megpie71

[megpie71]

If you're still having trouble spotting the pun, try reading the last sentence with the kind of US accent where "Harry" and "hairy" have the same vowel sound.

I was reading a piece of fan fiction about a girl so beautiful, all the heroes wanted to make her their wife, yet so powerful, no villain dared fighting her. Instead they sought legal action against her.

Had to lay it down, I can't stand these marry/sue characters.

I'm looking at you with very narrowed orbs right now

[megpie71]

The solution to any negative comment about your work is to block the author of the comment.

Reading fiction on AO3 is not compulsory; therefore, neither is you reading negative comments about your work as an author. Blocking the author of the comment means they can't see your work (which should make them happy) and means you don't have to see their comments (which will make you happier) - it's a win:win situation.

Another reason to ignore negative comments (especially on AO3)

So at work I’ve been forced to learn about “AI Agentic Workflows”. But being an AO3 author, I couldn’t help but think of how this technology affects authors on AO3 (and honestly on other social media platforms too).

What I learned was this: Agentic AI workflow software makes it extremely easy to automate, and bulk-post, HIGHLY-STORY-SPECIFIC negative comments to AO3 fics.

If you’re not familiar with what an AI Agentic Workflow is, I highly recommend informing yourself. You’ll be hearing it a LOT very soon. Basically, it’s a linked linked chain of AI prompts on one/many software platforms. Each “agent” completes a task. Then it hands off the completed task to the next AI Agent in the chain, which builds on it. Then that result is handed off to another agent, etc etc, even potentially to a final agent which analyzes what worked well and what didn’t, and changes what the other agents do.

There are a ton of repercussions here.

But let’s stay focused on AO3.

With AI Agentic workflow software, a person/group who wants to silence the voice of a community can easily scrape a tag, analyze stories by the thousands, then post thousands of highly customized, story specific negative comments, all without a human being ever seeing your words.

They could even set up AI agents watching to see if you delete your story, or delete your profile, which would be a marker of success. That success marker could be shared back to the other AI agents, and the whole workflow could be changed via automation to use that more effective approach.

I’m sure the OTF is working on ways of stopping this. I’m sure most social media companies are too.

But as usual the tools to create havoc are ahead of the ones to prevent havoc.

Anyway.

TL;DR: If you get a highly-story-specific negative AO3 comment — it does NOT MEAN it was written by a HUMAN! You were probably just story 20,031 in a scraped database of 50,000 stories, all of which were being targeted because they belong to a group/topic/tag that some shitty group or agency wanted to silence because of their horrible political or social.

Don’t let them silence you. They never looked at your words to begin with.

[megpie71]

Snagging for reference and hysterical laughter

Vrtra really said "Even here have we heard of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn" like he wasn't having Thavnair intelligence scooping up every detail of anything and everything to do with Louisoix Leveilleur the second he heard Bahamut hatched and was ready to glass Eorzea and Some? Mortal??? from Sharlayan managed to almost tank the blow

Ahewann, sprinting out of the meghaduta into the town square: I Need The Sharlayan Ambassador Right The Fuck Now

Five, six years later and the intel squads say the Scions have imploded, except whoops no they haven't they've snuck out of the regicide accusations into Ishgard and have disappeared into Dravania trying to end the Dragonsong War? pffff yeah good luck with that Nidhogg's been filling up my inbox for a thou- WAIT WHAT? WHO?? AND THE LEVEILLEUR GRANDSON???

Ahewann, sprinting straight to the Ishgardian consulate without stopping: Hey Uh Can You Tell Me What, and please understand this is very important, The Fuck

Then for a short bit family matters quiet down, again, maybe. Estinien "Not Not Nidhogg" Wyrmblood passes through Thavnair but moves on to Othard pretty quickly. Ahewann gratefully takes off his running shoes and Vrtra peels himself off the ceiling like a scared cat from worrying which would be worse to meet, Estinien or Nidhogg. Midgardsormr dies again but that's less of a big deal than it should be, he'll sleep it off. Tiamat is suddenly flying again for the first time in five millenia so that's . . . good, the world is ending but that's good at least. Estinien Wyrmblood may or may not have joined the Scions, no one can get a solid confirmation. Anyway he's got to get these scales to the alchemists, the Baldesion reps are coming soon, he can't focus on his own family drama right now-

He looks up and standing before him is an Archon astrologian in a bathrobe, another Archon nerd cosplaying as a gunbreaker, two Archons oh this must be the Baldesion group, [INSERT INSANE PLAYER CHARACTER APPEARANCE], well they look . . . interesting, are they imitating the Warrior of Light? and an Ishgardian dra -

Vrtra, malms away in the meghaduta: A

Vrtra: Ahewann

Vrtra: Ahewann we've got a Code Leveilleur situation here

Ahewann: What?

Vrtra: THE SCIONS ARE HERE

Vrtra: ESTINIEN WYRMBLOOD IS H E R E

Vrtra: GET YOUR SHOES ON AHEWANN HOW DID WE MISS THIS

Ahewann, spilling curry down his front, bursting out of the throne room with laces untied: Hey Everybody Come Help Me Throttle The Spymaster

[megpie71]

I believe Terry Pratchett had a wonderful way of describing people like that: "the type of person who would pronounce 'negro' with two g's".

One thing I hate in talks about racism is when some troglodyte says some stupid shit like "I'm not gonna let some white person explain racism to me." but the white person literally explained the most basic shit about not being a racist asshole.

Oh, ok so you're not gonna listen to a white person when they tell you that calling a black person an "Uncle Tom" is racist? You as a non-black person, are gonna claim yourself above it all and say that a white person's words mean nothing? That you refuse to be educated by a white person on the topic of racism. You're going to openly argue that you have the right to call a black person "Uncle Tom" because you disagree with him, and even when he asks you to stop, you're going to argue "Because your are a Uncle Tom. That's why I call you that." So you're above a black person telling you that your racism cuts deeper than any other insult you could attack him with. But you refuse to listen to "some white person" and you also refuse to listen to the black man you've attacked with racially charged accusations, just because you dislike him.

Shut the fuck up. How dare you call yourself a leftist. Holy shit you're no better than any old racist, you backstabbing piece of shit garbage racist fuckass.

Here's some mic drop for fuckers like that. It doesn't matter if the person is white, or if you hate them. If someone tells you "Don't be a piece of shit scummy human being." then it doesn't fucking matter what they look like or if you dislike them, you're gonna shut your goddamn mouth and fucking apologize and then fuck off. Pieces of shit pretending not to know what racism they spout is the most pathetic shit ever, and this guy had called the black man a monkey a few months prior as well. Guess what else, another black man had even called him out, tried to educate him, and Mr Racist McFuckshtick still didn't learn his fucking lesson.

I'm fucking convinced this guy would have called the first black man the N-word with hard R if it wasn't the poster child of slurs. You just know when someone is deeply fucking rotted on the inside, and that the only thing stopping them from letting all the maggots pour out is the social and economic backlash of being human scum so brazenly, it's fucking embarrassing that this piece of shit calls himself a leftists and anti-racist.

--

[megpie71]

The main purpose test cricket serves, here in Australia, is to give the fans a good reason to stay home and watch the game on Channel 9 while listening to the commentary from the ABC. You stay home and watch the game on television because that means you can sit in the air-conditioned comfort of your own home, rather than being out in the middle of an open field in boiling hot summer weather under the blazing Australian sun. It also provides Australian sports fans with a chance to recover from the religious warfare caused by our winter religion of choice being football (there are four different games which can be referred to by Australian fans as "footy", and more are being discovered by research commentators every year), because everyone knows that cricket is cricket is cricket.

My boyfriend is trying to explain cricket to me again. “He’s only got two balls to make 48 runs”, he says. The camera focuses on a man. Underneath him it says LEFT ARM FAST MEDIUM. A ball flies into the stands and presumably fractures someone’s skull. “There’s a free six”, my boyfriend says. 348 SIXES says the screen. A child in the audience waves a sign referencing Weet-Bix

[megpie71]

What's even worse: these days, we can't repurpose the old factories which used to do this work (I remember where the old wool scouring firm here in Perth used to be, down on Leach Highway opposite the Cemetery on the way into Fremantle) because they got pulled down, and the land was sold off for housing. So now if we want to re-import these industries (for the sake of national supply chain resilience, for example) we are going to have to build whole new facilities for them in whole new locations, because we used to do this ourselves, but it turned out more profitable for the capitalists to send the whole lot over to China, sell off the factories for parts, and pocket the profits than it did to keep an industry in this country.

I look at these things and wonder, I really do.

My "100% Australian wool" is "made in China". They shipped this stuff halfway around the world, spun it, dyed it, then shipped it back. Every time I see shit like this I'm reminded of how absurd it is that worldwide wage inequality makes this the most cost effective solution.

[megpie71]

[megpie71]

Are you kidding? That is genuine BBC-level setting design. Just ask the viewers of Old School Dr Who, Blakes 7, and Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

HEARTBREAKING: your worst human makes an effort to respect your pronouns

[megpie71]

Look, I said I was working on the Dr Who / FFXIV crossover fic, okay? It's not gonna get written any faster just because the universe nags.

[megpie71]

For anyone from a country which has any kind of history of mediaeval Catholicism (yes, this includes all the ones which wound up going Protestant in later eras, such as England, and the various city-states which would become Germany, the Netherlands, and so on) I would invite people to have a look at firstly, the average monastic Rule (i.e. the set of rules which govern appropriate and inappropriate behaviours within orders of cloistered monks and nuns) and secondly, accounts from contemporary autistic people about things which really help them with coping with life in a world designed for neurotypical folks, and see if you can spot any coincidences. Because one of the very many ways that autistic people slotted into society, I suspect, was as "Brother Someone" or "Sister Whoever". Clock-steady routine that never alters, clear cues on when you're supposed to be changing from one activity to the next, minimal amounts of social contact, minimal amounts of contact with strange people who don't know you... yeah, my autistic self would sign up for that in a heartbeat.

“If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?”

We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into the middle of the cold dark forest and leaving him there to die.”

[megpie71]

*sigh*

Evil begins when you treat people like things. Any people. Including yourself. Especially yourself.

Do not treat any people (no matter how horrible, wretched, unlikeable or whatever) as things. Treating people as things is where evil begins.

Yes, even those people.

Yes, even *those* people.

Seriously, what is the tricky bit here?

"I think this Category of human being is disposable" okay that not only sucks and is fascist but also makes getting you to deem someone to be disposable a simple matter of convincing you they're in The Category regardless of the truth. Also The Category is often misapplied to a vulnerable minority because it makes people like you agree they're disposable.

"Anyone who disagrees with me about The Category of people being disposable is a Category apologist or probably also in The Category themselves" Oh so you're just totally unconcerned with truth or justice or ethics or human rights and just are feeding your bloodlust for the sake of revenge fantasies. got it 👍

[megpie71]

(eventually, someone will listen).

Autistic brain really is like, "you have to overexplain so there is absolutely zero chance for misinterpretation"

[megpie71]

It's selfish for you to not eat what's put in front of you for dinner when there are children starving in Africa.

“It’s selfish for Jews to talk about antisemitism when there are people dying in Gaza” is the same line of logic as:

“It was selfish for MLK Jr to talk about racism when there were people dying in the Cultural Revolution.”

“It was selfish for Frederick Douglas to talk about slavery when there were people dying in the Trail of Tears.”

“It’s selfish for Muslims to talk about Islamophobia when there are people dying in Sudan.”

“It was selfish for Gandhi to talk about British oppression of Indians when there were people dying in the Armenian genocide and the Holodomor.”

“It’s selfish for trans folks to talk about their rights when there are people dying in DRC.”

“It was selfish for victims of South African apartheid to talk about ending apartheid when there were people dying in the Iran-Iraq War.”

“It’s selfish for gay people to talk about homophobic violence when there are people dying in Ethiopia.”

“It was selfish for Black Americans to talk about the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre when there were people dying in the Namibian genocide.”

“It’s selfish for First Nations people to talk about Canada’s residential schools when there were people dying in the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon and the Romani genocide during the same period.”

“It’s selfish for women to talk about sexism when there are people dying in Myanmar.”

“It’s selfish for survivors to talk about the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans when at the same time there were people dying in the Dresden bombings.”

“It’s selfish for anyone anywhere to talk about their own experiences of oppression when there are other people anywhere in the world who arguably have it just as bad or worse."

[megpie71]

And I mean... what is the actual "crime" here? Writing fanfic some anonymous nobody thought wasn't moral enough?

For this we're supposed to shun someone? For this we're supposed to not reblog their posts, burn down their online spaces, and not allow them to share our table in the lunchroom? Are we supposed to also tell them they smell of play-dough as well?

Seriously, nonny, grow up out of kindergarten, learn a bit more about sharing and the wonderful concepts of "not my business", "so what?" and "if I don't like it I don't have to read it", then head off to Bunnings, buy some lumber, build a bridge and get the flying fuck over yourself.

Meanwhile, you'll find me over on the Group W bench with roach-works, sharing lunch and having a laugh, because as one of the all-time great songwriters put it: "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints; The sinners have much more fun."

roach-works was a notorious underage + incest + rape fanfic writer and all of those are still up for everyone to read on their ao3

[megpie71]

Boosting signal

unpopular opinion: Vimes is kind of drama queen

[megpie71]

Yes. This.

I realise you go all the way up to size 26. Could you show me a size 26 woman wearing your size 26 clothing, please? Could you show me what the clothing looks like on someone who is not six feet tall? Could you show me what the clothing looks like on someone who has fat rolls, rather than strategically inserted padding in their under-layer?

Because I, as a 5'2" fat woman who has fat rolls, and wears a size 20 waist and size 24 - 26 hips, and at least a size 22 bust, cannot determine whether your clothing is going to look reasonable ON ME from a picture of a size 14 - 16 model wearing padding underneath the size 16 version of what you sell.

can i please see a fat woman wearing it. yes, i know your sizes go all the way up to 5x. but can i please see a fat woman wearing it. yes, i heard you're woman-owned. can i please see a fat woman wearing it though. yes, i understand you donate 50% of proceeds to this charity. i still do not see a fat woman wearing it. can i please see a fat woman wearing it.