process. On occasion, these people have the most masterful grasp of dialogue and invocation and hand sewn characterisations. Formatting is pretty standard because all the focus is on the actual words. These fics can be edited to the moon and back!

All of these can vary wildly in forethought and quality, and betas can often catch individual problems before they hit post, but just. Isn't it so cool? What's that one Oscar Wilde quote about every mask just being another fragment of yourself?

Did you recognise yourself?

[lukas-clost]

Drabble May 3: Painter

It was so hard for me to cut this down to 100 words, to the extent that I missed a couple of days cause I was trying so hard to get it to a point that I really liked, and, for the most part, I succeeded! :D @thedrabblecollective

Fandom: Undertale (Underswap)/Spider-Verse Characters: J. J. Jameson Warnings: N/A

Painter 1. an artist who paints pictures

J. J. Jameson thought himself an artist; drawing together the perfect turn of phrase to illustrate the truth; capturing tiny details to present bigger pictures; finishing nasty pieces before they spoiled the collective city. Ebott was his muse, news mediums, his canvas, and he was their glorious broadcaster.

So when magic-wielding mutants emerged from the mountain, erasing uncertainties surrounding them was easy. When they refused the hero mantle asked of them, shading them in a different light? Even more so.

But when Spider-Man, coloured in dubious ideals, appeared, switching tones became… astoundingly difficult.

previous || Masterlist || Ao3 Link || next

[lukas-clost]

Join us to celebrate human creativity! First prompt at 5 AM! Who can join? Any creator of any kind that doesn't use AI! (It's so much more than a writing or art challenge! Think: playlists, mood boards, gifs, photography, nature walks, cooking & more!) What fandoms? Any and all fandoms are welcome to join us! (Including original works!) More info can be found on our blog and the FAQ post.

[lukas-clost]

NOTICE: As more and more fanfic writers are using generative AI for their works (you uncreative dweebs), I hereby swear on everything I hold dear that I have not and will NEVER use generative AI in ANY of my written work. Everything I post will be organically and creatively my own.