saltoftheao3

[saltoftheao3]

when ao3 is back up i want all of you to leave comments on the fics you were interrupted from reading, the fics you were looking to find, the fics you were thinking about re-reading, and the fics left open in your tabs for months now.

when ao3 is back up, i want you all to show some love to your favourite writers, favourite fics, or even just the 600 word one-shot that brought a smile to your face that tuesday three weeks ago.

when ao3 is back up i want you all to remember that comments and explicitly voiced appreciation are what keep writers going.

[saltoftheao3]

My understanding (informed by the back and forth going on in the news post) is that archive locking does prevent scraping from some crawlers, but someone who is determined to use works from Ao3 can simply make an account and scrape anyway. There doesn’t seem to be an official response from Ao3 yet as to whether archive locking helps. ://

Making My Fanfics Private

UPDATE: 5/12/2023

OTW has removed the article from OTW Signals but they yet havent clarified their position.

Update to OTW Signal, May 2023 | Organization for Transformative Works

The soft back pedding with regrets about the "opinion of one volunteer" is not good enough. The comments were made by the OTW Legal Chair, who represented them in official capacity in a listening session with US Copyright office.

Please clarify your official position and ensure author works are not used for AI training without their permission.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Post follows:

It is extremely disheartening to see OTW's announcement to use user created fanfics to train AI.

I support WGA strike!

Our free labor of love (fanfics) should NOT be used to train AI so that they can displace humans. I am taking my works private as a protest. I am only one person but I will do what I can.

NO AI Training without the AUTHOR's EXPLICIT PERMISSION. I DO NOT GIVE AO3 PERMISSION To share my free labor to train an AI Bot.

I am making my stories private by adding to this "Protest" Collection. Its unmoderated so anyone can add. Happy to add Co-Owners. Please reach out.

AO3 Writers Protest Against OTW Training AI on Fanfic | Archive of Our Own

More Information on OTW announcement here:

[saltoftheao3]

I like this idea, especially because many authors are considering deleting their works right now. If you’re on the fence about deleting, consider adding it to this protest collection instead -- this way your works won’t be permanently gone, and it will help make a statement.

Making My Fanfics Private

UPDATE: 5/12/2023

OTW has removed the article from OTW Signals but they yet havent clarified their position.

Update to OTW Signal, May 2023 | Organization for Transformative Works

The soft back pedding with regrets about the "opinion of one volunteer" is not good enough. The comments were made by the OTW Legal Chair, who represented them in official capacity in a listening session with US Copyright office.

Please clarify your official position and ensure author works are not used for AI training without their permission.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Post follows:

It is extremely disheartening to see OTW's announcement to use user created fanfics to train AI.

I support WGA strike!

Our free labor of love (fanfics) should NOT be used to train AI so that they can displace humans. I am taking my works private as a protest. I am only one person but I will do what I can.

NO AI Training without the AUTHOR's EXPLICIT PERMISSION. I DO NOT GIVE AO3 PERMISSION To share my free labor to train an AI Bot.

I am making my stories private by adding to this "Protest" Collection. Its unmoderated so anyone can add. Happy to add Co-Owners. Please reach out.

AO3 Writers Protest Against OTW Training AI on Fanfic | Archive of Our Own

More Information on OTW announcement here:

[saltoftheao3]

Likes and kudos are good things, imo. It means the stuff you’re making is being seen and appreciated by other humans. If you don’t have energy to comment and reblog, I see you and get that. (If you don’t have energy to leave a kudo, then yeah, definitely log off and recharge, you know?)

But I don’t want this point to be lost: this isn’t “the other side of a coin.” It’s not a 1:1 direct comparison here. I find this thinking troubling enough to come out of my own long tumblr hiatus and summon just enough energy to respond to this one point.

Writing and drawing and gifmaking take FAR more time and effort than reacting to them does. Burned-out authors and artists are running on fumes and negative spoons just like everyone else. If you’re not in the headspace to interact with them, that’s okay. If you can say something and are on the fence about doing so, just remember that a quick “<3″ or “I loved this, thank you for sharing” in a comment or tags goes a LONG way toward helping them recharge.

Fandom is not an obligation.

It is not a job.  It is not school.  It is not a contract.   Participation in fandom is voluntary and it is not binding (commissions and paid work aside).

Yes, within fandom you should be bound by some sense of ethics or general decency: don’t steal art and fic, don’t willfully deceive people, don’t be a jerk or a garbage human, and so on and so forth.  But everything else?  The writing fic and the doing and the participation?  It is voluntary.

So if you are writing a fic and you’re seven chapters in and you have eight chapters to go and you’re just tired and you don’t want to do it any more?  You can stop.  If you’ve been running a blog and writing about every single episode of every new anime show that’s come out and you can’t for three weeks?  Don’t.  If you told your 5 billion followers you were gonna post a piece of fanart and you’re just sick of it and you don’t want to do it any more?  Give it up.

Sure, people will be disappointed and upset and some will complain.  But life is disappointing and upsetting sometimes, and it goes on, and no one can sue you for not finishing a fic that they were enjoying the hell out of for free.  No one can accuse you of not living up to the terms of your contract when you don’t post that fanart you mentioned three weeks ago.  Because fandom is voluntary.  It’s something that you participate in because it’s fun or fulfilling or important to you, and when it stops being those things, you should stop, too.

You are not bound by the asks in your inbox.  You are not bound by comments on a fic or a piece of art.  You are not bound, in fandom, by other people’s disappointments or their expectations. 

Fandom is voluntary.  Don’t let people pressure you into thinking that it is anything else.

[saltoftheao3]

how to post a work privately on ao3

So you want to archive your work but you don’t want all of it visible to everyone else. What you need to do is make a collection!

Collections have lots of uses, but this post is going to focus on using a collection to make some (or all!) of your works private so that only you can see them. 

1. If you’ve never made a collection before, start by going to your Dashboard and then choosing Collections from the sidebar (on desktop) or the top of the page (on mobile). Then click on the New Collection button and fill in the information.

2. In the Header Section you only need to worry about giving it a name and a display title. This is because you’re just making this collection for yourself. The other infoboxes are there for you to fill out if you’re creating a collection for a fandom event.

The name is what you’ll use to add works to your collection. Choose something unique so that you don’t accidentally try to add your work to someone else’s collection. 

The display title is the name that people will see if they go to your Works page. You can use any name you’d like here, but remember that it will be visible to others.

3. In the Preferences Section, you’ll want to set your collection as moderated and unrevealed. 

Moderating your collection means that the owner (you) gets to choose which works get added. If anyone else tries to add works to your collection, you can refuse. Keeping it unrevealed means that no one can see the works that are inside of it. They can see the collection, but it will look like it’s empty.

You can leave the rest of the sections empty. Those are all for fandom events and informing other people of rules and other information. None of that is necessary in this case. 

4. After you have created your collection, you can edit your existing works to hide them. Edit the work and scroll down the posting form until you get to the section called Associations. The first text box in that section is Post to Collections/Challenges. Type the name of your collection into this box and press enter. Don’t worry if it doesn’t show up in the dropdown. As long as you provide the name (and not the display title!), you’ll be fine. 

5. Save your edit and congrats! You’ve successfully made that work private so that only you can see it.

When another user visits your profile, they’ll be able to see you have a collection. They’ll see the display name, and they’ll see the total number of fandoms and works that are in your collection. By clicking the number next to the word Fandom, they’ll be able to see the list of all of the fandoms you’ve written for in that collection. However, if they click the number next to the word Works, they’ll just see a message that says, “This is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon!”

If you want to see for yourself what it looks like to other users, visit my AO3 profile and see for yourself.

Oh, and I’ve tested it out and it seems that if you post a new work and add it into the collection immediately (while posting), subscribers won’t get notified about it! So that’s a bonus too :)

[saltoftheao3]

[image: a banner for AO3 ReKudos Converter. between the Kudos button and the Comments button is an Uno Reverse type symbol; an arrow leads from the “You have already left kudos here :)” banner to a comment by “You” reading “This is an extra kudos, since I’ve already left one. :)”]

I made a userscript that will automatically turn a pointless click of the kudos button into a customisable automatic comment on the fic!

>> Get the script here <<

The script was made to work with Tampermonkey, so you may need to change the formatting to work with other JS userscript managers.

You can install Tampermokey for Firefox from here.

[EDIT 6/6/2021] As of 2.53 the script should work on every fic regardless of the amount of kudos or when you’ve kudosed it originally. It now has to wait for reply from OTW’s servers, so if it’s failing constantly, you’ll want to go set “lat” to a higher value (default is 500). Keep in mind that setting the delay higher will make the script take longer to run.

I’m also working on a wrapper for a mobile version, since I’ve been told userscripts no longer work for mobile users. Watch this space I guess?

[saltoftheao3]

Radicalizing my followers as emancipatory practice <3 see y'all on the barricades

[saltoftheao3]

Goodbye + a few words for the road

(Edited to add: The blog will still be semi-active (mostly inactive) as the founding mod is still around. Thank you Mod Salt for taking over and being an amazing force for fandom positivity these past few years ~ Mod Saltiest)

Hey folks, this blog has been inactive for a while now as my life has been very busy and my interests have changed, so here's me offering official closure at least.

First of all: It has been a fun few years chatting, having debates, inspiring and helping each other out around our shared passion for fanfiction. I really enjoyed this form of interaction and was often moved, amused and empowered by our exchanges. I look back to this entire time with you with a fond smile. Thank you for your kindness, patience and enthusiasm.

And since i'm here, i want to use my reach one last time to share some personal thoughts - please indulge me, i won't bore you.

What is it about writing fanfiction that feels so empowering to so many of us?

When i was a child and young teenager i experienced stories as something closed-off, unchangeable, a product of great minds that, yes, i could and did vicariously enjoy, but of which i was forever the passive recipient. I was allowed in the fantastical playground of a storyteller's mind, but i was there as a guest, i could look but not play. I wasn't even aware playing was an option.

But with fanfiction ... somehow my entire perspective on storytelling changed. My relationship to stories moved away from mere consumption to a desire to make it different, to make it mine. Suddenly there was a space for my previously vague, unformed ideas, and an incentive to explore them.

Confronted with polished, glossy professional stories, I now saw possibilities. What if this character fell in love with the same gender, experienced trivial domestic bliss, came to grip with their childhood trauma? And i could make this possibilities reality through my own writing, bend the narrative to cater to my taste and interests. I was an active participant in the process of creating reality through words. And sure, the product was rough, awkward, mediocre at times - but it was mine, it held something of me. And sometimes it entertained and thrilled and moved readers from all over the world that happened to stumble upon it.

Online communities allowed me to realize that we can reach others, relate to each other, move others, that our voices are unique and interesting, if only we care to speak. A pen, a laptop, and we can make as much fucking sandcastles as we want to, tell the stories we want to tell, that are ours to tell. No one can do that in our place.

And if you've nodded along to this trail of thought; if you agree with this logic and can relate to that feeling of empowerment; then i want you to understand that this can be applied to all aspects of life.

This dreadful, gray concrete wall on your street that fills you with gloom? Why endure its depressing sight when you can grab a spray can and remake it into something colorful and joyful, reshape that wall into something you actually care to look at and that may bring others joy too.

Rewrite that story.

The wasteland next to your neighborhood that's currently hosting weed and trash and that the municipality doesn't want to take care of? Why accept it as it is, if you can envision better possibilities? A shovel, a wheelbarrow, some seeds, a few helping hands, the internet to guide you, and you have the first steps to an urban garden beloved by bees, butterflies and birds, and providing fresh fruit and vegs to you and your neighbors.

Sandcastle, build that fucking sandcastle.

Your workplace where everyone is treated like shit and your rights are threatened? Are you going to accept the narrative that things have to be that way? That there's nothing you can do, except maybe vote? What's to stop you from reshaping your workplace so it caters to your needs? Colleagues at your back, help from the union, and you can bargain for better work conditions, modify the entire workplace. No one is going to do that for you.

Transform the narrative.

The local coal mine that is tearing through the earth to dig up tons upon tons of fossil combustible, actively threatening all life on earth? Can you really accept that as a given, as something no one has might on, except maybe some remote politician? Or can you join a group fighting for climate justice and block the shit out of that mine so it's forced to stop the destruction?

Redesign the entire game.

The step from writing fanfiction to blocking a coal mine may seem far-fetched, but at its core it's a matter of how we interact with the world we live in. See how it all ties into each other? How once you've noticed you have the power to actively reshape things around you, whether stories or your real-life environment, you realize that everything can be changed, and that everything probably must be changed, too?

Listen.

Friends, hard times are ahead. Times have been hard for a lot of us for a long while now. With the climate crisis upon us and world governments eager to maintain this deadly status-quo of economic growth and environmental destruction no matter the costs, it's up to us to take action, fight the powers in place and change the lives we lead. We can't rely on politicians, we can't rely on big business, we can't rely on someone more smart and capable to emerge and fix things. No one's gonna come. We have to start where we stand, teach each other and ourselves what to do, and get shit done.

It will be difficult, and it will be tough and it will be scary, but we have each other, we have this wonderful medium that allows us to find each other all over the planet, hear each other's voices and organize on an unprecedented scale. We are creative, and numerous and bold, and we will be reckoned with. Because help won't come from above, and we have to stop waiting, hoping and campaigning for it. Let's invest our energy where it really matters, and that's not a mere cross on a ballot every few years.

Being an active participant in the fight for a better life, no matter how harrowing that might sometimes be, is so much better than enduring crisis after crisis with only the dishonest voices of the powerful to lead you through them. And the crises will come. Covid is only the start. You will not be forever able to keep your head down and abide the rules, not if you want to maintain your personal integrity. I repeat: keeping your head down will not be an option forever. So why not choose to act of your own impulse?

Friends, change is coming and there will be choices to face sooner or later. Questions that will demand answers. Can I accept the status quo? Can I accept the dominant narrative? Can I accept indignities and injustice, carried out against me or sometimes in my name? Can I accept the climate crisis and environmental destruction taking place under my nose?

Talk to your friends. Find your answers. Find the drive for change.

Friends, the world is yours to shape. The story is yours to tell. Be aware of your own power, and use it for good.

Friends, be brave. The time is now. Good luck on your way.

Love,

Salt

[saltoftheao3]

“You’re Not a Good Writer.”

I once received a DM comprised of just that sentence. Nothing else. No constructive criticism or any reason as to why this person clearly agreed with my own view of myself.

For someone who has never told anyone in their real life that they write anything, reading something like this from an anonymous user only solidified in my mind the fact that this person was right.

I’m not a good writer.

After an embarrassing amount of minutes passed, in which I thought about deleting every story I ever posted, I decided to delete the message instead. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I could delete the feelings it caused or change the fact that I’m not a good writer.

Two weeks went by and I didn’t write anything, let alone post. Then I received a comment on a story I had posted three years prior, one I’d written after a death in our family. The comment read, “Thank you for sharing this heartfelt story. I really needed this. I just lost my mom and this really got me today.”

I stopped thinking about being a good writer after that. I thought instead, “what if I had deleted my stories and that one person three years later hadn’t read it that day?”

Here’s what I realized: no one is a good writer.

Good means to be approved of, but stories aren’t created from approval. They’re built from life experiences, feelings, and emotions Therefore, the impact of anyone’s story isn’t good or bad. It’s a million other things.

Heartfelt.

Sad.

Funny.

Inspiring.

Romantic.

So to all the story writers out there, hold your head up, write what is in your heart, and never doubt that there isn’t at least one person out there that needs to read your story.

So, no.

We’re not good writers, but why would we want to be?

[saltoftheao3]

oh hey new guide thinggg~ some basics on how to practice! there’s SO much I could add to this, so it’s just the basics :O

short (kind of): there’s more to practice than doing something repeatedly, it’s also learning new things, problem solving, and honest critique. Each of those is its own skill…also be nice to yourself!

[saltoftheao3]

Advice from an (Amateur) Archer on Writing About Archers and Archery

Admittedly, I don’t have the widest range of experience when it’s come to archery. I’ve only been shooting for a year now, and the time that I do take to shoot have long months between them. Still, I think it’s important to outline the basics for anyone who wants to write an archer in their book and wants to save themselves the embarrassment of having the archer do something that an archer would never do in a million years.

- Archers usually unstring their bow after battle. Unstringing a bow is exactly what it sounds like: removing the string from the bow’s limbs. Usually, archers then wrap the string around the now-straightened bow so they don’t lose it as easily. Archers unstring bows because everytime the limbs are bent by the string, there is a large amount of tension in the limbs. If the string is on too long and the bow has not been shot for a while, the limbs will start to wear down and lose their power, resulting in an archer needing to buy new limbs or an entirely new bow.

- Archers always retrieve their arrows after battle. Arrows are expensive and take a long time to make, so archers want to conserve as many arrows as possible. Sometimes they have a repair kit with them at the ready, in case they find an arrow with a loose arrowhead or broken fletching that can easily be repaired. 

- Training arrows are not the same as battle arrows. Training arrows have thinner shafts and usually blunted tips so they can easily be removed from targets. Thinner shafts break more easily, and the blunted tips – whilst they can pierce skin – usually won’t get very far in the flesh. They’re also easier to make. Battle arrows are thicker, and their heads are pointed at the tip and have two pointed ends at its sides. This arrowhead is designed to easily pierce through flesh, and is incredibly difficult to pull out because its two pointed ends snag onto flesh. If you want to pull it out, you’d have to tear the flesh away with it, which can lead to an even larger wound.

- Arrows are fatal, and one can incapacitate a soldier for the rest of his life. Arrows are not easily snapped off like you see in movies. The draw weight is too strong, and they can sometimes be as strong as bullets. They will pierce through bone and tendons, which do not easily heal. Furthermore, if you want to remove an arrow, you either have to go through surgery, parting the flesh away from the arrowhead so it doesn’t snag onto anything, or you have you push – not pull – it all the way through the body.

- Bows are not designed for hitting people with in close combat. The limbs are specifically made to flex. Imagine hitting someone with a flexing piece of wood. If you hit with the middle of the bow, it still does very little because there is no weight behind the bow, and so you might as well be hitting them with a pillow. It might be annoying to the opponent, but it won’t save you. Archers need a secondary blade in close combat. They cannot strike people with their bows and expect to win.

- Draw weight affects speed, range, and impact. Draw weight is measured in pounds, at least in America, and it is measured in how much weight must be pulled when you draw back the string. A high draw weight means stiffer, thicker limbs that can shoot further and hit harder. But, this is at the cost of speed. A low draw weight means thinner, more flexible limbs that can shoot smaller distances and have low impact, but can be shot faster. Before you acrobatic fanatics immediately seize the smaller bow for its speed, understand that a bow’s advantage is in its range. No one can hit an archer from 300 meters away with their spear or sword. The archer has complete dominance over the battlefield in this way, and their arrows can kill anyone who gets too close. Not hurt. Not annoy. Kill. And a higher draw weight means a better chance of piercing through specific armor, then flesh, then bone. A lower draw weight means less range and, even worse, a lower chance that the arrow would even pierce through armor if the arrow even hits its target. 

- Bows will always be outmatched in close combat against any other weapon. Bows take too long to draw and shoot, and at such close range, the opponent has an easier chance to dodge oncoming arrows. I already explained that the bows themselves cannot be used to take down a foe. 

- Bowmen on horseback are utterly terrifying. Archers usually can’t move from their spot because range is more important than mobility, and at such a long range, you usually don’t need to move from your spot anyways. Bowmen on horses, however, are closer to the battle, and worse, they are faster than almost anyone on the battlefield. Not only are they difficult to hit, you have no way of predicting where they will shoot next because they can circle around you in confusing ways. If you want an interesting archer character, I’d advise trying these guys out.

- Never underestimate armor and padding. Arrows will never be able to pierce through plate armor because its curved surface will always deflect oncoming arrows. Arrows can pierce through maille because maille is made out of metal rings that can be bent and can fall away. However, padding usually lies underneath, which is surprisingly durable and can stop an oncoming arrow, as well as absorb some of its impact. Because of this, make certain that the archer is focusing on gabs in the armor. To know this, you MUST study armor. Gabs usually lie where the joints are because soldiers need those gabs open so they can move. Typical gaps lie in the neck, the armpit, the inner-elbow, the knees, and the palm of the hand. Impact is also an archer’s friend. A war arrow shot by a hundred pound bow, hurtling at incredible speeds and gaining momentum the further it travels, can evoke serious damage. To be hit by one of these arrows will feel more like being hit by a horse than being hit by someone’s fist. 

[saltoftheao3]

credit: @readbeantofu on twt

[saltoftheao3]

Me re-reading the fics I’ve bookmarked:

[saltoftheao3]

advice for writing a stutterer from an actual stutterer;

okay no shade at all I just want all of u to learn and grow and become better writers! so here’s a handy tip list!

we don’t stutter on every word. okay, sometimes it can seem it, but honestly, we don’t, so leave a few words in there to give your readers some breathing room.

we stutter more on specific sounds. for me, f and s sounds are big ones. everyone has their thing and most stutterers have sounds that are harder to get out.

we don’t just stutter at the beginning of words and sentences. okay, honestly this is a big one for me. sometimes, a word starts off really well and goes down the drain at the second syllable! and the stutter doesn’t disappear once we’ve made it past the first word - it clings in there, so don’t forget it.

some of us don’t always stutter. some, not all, of us have what’s known as an anxious stutter, which generally comes alongside anxiety disorders. so, while it may be usually present, when a person with an anxious stutter is particularly comfortable with a situation, it tends to get better (or even almost disappear).

we don’t stutter when we swear. this is why some of us can stutter and stutter and stutter on a word and then shout fuck and everything’s cool. as far as science knows, this is because swearing is from a more primitive part of the brain, and so it bypasses the bit that makes us stutter! it’s so cool honestly.

we don’t stutter when we sing. the biggest two reasons for this one is 1) music comes from a different part of the brain to talking (language=left; music=right), and so it once again bypasses the stutter, or 2) ‘easy voice’, which is the voice that people sing in, is softer and smoother, and the sounds are longer so there’s less opportunity to stutter. either option is way cool but we don’t stutter when we sing.

sometimes, we give up on words. after a certain amount of stuttering on a certain word, you may see a stutterer take a deep breath and either try again, or replace it with a synonym. sometimes that word just won’t fit right in our mouths!

we hate it when people try to guess what we’re trying to say or try to speed us up. this might be a more personal thing for me, but there’s nothing I hate more than that clicky sound people make or the weird hand gestures or being told to “spit it out.” because we can’t control this shit and it gets tiring. it’s better just to let the person get it out and take their time with it, so when you’re writing, keep this in mind!

it gets worse when we’re anxious or stressed, and when we’re excited! I get really really stuttery when I’m enthusiastic about the topic of conversation, because I know so much about that thing that I try to talk really fast and my mouth can’t keep up! it’s the same when I’m anxious or stressed - when there’s more on our minds, the more everything gets a little muddled.

I hope this was helpful! feel free to add on and spread around!

[saltoftheao3]

Writer: There Was Only One Bed…

Smut fans: *gasp!!!!!*

Writer: So They Spooned All Night And The Brooding One Allowed Themselves To Feel Vulnerable For The First Time In Years And The Chirpy One Got Some Quality Snuggles

Fluff fans: *GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

[saltoftheao3]

I don’t have “abandoned” or “on hiatus” wips. I just put them on simmer for a bit. Indefinitely.