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engagemachine · 1 year

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Been seeing a lot of discourse about dark Romance books and how it’s wrong to read or write it. And it’s so discouraging for me. Because I love to read and write it. What’s your opinion on dark romance? Do you think fiction is a safe space to explore Dark topics or does it effect reality too much for it to be safe? Love your writing and blog btw

Anon, I am truly so, so sorry to hear that you have been seeing a lot of discourse about 'dark' romance and why it's wrong to enjoy it. That genuinely breaks my heart. Too often I see these arguments crop up online about why dark fiction is so "problematic", and more often than not, absolutely none of the points being argued have so much as a leg to stand on. It's honestly pathetic, especially as their tactics lean more towards shaming others as opposed to creating a compelling or even literate debate. These are usually the same type of people who would argue that video games cause violence, and who accused rock music of being "satanic" back in the 90s.

The reality is that people have always been violent -- throughout all periods of history -- and people always will be violent. There is simply no correlation between one thing and the other. Can video games inspire violence? Sure. Can rock music inspire 'devil worship'? Certainly. But for the vast majority of people who seek to enjoy these things, that is simply not the case.

I will try to keep this brief as I honestly hate dredging up this topic and it brings me back to what was, essentially, a very dark period of time, both emotionally and in terms of what I was feeling towards my own writing, but many of you know that there were several users here on Tumblr (chiefly one in particular, who is no longer here) who had made it her personal mission to publicly berate me/my writings for my "glamorization of CSA". In response, I wrote an extensive post about the topic, which you can read here. Seriously, please read this, because it's important for you to know the difference between depiction and glamorization, and I'm not going to discuss that in this particular ask.

During that time, I received numerous 'anonymous' threats, messages telling me to kill myself, that I was a horrible person, that Heath Ledger and Christopher Nolan would be ashamed of me (lol) and that I was -- to phrase it in a nicer way than they did -- a piece of shit.

(Also, and this is kind of irrelevant, even though it's the first time I've spoken about it publicly: but I will also add that, one of the main reasons why this Tumblr user in question launched this public crusade against me in the first place was so that she could effectively turn readers away from my writing in an effort to shield people from the fact that she was blatantly plagiarizing my work to pad her own 'writing'. Which is absolute clown behavior on all fronts. Full stop.)

Anyway. These hateful threats from these 'anonymous' users thankfully did not have their intended affect -- that is so to say, there is nothing that anyone could ever say or do that would me stop writing -- however, I was briefly cowed into thoughts of submission, that maybe I should attempt to "dial back" my writing in favor or appealing to a wider or more general audience. I am ashamed to admit that elements of Burn were sped up that I am still grappling with -- in essence, Taylor's eighteenth birthday arriving much sooner within the narrative than I actually wanted it to -- simply so that Taylor would not be underaged during the consummation of her relationship with the Joker. Sometimes I think if I had the patience to go back and change things, I would, but I am far too invested in seeing the story forward at this point to want to make any major changes with the timeline. Also, if you'll read the above post that I linked, you'll see why Taylor's age is rather arbitrary in regards to her 'consent' anyway. That's a point I will argue to the grave.

I feel that so much of my own writing over the years has been censored (by my own hand) because I was often too afraid to "take it there" or go too dark for fear it would scare off readers. It wasn't until I wrote JK that I actually did "take it there" and go as dark as I really wanted, and I truly believe my writing blossomed because of it. It's worth noting that JK was the first time I'd ever looked at my writing and been incredibly proud of it, proud at how unflinchingly honest I was. That story bares my fucking soul. Sharing it, at the time, was one of the most vulnerable things I'd ever done.

To have that vulnerability challenged -- and even mocked, to some extent, by the crusade (read: toddler tirade) launched here against me on Tumblr -- felt not at all dissimilar to a knife to the gut.

I think one of the main reasons why people crusade against 'dark' fiction is because it makes them uncomfortable -- and, to a certain degree, it should make you uncomfortable. Not all writing is going to be rainbows and roses. Good, compelling writing should challenge the way you think, challenge the way perceive the world, make you question the things you thought you knew, etc.

Fiction thrives only because there is some form of conflict within the narrative: without conflict, you are stripped of the elements that make up a story. These efforts being made to "purify" fiction by ridding it of any elements that have been deemed "problematic" essentially strip a story of the very aspects that make it a story in the first place!

On a more personal note, I want to say something to you that I desperately wish someone would have said to me when I was a young teen nervously wishing she could write the things she wanted to write, someone who wished she did not feel such intense guilt for reading the things I used to read:

it is absolutely OK to like dark fiction. It is fine to want to read it, write it, praise it, be enthusiastic about it, talk about it, etc. Your feelings, desires, fantasies, are VALID.

I absolutely DO believe fiction is a safe space (perhaps the ONE safe space) where more 'taboo' subjects can be safely explored. Please don't ever let anyone discourage you from writing the story you feel needs to be told. Don't let anyone discourage you from holding back. Take comfort in the beautiful, kind person that I am sure that you are.

The people I have found within the 'darkfic' community have been some of the loveliest and kindest people I have ever met. I think there's a reason such sweet and oftentimes very soft individuals gravitate towards this kind of fiction, and I have seen my theory proven time and time again by the sheer volume of readers who have come to me with personal anecdotes about their own life experiences and why dark fiction is often so very therapeutic for them.

I would also like to stress that there is NEVER any justification necessary for why you like the things you do. You owe no one an explanation. Sometimes, I think, even as the reader, you don't know WHY you like the things you do, and that's perfectly okay! It doesn't make you a bad person. I believe I can speak for the vast majority of my readers when I say none of us would ever want to see the things that play out in dark fiction to actually happen in real life. Wanting to see something in fiction is not the same thing as advocating for it or wishing for it in real life.

I could honestly talk about this topic for hours. I genuinely feel so passionate about it, and it makes me deeply upset to know that so many readers/writers have been discouraged from engaging in fiction they should have the freedom to enjoy, simply because they have been shamed for partaking in it.

Please check out my purity culture tag, which sums up a lot of my thoughts in a manner much more concise than what I have written here.

Final thoughts: I just wanted to say thank you to anyone and everyone who has ever supported me/my writings, especially if you were present while I was bullied and plagiarized. Your support means the absolute world to me, especially when feelings of doubt creep in (because they still do) and the small part of me that wants to succumb to the hateful comments. Your kind words and your encouragement is truly the buoy that keeps me afloat.

To the anon who wrote this, I love you so much and please know you've got a huge community of people who will support you/your writings should you ever decide to publish them. All my love.

#anonymous #asks #censorship #illiteracy #purity culture

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thebreakfastgenie · 2 years

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Sadly that post you reblogged has a lot of the markers of being made with a less than healthy dose of anti-trans rhetoric, whether they meant to or not. The relating it to BLM as a movement is particularly disingenuous and a completely false equivalence. Your blog has been such a hotbed of Capital T Takes recently, and even though I think you are intelligent and genuinely want to come to these conversations in good faith, it sometimes just feels like you want to court controversy a little. Which. You do that at the expense of people who follow you. You take the time to tag Mash content but were openly begrudging when an anon asked you to tag hurtful discourse. I think you think you are somehow more open-minded or high-minded or less reactive than the average tumblr user, but yet you seek out replies on a post to ridicule… when you could just… not. You’re constantly fighting fights that don’t need to be fought - as if removing gendered language from discussions of bodily autonomy hurts the movement, or as if anyone actually needs you to say ANYTHING about what bisexuals deal with, or as if anyone wants to know what you personally think about this month being Disability Pride Month! Just stop! Please I’m BEGGING you, consider having these intellectual discussions in other spaces, or at least tag it all with SOMETHING. And maybe - though I feel you’ll ridicule all of this but I have to say it anyway - take the time spent ridiculing emotional reactions to posts in analysing and evaluating what caused it? You’ll take this as hate mail but it’s just… I think you are dabbling in intellectual curiosity at the expense of real people. You really are.

I'm not really sure what to do with this ask because there's a lot of personal stuff in here which, like, whatever, but I think the more important thing is sticking up for that post.

a lot of the markers of being made with a less than healthy dose of anti-trans rhetoric, whether they meant to or not

I've talked about this before, but I think it bears repeating. Looking for "markers" of anti-trans rhetoric is a fool's errand. Either a post is transphobic or it isn't. Acknowledging the connection between misogyny and laws that primarily affect women is not anti-trans. Equating acknowledging sex-based oppression with being anti-trans is actually what TERFs want.

I do not believe the BLM comparison was disingenuous at all. I also don't know OP's race or experience with BLM and I'm not going to make assumptions about it. I do think you have to be careful, because race and gender/sex are different, but there are legitimate parallels. It's well-documented that women are basically expected to put every single other marginalized group ahead of themselves. Pointing out that other marginalized groups are not treated the same way is legitimate.

I also believe that in certain contexts removing gendered language does hurt the movement. I recognize not everyone agrees with that. But the fact is that the people who are restricting abortion are doing it to restrict the bodily autonomy of women. It does also affect some people who are not women, but women are the target and the vast majority of people affected. Misogyny is gendered.

I did not seek out comments to get upset about. The comment I responded to showed up in my notifications, because that user reblogged it from me. I don't ever seek out comments to respond to. I respond to posts I see on my dash and to comments that people add to my posts and to asks I am sent.

I am making an effort to tag discourse posts because some of the people who have requested it are people I like and care about. I don't think I've expressed reluctance, just a hope that I won't need to use it. I tag mashposts because I was asked to and I've mentioned many times that I don't know why that one stuck and that it's the only tag I've ever used consistently.

You can believe me or not but I'm not courting controversy (except maybe with fandom nonsense sometimes). I used to do that. I'm surprised every time one of these things blows up.

I acknowledge there have been more Takes recently. This is just because I have happened to see more things that bugged me enough to post about them. I don't expect this to continue, but who knows? Also, I've gained more active followers recently, so Takes are more of an event instead of the 0 note posts I used to make in peace. I regret some of them. I don't think my feelings about disability pride month, specifically as I've seen it discussed on tumblr (since although I know it's been around from googling it, I have not seen it mentioned literally anywhere else this year), were out of line, but I do regret the post just because I don't think I was prepared to explain the nuances in the detail they deserved. But here's the thing:

This is my fucking blog. I have used it for, among other things, posting my thoughts, feelings, and opinions on a variety of topics for the last ten years. If you don't like it, you don't have to follow it, and neither does anyone else.

The "hatemail <3" tag is reserved for the messages calling me a fucking cunt.

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rpbetter · 2 years

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Hi.. Today I saw someone's carrd and their rules threaten to report anyone who writes csa or non-con, and they threaten to tell all their friends about it, to "make sure they know". I have a non-con type of ship with someone and we're both consenting adults, but this person scares me. Am I in any real danger if they find me or my partner? Should I report them for misusing tumblr reports? Please help. :(

Alright, I'm going to first address tumblr reports here. Unfortunately, tumblr is a bit infamous for how shitty its reporting actually is. I don't honestly know what one would have to do in order for tumblr to actually pay a bit of attention to the complaint (harassment, credible threats, legitimate and provable theft, suicide baiting, and reporting violent hate blogs all have, historically, been ignored), but I strongly suspect that the majority of tumblr's efforts go on visual media. Like porn or what they think is porn. Someone seeing a nipple is definitely worse than running into a hate group that literally espouses killing folks for their race, obviously.

So, while I am not discouraging you, or anyone else, from trying to utilize a broken system, it is a broken system you should not expect anything out of when it comes to user-to-user complaints. In this case, you have the additional problem of trying to report someone for false reporting/abusing the report system when you don't have any evidence. They have not, as yet, tried to report you, and you'd never know if they did. Spamming the report system is likely to garner negative attention, so, if they are frequently reporting users for things that are not against the TOS, they might already be, effectively, reporting themselves for that. More effectively than you're ever going to be able to.

The good news in this case, and all such cases of policing efforts, is that their reports amount to nothing. This is the same broken system, for one thing, for another, the vast majority of users they are reporting are not violating anything in tumblr's rules. You are absolutely allowed to write non-con. Frankly, both tumblr and the United States legal system do not give much of a shit what RPers are doing...or fan artists or fic authors. These people are not real, and that is the crux of it that Goodwife Prudy and the Purity Police just aren't getting. What is going on isn't illegal. Writing pornographic material with a minor is, in fact, illegal, but that's about it. (And still difficult to have investigated for a variety of reasons, but we'll leave that there.)

If there was anything people like this could do without getting involved, they'd be doing it. They can't, it's one of the reasons why their primary tactic is harassment.

Moving onto that...that is definitely the big concern here. If they have cause to notice you, which is possible if they are anywhere near your usual circle of RPers or affiliated with any meme/resource/RPH blogs you frequent, you really only have the option of taking them at their word. Believing that they will launch a campaign against you, as well as whoever you write with.

Your recourse for that would be very little, as I said, reporting them for harassment is kind of a joke. You can do it, but I've yet to see it result in anything other than the reporter being advised to block. And we all know how effective blocking is after the fact.

So, my advice to you is to block them now.

Do not give them the opportunity to notice you and start anything. Block them, block any other blogs they might have, and block blogs they interact with a lot. Where there is one that feels this way, there are always others, and this one has already admitted to using friends as a weapon...so, they're absolutely around somewhere. With the attitude they've displayed, they're not likely to just keep it to telling their friends to block your blog, it's more likely that the most innocuous thing they'll do is put you on a list/add you to a callout blog. Once something like that happens, it spirals very quickly. People will be scouring your blog for everything and anything they can make into something "problematic" to bother you about. Your writing partners and mutuals will start getting the inbox harassment as well. If they feel devoted to it enough, every time you switch blogs they'll make it a mission to find and "expose" you as though you are trying to hide your great "freak" crimes instead of trying to peacefully live your life.

It's better to stop it before it has a chance to start.

I just want to say it again, you're not doing anything wrong. You are an adult writing with another adult about a topic both parties agreed to. It does not violate the site's TOS, and is most certainly not illegal. Everyone has the right to explore darker topics, this is neither a negative reflection on you nor is it something you shouldn't be doing. I'm really sorry that the RPC has gotten like this, and that the best we can do is try to be aware, insulate ourselves, and help our friends to do the same. I know none of this helps with the fear of being needlessly harassed, but if it does happen, try to remember that they're the ones being absolutely ridiculous and immoral.

#answered #anonymous #rp help #rp advice #rp problems #dni lists #purity police #rp harassment #queued

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midnightmarginalia · 4 years

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Ho fuck this is long

Ok so like. I made a fucking mistake. I wrote an essay for my creative non-fiction class. We had to write a Lyric Essay. simple enough. it's whatever. I transcribed parts of my journal. it was fun. HOWEVER, I made the mistake of telling the class that I did some heavy editing to get rid of some unconventional grammar I use cuz internet, ya know? this was 3 days ago. jump to today. I wrote a 7-page essay trying to briefly explain SOME of the grammar conventions that have evolved alongside the internet. I had to explain this to a group of 40+ year-olds. so NOw I present this to you, o Tumblr. for the love of god let people read this and add to it, I spent eternally too much time on it

So "Internet English" or "New English" is a linguistic phenomenon that centers on conveying tone and different connotative meanings through informal writing. Linguist Gretchen McCulloch actually released a book on this called Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. Her book actually is really interesting (I highly recommend it) and covers some of what I'm going to be talking about today. In the first section, she compares the process of learning literacy to be similar to learning how to talk solely through exposure to formal writing like speeches, screenplays, audiobooks, etc. You miss all the nuances of informal speaking. Well, the same is true for written language. Before the Internet, informal writing was extremely hard to come by and even harder to study; even letters, postcards, secretive notes and the like were still written fairly formally because there were no mass text-based communication practices. Now, we have this vast intangible library of infinite knowledge and human interactions, making the necessity of informal writing more prominent. As such, internet users, especially people from my generation, have evolved a subset of written English to better express connotative meaning through the use, abuse, and misuse of capitalization, spacing, spelling, punctuation, incomplete sentences, and more. Let me show you a little of what I mean.

Capitalization

Capitalization is a common convention used to convey emphasis, although which type of emphasis that is changes based on how the capitalization is used.

Random Capitalization is meant to grab Attention and express that Something is Very Important or should be Stressed by Your Inner Voice when reading.

ALL CAPS IS MEANT TO SIGNIFY A VAST INCREASE IN VOLUME, THOUGH IT IS OFTEN INTERPRETED AS SHOUTING. THIS IS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE.

a crescENDO IS MEANT TO SPECIFY VOLUME AND/OR IMPORTance for one segment. It is often used to EXPRESS GROWING EXCITEMENT!

CaPiTaLiZiNG a RanDoM AsSoRTmEnT oF LetTerS ConVEyS SaRcAsM oR a MOcKinG TonE.

I cannot really articulate why but this, thIS, tHIS, and THIS are all different. This is called Varied Capitalization and can apply to any word, though I most often see and use it with articles.

not capitalizing anything in a sentence is an excellent way to express a monotone voice that seems very apathetic towards everything and everyone. "oh look. john and i went to the store. how exciting."

Spacing

Spacing Conventions are less common, and ultimately there is only one that I find noteworthy. Spacing out letters in a word like r e a l l y conveys that the word is significant. It takes up more space than really and thus needs to be stressed. It is also important to note that this convention is often coupled with full capitalization. There is a significant difference between "I am really hungry" and "I and r e a l l y hungry" and "I am R E A L L Y Hungry"

Spelling

Spelling, like Spacing, is less varied than some of these other conventions. The most common spelling convention you are likely to encounter is the Intentional Misspell. This is used to express one of two things; you can discern which by the context of the rest of the message. It can be used to display excitement. The misspell conveys a kind of excitement that interferes with dexterity, like how your hands shake after a jump scare: "gyus I just swa A Quiet Place an d it s one f thr svsriest movis I've ever seen." The other emotion the Intentional Misspell can convey is much more subtle and complicated. It is the sense of false apathy. it is nit uncommun to putf a typo in everyr other werd or so to shwo yu don't realy give a fukc but yiu actually do. This is much harder to discern and your best bet on understanding this half of the convention is context clues.

Punctuation and Lack Thereof

Punctuation is, in my opinion, the best, most diverse option for conveying a specific kind of tone. There's a lot to cover here, so I will do my best to keep it brief.

A full stop is a short sentence with a period. It is meant to be read in a scolding tone. The usage of this is especially important in text message and chatroom settings because you can signify the end of a sentence by sending the message. A good rule of thumb for the tone is that the shorter the message, the more scolding the tone.

Putting. A. Period. Between. Words. Conveys. That. The. Matter. At. Hand. Must. Be. Taken. Seriously. This is simply the act of emphasizing each word with a full stop.

not having any punctuation or capitalization at all makes for a very fluid reading experience yes the sentences can get mixed up but those who read and write this way regularly can discern separate trains of thought if you've noticed the lack of capitalization you may recognize one of the earlier discussed conventions it is important to note however that the monotone voice of that convention disappears with the punctuation

Question marks now signify an upturn in the voicing of a statement rather than forcing something to be a question. now you may be asking yourself "why would they do this." The only answer I have for you is "it just seems right?" the upturn signifies a tentative statement while the flat delivery of the question signifies frustration or bafflement.

Punctuation Frequency is meant to signify the amount of severity accompanying the statement. This is exclusively used with question marks and exclamation marks. A common example is extending the simple “what?” to “what???????” Notice the difference? The same thing can be done with exclamation points. Note the increased excitement between “The baby was born today!” and “The babe was born today!!!!!!!!!!!” These, of course, can be amplified even further by incorporating some of the other conventions we’ve discussed previously.

Exclusive Punctuation is a convention most commonly found in messaging systems, but it is still important. “???” is an expression of pure confusion. If you were to receive this message, that whatever you sent the person prior has left them amazed, confused, flabbergasted, awe-struck, bewildered, and more. On the other hand “!!!” is an expression of pure excitement and glee. The best description I’ve seen for this is that it is a noise of happiness.

While there are dozens more grammatical conventions, these are the primary ones that a vast majority of people will use. It is time to move on.

Ellipses

Yes. This is punctuation. But it elicits its own category. Ellipses are great tools for signifying that there is more to this statement than meets the eye. However, there are now multiple types of ellipses that have different meanings.

Periodic Ellipses or Hard Ellipses are just that. Hard. Say I were to text someone “Hey can we talk after class...” The ellipsis generates a cold tone that has some worrying connotations. Something important to note here is that the length of the ellipsis can signify severity, though after a certain point it becomes superfluous and silly. The only friendly usage of a Hard Ellipsis is the Two-Dot Ellipsis. “Hey can we talk after class..” is far far less sinister than “Hey can we talk after class…”

Commatic Ellipses or Soft Ellipses are just that. Soft. Instead of being composed of periods, these ellipses are composed of commas and have a vastly different meaning. These are meant to convey either worrying or flirtatious tones. To go back to our previous example, “Hey can we talk after class,,,,,” is going to be read in a flirtatious manner. However, “Hey can we talk after class,” is going to be read worryingly. The trick to discerning the different tones is the length of the ellipsis. Three commas or less conveys a worrisome tone, whereas five or more conveys a flirtatious tone.

Sentence Structure

Look! We’re almost done! There are many people who will play with sentence structure to convey meaning but the most widespread practice is the Incomplete Sentence. This one is actually fairly straightforward. Leaving a sentence incomplete expresses exhaustion (either emotional or physical) and adds a sense of trailing off in the speakers voice. I mean, have you ever started a sentence and then just

Noun/Verb Dichotomy

Ok last one. This one is also pretty straight forward, though still quite complex. The Noun/Verb Dichotomy is simple the act of using a noun in place of a verb to get your point across. For example, a more expressive (and in my opinion more accurate) way to say “I like to get a midnight snack at 2 in the morning” would be “I like to velociraptor around my house at 2 in the morning.” The second conjures such a specific image that it can more concisely convey the actions and emotions being done. The possibilities are endless. This opens up the door for someone to sentence how they want. Although many people will get a headache and want to clothesline into a wall. These all make sense to a native speaker of this kind of english because, while our brains do brain logically, english doesnt logic englishly so the brain brains by itself to logic the english!

So that is my mini-lesson on Internet English. please remember I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what’s changed.

#holy shit #language #languaging is hard #linguistics #its sublime #but so funky #for the love of god add to this #also correct me #theres a good chance I am wrong #I had to do all this research #all this studying #its unprecedented #i could make this my dissertation #like #holy fuck

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not-poignant · 5 years

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As series go on, they always tend to get a fewer amount of readers, with the rare exceptions of like,, game of thrones and stuff. Like you said, tip requires a LOT of background reading. You’re on entirely new characters than where you started and for a lot of people looking to get into the series by seeing TIP (which is what they will see, because that’s what you’re updating) the sheer amount of work they’ll have to read through to then get to TIP will be overwhelming, especially because (1/2)

they’ll see there’s an entire change in main characters and think ‘that’s too much’, and even more so because Game Theory has a very very different tone to TIP. I’m sure these are things you already know but this is just my take on it - this decreases in interaction is (heartbreakingly) natural, and if it’s not sustainable for you then it’s not sustainable, and the fans that ARE here and have read everything will be upset, but you have to do what’s best for you. Stay strong, Pia 💕

It’s a lot of effort and a relatively daunting task I know, but if you really want to increase the Fae Tales readers then maybe you could promo it? Make a photo advertising either Game Theory or TIP, send it to writing accounts asking them to share it, maybe even pay promo it on Instagram etc etc. People will tend to jump on an adult dark fantasy series because there just aren’t enough of them, especially one with such amazing representation. Just some ideas (:

Another idea (I’m so sorry if I’m overstepping my hounds here by the way, I’d just really love to help): a lot of people that read your work really, really care about it. If you ask, they will promo for you - posting on their own various accounts about Fae Tales etc Because a good portion of your users want to see this series survive because they love FT and have invested so much into it emotionally. I know a lot of people think it’s tacky to ask fans for support, but u gotta do what u gotta do

I mean yes, I literally said this myself in my post about it:

(and tbh, The Ice Plague requiring so much early reading re: GT and COFT means it’s almost completely inaccessible to new readers anyway)

So I am aware. That being said, the drop in engagement is across all of my fics, including things like The Spoils of the Spoiled which requires literally zero background reading to leap straight into, and even Eversion (it may be my highest performer right now, but engagement is still dropping). It’s also been across oneshots / smaller offerings too etc.

Like, trust me, if it was only The Ice Plague, it’d be understandable. It’s been my lowest performing serial that I’ve ever written and that’s been true from the beginning. Some people have made it clear to me that they’re not really rooting for Mosk and Eran, and they miss Gwyn and Augus, and so even though Eran and Mosk have fans, it’s like...I know where I’m at. It’s also a place I’ve been before, when I left RotG to write Augus/Gwyn in the first place. A lot of those people vanished/disappeared ages ago, when I started TIP, or even before, since it took me so long to start writing it after finishing COFT.

But it’s not only The Ice Plague. I am considering this across multiple points, believe me, and when I say engagement is dropping, I don’t just mean ‘engagement is dropping on the one thing that is actually really hard for a lot of people to read.’

Unfortunately Game Theory is too dark to promo on many sites, because most of its content is against the TOS of many sites. While I’m sure lots of people ‘get away’ with doing that anyway, I’ve never been one to knowingly flaunt TOS, and Game Theory literally starts with ‘rape as titillation’ and doesn’t get much better from there.

Re: the last part, I just don’t think you can reasonably say ‘a good portion of your users want to see this series survive.’ Imho, I don’t think that’s true. I think there is a proportion of readers who enjoy the series and do want it to survive but I don’t think it’s the majority, who probably just read it and move onto the next thing, and I think the engaged people are already doing the best that they can. Those are the people who are commenting, sending asks, already engaging etc. For the people who literally can’t muster the energy to engage more, they’re not in a position to promo. (To say nothing of the fact that promotion on Tumblr right now, given Tumblr has lost at least 30% of its userbase, is kind of a wash.)

On top of that, people who do think it’s worth reading do encourage others to read it, but as I’ve heard time and time again over the years, the story goes a lot like this: ‘I would love to rec this but unfortunately it’s just too dark for a lot of the people I know / but I’ve asked several of my friends to read it!’ which is the most generous thing, but also is realistic.

It IS too dark for a lot of people to read, and one of the luxuries of the anonymity of Tumblr (and one of the reasons I’m not on Facebook or even Twitter with this stuff) is precisely because a lot of people don’t want to associate their ‘real’ work or family identities with Fae Tales and the content I write specifically. I’m really sensitive to that, I’m the first to say that FT is hard to rec. As a result of that, very few people actually post broad-scale recommendations. It’s completely understandable. It’s not like I’m marketing a regular romance here. (Which would be easy to do, but is not what I want to write, lol).

Even with all of that in mind, it still doesn’t explain the sudden 8 month downswing. Nor, even, does me writing The Ice Plague, since I’ve been writing that for a decent amount of time, enough to see an upward swing in the first year and a decent plateau of engagement during the first Ice Plague installment.

Like, a lot of your suggestions seem to imply that it should be the readers who should work harder, or that there’s this huge invisible userbase who want FT to survive and could do more, and I just...don’t think that’s true. I generally know the people invested in FT pretty well, as usernames on Tumblr, as commenters, as people who have diligently left kudos on nearly everything I’ve written over the years. I wouldn’t say that a single one of them hasn’t done their best to love the writing and show their appreciation for it.

And then outside of that, the vast bulk of the readers, objectively, will be people who aren’t that invested, and aren’t here on Tumblr, will never see this post (or any preceding it), and just leave a like (if I’m lucky) and move on. Which is normal.

It may be that things plateau. It may be that antis have really changed the way people are reading now. It may be that things continue on this downswing for years. It may be that things look up (though I expect after being honest about it, there will be a bump in activity for about a week or two before it crashes again). I’m not making any firm decisions now, but over the past 8 months I have looked at (and brainstormed) a ton of different options and even actioned some of them. I’ve also done a lot of pros/cons lists for different writing patterns (i.e. do I go book only, do I stay hybrid, do I keep going like this for another year, do I add in art, do I write less / more etc.)

It is possible that new projects may bring some new energy, but I’m in two minds about whether that’s true. And I certainly can’t privilege writing fanfiction over original fiction anyway (because...income). I’m just going to wait and see for a while. I really appreciate the thoughts/suggestions, and I wish I could say I think that’ll be the thing that makes the difference, but I see people reccing my stuff on Twitter - and they have been over the past few months. I see it happening on Tumblr sometimes. People do try their absolute hardest because they care about the writing. This isn’t on them.

There’s something else going on, something systemic that’s external, and something about my writing, regardless of the project, and that’s just...how I see it.

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beatrice-otter · 4 years

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Some Thoughts about Tagging on AO3

(I originally made this post back in 2014 on the Yuletide LJ com, and I think it's still both helpful and useful, and other people have told me it is, but it's not actually in my own space, so here it is for posterity.)

There are a lot of people confused about what to tag their stuff on AO3. I mean, like, people who use AO3 regularly sometimes talk about not knowing how to tag their fic. And this is Yuletide; there are people who only post to AO3 for ficathons such as Yuletide, and they probably are even less sure what to do. There aren't many rules, and even the guidelines are kind of fuzzy. But yet there are many dedicated volunteers who spend many hours trying to make some sense out of the mess! It's chaotic and organized at the same time.

Fear not. I'm not a tag mod or anybody from AO3, but I am a power user of the site, and have been since it started, so I have a pretty good feel for the different ways people use the site and how people tag. So here are some suggestions, if you feel you need them.

ETA: Thanks to some wonderful feedback in the comments, I'm adding some other perspectives.

First, remember that the primary purpose of tags is to help people find stuff they'd like to read. No matter what your philosophy of tagging is, your goal should be to make it easy for people to find your fic and decide if they want to read it.

There are two basic ways people use tags when they're looking for fic.

1. Clicking on tags they want to read. Do you want to look for a particular fandom, character, or pairing? You can click on a tag and get all of them to come up. But you can use tags to find so much more than just the basics! Do you want to read wing!fic? Search for it on the archive and click the wingfic tag and you'll get a list of all fics tagged with "wings" or "wingfic" or something similar. The tag mods have done a lot of background work to make sure that similar tags (i.e. every permutation of wingfic ever used) are put together so when you're looking for wingfic you don't have to think of every possible permutation of what someone might have tagged it. They'll all come up. Now, if you click on the "wingfic" tag, it will bring up every wingfic in every fandom. Which is great if you're polyfannish like I am and don't necessarily care what fandom something is if it hits whatever kink you have right then. If you are more monofannish, then the sort and filter bar on the left side of the "Works" list is your friend, but either way, the tag is the first place to start. People look for a lot of things. Here are some categories that people may search tags for, either within a particular fandom or across the archive:

fandoms, characters, relationships, obviously.

AU types: is it a canon divergence, is it a highschool au, or a coffee shop, or whatever?

SFnal or fantasy elements: time travel, wings, magic, werewolves, telepethy, etc

Genres: angst, fluff, mystery, comedy.

Trigger warnings to avoid: mentions of rape or abuse (things not warned for in the warning tags).

Tropes: Aliens made them do it, kidfic, etc.

Sex stuff: kinks, positions, sex toys, polyamory, etc.

Social justice stuff: bechdel pass, character of color POV, etc.

Fandom specific stuff: is it related to a particular episode, or season, is it about a particular theme or backstory or trope or characterization that your fandom likes, is there any other fandom-specific thing that people might look for?

2. When they are deciding whether or not to read a particular fic. That is, a potential reader is looking at a fic in a list on AO3 (maybe they're going through the fandom's page, maybe they're looking at an author's works list, etc.) or perhaps have clicked on a link in a rec list and have opened the story up to see more about it, but the fic is in front of them and they haven't yet decided whether or not to read it. In this case, tags are one of a couple of things people will be looking at. The summary is the biggie; at this point it's usually the first thing people look at. They will also look at word count--they may be looking for an epic, they may be looking for a vignette, either way, word count matters. They'll look at the rating--do they want something hot and heavy, or not? They'll look at the comment/kudo/bookmark/hit counts--how popular is this fic? And they'll look at the tags. What is this fic tagged for? Characters, pairings, fandom, etc., all can be useful, but so can many other things.

This is why people add chatty tumblr-style tags, such as "Tony Stark has Daddy Issues." That tag tells you a lot about the story that may not be evident from the summary. You can add any tag like that you want, that will help people get a feel for your story. If it's unique, clicking on it won't help them find other stories like it and it won't help people find your fic, either, but it may well help people who have already found your fic decide if they want to read it. And, if enough people tag things with a chatty tag like "Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues," eventually the tag mods will take it and make it into a tag you can search on just like more general tags such as "wingfic." (There are currently 51 fics on the archive tagged "Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues.") Also, chatty tags like that can sometimes be made subtags for larger tags, so that "Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues." is a subtag of "Daddy Issues.", and then you can click on the Daddy Issues tag and filter by fandom and/or character.

3. Looking for things to avoid. If a trope squicks someone, they want to know before they click on the story. If someone hates a character or relationship, they want to know if it's in a story. Even if it's only in a minor/background way. Protip from tag wrangler liviapenn:

"if you are posting a story and you want to indicate that the character or ship appears in the story -- but only in a minor/background role -- you can tag for them in the "Additional Tags" field, with a modifier. For instance, "Minor appearance by Sam Wilson". Or, a tag like "Very minor background Tony Stark/Pepper Potts" or "Past Tony Stark/Pepper Potts" for a story where Tony and Pepper's relationship is only mentioned but not really important in the story. Then those stories won't come up when people are searching for Tony/Pepper in the Relationships field. You can also make 'warning' type Additional Tags more specific or accurate, with modifiers like "implied," "referenced," "minor," "mentioned", "non-graphic" or "past", if the story doesn't seriously focus on those topics, but you still want to indicate that they appear in the work, even in a minor or slight way."

(ALSO, if you are one of these people, the "Sort and filter" bar on the right side of the page is your friend. I hate, loathe, and despise Killian Jones on Once Upon a Time, and so whenever I'm searching for OUaT fic on the archive I go to the "Sort and Filter" bar, go down to the Exclude section, and I check his name and any pairings he appears in. Then I hit the "sort and filter" button at the bottom of that bar, and poof! It's like he never existed! It's wonderful.)

So how does this affect how you tag your fic? I'm so glad you asked. It means you need to take both uses of tags--finding fic, and deciding if you want to read a fic you've found--into account. As you tag, ask yourself: what in my fic might people want to read? What kind of craving would my fic satisfy? Tag for those things (fandoms, characters, relationships, tropes, kinks, whatever). Then ask yourself: once people have found my fic, what might help them decide they want to read my fic? Then tag for that. Then ask yourself: is there anything in my fic that might squick people or that they might want to avoid? Then tag for that, too. Autocomplete is your friend. As you start typing in the tag field, it will bring up tags people have already used, which are searchable, and which may therefore help people find your fic.

ETA: section edited because of youraugustine's feedback.

But beware! Before you hit "post," look at your tags and ask yourself: is there any deceptive advertising here? By which I mean, if someone is looking specifically for a fic with something you tagged for, are they going to be disappointed in your fic? Different people use tags differently, so you can't please everybody. But sometimes a selective approach can be better than a "kitchen sink" approach where you select every tag that might be half-way applicable.

As an example, take Sam Wilson. He is tagged in over 2800 stories on AO3 ... but in the vast majority of them, he's a sidekick, if that. Yes, he appears in each of these fics, but he's a very small part of the story in most of them. When I go looking for Sam Wilson fic, I sigh, because I may get three pages in to the list of works tagged "Sam Wilson" before I find one where he's important enough in the story to get mentioned in the summary. Having to slog through all those fics about other Avengers to get to the fics about the character I want to read about does not make me likely to read those stories. It makes me annoyed, because they're taking up my time and preventing me from finding the stories I actually want to read right now! I love reading about Steve's angst over Bucky, and Bucky's recovery, but if what I'm craving at the moment is Sam Wilson pwning everything, 50k words of Buck-and-Steve angst in which Sam appears in three scenes is just not going to scratch my itch. On the other hand, some people may find a mention that Sam plays a role in the story to be the difference that makes them read this Steve/Bucky fic over some other one. Even so, if he appears briefly but isn't significant to the plot, even they may be annoyed.

Now, as sandrine points out, some people have aversions to particular characters, pairings, and tropes, such that including them in your fic will completely ruin the fic for them even if all that happens is a one sentence mention buried in 100k of fic. For example, some Science Bros and Steve/Tony fans prefer not to read about Tony/Pepper. (I get it, because I loathe Killian Jones with the passion of a thousand burning suns.) liviapenn points out that (instead of using a regular character tag), if you put a tag with a modifier in the "Additional Tags" category (for example, "background Tony/Pepper"), it will be there for people who want to avoid it but won't pop up for people searching it out with the main character or relationship tags.

Just use some common sense, folks. Tag for everything important, and don't bother with the minor stuff. And you're the one who knows your story best; you know what's important in your story.

On creating new tags: This is particularly important for Yuletiders to know, since so many of us will be creating tags for characters and fandoms that did not exist on the archive before this Yuletide.

From tag wrangler liviapenn:

The only other advice I would give is for people posting stories in superhero comics fandoms. So many superhero names are very generic, or shared by multiple people within one canon (like the 3 or 4 different versions of "Robin", "The Flash" or "Supergirl" in DC fandom.) If there's a possibility that your character's cape name might have been used for another character (in your fandom or another fandom) maybe consider tagging with their "real" name instead of (or in addition to) their "cape" name. So for instance, "Tim Drake" or "Robin - Tim Drake" "Tim Drake aka Robin" -- any of those would be better than just "Robin". Finally, if you want to find out whether a tag already exists in some format you can use the Tag Search page: http://archiveofourown.org/tags/search So let's say I wanted to find out if there's a canonical tag for food carts or food trucks. I would go to the tag search page and type in "cart* " (which brings up any word that starts with "cart") and click the Canonical ticky box. This just brings up a lot of tags about Sam Carter and Peggy Carter though. So I hit backspace and type in "truck* " and click the Canonical ticky box, and this will bring up all canonical tags that have a word that starts with truck in it, and hey, one of them is Food Trucks. Freeform: Alternate Universe - Truckers ‎(10) Freeform: Truckers ‎(8) Freeform: Food Trucks ‎(7) Freeform: Episode: s08e07 Shawn and Gus Truck Things Up ‎(1) Freeform: Trucks ‎(11) If anyone has any other questions about tagging I'd be glad to answer them!

From tag wrangler lost_spook:

As another tag wrangler, I'd just add that the thing about cape names applies generally really - if you want to make a freeform (or any tag) involving your characters, remember the archive is a big place and expanding all the time with fandoms in multiple media, so the more you use full names etc., the more likely it is the tag can stay in your fandom or eventually become canonical. one of the joys of Yuletide is that it's about fic in rare fandoms or non-existent-till-now fandoms, but that does mean you might well find yourself posting the first fic in a fandom or for that pairing or character - and that means you have to create that tag yourself. So I just wanted to add - don't be nervous of doing that! You don't have to read through archive tagging guidelines and get it perfect; just be as clear and specific as you can, especially with fandom tags, where the wranglers dealing with those might never have heard of it. The same with new character and relationship tags - do add them! Just be sure to use full names in both categories, and if the names are very common or likely to cause confusion, add something like the fandom name in brackets to make doubly sure. Wranglers can link up any tags like these no problem - it's only when things aren't clear (ambiguous), that it gets tricky. (Wranglers in tiny fandoms love it when they suddenly have actual tags to wrangle! ♥)

From an anonymous tag wrangler:

One other thing I'd like to suggest is keeping each freeform/additional tag to one discrete concept! For example, "Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues" is a single concept; "Tony Stark has daddy issues and mommy issues and luckily lots of money too" includes several, and is unlikely to ever become filterable in any way. Also, if a single concept is split across multiple tags, a wrangler often can't do anything with the individual tags-- for example, the two tags "his heart", "it is so broken" is likely going to end up with both tags unfilterable instead of being linked to a canonical tag like Heartbreak.

When a new tag is created (i.e. when someone tags their fic with something that has never before been tagged) it is not yet canonical--that is, when you click on it, you won't bring up any other fic tagged with it, and even if someone else uses that tag, at this point it won't come up when you click on the tag. That only changes when a tag wrangler--a volunteer with AO3, in charge of wrangling tags for that particular fandom--looks at it and decides what to do with it. Most chatty tags get ignored (unless the wrangler has seen others very similar). New fandom tags and character tags get made 'canonical' and attached to particular fandoms, so that a) they will now be clickable so you can find other fic tagged with that tag once other people use it and b) it will come up in the autocomplete. Other tags that the wrangler thinks will be generally useful (i.e. anything that other writers might use) get made canonical as well, either attached to the fandom (Tony Stark's Daddy Issues) or not attached to the fandom (mpreg, wingfic, etc). Tags that are close to/mean the same thing as other tags already in use get 'synned' to those tags, so "Bechdel Pass" and "Bechdel Test Pass" become functionally the same tag--you click on one, you get all the fics tagged with one or the other, so you don't need to know the exact tag you're looking for if you can get close.

A note: the tag wranglers are awesome, and do a lot of work behind the scenes to make the Archive work right. To learn more, check out this post on AO3. And if you want to make life easier on the tag wranglers, here's something one of them posted on tumblr:

What actually makes life harder for tag wranglers? People tagging obscure characters or OCs who are not in the work. Private bookmark tags that use terms we’ve never seen before. Smushnames. Comma fail. Drafts that stay for months because people keep editing them. All of those are allowed, and hardly anyone ever says anything about them outside of wrangler spaces.

If you spot a tag that you think is wrong (wrong spelling of a name, for example, which I've come across a couple of times--for some reason Vulcan women often get their names improperly capitalized, T'lar instead of T'Lar, that sort of thing) you can report it! At the bottom of every AO3 page is a link to "Technical Support and Feedback." Your comment will be sent to the tag wrangler for that fandom, and they can then either fix or explain the issue. (Thanks for pointing this out, liviapenn)

If you're really interested in How It All Works, you can check out the Sekrit Decoder Ring of tagging, aka the Tag Wrangling Guidelines. It's designed for the Tag Wranglers, so you don't need to know it--they'll handle any fixes that need fixing--but it's there if you want it.

If you want a different step-by-step explanation of how to tag on AO3, here's a post by superhappygenki, an AO3 tag wrangler.

Hope this all helps!

#archive of our own #ao3 #fanfiction #fanfic #meta

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so-shiny-so-chrome · 5 years

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Witness: Kalashnikorn

Creator name (AO3): Kalashnikorn

Creator name (Tumblr): Main-force-patrol

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalashnikorn

Creator name (other platform- please specify): @Riccarterfans (twitter)

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: My interest in Mad Max started early. I was maybe 12-14 when my mom picked it up on VHS at a garage sale because she had fond memories of the film when it came out (she saw it in theaters, which is rare for her). We’re both fond of cars and dystopian/apocalyptic stuff, so I easily connected with the movie and fell in love with WAY too many of the characters. So there was my weirdo self, in the early 2000s, loving MM1 but not really having a fandom to join. I had fun on my own, drawing stuff, making toys of the characters, writing doofy adolescent fanfic. You know, the works. But I did it in isolation, because I was a LONELY kid. Not just in terms of fandom, there were just never other kids around, or adults (other than my parents) around. Therefore, I spent most of my time online, and lost countless hours lurking on the MadMaxMovies.com forum. But I didn’t feel safe talking to people there, because the only other fans were guys my dad’s age. For years, if I had any kind of fandom-related wish that I’d give an arm to fulfill, it was that other girls and queer folks would embrace the MM series so I could finally share my excitement with people that would “get” me. Fast forward to 2015. Fury Road fulfilled that wish. I knew tumblr was my best chance at getting those friends I’d wanted for so long. It’s better than I’d ever dreamed. Mad Max Fandom, I love you! Special shoutout to @d--t, @crunkmouse, @sillyb0yblue, @sleepymayo, @lethalpr0tector, @legendofstraydog, @partyinvalhalla and @vanessa-geraldine-carlysle!

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: I love to write first-person fic that delves into the darker aspects of the human psyche. How do we justify killing others? What impact does a hypermasculine culture have upon a man with depression and anxiety? Is violence really the key to surviving the apocalypse? I also enjoy writing about people seeking control or freedom, and wrestling with that they believe they need to do to achieve that.

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: Since I do first person, I like something to get me into the head of the character I’m writing, so I make playlists for certain characters. 99% of the time, anymore, I’m writing as Roop, so on his playlist I’ve got a bunch of stuff quasi-hipster stuff that touches upon themes of isolation, anger, violence, and feelings of helplessness. There’s a bunch of indie rock, some seventies stuff, and A LOT OF PINK FLOYD. Oh, and there’s some Aussie rock in there too, of course.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Finding the time to write!

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: Roop… And Roop. And my understanding of him has absolutely grown through portraying him. He’s a character that’s in MM1 for like.. Ten minutes? And after the opening chase scene, he hardly has any lines. But Steve Millichamp does an excellent job portraying him with his posture, body language, etc. So I gleaned ideas from his non-verbal performance. Honestly, if you look at the number of times he makes a mopey face, it’s astounding. Other times, he looks at Fifi for guidance, the way a kid looks at a parent or teacher. He doesn’t seem to have any friends at work, partially due to his own personality. I could go on for hours. From all that, I extrapolated that he’s basically caught between childhood and adulthood, and he’s trying to sort out what it means to be a good cop and a good person. Sometimes those things aren’t congruent, and it tears him up because he’s a very type A, hardworking perfectionist. Growing up, he was told that he was gifted, smart, etc., and he feels like an imposter because he fixates on his shortcomings and mistakes. And when trying to live up to this impossibly high standard, he puts a lot of pressure on himself and struggles when he has to surrender or when he fails. There’s a ton more, but those are the highlights. The vast majority my MM/Roop fic stays offline. Pretty much all of it is irrelevant to the rest of the Mad Max universe, so there’s no point in posting it. It’s taken on a life of its own. Of course, some people have let me know that they dislike or disagree with my characterization of Roop. That’s fine. Nobody’s forcing them to read my fic.

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: Oh hell yes. And I’m completely shameless about it, because I don’t think the practice should be taboo or frowned upon. We wouldn’t shame an actor who tapped their lived experience to bring authenticity to a role, would we? I think we should extend the same understanding to writers. Aside from being a great way to understand more about our selves, enjoy an escapist fantasy, or work through trauma, I think self-insertion can be a great way to evoke emotional authenticity in a story.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: I pretty much stick to what I consider my strength, which is genfic. So I mostly stick to portraying platonic interactions, both friendly and unfriendly. I particularly like exploring how Roop interacts with/judges his co-workers. I’m also fond of writing about good moms who love and encourage their kids. Sometimes the mom is the viewpoint character, sometimes it’s the kid. Regardless, I like looking at how parental relationships can shape a person’s worldview.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: My work makes me hyper-analyze MM1 and its novelization. I mostly write MM1 fic because I feel like we could have gotten a lot more mileage out of exploring MM1’s world, before society fully broke down and became the more fantastical wasteland we know and love in MM2, MM3, and MMFR. As much as I like the later worldbuilding stuff, I can really appreciate watching a civilization crumble in a grounded, slow-burning manner.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: Depends on what you mean by “break.” I think a lot purists would say that I break canon, so I’ll put it this way: I like to write stories where I add to canon without directly contradicting it. We’re never shown Roop’s home life, for instance. It’s free real estate! I do this because I just want MORE MM1. More Roop, more MFP, more Armalites, all of it. I don’t feel the need to change anything, just add more volume to it. That said, I love it when others break canon! I have a ton of fun reading AUs and alternate scenes.

Q: Share some headcanons

A: GRAB A SEAT AND PUT YOUR SITTIN’ PANTS ON. Here we go: In addition to recruiting local police officers and other traditional recruiting strategies, the MFP uses conscription to fill out its ranks. Roop is one such draftee. Roop doesn’t spend any time with Charlie outside of work. He really just tries to minimize contact with the guy. If we do all my Roop headcanons, we’ll be here until the Miller completes MM5. Charlie wanted to go seminary school and become a priest, but was drafted. Losing his voice pretty much killed his dream of preaching. Fifi takes an interest in his men, but only so he can better manipulate them into staying/reenlisting. Bubba was a former MFP officer who went rogue once budget cuts and bureaucratic decisions made law enforcement abandon his rural hometown.

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?Inside the fandom, the old RP crowd and I bounced a lot of ideas off each other, and interacting with their muses helped Roop’s story grow by leaps and bounds (finger guns at @d--t’s OC, Renholder, @vanessa-geraldine-carlysle’s portrayal of Charlie, and @legendofstraydog’s OC, Syrup!) Outside the fandom, my biggest influences are Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, and Sam Esmail.

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: Not yet, but I'd love to go someday!

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project

A: “Autotomy” is my big current WIP. It’s 7 chapters into its 9 or 10 chapter run (I’ve literally got chapter 8 open in another window as I’m writing this). It follows Roop immediately after MM1 ends. He sees the aftermath of Max’s rampage, and begins to question his own ideals. Then his morals are put to the test when an unexpected guest arrives at his home. The word “autotomy” describes cutting off a part of oneself to escape a greater threat. Think of a lizard that sheds its trapped tail to avoid being eaten. I’m using it in the literal and metaphorical sense. At the end of MM1, we see someone have to make a literal life-or-limb decision. And in this story, Roop has to decide whether or not to cut off the toxic ideology that has guided his actions.

Thank you @main-force-patrol @richardcarterfans some of your tags got lost in reformatting. You may want to retag your peeps

#Mad Max Fandom Creator Spotlight #Mad Max Fandom Spotlight #mad max fic #mad max fic author spotlight #kalishnakorn #main-force-patrol

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discoursecommunityproject-blog · 7 years

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The Impact of the Tumblr Discourse Community on the Harry Potter Series

Since the first Harry Potter book was released in 1997, the series has been a cultural phenomenon. Thousands of people lined up to purchase each new book and see each new movie. They dressed up for premieres, bought all different types of merchandise, even held Potter-themed weddings. The franchise is considered “one of the most financially and culturally successful enterprises in entertainment history” (Brummitt, 2016, p. 114). Despite the fact that the final book in the series came out ten years ago and the last movie was released six years ago, Harry Potter still thrives and remains relevant in pop culture, as evidenced by the success of the 2016 stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Now the question is, how has Harry Potter retained, even grown, its fanbase over time? I will argue that the discourse community surrounding the Harry Potter series – aka the “Harry Potter fandom” – has allowed the series to maintain popularity over time, even after the conclusion of the book and movie series.

Background

Let’s start with the obvious question: what is a fandom? A fandom refers to the collective and active groups of superfans surrounding any given topic. Often, these fandoms have unique names and those in the Harry Potter fandom call themselves Potterheads. Potterheads are an extremely large and diverse group of fans stretching around the globe.

Potterheads make up their own discourse community both in person and online. Though there is significant overlap between the “physical” and online Potterhead discourse communities, for this essay I will focus on the online discourse community, specifically that of Tumblr. As Catherine Tosenberger (2008) writes, the online “Potter fandom is an invaluable repository of the creative and critical responses of the series’ most dedicated and engaged readers” (p. 200). The fandom uses their discourse to contribute to the fandom and the series as a whole. Fan contributions to the Potter universe–whether fanfictions, parties, or blog posts—keep Harry Potter relevant, even years later.

Method

I focused on the website Tumblr for this project. While the fandom is active on many different websites, Tumblr is the central hub of fandom activity. To take advantage of the Tumblr platform, I incorporated it into my project, highlighting examples of the Potterhead discourse community. I utilized the “tag” feature to group different genres of discourse into the blog. As Power states, “Built-in audiences… are linked by the ever-crucial tagging element” of Tumblr (2014, p. 91), and thus tagging is essential for the discourse community. The goal of this project is to submerge the reader into the Harry Potter discourse community on Tumblr.

Why Tumblr is the Fandom Hub

Tumblr has gained widespread popularity due to “its accessibility to users and the important factor of community interaction” (Yunus & Salehi, 2012, p. 388). Essentially, Tumblr easy and customizable. One user can have as many blogs as they want, and typically each blog centers around a unique fandom or theme. Thus, it is easy to follow and interact with blogs connected to specific interests. Longtime Potterhead Jacqueline Gordon states that Tumblr “lends itself to fandom discourse” compared to other social media sites that are “geared towards self-promotion” (personal communication, 2017). Blogs are generally anonymous and tend to focus on the blog’s content, not the blogger. Compare this to websites like Facebook and Instagram where each profile is entirely centered around a person. Furthermore, the tagging feature allows users to easily search for posts relevant to their fandom community. Additionally, “many Facebook and Instagram posts that focus on the Harry Potter fandom borrow content directly from Tumblr, often in the form of screenshots” (J. Gordon, personal communication, 2017). While there are many Harry Potter posts on various websites, most of them come back to Tumblr.

Beyond setting up a prominent presence for discourse on Tumblr, the fandom has developed its own vocabulary unique to the discourse community. Potterheads naturally incorporate unique vocabulary and phrases into otherwise common genres, creating their own language. People take words created for the series and add deeper meanings to them that people not in the fandom would never know. An outsider may understand the difference between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, but they don’t question the greater meaning behind these things. Does Dumbledore symbolically represent death in the Peverell story? Should the relationship between Barty Crouch Jr. and his house elf be considered healthy or hostile? Was Harry justified in using unforgivable curses? The fandom takes words that were created and only used in the Harry Potter series and uses them to discuss greater and more important topics in the fandom.

Combining its unique fandom vocabulary with Tumblr’s specific website features, the fandom perpetuates Harry Potter’s relevance by creating different genres to appeal to a wide range of community members. I identified six main genres in the community: memes, informative posts, photosets, fanfictions, headcanons, and Q&As.. All of these genres incorporate the fandom’s unique forms of discourse. Though these genres are still very much unique to the Potterhead community, they help the series to stay relevant by recognizing a spectrum of fans, from those who know lots of details about the series to novices.

The first genre, memes, appeal to by far the widest audience. Memes are comedic photos with written captions and are usually just for entertainment. These posts are often found on other social media platforms and though they require that the viewer have a basic understanding of the Potter universe, they lack the same depth as some of the other genres I will discuss. They are brief, clever, and “shareable” and make the discourse community visible to those less invested in it.

Like memes, informative posts and photosets appeal to both highly invested and less-invested fans, but are not generally comedic. Informative posts simply contain facts both about the series and about other things in the fandom. They can be anything from logistics related to an upcoming fandom event to descriptions regarding a character in the story. It is common for them to look like an announcement or a list. This genre is used by the vast majority in the fandom. Photosets are mainly picture collages mixed with limited discourse. Any words are usually used to describe the photos. These generally appeal to a wider variety of Potterheads, those who may not know every Potter factoid but have a basic understanding of the series and vocabulary surrounding it. Additionally, these photosets generally are formed out of images from the movies, making them more recognizable to those who are less familiar with the books.

For those more involved in the series and the discourse community, fanfictions and headcanons offer a niche. Fanfictions are fan-authored stories based upon the Harry Potter franchise. These can be very loyal to or stray heavily from the book. Some may take place at Hogwarts and some may take place at an ordinary “muggle” high school. Headcanons are similar to fanfactions in that fans create unique content based off of the series, but these headcanons are usually short (2-5 sentences). It’s common for a headcanon to be a made up conversation between two real characters. Unlike informative posts and photosets, fanfictions and headcanons appeal to a somewhat different audience, those who are more invested in the fan community.

And lastly, for those most dedicated members of the fandom, Tumblr’s built-in Q&A feature appeals to them.. Users can ask a blog owner a question and when the owner responds, the entire Q&A is posted to the blog. In the Harry Potter fandom, these questions usually have to do with a person asking another about their views on something. Q&As generally cater to the most intense Potterheads, those who spend time and energy thinking out plot nuances and theories and debating them. Again, if you look in the top right corner of this Tumblr blog, there is a button for “Tags”. From that, select any of the genres listed and you will be shown examples of that genre.

These various genres allow for different views and interpretation of the series. Potterheads can add in their own ideas and opinions of the series through the genres. One extremely interesting example that I would like to highlight is a headcanon. The first example in the headcanons section of my blog is a photoset. Somebody reimagined aspects of the series to take place in the present day instead of the early 1990s. This is one individual reimagining the series literally keeping it relevant to modern times. The genres on Tumblr offer a place for fans to contribute to the series and also allow access to any level of fan. Instead of creating an insulated group of super-fans, the various genres

How Tumblr Has Increased Harry Potter’s Popularity

We’ve talked about Tumblr Potterheads as a discourse community and also why Tumblr is a hub for fandom activity. But the community on Tumblr has done more than just house fandom activity: it has helped the fandom grow overtime, even after the end of new books and movies. One reason is that the posts, blogs, and conversations on Tumblr are constantly increasing. So there is more information out there in the fandom. Members into the fandom are increasing because people can see new content. These unique ideas blending together allow the series to grow over time. Essentially, the series grows with the audience. The more that the fandom contributes to the series over Tumblr, the bigger the series becomes. Whatever the background of the Potterhead, whether grizzled, old fan or just a Harry Potter moviegoer, Tumblr offers something for everyone, from shareable memes to outlandish headcanons.

Even more importantly, these fandom members on Tumblr insist on new content. They want to see new angles in the series and what happened to characters after the books ended (epilogues). When persistent enough, these new angles have the chance to continually shape the series. After the series ended, author J. K. Rowling “announced that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore was gay” (Tosenberger, 2008, p. 200). Fans are torn as to whether or not this is actually canon in the series. It is common belief that “Dumbledore’s homosexuality… may be connected to her awareness of slash fans” (p. 201). Slash fans are members of the fandom who actively seek out homosexual relations in characters in the book. Not only did these fans help the series stay relevant in pop culture through engagement in the discourse community, but it is possible that fan pressure pushed the author to alter her vision of the story.

The Harry Potter fandom is its own discourse community because members communicate largely over social networking. They use vocabulary and diction that are unique to the Harry Potter series. People reading their blog posts that are outside of the fandom would not know what is trying to be communicated. Tumblr is essential to the Harry Potter discourse community as most other social media websites refer back to Tumblr. The fandom’s various genres allow for personal interaction with Harry Potter content. This allows for a constant growth in information about Harry Potter to spread, thus making the series relevant even after it has ended. What’s more, the Potterheads’ influence upon the Harry Potter series expands to people even outside of the fandom. When utilized properly, Tumblr acts as a great hub for any fandom, or even any group of people with shared beliefs. It is easy to spread your ideas across a wide variety of audiences. If there is enough noise behind you, you may just influence something great, as Potterheads did with Dumbledore’s sexuality.

References

Brummitt, C. (2016). Pottermore: Transmedia Storytelling Authorship in Harry Potter. The Midwest Quarterly, 58(1), 112-132.

Power, J. L. (2014). Tumblr. Journal of Access Services, 11(2), 91-96.

Tosenberger, C. (2008). “Oh my God, the Fanfiction!”: Dumbledore’s Outing and the Online Harry Potter Fandom. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 33(2), 200-206.

Yunus, M. M., & Salehi, H. (2012). Tumblr as a Medium to Improve Students’ Writing Skills. Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 8(1), 383-389.

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itsnotsuposedtobeaboutyou · 4 years

Text

I know my mental health isn’t great cause I’m real unsure of reality again

Or maybe it’s liminal spaces too? Or just a genuinely uncertain problem?

Or a combination.

Tangent. This is a tangent.

I am worried about alcohol.

Specifically, whether I should head towards a use of it in moderation or abstain altogether.

It’s one of those “want the therapist to just give you the answer but they can’t cause it’s like entirely your decision” problems.

Alcohol is like. Dangerous as fuck ok?

It is the most dangerous thing I think I’ve done fairly regularly.

Alcohol is never healthy. Even those moderate uses of wine studies have been debunked.

I’ve blacked out and lost a whole night that I only know (and thank god I at least know) second hand. Fucking terrifying, especially as someone who cares more about self awareness than is healthy.

I’ve driven drunk. The worst thing I’ve ever done. And I realize I am not gonna be easy to view as a good human with that knowledge. I know I could have killed someone. I know the weight of that inebriated decision. But I did it.

But I am also prone to being overly hard on myself. And while some people on tumblr may think I deserve that, I don’t.

I am a very moderate user. I don’t drink at all a vast majority of the time, I have been reassured that I am not an asshole when I’m drunk, and I hardly ever drink enough to have a hangover/go anywhere near binge drinking territory.

The terrible things I’ve done, I’ve only done once. For whatever that’s worth.

I am a perfectionist and am prone to push myself too much to be morally and ethically perfect.

And I am fairly certain that I am not in an addictive relationship with this substance. I am also confident that I have solid resources and people around me that would not hesitate to tell me if they thought I was heading in that direction. And that I would listen to them if they did.

This concern is current as I am over half way through a month without drinking at all, and there are cravings. There are wants. The urge to break the month is there. I don’t think I would do that, but I am really not sure and that scares me. The implications of that scares me.

But what is the wise decision?

I think the right decision is to cut it out altogether and make it so whether to drink on a given night is not even a question.

I also think the right decision is to have empathy with myself and recognize that sometimes, there is no harm and it would add to my enjoyment of an evening. And that setting strict rules for myself in the midst of uncertainty has not been successful in the past.

There’s the temptation to overly structure and make a complex set of rules for myself for when and when not. But I think the only one of those that would work is when I am somewhere I was planning to spend the night anyway. Take driving right out of the equation.

It’s worth noting the social connotations as well. I hate beer anyway and think bars are so fucking weird in their glorification of the stuff, but I don’t want to cut out the potential of a fun tipsy book club with wine someday (the most white cis woman thing I may have ever said in my life but god I would love to talk about fiction with Brian every month while we were both giggly).

The black out night resulted from using too much to avoid social anxiety though. So... I am certainly not exempt from toxic social motivations.

What is the wise decision? Not just responsible or kind or socially acceptable or easy or challenging or best for my productivity.

What is best for me?

Fuck if I know.

#at least I have two more weeks of certain sobriety to think about it and get info #if you have info/thoughts that aren't about how terrible I am #I am so down #alcohol tw #tw #drunk driving tw #blackout tw #alcoholism tw #?#not really but I figure it sure as hell may be close enough #existence is hard #and we are all just trying our best

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