#Existing in fandom spaces 101

[ashthenerd]

Arguments in the Pitt Fandom - Basic instructions in how to coexist, because people have forgotten how to behave in fandom

Tagging

This is the basics. If you want to see something, you search the tag for it. Of you don't want to see something, you block the tag for it. But this only works if people tag their shit correctly

/ is for when it is explicitly a romantic relationship (canon or headcannon). It is for when what you are writing about is for when what you have created contains the pairing (or tripling) where they are dating. Some people used to use "x" it's not as popular, but it still does the same thing

& is for when it is any non dating relationship. If it can be read either way, it's &. If they are mentor and mentee it's &. If they are besties or platonic soulmates it's &. If they are roommates and actually roommates, it's &.

Ship names are used for both the slash ship and the friendship ship, so filtering that gets you nothing.

If it's smutty, tag it as smutty. This is not saying that it is bad to write smut. This is not me being a puritanical weirdo or censoring you. This is me telling you to follow the WELL ESTABLISHED rules of fandom. People have to consent to be eaten out and they have to consent to seeing or reading it aswell. Not everybody is comfy with that. Maybe it's because they're not in the mood, maybe it's because of trauma. Maybe it's because they're at work and NSFW stuff should be tagged as such because it's NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK. Tag your shit.

If you have made a gif set, lovely, well done thank you for your contribution to the fandom, if there are flashing lights, you better fucking tag it or else you can cause a seizure and for fucks sake do NOT tag it as #epilepsy or #epilepsywarning because then it gets shown to the epileptic people on here, including the photosensitive ones. #flashing lights. It's not hard. This fandom is literally about a hospital drama, we do not need to send people to the hospital

Anti

If you don't like a character, that is fine. Do not shit on people for having opinions, that's weird and controlling. People have opinions that differ from yours. Unless they are being a bigot or disrespecting basic rights, move on with your day.

However, do not tag posts saying how much you hate a character with that characters name. Because then you are showing it to everyone who likes the character and that's annoying for people. If you want to post about how you think a character is a disgusting piece of shit, tag it with #anti(character name). If you hate Santos and want to write about that, tag it as #antiSantos, that way other people who don't like her will engage with it and everyone who gets joy from her character can keep enjoying themselves and there's no arguments over who's wrong and who's right.

Ship and let ship and Ship and let not ship

If you don't like a ship block it. Tag your posts correctly so people who like it can follow the tag, and people who don't can block the tag.

There's a lot of arguments over shipping Mel and Langdon, and people need to start being mature and stop acting like playground bullies. If people tag their shit right, the it does not effect you whether someone thinks they're wholesome besties or fuck buddies. Stop arguing about it. Stop telling people to kill themselves. Stop calling people deranged. Stop sending anon hate. Stop acting like this is Romans versus Greeks and just let people enjoy their stuff. And no, shipping it does not mean that you can write 5000 words about how asexuals are puritanical cunts. That's just being an asshole. And not shipping it does not mean that you should write 5000 words about how shipping it is shitting on asexuals. I'm asexual. I've blocked the asexual tag because of the sheer fucking drama. Yous are not helping asexuals, you are unintentionally putting more discourse about us on our pages and it's the opposite of helpful.

If someone ships it, let them ship it and block the tag. If someone doesn't ship it, let them not ship it and block that tag. Stop arguing about it and stop turning it into a whole shit show where people don't feel comfortable in the fandom anymore because they're dealing with so much hate. And stop making it into a "shipping it is pro divorce and anti asexuals because they're frigid" and "not shipping it means you hate women and think people should stay in abusive marriages and preformatively support asexuals while causing more drama for us to deal with" thing. Whether you ship it or not has NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!! STOP MAKING DISCOURSE AND GROW THE FUCK UP!!! Leave it out, stop trying to make it a morality thing, because you're just being offensive to the people you're claiming to support.

Block lists

If someone is constantly posting stuff that you're not comfortable with, and when asked politely to tag it so you can avoid it, or someone is just posting vitriolic bullshit about addicts or contributing to the shit show I just mentioned and they won't stop. Do you

a) Write a hate post about how much of a dick they are and start a feud and turn it into an argument (it takes 2 to tango) while inviting more people to argus with you

b) send them anon hate

c) Get overwhelmed because what they just wrote was frustrating as fuck and you disagree with it on every level and you feel responsible to educate them but you are also so sick of dealing with people being shitty

d) Take a deep breathe, block them and move on with your life.

The answer is D. In every fandom you partake in, you're going to need a block list. Don't engage with stuff that makes you feel shitty. Block it. It's not your job to convince them of your views, it'll just turn into an argument. It's not your job to publicly shame them, that's stooping to their level. Be the bigger person and press those beautiful block buttons and avoid the drama

Don't be a dickhead

Stop sending people hate anon. Stop making hate posts. Stop telling people to die for being asexual. Stop bringing up shit about asexualism. Just leave it. Stop saying that addicts are all evil.

Do your research

Educate yourself before you posts something about addicts even if you think it's supportive, because you could actually be so far off the mark and several people have been. Get your religion shit right. Robby is Jewish, don't fuck up on that because Judaism is an intricate and complicated religion with lots of misconceptions. We're privelaged that a person offered themself as a resource to prevent people from writing disrespectful shit. Use your resources. If you're writing about addiction, learn from addicts first. If you're writing about Judaism, learn from Jews first. If you're writing about autism, learn from autistic people first. For fucking once we have decent autistic rep in a medical drama, do not turn this into some "The good doctor" shit, because he was not a good doctor or good rep in any way shape or form. Do your research.

Get your terminology right

I've seen people calling those who don't ship Mel and Langdon "Deranged purutanical anti shipper babies". The phrase "antishipper" comes from the debate over whether it's okay or not to ship adults and children. The proship vs antiship stuff is not applicable here. That is about pedophilia

Nuance - Addiction does not make you evil.

Fucking research your shit. Langdon is not the scum of the earth for having a substance abuse disorder. He's an asshole for being shitty to people. He is not Satan incarnate for having a drug dependancy. Yes, stealing drugs is wrong. That was bad. If you're going to call him a dickhead, do it for when he was a dick. Not because he's a drug addict. It is the twenty first century, addicts are not evil. Addicts do shitty things. Non addicts do shitty things. Humans can be evil. There is no such thing as an evil person disorder. Substance abuse makes you sick, not satan.

Stop applying morality to whether someone likes a character

Just stop. People don't hate women for liking Robby. People aren't racist if they're not as into Collins because they find her storyline overwhelming. Liking Abbot doesn't mean that you support the military industrial complex. Fucking Abbot doesn't even like it, have you seen the man?

Conclusion

Tag your shit, block people, educate yourself, use your head, don't be a dickhead. I mean it, fuck off Regina, this isn't mean girls. If you see this as an invitation to send be hate, you're the problem, take a moment to evaluate yourself and why you feel the need to do that.

[wreckedhoney]

^^ "coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse"

not proshipper not anti but a secret third thing (person who has a career in the media and, through covering legislative politics, has watched "associating with problematic fiction or entertainment is an indicator of moral degeneracy" rapidly become a mainstream GOP position that they are encoding in legislation to target the queer community under the guise of protecting children, thus coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse — the extent and manner to which fiction affects reality is an issue that is immediately relevant to today's US politics, and to summarize my opinions on the matter in fandom terms would be to diminish the ways this debate is affecting america Right The Fuck Now. and i have stopped taking "this person is bad for shipping the wrong anime thing and being horny about it" in any sort of good faith ever since I saw it literally used as part of a GOP smear campaign against a transgender state legislator in an attempt to defend the right from backlash after they used their supermajority in the Montana house to prevent her from speaking on the floor. Anyway I think everyone on this site, especially Americans, could benefit from ceasing to think in proship v anti vocabulary and instead developing coherent political positions on the nature of fiction that do not directly align with current fascist political tactics)

[luimagines]

*walks on in tiredly, waves, leaves a basket of baked goodies, refuses to elaborate as i promptly leave to pass out for sixteen hours* Well hello there, it’s been a while since I left an ask, life’s gotten busy lol.

Anyway! Once again thank you for all of your work in the fandom and for writing so much for the boys, it’s always a delight to curl up after a hard day with a warm drink and just read everything, it never fails to put a smile on my face and make my day a little brighter, so once again, thank you ^^.

(Also I know this is properly incredibly late but happy anniversary to the blog! I haven’t been able to sit down and just write much of anything for a while else I’d have probably said this sooner, sorry about that.)

Also, uh, beware a long ask ahead? This idea has been consuming me alongside Assassin Reader with Warriors and Lustrous Reader and it’s kind of been intruding in the space the fairy tale au should be at while I’m writing it + Linktober, hope you don’t mind me just sharing it here so it hopefully leaves my system lol.

So I don’t really expect many people in the LU fandom to know about Mili (who is a japanese indie band, really good songs), but I’ve been listening to Summoning 101 and then suddenly blacked out and woke up with the idea of Twilight with an au with Summoner Reader (or any of the boys really, I feel like it would work well for any of them, but especially so for Twi, Time and First).

-So the gist of it would be that Summoner Reader is probably from a world where both magic and modern technology exist (albeit with some challenges and friction between magic users and scientists), probably a little more advanced than Wild’s world. And that they themselves had a Link and a Zelda, a Link on his own journey and a Zelda who was incapacitated but probably trying to get back to them, Summoner Reader gets roped into the adventure because they were close to Link and was really knowledgeable of magic, making several attempts to mix it with science which got them mostly ostricized from society, and they know a lot of Hyrule’s history so he asked for their help in locating Zelda, Summoner Reader agreeing because it would allow them to keep an eye on Link and also gather ingredients to hopefully make a breakthrough that would guarantee many of Hyrule’s older enemies like say, Ganon or Vaati or the like would stay permanently down, even if it means shunting them off somewhere else before they could be sealed to try and break the cycle of reincarnation (I mean if the enemy can’t be killed but can be sealed, then surely there’s some way of sending them back to the netherworld where they came from and make sure they stayed there). Surely nothing could possibly go wrong in the middle of this adventure-

-So. 

Things go wrong in the middle of the adventure.

Link dies sort of things go wrong. 

(Either in battle trying to protect Summoner Reader or trying to get Zelda back, or because at some point Summoner Reader overextended themselves healing him and he was just like, ‘Yeah no I’m not dragging them down with me after this one, I can accept the cost of my wellbeing to save my homeland, I do not accept Summoner’s life being added to the cost.’ And ended up going off on his own, Summoner Reader catching up and, despite their best efforts, being unable to heal him, to the amusement of a certain Darknut shaped shadow.)

So Summoner Reader very clearly panics because none of the stories says there can’t be a hero, and there was no one who is capable enough to take up the mantle (I mean they’re a magician and they know for a fact they’re not hero material, and as far as they know there has only ever been one hero per generation/crisis, even if one crisis is mostly only put on hold until another one can come around and finish it), so they think and think and think, until finally they look at the Master Sword, dormant and silent in it’s scabbard that they had to pry off their Link’s long stiff hands hands, and have an idea.

It’s an insane, foolhardy, and incredibly selfish idea. 

But it can work. It can finish what their Link started, it can save their Zelda.

(It can help ease some of the guilt they feel at failing them both.)

So, they get to work, get some decomposing Wolfos fangs, a lot more powdered moonlight than is probably advised, the Master Sword (it could find things once upon a time couldn’t it? So what if it burns their hands, they will make this work, it will work with the last ingredient they’ll use, it will be worth it-), some of their own blood for the circle-

And half a Hylian.

Desperation drives one to do awful things. If they had enough time maybe they could perfect the spell, if they had enough time maybe Link would have still been there to talk them out of it, for finding a better way-

But their Link isn’t there anymore, is he? And they never had enough time.

(All the stories say is that there has to be a hero, never which one.)

(Summoner Reader was trying to pull literally anyone over that fit the bill,  but I like to think that they were specifically aiming for Fierce Deity while using the remaining power of the Master Sword  and well, since he’s sealed in a mask it kind of just targeted the next closest thing he’s related to, maybe he felt a tug in the mask and kept Time up about it and the poor guy is just very over it  lol)

-So now this can be pre-LU or during LU, but the gist of it, is that because Summoner Reader used decomposing Wolfos fangs, the one they end up pulling through the ritual is Twilight (who maybe was on a journey of his own looking for another way into the Twilight Realm like in the TP manga, maybe because Dusk cryptically informed him there were magical disturbances going on where the mirror once was during one of their weekly wine times or something and he immediately took up the quest).

Needless to say none of them trust one another and there’s a lot of complicated feelings going on there (with Twilight still holding some hope that maybe it was the Twili and promptly being smacked over the head with a brick that it wasn’t and Summoner Reader feeling bad they pulled him into all this and over the demise (hah) of their Link and promptly deciding they’re going to A: Not get attached and B: Not let it happen again so help them goddesses).

The plan is that things will be solved and then they’ll go their separate ways, surely it’s simple enough of a goal to achieve.

Right?

-Things do not, in fact, go according to plan, and these two end up catching feelings along the journey, but end up not saying anything to each other because they’re both terrified of trying to say anything and then immediately losing one another at the end of the journey. Except the choice ends up being robbed of them anyway because an enemy (Dark Link as a monster and already up to his shenanigans being the logical option, the funnier option {for me} being a version of Zant from Summoner Reader’s verse that Twi has already decided It’s On Sight on Principle) catching onto the fact that Twilight should not be there and targeting Summoner Reader and, since they used themselves as a tether to bring and keep Twilight there, immediately ends up opening a road to send him back where he should be. Summoner Reader trying their darnest to pull him back and keep him there and Twilight trying to hold onto them-

But they’re attacked a second time, it causes their hold to slip.

The last thing Twilight sees before he falls through is Summoner Reader crumble to the floor like a puppet with it’s strings cut, and next thing they both know-

He’s gone.

(As you may guess, neither side takes this turn of events well.)

-So! If this is pre-LU, Twilight is eventually called by Dusk again and meets the Chain and, remembering what Summoner Reader did, basically went “... Mysteriously opening portals you say?” and doesn’t ask further questions. If anyone notices he’s a little more aggressive to the Shadow than any of them, or that he always look a little disappointed after looking at the portals, well, they won’t ask the same way they don’t ask about Wolfie. Everyone of them has their secrets they’re not ready to share yet, it will come up in time when he’s ready. 

-Meanwhile Summoner Reader, who’s barely managed to escape alive, hastily gotten themselves healed, has way too much coffee and energy potions in their system and with zero sleep, just managed to break out Zelda on their own after a series of Shenanigans, hastily recreating the ritual on the ground while the Princess is trying her best to hold off Ganondorf on their own so they can finish it even as the Master Sword is quite literally trying to burn their hands off and sacrificing all of their years of research to make this work darn it: Surely it will work this time right? If it worked once then it can work again right? *trying to convince themselves and has been actively overextending themselves even more than they already are*

-Next thing they know the Chain is yanked through another portal, much more violently than the last few times, in the middle of a battle, is that Ganondorf?! Why is the Princess fighting alone? Wait why is Twilight rushing over to that fallen person- is that the Master Sword?!

After they’re done with the urgent matters they are definitely cornering the Rancher for answers.

(For context, Summoner Reader didn’t give up on trying to bring Twilight back, because again, they didn’t finish their quest, and he didn’t want to go, that’s reason enough to bring him back. But due to the Chain being all in one place it was harder to find him among them, so they got… creative, and paid a more extreme price for it in spite of Zelda trying to dissuade them because they were sacrificing all they had. It’s a grand ol’ time.)

Huh, in hindsight this could also connect nicely to a Ga1ahad and Scientific Witchery au. 

Anyway that’s all I’ll  elaborate on for now, because this is long enough as is and I’m tired, sorry for the sudden writing dump lol.

In any case, thank you so much for all of your work in the fandom, remember to take care and thank you so much for inspiring me to write more! I hope you’re having a good day/afternoon/night.

-From A Very Tired WintertimeStoryteller 🐚.

This took a while to get to but woah it was worth the wait.

Frist of all. How dare you? DX

Why must you hurt my boy, Twilight, like this again???

Also, Reader is like.... totally dead. ^.^*

They were being held together with bubble gum, duck tape, and sheer power of will. That last summons would have been enough to put them in a coma. Summoning that many people while being that weak would have definitely caused some organs to shut down. If not just have them drop dead entirely.

I wanna see Twilight see their body, attempt to get to them only to be blocked, and then absolutely lose his mind.

Forget turning into Wolfie. Twilight goes straight feral. Full barbarian- "I would like to Rage," sort of thing.

[castlebyersafterdark]

hello! I love your blog and the way you have fun here while also speaking eloquently about the dynamics and mechanics of the show. bravo for such a great space!

what do you think of people who don't see will as a main character? i've found my first on tumblr:

'i get he has importance. but also like, he is very much a plot device of Bad Stuff in at least the first 3 seasons, if not the 4th as well. (kidnapped, possessed, ominous Warnings that dont really matter except for building up tension) - we very much do only care about him because other characters do.'

this is less a comment on how they wrote will than his overall meaning in the narrative. even without the whole noah confirmation that will is BACK and BIG in s5, why do you think so many people, including GA, couldnt pick up on will's importance?

i recall first watching the show in s1 2016. even before ship wars existed, even before i knew about 'byeler' as it was called, i felt in my soul that will was important. there was a magic about him! he felt so intriguing and special. i even wrote in my journal that 'will byers is an iconic figure'. i have that old journal somewhere, and there's no elaboration! just that one sentence! haha

will was so mystical and powerful to me. i am not queer and did not pick up on this part of him, at least consciously, until s3. but something about him i adored and he mattered to me. these viewers who don't see will as important... do you think they truly missed the point of the show? if so, its a shame, but theyre very adamant that it's others who are missing the point and that we're not supposed to care for will, and i just can't see how that would ever be something the creators would want for any of their original characters. + will isn't an extra, or even a secondary character despite his lack of screentime because the heart of the story and narrative hinges around him. he is subtextually, implicitly important - this is storytelling 101!

(many of these will-indifferents also want fics of mike where will is only background/not important, even though they see mike as gay. they want a s5 gay mike arc, but where will doesnt figure in it, and i dont understand how that can make sense in this show when mike and will have always been part of each other's lives, even as friends???)

what are your thoughts my friend?

Hello!!! Glad you're here!

I honestly cannot understand Stranger Things fans who don't like Will. Or view him as non-important. Yeah, even though he was in so little season one, he is sooooooo so vital and if you don't care about that little boy, what are you doing here? The show failed you and its purpose. I cared so much from the moment he ran from that monster and disappeared, hooked for life on this silly little show. Will did that! Plot device? Sure, of course. All characters are plot devices to an extent. But to say that's all he is? We learn so much about who he is from little snippets in s1, he's a real character. Sure, we care about the story of finding him, but why do we care? Defined haunting the narrative. That's so sad if people only see him as this afterthought to move the story along.

Did people not watch season 2? I can kiiiiiind of get what people meant if we were thrown back in time to pre-s2 times and we only know what we know and as a casual watcher, maybe you just saw the show and didn't think too deep. (Not me, I loved Will and was looking forward to what else was in store with him after that s1 cliffhanger with the slug, are you kidding??? How interesting!) How can you still view Will this way after season2?

I think these people missed the point of the show. Truly. Surface level watching, I honestly don't know. I can excuse the fandom colloquial and snarky read of the "GA" because these are just people who like the show but with everything they like, it's not deeper thinking. Still goofy how they miss so many points I feel are blatant in the show, but a lot of people barely absorb what they're watching ("omg I love ST, Dustin and Steve are so funny haha I hope they bring Eddie back haha the show is so scary haha") <- like that's honestly how randos sound.

The fandom fandom people who are actively on sites like tumblr and into actual fan shit??? How do you hate Will if you're not a milkvan stan? Why?? What is the reason to care about a Mike sexuality storyline and think it has nothing to do with Will?????? Whose arc thus far has that play a huge role in his character? They are so entwined. Just say you're a FW stan and stop pretending to be anything deeper, that's totally fine, but just admit that. The rest of us aren't crazy for analyzing deeper and understanding the point of the show - that Will has always been and will always be the heart of the storyline. Season 5 gonna be a huge wake up call for a lot of people. But I try not to think about or indulge those people too often. Stay positive, ignore dumbass interpretations and takes. We know what and who are important.

[ghost-of-you]

Ima hop in talking to throw my two sense about this major break that’s coming up for 5sos, anonymously as someone who runs a anonymous 5sos confessions blog.

There’s a lot of new people in this fandom who’ve never experienced a 5sos break, and still have trauma from either 1D or other bands who took a break and then disbanded before the reunion. Or are fans of bands who are also in a limbo and are worried about what’s going to happen. (Looking at 1975 fans, I wish the best for yall)

And I’m a mixture of both! I was here for the first break, but drifted into other music genres during it, and kinda forgot about 5sos for a while, but came back within the last 3 years.

Plus for those who were here for the first break - there’s a lot of different factors that add into the uncertainty this time, like Michael becoming a dad!

There’s a lot of feelings being thrown around in the music industry of what happens before/during breaks that adds to what a break means now vs when the first break happened. It’s just… a lot.

Okay, look, I'm nice and I'm understanding but right now I'm gonna sound like a bitch and I don't care. Whatever experience anyone has with any other band doesn't matter. What happened with one direction is different from what is happening with the 1975, that's different from what happened with big time rush, that's different from what happened to why don't we, that's different from what happened to the Jonas brothers, I can keep going but you catch my drift. They are different bands, formed by different people, in different ways, with different believes and way to make music. No one thought backstreet boys were ever gonna come back and they just did a world tour, NSYNC was seen together just last month for the first time in YEARS, bands can take breaks and reform and regroup and move on if they want. I think this expectation that you're owed content all of the time is crazy. Album cycles shouldn't be just month long things. They should be allowed to work on something for longer. They should be allowed to not tour every 6 months. 5sos released 5 album in 10 years. An album every 2 years is a fucking good number. But even if it takes them another 2, 3, 5 years, it's their right as humans to take as much space as they want. I understand why people might be scared, but no one has the right to demand anything from anyone. Maybe Luke and Ashton will release more solo music, maybe they'll go on a tour, maybe Calum will drop a poetry book, maybe we won't see them for 5 years and then they'll announce the announcement of a new song. They can do whatever they want. You can't honestly expect to have access or content or tour at all times. They are grown men with lives and families who worked hard to learn how to exist outside a band they started when they were teenagers.

And yes, Michael is gonna be a father, but one, he's not the first musician ever to have a kid so that doesn't mean anything, but you also can't expect him to not be there for his daughter. Baby girl Clifford should be his priority but in nowhere is stated that you can't be a father and a musician.

And to compare 5sos to one direction is not a fair comparison, one direction was formed in a reality show by people who only wanted to explore them. 5sos were friends first and they are still friends first. Maybe they won't drop an album every year anymore. Maybe they won't make a tour with 101 concerts in less than 8 months. But that doesn't make them any less of a band, it they are doing shorter tours and longer album cycles.

Also, if they break up, they broke up, we can't force them to stay a band.

But I stand by the fact that these men went through quarantine, lost a whole record with calm due to an internal error, dropped their label, their management, both Ashton and Luke released solo albums, with Luke signing a 3 record deal if I'm not mistaken , Michael got signed as a dj and a producer, and they still released a whole album independently that was made the way they wanted. If they were gonna stop being a band they would've done in it in 2020. They're allowed whatever breaks they want or need. They are real humans. And they are not one direction.

But this break they are taking is something that they planned around it, or do you think it's an accident the tour ended just in time for Michael to be back home for the birth of his daughter? This tour wasn't scheduled, they could've not done it. But they chose to do it. But to look at them and accuse of being about to breakup and lying about it because they are taking a break for a very specific and unbelievably valid reason is bullshit.

I don't care about whatever trauma you may have about other bands. What happened to other bands happened to other bands. You can't make a different situation about them because it's never gonna be the same because there's different people involved.

Is their life. Their choice. We're just along for the ride. It's a hell of a good one so far and if this is it so be it. It's their choice.

And honestly, if you're actually this affected by one direction breaking up and this is not just some exaggeration for the bit or a joke, get help.

[unreadpoppy]

Internet 101, Fandoms and curating your online experience

I saw some stuff happening both on tumblr and on twitter (and sometimes even on instagram) regarding some fandom stuff and I wanted to make a post about, but in more of a "How to keep your peace of mind and create a healthy space" sort of post. These are just some things that I do that allow me to have a better experience on the internet as a whole, but especially on fandom spaces, and idk, I wanted to share bc navigating this sort of thing can be hard and it doesn't hurt to try and help.

One thing that I've learned very early on by people who had been on the internet for longer than me is that you do not feed the trolls. Listen. People will post shit to stir the pot, and you giving them attention is falling into their bait.

And I get it, I'm human too, I see someone talking shit and I feel the urge to give them a lenghty reply but at some point you gotta stop and think: is this worth it? like, i'm getting mad over a rando on the internet who'll probably just laugh at me. Even if we really feel like answering, it's probably always better to let it go.

And while I'm on the topic, I also want to say the following: no matter how many good arguments you have, no matter how eloquent you are, you cannot change people's minds. I've tried it and all it did was make me stressed. And especially with regards to bigots, they will not change their minds, so don't give them your time and your peace of mind because they do not care about you or your feelings. I'm a queer disabled latina woman, I get it, it sucks and it will always suck, but people will not change what they think because of lenghy ass paragraph someone on the internet sent them, so it's better to just...move on.

And by move on, I do mean do not interact in any way, shape or form. Just...scroll past it. Because it's not worth it, it truly is not, and more likely then not, even by just giving the post or person a small bit of attention, you could cause a whole situation. Do not give people clout, because then they'll get the satisfaction of both having attention AND causing such a reaction from another person.

Like, speaking from experience here, I have received a few hateful/mean spirited anons on my inbox over the years and you wanna know something? You will not find those asks on my blog because I have a 0 tolerance for hate anons. Replying to them only generates more hate anons (trust me, I've seen that happen to other people). When you show someone that you're not affected by the shit they're saying, they'll move on because you are no longer a target. This is why is so important to know when to not interact and just continue moving on.

Still on this topic but more related to fandom. People will have different opinions then you. People will have different HCs then you. People will misinterpret your favorite character. Hell, I've seen takes on my faves that honestly insult my intellect and you know what I did?

Let it go. Just scrolled past, made a mental note not to interact with that person, because again, people won't change their minds. And people are entitled to have their opinions, and enjoy characters in a different way then you do, and the best thing to do is not give them your time. Just don't. It's much better (and probably healthier) to spend your time interacting with people you like and who you can talk to then try to change a person's opinion and pottentialy instigate a fight.

For the sake of not making the same point again and again, I want to talk about blocking people, bc blocking people is the easiest way to curate your experience. There is no morality in blocking. You're not some evil bastard or a super hero because you blocked someone, so don't ascribe morality to that. Just block whoever (and whatever, because blocking tags exist) you don't want to see and move on.

Finally, my last advice is: somethings are best kept private and by private I mean get yourself some friend who you can just talk shit about to. Listen, sometimes the urge to be like "this bitch online is an idiot" is BIG and the best thing you can do about it, in a way that won't cause a fight or whatever, is to go to some friend and say "let me talk shit for a few minutes". Trust me, IT WORKS. So many times I've been tempted to say stuff, only to go to a friend and talk about the stuff and then boom, I was done. I was okay. So yeah, there's stuff that is better to be sent in a groupchat then to be posted about.

This post is longer than I intended but I feel like we should try to just have fun? This is the internet, the good part about it is that we can choose who we can engage with and what we want to say, and it's way more productive to spend your time with people that matter, that you care about and that make you happy then stressing over people who simply do not care and who will not change.

Anyways, peace out

[thebirdsareafterme]

Fandom Etiquette 101: Formula 1 RPF

Just saw a TikTok of someone finding out that the Max Verstappen/Charles Leclerc tag was on AO3’s top 100 ships of 2024 and someone else commented this:

…mate, WHAT??? Are these people okay? Genuinely why would anyone think that this is something that Max, the real person who they are talking about, would be happy about?

First of all, I hope to high heaven that he NEVER finds this out, and that y’all learn some gosh darn FANDOM ETIQUETTE because it’s been atrocious recently. This applies to every ship.

Second of all, y’all realize that these are real human beings, right? Like with girlfriends and wives and relationships? If you found thousands and thousands of stories written about you and your COWORKER on the internet, written by strangers and sometimes about you being in love with them, would you be absolutely overjoyed? Girl, I would be horrified! You people do not know them! This is weird!! This is why we need to learn fandom etiquette, because people need to understand that it would ABSOLUTELY NOT BE COOL if anyone related to the drivers, the drivers themselves, etc. were to find these fics.

BASELINE RULES:

DO NOT SHARE RPF FICS WITH THE PEOPLE THEY ARE ABOUT! I fear this is common sense?? So do not TALK about fics in any vicinity of the drivers or anyone they know, do not SEND it to them via social media, and do not POST about it and tag them. Please, for the love of God, do not do that.

LOCK! YOUR! FICS! The reason why Lestappen made it onto the list this year is because authors are not locking their fics (only unlocked fics are counted towards the total number). Please please please make it AS HARD AS POSSIBLE for people who may know the drivers personally to find these fics. It is your responsibility as a fan to take necessary actions in order to protect fan spaces! (Plus, it stops AI from scraping your work and stealing it for AI systems like c.ai so that's also a bonus.) Only people who are wanting to find your fic should find your fic.

Use appropriate platforms and tagging systems when discussing fics! TikTok is absolutely not the right place to do it, because many drivers and all the teams are on it! They can see what you post! Even if they don’t search for it, it may come up on their FYP. Tumblr, on the other hand, is not widely used by the drivers, or anyone who is not looking SPECIFICALLY for fandom spaces. The tagging system is extensive and can easily be filtered. IF YOU INSIST ON USING TIKTOK/INSTAGRAM, do not use common tags like #f1 or #formulaone because guess what? Mainstream media associated with F1 ALSO use those tags! They don’t want to see your Lestappen smut about the people that they literally work with, and if you were a halfway decent person, you wouldn’t want them to see it either.

The OVERARCHING RULE is this:

Keep it secret, keep it safe.

To clarify, I am not condemning all RPF works. RPF is inevitable, because people are storytellers by nature. Everyone and everything can be shipped on the World Wide Web, and there's nothing inherently wrong about the shipping itself.

Obviously, many people have different views on the moral aspects of it, but for those to who choose to participate in it, there are indeed rules that should be followed. Fandom spaces like AO3 and Tumblr can only exist when people follow the rules and use common sense and human decency to protect our rights to enjoy fandom the way we want to. Please try and treat these drivers like real humans rather than little cartoon characters from a show. They see everything, and it’s probably pretty uncomfortable for them. Even if they don’t see it, it’s likely that someone they know in real life will see it. Please remember that these drivers have siblings, cousins, friends and relatives that have access to the internet. Consider some of the drivers’ younger siblings, like Blue Jaye Verstappen or Hattie Piastri, for example. Would you really want them to find some of the things you’ve written about their siblings?

If RPF is to continue within an internet space, fans need to respect basic rules so that it doesn’t get ruined for everyone. I’m sorry, Lestappen fans, but your ship being up on that list is not a flex. It means you’ve failed, as a collective, to properly take precautions within your fandom space. Many other ships have similar numbers to Lestappen when looking at fics overall (including locked ones), but they’ve never made it on there, for good reason. You SHOULD NOT be up there!

“But whyyyyy?” you may ask. It’s because YouTubers, Tiktokers, and other influencers start talking about it, which puts it at greater risk of someone finding it who ultimately should not find it. The TikTok that I referenced earlier has a ton of views and likes, and I know a quite popular fandom YouTuber has already made a video on it. This seems trivial at first glance, and maybe even a bit exciting that your ship has gotten so much attention, but at the end of the day, these are real people. Please use discretion.

Lock. Your. Fics.

[moonmoonfairy]

I wrote the following as a comment to a YouTube video reacting to video about shipping in K-pop relating to BTS. The comments on this video have since been turned off and I spent a long time writing it and thought I should share it where someone else might enjoy reading it. It comes off as very Intro to Shipping 101 because they genuinely did not understand why someone might ship, so tumblr users wouldn’t be the target audience for this post but oh well lol. Warning: this became a LONG comment which practically grew into an essay about shipping culture with a lot of gray areas, if you’re looking for black and white opinions about what is right and wrong, you will not find it here. I do offer my opinions on the subject, but who am I really? I’m just offering a look into different perspectives. With that out of the way, let’s get into it. 

I think there is some nuance to the shipping conversation as there is a spectrum of experiences with it. BTS is the first fandom I’ve been a part of where there was Real People Shipping (RPS), every time I had seen shipping before becoming an army was with fictional characters from books, tv shows, and movies. With young people reading less, and media literacy on the decline, I have noticed an uptick in the amount of RPS. Not that it didn’t exist before, but it certainly feels more common now with reality shows, musicians, costars, and YouTubers posting more of their private lives and/or using fanservice as a form of promotion (or this could also possibly be another case of the internet making things that were once more hidden/niche more visible, but I digress). I think the majority of shippers are teenagers and young adults who have yet to experience a romantic relationship in real life using shipping as an outlet for figuring out their blossoming sexualities. Women and queer folks especially have their sexuality stigmatized by society, it can feel safer for them to project their feelings onto someone else that is unobtainable. For straight girls, if both of the people they’re shipping are male, it can feel even safer because then they are equals (in many places it can feel like there is an inherent power imbalance between men and women because of societal norms) and because of heteronormativity, male/male ships can feel less likely to be true and therefore non threatening for those that self insert themselves into these ideas. I think this is normal and most people that do this grow out of it and feel embarrassed about it as they do. I don’t think it’s wrong for them to do this, it is certainly safer than exploring their sexualities in real life especially if they aren’t ready, and although I would prefer they do this with fictional characters, that isn’t a realistic expectation with how young people are consuming media. 

It can become dangerous when they head into conspiracy theory territory. As can be seen in the comments of many army spaces, these shippers are often mocked and othered which only strengthens their bond as a group, which can be very cult like. People prone to falling for conspiracy theories are generally a bit gullible and at their core just want to be special. They feel special for seeing what others don’t, and it provides them a community that makes them feel even more special and seen. In the case of Taekook or Jikook (and most musician based RPS) they have a ‘bad guy’ like ‘the company’ or just generally ‘homophobia’ they get to blame and try and fight for justice, they get to play the hero. I do not think these shippers are the majority, they are just the loudest, because they can’t think they are wrong or they will have wasted a lot of time and energy and essentially made a fool of themselves over nothing. You will most likely not be able to convince these types of shippers that their ship isn’t real unless you have an understanding of psychology and/or cult deprogramming. I would like to point out that I do not think Taekook and Jikook shippers are the only shippers behaving like this, I am just using them as an example, and I am aware of other shippers behaving this way. [ETA: I would like to point out that I initially only listed Taekook shippers in this section because when I first started following BTS they were THE conspiracy theory shippers, and Jikook shippers were generally viewed as more rational and casual, but since chapter 2 and the decrease in content, I’ve noticed a lot of Jikook shippers going down the conspiracy theory road so I amended it to more accurately reflect the current shipping trends.]

My biggest issue with these conversations against this type of shipping, which can be seen in your video, is that it is almost always rooted in homophobia. Another type of shipper is a queer person who sees themselves in someone they admire. From what I’ve seen, a lot of the time these shippers as the most casual. They say things like, “I wouldn’t be surprised if they came out, but I also don’t expect it,” sometimes they see themselves and how they behave with their partners in how some of the members interact. I think what gets lost here is the difference in cultural norms. What may be interpreted as romantic interest in one person’s thinking, turns out to be something straight guy friends do in South Korea (SK). 

There are two sides of the coin here in shipping in K-pop, fanservice, and how it’s interpreted. The first side of this coin is that everything really is just platonic. ‘Shipping’ as a term in SK means enjoying two of the members chemistry as friends, it isn’t romantic. Heteronormativity is stronger there because SK as a country is more conservative. It is playful for them and as fans we do enjoy it, it can just get misunderstood in different countries. Something that gets lost in these discussions about shipping, is that most of the time, casual shipping is just silly and fun. It’s fun to see two people being cute and genuinely enjoying each other’s company. This is a big part of why BTS is so popular.

We cannot disregard the fact that fanservice IS apart of the job in K-pop. A lot of people get upset when this is pointed out, shippers or not. It does not actually undermine their relationships to point this out because two things can be true at once. They can be close and good friends, and be playfully flirty on stage as fanservice. There are those who take it too far and shout fanservice at every interaction between certain members and that is annoying, but they are often stuck in those cult like thought circles, and again shaming these people will not convince them otherwise.

The second side of that coin is: gay people do exist everywhere in the world, maybe it’s not crazy to think one or more of the members might be queer. Something that bothers me is the argument that the members would be disgusted to be shipped with each other. First of all, they expect it because it is common in K-pop, and often feed into it. The members know that they are shipped and continue to behave in ways they know will be enjoyed in this way. An anecdote here: growing up I had a best friend that people often questioned whether or not we were together. We were not bothered when people thought this about us, we were not disgusted, we thought it was funny and often played into it because we knew what our relationship was to each other. I really want people who say the members would be disgusted that they’re shipped together to ask themselves: What if two of them are together or even just one of the members are queer, and they see millions of people saying that it’s disgusting. How would that make them feel? Although, if any of them are queer, they’re likely used to seeing this kind of thinking, but still, it probably sucks to constantly be faced with the fact that you’ll feel trapped in the closet forever. I think it best not to assume either way, straight or queer. We always see, “you shouldn’t assume,” targeted at those that discuss the possibility of one of the members being queer, but then those same people assume that they’re straight. 

If one of them is queer, they are closeted in a conservative country which can be very scary. If they are queer they are not obligated to out themselves and be a queer icon. Not just their lives would be affected by their coming out, the company, the other members, any other brands they work with, and their families and friends could be affected. With this in mind it is understandable why someone might want to stay closeted. The reason not to ship real life people should be that they are real people who deserve privacy, dignity, and respect, not because two guys together is “disgusting.” One or more of them could be queer, they could all be straight, maybe one of them is ace. Unless they tell us, we won’t know for sure, and people maybe shouldn’t go digging to try and put a label on them that they aren’t willing to put on themselves, but with how people view celebrities and their right to privacy, this type of speculation isn’t going to go away and it is quite frankly unrealistic to think that it could.

As a somewhat unrelated final point targeted more generally at homophobia in army spaces: BTS are artists, their art, music, videos, photos, and words are going to be speculated about, and people are going to dissect and discuss and relate to them in any number of ways. People want to connect with other people. No one person’s lived experience is universal, but we still seek to relate ourselves and our experiences to others so we don’t feel so alone. One of the biggest ways we do that is through media and art. I don’t think any of the BTS members would be upset if a queer army related to a lyric, or song, etc. I think they’d be glad that that army felt seen. Even if none of the members are queer, I think they have shown themselves to at the very least be allies.

If you read all of that, wow, you’re amazing, and I appreciate you. I hope it made sense and I hope you have a lovely day 💜

[olderthannetfic]

To be honest I think that “gatekeeping” fandom is okay sometimes. I’m saying this as I am bombarded with shitty news articles about the new Amazon prime LotR show and anticipating a major fandom clash… As someone who will never support Amazon and fucking hates how they’re using their new show to make all their detractors seem like racists/sexists (despite how incredibly racist and abusive to PoC Amazon as a company is) and drum up good press to draw attention away from their recent human rights abuses and controversies… I reserve the right to not wholeheartedly welcome fans of the Rings of Power adaptation into my fandom.

I know other Tolkien fans who’ve watched (pirated) it and they’ve all told me it’s just not great in an adaptation sense. From what I’ve seen of the plot and casting it looks like it was made by someone who’s never read even a chapter of Tolkien, and the designs/costuming look uninspired. I’m usually someone who adores adaptations, even shitty superhero films from the early 2000s, but the general inaccuracy of this one did it in for me, and it being picked up by Amazon is the final nail in the coffin for me. No thank you, I’m not going to let this soul-sucking company capitalize on my nostalgia.

A slightly pettier point, but if anyone’s first and only interacting with second and first age Tolkien characters comes from RoP I do actually think they should pick up a book and read. Like no Celebrimbor isn’t some fucking ugly ass crusty old white man. He was a HOTTIE and he lived and served cunt and then he got crucified by his dark lord boyfriend. Fuck Jeff Bezos, if anyone tries that shit in our god-honoring ao3 tag I’m gonna kill someone. It’s gonna be like when someone thinks they’re an expert on a video game and you’re like “have you ever played it?” And they say “no I just watched a YouTube video”.

I’m normally a much, much kinder person and maybe I’m overreacting but holy shit I hate how people are acting like this show is a GOOD THING when it’s clearly a marketing ploy by Amazon to associate LotR with their company and therefore give them a never ending stream of income.

--

Well, I think there are a few different things going on here, but yes.

When a new adaptation comes out that's going to have a massive audience, it's important to be able to defend some little spaces for the existing fandom. AO3 book fandom tags are going to get misused and stuck on fic for the live action version (in the usual way adaptations play out anyway). Tumblr tags will be a freeforall. So it's down to recs lists, mailing lists, discord servers, DW communities, and the like to maintain a space for the quiet-but-long-lived version of the fandom while the storm of a new adaptation thunders by overhead.

That's true even if the adaptation isn't a travesty, and it doesn't preclude being nice to the n00bs and welcoming them in if they are interested in the pre-existing fandom. But being "nice" doesn't mean erasing all distinctions between versions of the fandom and canon or turning every space into a 101 For N00bs space.

I mean, I enjoyed movie LOTR fandom and thought most aspects of those movies were a decent adaptation (except for Helm's Deep, Faramir wanting the ring, and everyfuckingthing about Gimli, GRRRRRRR). But it was still the case that we movie fans overran Tolkien-themed spaces with our Legolas/Aragorn fic, and that this was not always great. LOL. Same deal with the many iterations of Sherlock Holmes, even aside from the OOC horror that is Sherlock.

There's gatekeeping like quizzing everyone on whether they're enough of a Real Fan™ and being an ass just because someone wasn't born early enough to get into fandom in whatever decade...

And then there's gatekeeping like declaring that not every space is for every thing.

We need the latter in order for little subcultures to thrive.

[junogears2]

One thing that's been on my mind since forever regarding this whole thing is that negative or positive criticism doesn't really exist??

In regards to creative works, there's only criticism - as a constructive advice - and an opinion. Both can and often times do go hand in hand but they're fundamentally different. If you go to an artist's work, analyze it objectively, picture the artists intentions and techniques, and then say - objectively - what works in favor of achieving the goal in mind and what works against it, that's criticism. Going as far as saying "I don't like it, this sucks, do better next time", that's just how you think. That's a subjective argument that doesn't even have something to do with the work at hands, it's just how you perceived and received it. Criticism is based on objectivity, what's there and how does it work, what was the goal and if it gets there, how it gets there and what would be the best course of action to better optimize the results in the next try if need be. It's not based on whether you like it or not. That's my personal grip with the person of those tags, yeah people have the right to tell me that they think what I do sucks but that's not criticism in any way because "negative criticism" isn't real. If you - the hypothetical person reading this - need a good example of by the books criticism I recommend Critical Reactions on Youtube, specially when he picks artists and genres he's not really a fan of.

Taking this all in consideration, then the question becomes simply: should you say what's on your mind regardless? See, criticism is great! But sometimes people don't want to hear it and that's fine. Peer review and feedback is also cool but again, people don't need to hear or read it all the time. So, just because you don't like something and wants to make it clear, or think you have some nice criticisms to throw at them, doesn't mean you should. That's like, creative decency 101, you don't go out of your way to intrude someone's creative space like that if they don't want you to. And since this is more aimed at fandom creatives, this is more reason to just shut up because fandom spaces are famously full of people doing things for them first and foremost, so the misconstrued opinionated commentary of internet strangers really isn't as welcome as it apparently looks.

Hey, if you don’t have something nice to say about other people’s creations (gifsets, art, fic etc)

then

don’t say anything at all.

[thetangential]

Audiobook review: Maya Phillips on her life as a proud “Nerd”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “nerd” is a “mildly derogatory” term that emerged in 1950s America to describe someone who’s “socially inept.” Today, the dictionary allows, it can also describe someone who embraces “a highly technical interest.”

While listening to the confident sweep of Maya Phillips’s Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse, I kept returning to the title. Does the mildly derogatory “nerd” still have any meaning, I wondered, in a world where fantasy franchises have consumed the box office and where the fandoms Phillips embraces are avidly explored across the media spectrum? It seems like nerds have become, well, pretty cool.

Then, last night, I had a moment where I realized I was wearing an Ewok onesie, reading The Two Towers, and texting my friends about Star Trek wall calendars while my wife lay beside me reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Nerds.

Not until the very end of Nerd does Phillips explicitly engage with the idea that anyone might question the use of her time to dive deep on anime, comics, and novels about invented worlds. The bulk of Nerd is a series of chapters exploring weighty topics — among them religion, mental health, and race — through the lens of the author’s life. In each, Phillips explains how various imagined universes intersected with her own, providing inspiration and food for thought.

Chapter five, for example, is titled “The Slytherin Firebender of Sunagakure: Self-identification with fandom, racial and national identities in space westerns, and the persistent fantasy of manifest destiny.” It opens during “Christian existence” class in Phillips’s Catholic high school; develops into an examination of the fantasy-universe personality typology trope (Hogwarts houses, Avatar: The Last Airbender nations, Sex and the City characters); considers that phenomenon in the context of real-world signifiers like race and class; rolls back into an evocation of family road trips; and from there launches into a broader consideration of frontiers and identities in vintage westerns, Star Trek, Cowboy Bebop, Star Wars, and Firefly.

The book is so wide-ranging that it could be approached as a geography of contemporary imaginative universes, seen through the author’s individual lens. Unless you’re as well-versed as Phillips is regarding everything from Buffy to Akira, you’re bound to learn something about the fandoms you’re less familiar with. Phillips is generous in providing footholds for people with varying levels of knowledge about her subjects, but Nerd isn’t a 101: readers are expected to know offhand what a mecha is, and what “ship” means as a verb not involving transportation.

Growing up as a gen-X nerd, I scoured my local library shelves for nonfiction books about fantastic universes and found mostly hagiographies of pop filmmakers, dusty histories of Golden Age science fiction, and the occasional behind-the-scenes book. For serious pop culture analysis, I had The Parables of Peanuts and that was about it. From this perspective, it was gratifying to find that Phillips makes the occasional historical reference but isn’t bound by the past. Her emphasis is on the texts she’s encountered, and how they’ve been relevant to her life in real time.

Phillips also takes a dynamic approach to the creator-fan relationship, reflecting the potentially fraught realities of an era when J.K. Rowling can tweet retcons at whim even as her readers share their own takes on the Harry Potter canon. (Phillips and her friends, she writes, won’t entertain the Fantastic Beasts prequels as canon, nor do they credit “the Epilogue That Will Not Be Named.”) Phillips also addresses Rowling’s transphobia, about which Harry Potter’s creator is so resolutely unapologetic that any reference to her formerly ubiquitous fantasy universe is now potentially fraught.

The Nerd author narrates the audiobook herself with a confident, deliberate cadence. It’s gratifying to hear the text in her own voice, but the linear experience of an audiobook can present challenges for listeners who dip in and out. Nerd is a great listen if you have long, uninterrupted stretches of time to spend with it, but in shorter bursts, without the ability to readily flip pages, it can be challenging to hold all the threads of Phillips’s carefully crafted arguments.

Nerd constitutes a testament to the real-world power of imagined universes, and for the importance of remaining critically engaged even while meeting these stories on their own terms. “These worlds only belong to children, we’ve been told for so long, with the understanding that imagination, hope, and dreams may only survive in the innocence of childhood,” Phillips writes, “and yet, if the multiverse can teach us anything, it’s that reality is what we make it. The possibilities are endless.”

It’s a stirring sentiment, and I don’t just say that because I’m wearing a Baby Yoda onesie.

– Jay Gabler

[theresthesnitch]

Similar to another ask/tell you just posted. I was in your typical woman married to a man situation for 18 years with two kids…all Super Normal Brady Bunch 101 and after a messy divorce, I’m here totally devouring all the queer fanfic and questioning my whole existence in a weirdly…compulsive?…way. Like m/m f/f relationships make SO MUCH MORE SENSE to me but I don’t think I’m lesbian or bisexual? Maybe I’m consuming this fic because can’t be heartbroken over something I’ll never have? It’s all very confusing. Also I’m so much older than all of you and don’t really feel like I have the right to even interact. So there you go, I need therapy lol ….love your stories, they help my heart ❤️

Anon ask hour

Hi friend! Please feel like you have the right to interact with me! Imposter syndrome in fandom is so real, but you deserve to be here as much as I do or anyone else does. I also feel like I don’t always feel like I have the right to be here, but the truth is, we all deserve to have our own little space in fandom.

Your feelings on sexuality are so valid. I feel like there’s this implied expectation in society that queer media is exclusively for consumption by queer people, but I don’t think that’s the case at all, any more than heterosexual media is exclusively for het people.

Not to diverge from the point a bit here, but I think that there are so many people who have realizations about their own queerness later in life (i.e. past their teens/twenties) because it’s difficult to find queer media that accurately represent queer people as people instead of as caricatures for their stereotypes. So we see so many people, especially in fandoms, suddenly having access to media that is representative of them and realizing that I don’t have to be stuck with this label that never fit.

For me, I love reading about love, and the way people come together and fall apart. The way different sexualities play into that makes each story different, and I love exploring all of them, even those that are necessarily representative of me, specifically.

So read on! Write on (if you write)! And enjoy the media that you enjoy. It doesn’t have to redefine you (or it can, if you find something that fits you better).

[lowkeyed1]

attention to lokius shippers and anti-sylki folk when i look at the sylki tag it is FULL of anti-sylki people who are either using parsed word tags (anti sylki) or full phrases with sylki in them, or even just straight up tagging their anti post as sylki. stop doing that, okay? your anti posts are pulling into the main tags. it is RUDE. if you hate it, hate it. just keep your hate out of everyone's face because people do go to the sylki tag for actual sylki content, not your dime's worth on why you hate it. you are hazing people and driving off new fans with this, get your shit together. either use antisylki as a tag with no spaces, or use character replacement in your tag (like sylk*e or sy1kie). if you are full on tagging your anti post with the ship name you are BAD at FANDOM and you should feel bad! i do not see anything like this occuring in the lokius tag so good job anti-lokius folks, if you do in fact exist. fandom is made by cooperation. having a ship you like doesn't mean going and hazing others. having a ship you dislike means you discuss it with like-minded folks, not people who ship it. this is fandom 101. this is basic etiquette. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[bisexualbaker]

Thank you for the correction! Or, well, that just about adds up to "never" (and I swear I remember seeing Denise comment in an official news post that she'd kill the site before going to ads), but I acknowledge the possibility.

There is a third-party script to allow Dreamwidth users to reblog content, but it's not something I've ever tried out, so I don't know how easy or difficult to use it is. Still, it does exist, and I've got it linked in my Dreamwidth 101 tag.

(Is Bobaboard still 18+ only, or are some spaces open to all ages? That's my big condition for it; if it's not open to the under eighteen crowd in at least some places, I don't think it would be a good sole home for fandom. As a partial home for fandom, sure! But there should be at least one place that's even partly open to younger people.)

Why do people keep recommending Dreamwidth as a Tumblr alternative, when Dreamwidth and Tumblr are so different?

To be flat-out honest, it's because Dreamwidth has so many things that Tumblr users say they want, even if it's also lacking a lot of features that Tumblr users have come to love:

Dreamwidth has incredibly lax content hosting rules. I'd say that it's slightly more restrictive than AO3, but only just slightly, and only because AO3's abuse team has been so overwhelmed and over-worked. Otherwise, the hosting policies are pretty similar. You want to go nuts, show nuts? You can do that on Dreamwidth.

In fact, Dreamwidth is so serious about "go nuts, show nuts", it gave up the ability to accept transactions through PayPal in 2009 to protect our ability to do that. (It's also one reason why Dreamwidth doesn't have an app: Dreamwidth will never be beholden to Apple's content rules this way.)

Dreamwidth cares about your privacy; it doesn't sell your data, and barely collects any to begin with. As far as I'm aware, it only collects what it needs to run the site. The owners have also spoken out on behalf of internet privacy many times, and are prepared to put their money where their mouth is.

No ads. Ever. Period. They mean it. Dreamwidth is entirely user funded.

Posts viewed in reverse chronological order; no algorithm, opt-in or otherwise. No algorithm at all. No "For You" or "Suggested" page. You still entirely create and curate your own experience.

The ability to make posts that only your "mutuals", or even only a specific subset of your "mutuals", can see. Want to make a post that's only open to Bonnie, Clyde, Butch, and Cassidy? You can do that! Want to make a post that's only open to Bonnie and Butch, but Clyde and Cassidy can't see shit? You can do that, too!

The owners have forsworn NFTs and the blockchain in general. Not as big a worry now as it was even a year ago, but still good to know!

We are explicitly the customers of Dreamwidth. Dreamwidth wants to make us happy, so any changes they make (and they do make changes) are made with us in mind, and after exploring as many possibilities as they can.

Dreamwidth is very transparent about their policies and changes. If you want to know why they're making a specific change, or keeping or getting rid of a feature, they will tell you. You don't have to find out ten months later that they're locked into a contract to keep it for a year (cough cough Tumblr Live cough cough).

So those are some things that Tumblr users would probably love about Dreamwidth.

Another reason Dreamwidth keeps being recommended is that a significant portion of the Age 30+ crowd spent a lot of earlier fandom years on a site known as LiveJournal. Dreamwidth may not be much like Tumblr, but it it started out as a code fork of LiveJournal, so it will be very familiar to anyone who spent any time there. Except better.

Finally, we're recommending Dreamwidth because some of the things that Tumblr users want are just... not going to happen on the web as it is now. Image hosting is the big one for this. Maybe in the future, the price of data will be much cheaper, and Dreamwidth will be able to host as much as we all want for a pittance that a fraction of the userbase will happily pay for everyone, but right now that's just not possible.

Everywhere you want to go that hosts a lot of images will either be running lots of ads, selling your data, or both.

Dreamwidth knows how much it costs to host your data, and has budgeted for that. They are hosting within their means, within our means.

Dreamwidth is the closest thing we may ever get to AO3 as a social media platform. One of the co-owners is from, and still in, fandom; she knows our values, because they are also her values. It may as well be the Blogsite Of Our Own.

[elyvorg]

So… I was talking about aspec V3 headcanons? Well then, let me lay down the facts.

Maki Harukawa is on the aromantic spectrum. Yes, even though she explicitly develops a crush on Kaito, and no, I’m not trying to dispute that part.

This is basically canon. Let me tell you why.

Maki is aro

For this, we need to consider the conversation Maki has with Shuichi in the first training session in chapter 4, while Kaito has temporarily disappeared to the bathroom. On one level, this conversation exists to be the only actual meaningful indication* that Maki has romantic feelings for Kaito until she goes and confesses them. Someone like Maki wouldn’t care about asking Shuichi if he “liked” Kaede (in that annoying loaded meaning of the word “like” that specifically refers to romantic attraction) unless she was trying to come to terms with the idea that she also “likes” someone else in the same way, and the only plausible candidate for that is Kaito.

But even more striking about this conversation, far more so than the general implication that Maki would only bother asking this if she happened to be crushing on a certain spiky-haired space dork, is the way Maki approaches and thinks about this whole topic in general. Take a look:

Maki:  “Well… I assumed you didn’t, because that would be weird. […] Liking someone you just met… especially in a situation like this…”

Shuichi:  “… Then tell me… under what circumstances is liking someone *not* weird?”

Maki:  “…Huh? I… don’t know. I don’t… really understand what that is.”

I, as an aromantic person myself, fully agree with Maki that it just seems weird to start romantically liking someone you’ve only just met, especially in a life-or-death situation where surely there’s way more important things to be focusing on. But apparently, most people do not find this thought weird at all – love at first sight is supposedly a real thing that can happen, and something something dangerous situations can bring out more hormones and passion???? sounds fake but okay – and so opinions like mine and Maki’s here are very much outliers.

And not only that, not only does the thought of crushing on near-strangers bewilder Maki to the point of disbelief, but she also can’t even come up with an answer to when crushing on someone would ever not be strange and bizarre. Like the whole concept is just alien to her. She can barely even wrap her head around how “liking” someone in that way even works. The very reason she’s even asking Shuichi about this is because she doesn’t understand why she’s feeling this way about Kaito.

This is how an aromantic person would view this kind of thing. It doesn’t sound even slightly like something an alloromantic person would say in this situation. That’s not up for interpretation – that’s just the truth about these views that Maki is expressing. Again: I’m aromantic. I would know.

Even from a character who then does turn out to nonetheless have a crush on someone, these statements are pretty much as canonically confirmed arospec as you can get short of them straight up using the word "aromantic" or a variant.** And, well, obviously Maki isn't about to go calling herself that. From the way she’s questioning this, she clearly doesn’t realise that her perspective is the outlier, so she’s probably never even heard of the term. Besides, she most definitely has way bigger hurdles to be getting over first in terms of her self-acceptance before she's ever going to particularly care about figuring out labels for her orientation of all things.

Aros with trauma are still aros

Now, granted, I severely doubt that Maki being arospec is what the writers intended to convey. Haha, deliberate aro representation in mainstream Japanese media, especially something more complex than vanilla aro, that's a funny joke. What the writers probably meant by writing this conversation I just discussed is to suggest that Maki is viewing things this way a result of her trauma.

But hey, guess what? Even if it is because of her trauma - and I'm not denying that it probably is - that doesn't make Maki any less aro. Some people are arospec because of trauma, and that's equally as valid a reason to be arospec as without. Maybe Maki would have grown up alloromantic if she hadn't been scouted as an assassin, but that's irrelevant, because that's not the Maki who exists now.

In writing this conversation, the writers were presumably attempting to communicate that Maki is so messed up by having been manipulated and abused and moulded into a soulless killing machine that she can no longer comprehend the idea of how or why anybody (especially not herself) would fall in love with someone when they'd only just met, or even really in any circumstances at all. …And in doing that, the writers unintentionally wrote a character who, as a result of her trauma, is aro(-spec). This is an objective fact about the canon story that does not change just because the writers probably weren’t aware enough about aromanticism to actually realise this.

Aros who feel romantic attraction are still aros

So, of course, Maki does in fact come to romantically love Kaito despite this. That fact becomes very important to her, and me lengthily explaining here that she’s actually arospec is not remotely trying to diminish that. But it’s also very important to me that people realise that Maki’s romantic love for Kaito comes from an aromantic perspective. She eventually chooses to embrace those feelings not remotely because it just feels to her like the natural way things should go, but despite every single conscious part of her insisting that this is weird and illogical and doesn’t make any goddamn sense to even be happening at all. She is not going to suddenly fall into all the boring romantic cliches and stereotypical alloromantic approaches to love just because she does in fact happen to be experiencing romantic attraction. There’s nothing alloromantic about Maki’s crush on Kaito.***

As for the specific flavour of arospec that allowed Maki to fall in love with Kaito anyway? This part is somewhat more up for interpretation because there’s no real explicit indication of this in particular, but I personally like to go with the idea that Maki is demiromantic. It feels appropriate for Maki’s character and trauma to imagine that she can only begin to potentially feel romantic things towards a person when she has an emotional connection with them – when she trusts them and knows that they trust her. It doesn’t necessarily have to take very long – she’d only been friends with Kaito for a handful of days before that telling conversation with Shuichi – and she may not even have to have consciously admitted to herself that she trusts them, but she needs to have that bond. She’s normally so guarded and has such strong automatic barriers up during her interpersonal interactions that seeing most people in a romantic light literally isn’t even an option in her brain.

Maki’s confession of her feelings for Kaito does read as rather strongly demiromantic, I think. She makes a point that this is about who Kaito is and what he’s done for her, before even getting to the part where she admits to having fallen for him. And she says she “fell for” him, not that she was always in love with him or anything to that effect. This happened somewhere along the way during their friendship, because of their friendship, and because of Kaito being his incredible trusting supportive self towards her when she needed it most.

Maki Harukawa is demiromantic, and she’s wonderful.

  ---

[some grumpy Amatonormativity and Aro Erasure 101 footnotes, can you tell I am bitter about this kind of thing]

(* When I say “actual meaningful indication” of romantic feelings, I mean something that isn't just the narrative infuriatingly pointing at things that are actually perfectly platonic in nature and going “ooh look how romantic~!”. Newsflash: worrying about somebody and wanting to rescue them when they're sick and injured and have been kidnapped by someone you think is an evil sadistic mastermind is not somehow proof of romantic feelings. That is a thing that friends do. And on the same note, teaching somebody how to build a crossbow is not some kind of deep metaphor for romance; it is literally just a lesson in how to build a goddamn crossbow. Maki would have done both of these things in exactly the same way if her crush on Kaito didn’t exist.)

(** It's exactly like how characters can be considered canonically confirmed same-gender-attracted when all they've done is show attraction to the same gender****, without them actually needing to explicitly refer to themselves with the word “gay”, or “lesbian”, or “bi” or whatever else. Anyone who tried to insist that was necessary in order for it to “count” would instantly be written off as homophobic. So if that’s the case, then a character explicitly saying something such as “I don’t understand what it means to like someone that way” equally constitutes them being confirmed aro, and trying to argue that it doesn’t “count” without outright hearing the word itself is, guess what…?)

(*** This also inherently means that there’s nothing straight about Maki’s crush on Kaito either, since societally-expected “straight” attraction is allo as well as hetero. I gather that some people in this fandom like to devalue and erase Maki’s crush (and potentially also Maki herself) because they feel that it’s an Obligatory Forced Straight Romance and don’t like that, or something along those lines. Well, good news! It’s literally not that, actually, because Maki isn’t straight.)

(**** …This only applies so long as it actually is very clearly romantic or sexual attraction and not just people deciding platonic affection is totally romantic thanks to the disease that is amatonormativity. Because, you know. That happens. Literally all the time. (Even from V3’s narrative itself; see footnote 1.))

[inventors-fair]

WELCOME TO THE INVENTOR’S FAIR

Salutations! Here’s a quick guide and FAQs to help you along the way. Scroll down for the most recent posts and contest!

What is the Inventor’s Fair?

This Tumblr is a collaborative custom card competition blog for Magic: the Gathering. Each week, one of our rotating judges creates a contest prompt, and then people submit their entries. At the end of the week, the cards are judged and winners are chosen.

HERE is a general weekly schedule, updated for 2021.

Why is the Inventor’s Fair?

Since perhaps the inception of the game, players have been making their own cards. The creation of the internet, fandom, and online communities have led to many people sharing those cards online. Part of the love of the game is through creating new mechanics, ideas, stories and interactions. This blog exists as a challenge space for people who enjoy sharing their ideas in a low-stakes competitive sphere.

Wait, you already have an FAQ page. What’s this, then?

The FAQ page felt a little outdated, and people were asking questions that were there, so it’s clear that not everyone is using it. This is a pinned post with all the available information, starting points, etc.

Click the readmore for everything you need to know!

I’d like to submit a card. Where do I begin?

Fantastic! Good to have you on board!

Firstly, make sure that you’re following this blog! That’s the most important part, so that you can get updates and see future timing.

Secondly, if you’d like, join Discord and jump into the server! Our Discord has general channels, MTG chat, and most importantly, a workshop where you can show folks your designs and get feedback.

Once that’s set up:

If you’re on a PC, it’s recommended that you download the program Magic Set Editor, which is the gold standard for customization. MSE has a Discord as well where you can ask questions and troubleshoot. If you’re on iOS or Android, you can download the Artificer app. Other browser-based card creators are easily searchable if those options don’t work. And if all else fails, you may submit as a text, which a mod/judge can put into a program as an image.

Every Sunday, a new prompt will be announced. It will be under the “#announcement” tag on the blog, in the Announcement channel of the Discord, and easily scrollable on the blog. If you can’t find it, just ask and someone will tell you.

I’ve never designed a card before, though.

That’s alright! If you’d like to start, there aren’t too many resources, but there are lots of suggestions.

“Design 101,” by Mark Rosewater (head of MTG R&D). This article goes through some basic design principles and links to other parts of MTG design.

Do you know what you want your card to do? Look up cards that have similar wording on Scryfall! The Oracle text on cards, which is much different than the printed text, will give you an idea on how to properly word your cards.

Sometimes you might like to use a mechanic or idea, but it’s been out of the game for a while. Modern design sensibility changes things. Feel free to fight against the meta, but keep in mind that there are things which have changed over time.

On this blog, we give commentary to all entries. Here is the tag to all the commentary that the judges have given on winners, runners-up, and entries alike. See what individual judges say, see what things repeat, see what corner cases there might be, etc. Hopefully that’ll help show what a winning card looks like.

Okay, I made my card. I’m ready to send it in!

Well, we got a submission box just for that purpose. Here you go!

PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR CARDS AS EXTERNAL LINKS OR EXTERNAL IMAGES. Tumblr doesn’t like that and we can’t view them. And in the event that you don’t respond, we can’t count/judge them because we can’t see them, and that sucks for everyone.

...I’ve submitted my card, but I want to change it.

You are free to submit again. Your newest entry will always supersede your previous entry, so make sure that you’ve fixed everything that you need to fix. Use Oracle wording and Workshop feedback to make sure you’ve done everything you can!

But please, don’t spam the box with a bunch of iterations. We don’t want to have to impose limits.

Important FAQs:

Can I submit more than one card to be judged?

No. Some contests will ask for multiple cards, such as a Meld contest, but that is the only time. If you send in multiple cards, the most recent card will be the judged one.

Regarding other double-faced cards, modal DFCs (such as in Zendikar Rising and Kaldheim) are effectively more than one card and should not be submitted unless asked for. Transforming DFCs (such as in Innistrad or Ixalan) should be taken with a grain of salt. Making a tDFC without a specific contest or strong justification may impact your chances of winning depending on the judge and contest.

That said, there will be tDFC contests, mDFC contests, and multi-card contests in the future. Anything is possible.

Can I submit silver-bordered cards?

We have had silver-bordered contests in the past, as well as contests that specifically allow for silver-bordered cards to be submitted. However.

A majority of Magic's design is based in black-border interactions, an understandable rules system where balance and universality is key. Silver-bordered design often ignores or circumvents those balances. The designs are more difficult to judge against other black-border designs because the criteria are wildly different. For that purpose, we ask that you only design for black-border unless otherwise specified.

Can I use art for my cards?

Yes, as long as the artist is properly credited. “Unknown” is not an acceptable credit for obvious reasons. “Deviantart” is not an acceptable credit because they all have usernames and in some cases have their real name attached, which you should use. “Getty Images” is not an acceptable credit, as they too have names/usernames.

If you’re the artist (which, by the way, is wonderful), you do have to credit yourself! You’ll be reminded of that. You’re free to just use your username, but you have to have something besides “me” or “self.”

Art does not impact your chances of winning. Art does not impact how your cards are viewed. You 100% are not required to use art.

Come on, I just want to use art. Do I have to get credit?

Yes. This is not negotiable. Arguments, multiple infractions/reminders, and belligerence will result in a ban.

Why? Because on principle, it’s theft. No, it’s not a 1:1 felony, but it’s a selfish, lazy practice to purposefully ignore the work of artists and photographers. Every Magic artist is credited appropriately, and for good reason. We have standards, and will hold you to them.

What’s the purpose of winning?

Inventor’s Fair does not make profit, does not have monetary prizes, does not ask for money, does not do ‘raffles,’ and does not have sponsors. So why are we here?

We’re here because we love the game.

Most people don’t play Magic for fame and fortune. Commander, kitchen table, cube—none of those are done with monetary value in mind. You play the game because it’s fun, winning feels fun, and even if you don’t win then participating feels fun.

The bottom line is: if it’s not fun for you, don’t do it! You’re free to observe and to watch and comment and do all of those things without the stress of engagement. This blog has far more followers than we do entries. And that’s okay! You are under no obligation to submit if you don’t want to.

What makes a winning card?

There’s no one right answer. That said, each week’s contest will have their individual criteria and will tell you what that judge is looking for.

In general, just good balance and design based on listed expectations is key for getting onto the podium. Each judge has different things that they’re looking for, we’re on a rotating schedule, and we all have different quibbles and tastes and whatnot. So if you want, you can always try to play to the judges, but that’s not as recommended as making something that you like yourself.

Also, keep in mind: We do not work for WotC, Hasbro, or MTG. We’re not professionals, we’re not published well-known game designers by any means, and we’re only human. We go off of what we go off of, and that’s that. Disagreements about what makes a winner will occur, but keep in mind that this is pretty low-stakes and that we’re only doing our best. We ask that you do your best too.

I’m [neurodivergent/POC/disabled/LGBTQ+/etc.]. Is this a safe place for me?

Yes.

Magic mechanics don’t discriminate, and neither do we. In the workshop, submissions, comments, and any other places, we aim to create a welcoming environment for everyone.

If you have concerns, please contact a judge or moderator.

Additionally, this is important to keep in mind: Inventor’s Fair isn’t really for kids. What that means: Explicit material is not tolerated, but there might be some swearing and whatnot.

Keep in mind, the Fair is not a place to take your heavy topics. This is a Magic: the Gathering blog and channel. We’re not therapists, we’re not babysitters, we’re not life coaches. Please use your best judgement.

If there are any other questions you might have, send an ask, send a message, @ a judge on Discord, or ask the community! Be well, and welcome.

—Inventor’s Fair Judges and Moderators, 2021

@3smuth @abelzumi​ @follower-of-liliana @illharg-the-rave-boar​ @mistershinyobject @teaxch @thatboonguy​ @yeens-human​