#MY BLOG IS KIND OF A REMINDER.. SO ITS FINE... points at url

[lanaevyssmoved]

part of me wants to stop being a bg3 blog because im soooo tired

[mittensmorgul]

For anyone interested in long-term residence in the supernatural fandom, please have some observations I’ve made over the decade I’ve been here. Take it or leave it as you will, but I’ve found all of this info useful over the years I’ve been here.

I wrote this yesterday, and it achieved its mission of identifying the sort of folks who would react negatively to it (i.e. a lot of block lists have been updated), so now that it’s been edited for content, it’s going under a cut (because that is how we do things on tumblr in general, unless we have a deliberate purpose for annoying readers with excessively long text posts) for the sake of people who actually do care about the fandom and its history. If that’s not you or your reason for being here, then keep on keeping on with your own thing, I guess. For those who are interested, there’s a lot of fandom resources some of us have been building for years that you might enjoy knowing about.

First off, I’ve been informed by a few friends who’ve read through this for coherency’s sake that it sort of reads like a *shakes cane from porch* fandom grandma complaint, but honestly... I earned this rocking chair and goshdangit imma rock now. So apologies for any “back in my day” vibes or faint aroma of tiger balm this post might give off. Then again, it’s loosely based on a similar post from 2012 so like... time is a flat circle anyway I guess.

1. There is no such thing as “tumblr famous,” unless you’re referring to the hilarious and delightful fic of the same name (please go read it, you will cackle). Posting Hot Takes for imaginary Clout™ on this site is kind of pointless in the long run. Sure you can post solely for the sake of stirring shit and getting notes, but the majority of the folks who do aren’t long term residents of the fandom. They’re just tourists moving through our little beach town for spring break. If you’re actually intent on moving to this corner of the fandom for an extended stay, please bother to really feel out the permanent residents and understand the culture and general mood of the neighborhood. It bears no resemblance to whatever’s going on across town where all the bars and beach parities are happening, and those loud, drunken revelers are, again, gonna disappear back to their regular lives or on to the next party eventually. That doesn’t mean the fandom is dying, it’s just evolving.

(funny how I had several comments implying that I’m just trying to keep the fandom from evolving with this post, because I sincerely do want the fandom to continue on for years to come, and that is impossible without evolution. We can evolve without self-immolating, though. mostly i included point 1 for an excuse to push ancient but hilarious fanfic on you.)

2. Once you post something here, it’s been unleashed to the fandom winds. You never know where it will end up, or who will comment on it or add to it. Remember that time Misha tweeted the link to the Epic Cockles Love Story post? No? It was wild. That was 2012. They all know we’re here, and how to find us if they want to. Please don’t take it to their doorsteps.

Obviously if someone is being a dick on your posts, please feel free to block them, but the whole entire point of this site is to engage people with your posts. Being big mad that someone reblogged your post with comments or supporting evidence, or happy headcanons or “HECK THIS IS GREAT BECAUSE (insert personal story about their experience or whatever else made them Feel Things about your post)” is frankly ridiculous. If your goal is to avoid any sort of engagement with your posts, then maybe try instagram instead. From what I understand, there is a SPN fandom presence there, and nobody can tarnish your original posts with unwanted commentary. But the ability to reblog with additional commentary is a FEATURE of tumblr that builds community through conversation. Otherwise we’re all just talking to ourselves in a vacuum, and that’s what actually kills fandoms.

(and for the folks who just want to blog how they want to blog and don’t want people to engage on their posts at all, please feel free to block anyone you want, as well... nobody wants to step on your toes, but most of us also don’t want to walk on eggshells wondering if this post is one of the “do not add comments for any reason” sorts of posts, either. This is a huge fandom and most people can’t even begin to keep track of every creator and their url du jour, and what their personal rules might be regarding interaction with their content. Including a “please don’t add comments” note at the bottom of your posts-- and not in your tags that won’t even show up on reblogs, but in the actual body of the post-- would sincerely help avoid any awkward or unwanted interactions, too. At the end of the day, you are in control of your own fandom experience and the block button exists.

For the record, I block zero fandom blogs (which is why I posted this, I wanted it to reach a wide scope... refer to the opening paragraphs as to why).

3. Since this post was partly inspired by a tag I left on that post going around about how “previous tags” mean fuckall on this site (which you can read here), just a reminder that if you like someone’s tags or feel they add value to the post, part of the Peer Review structure of tumblr encourages you to PASTE THEM INTO A REBLOG. If you do this, then at least credit the person who actually wrote the tags! Don’t just copy someone else’s tags into your tags on your reblog of the post without credit either. They were not YOUR tags. (I have had this happen to tag rambles I wrote and someone else got credited with them on a subsequent reblog and it is FRUSTRATING). Just... don’t even bother to write “previous tags” because WHAT PREVIOUS TAGS?! Nobody is gonna bother to chase back the chain of reblogs trying to find where the mystery tags came from, friendos. That way lies madness.

(for the record, since some folks seemed to focus on this point solely, writing “previous tags” on a post isn’t inherently a BAD thing, but for anyone who actually is here for more than one-off shitposting, then it’s sort of a pointless thing in the long run. This wasn’t intended to suggest people who ARE here for one-off shitposting are bad or “doing it wrong,” but for people who might actually want to preserve that hilarious joke or insightful comment. People delete posts and entire blogs all the time around here. Links break. I get that the upcoming generation just shrugs at that and moves on with their lives, but heck... you don’t have to accept that all entertainment is disposable if you don’t want to. There’s a bizarre sort of nihilism plaguing us all about the impermanence of pretty much everything that feels like something we should be fighting against rather than buying into wholesale, even in our escapist entertainment. I’m just exhausted by the complete loss of joy in community.

*shouts from the peanut gallery* IT AIN’T THAT DEEP, JUST GET SOME FRESH AIR AND LOOK AT A PUPPY OR SOMETHING

Yes... yes it isn’t really that deep, but bigger picture in the state of reality we’re all entirely disillusioned with, are we supposed to just give up on everything, including the things we cling to because they bring us a tiny spark of hope that we’re not all just trapped in this dystopian nightmare and things might actually be worth living for?

*peanut gallery clinging to burnt husks of peanuts in a barren peanut field* but this is how we have chosen to cope

Okay... you do you... I feel bad for you but if that’s the case then this post is NOT FOR YOU. AND THAT’S FINE. I honestly do not care if you don’t care! I mean, I’m sorry anyone has to live in a world that drives them to that mindset, but I understand. This post is for anyone who might look at their lives and their choices and think “no wait, I unironically enjoy this and want more from the experience of that enjoyment than I’m currently feeling.” Everyone else can continue with their lives as usual.)

4. CONTENT THEFT IS NEVER OKAY. PERIOD. Things like “credit to the artist” or tagging gifs or images you found on pinterest as “not mine” isn’t actually credit. If you can’t source an image or gif set, DO NOT POST IT! We don’t REPOST (i.e. save an image and then create a new post with it as if it was our own creation). We REBLOG (click the little square arrows and reblog from the actual creator). That goes for gif sets, fanvids, screencaps, meta, fic... everything.

(hopefully everyone here already understands this one, but I felt compelled to include some “these are stupidly obvious” reminders anyway, since this is ostensibly some sort of advice column. This is the equivalent of the warning label on your toaster reminding you not to use it in the bath. Like... duh...)

5. Close kin of item 4 is SOURCE YOUR SHIT. 

(for 100% disclosure purposes, I specifically discussed this one in this specific way because of an influx of anon ask messages I received in the wake of the finale. Literally the inciting incident for creating this entire post was what I can only assume was a joking ask about a comment Misha made at a con years ago. Someone actually bothered to take the time to type out those sentences to me. I have no idea what they were expecting in reply, or what could possibly motivate them to send this comment about something so entirely random from, again, several years ago. Just a joke? No idea, but whatever... it got me thinking that there might actually be people who are new to the fandom who MIGHT actually care about the fandom history, and maybe they just don’t know where to go for that info, or how to even begin searching through 16 years of history for things they might actually find enjoyment in, rather than just hauling random out of context garbage out on main and pointing and laughing about it now. People are actually allowed to care about things. It’s not cringeworthy to actually care about things, and you are not alone in actually caring, and there’s this whole big room over here full of people who are thrilled to share in that with you. This post is intended FOR THOSE PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY, so if that is not you, please just continue walking by.)

Yes, I know lots of y’all are new around here right now, but dredging up stuff from years ago that fandom has completely debunked and presenting it as TRU FAX again is just exhausting. We’re not trying to be party poopers, but seriously, we have seen it all and are mostly done with extinguishing bags of flaming dog poop on our front porches for the umpteenth year in a row. I’ve seen a lot of posts that have the same tone as “I saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil” or “I heard kylo ren has an eight pack” and just... the information is there for anyone who cares enough to find it.

This goes double for “why is nobody talking about this thing I just discovered while watching the show for the first time?!” And, oh hon, we have talked it all into the ground over the last fifteen years. We’re happy you’re discovering it again, but I promise we talked about it plenty when the episodes originally aired. We have such a rich meta history that lots of us have worked really hard to preserve. I encourage you to seek it out, if nothing else than as historical artifacts. The way we have discussed the show has been a 16-year evolution. People have written literal doctoral dissertations on this show. Your shitposts are fun! We love reliving our own experience through fresh eyes, and seeing your wonder at experiencing it all again for the first time! But y’all didn’t invent this fandom in the last six months, either.

Meta Sources and Minerals provided by our friendly neighborhood fandom archivist, @lets-steal-an-archive

Academic books and articles about SPN 

A collection of Meta Essays going back to s1 and organized by topic (all of this has happened before, all of it will happen again)

SPN Heavy Meta Archive (s1-3)

Mel’s Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-12)

Oranges8hands Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-15, with many similar entries to Mel’s... though ymmv on viewpoint in a lot of these too)

Anyone remember Fandom Wank? Not the concept but the actual LJ... No? Okay have a link to SPN topics that ended up there. Through 2013. We have seen so much... including several fandom containment breaches.

for all your art sourcing needs, please see @theroadsofararchive, the repository for so much fandom art.

need to find a gif of something? canonspngifs is a vast repository of gifsets of the entire series. If the gif you want to use in your post happens to be the first gif in the gifset, in the tumblr gif finder thingy just paste the permalink to that post from canonspngifs (which is easily searchable by episode, character, location, situation, quotes, and sometimes even color and clothing items the actors are wearing... it’s really well organized, especially for tumblr >.>) and the first gif will be automatically linked with credit to the gif creator attached. It makes life easy that way. It’s also convenient when trying to remember something specific but can’t remember what episode it’s from. I’ve used the site to jog my memory before going to the superwiki armed with more specific search results to find episode quotes and references. Or sometimes I just scroll through all the nice gifs for fun, too.

Need a screencap of something and know exactly which episode it’s from? Try Home of the Nutty. You might not find the exact screencap you’re looking for, but they have a complete set of caps of every episode, and it’s an incredibly useful resource for quick reference checks and the like. Just give pages a chance to fully load before clicking on the next one. The site is easily overloaded, but it’s still free to use (and again, with credit... Pretty much every screencap on my entire blog is from HotN unless otherwise credited).

As you can see, this is a fandom built on preserving our history. You absolutely are not required to engage with any of this if that’s not of interest to you, but I can only assume that there are people who would be interested in it if only they knew it existed and how to find it. Well, now they do.

6. A few more notes on tags, and how they work on tumblr. The first 20 tags on your ORIGINAL posts are searchable sitewide, so if you want to be able to find something again, tag that thing first before going on general tag rambles. The only place tags on reblogs are searchable is on your own blog. So you don’t have to put 50 tags trying to get a post seen if it’s a reblog. You’re just spitting into the wind at that point. If you have a filing system for finding things again, then by all means add those tags (again, in the first 20, so they’re searchable), but you don’t need to tag a reblog “destiel” and “deancas” and “dean” and “cas” and “dean x cas” or whatever. Pick one for your personal blog’s filing system, that’s all you need.

(this was only added because tagging and searching on this site is so very broken... I get that a lot of folks don’t care about ever searching their own blogs again for anything, so this one only really applies if you do often find yourself trying to find old posts. If not, then it’s not really relevant.  It took me years to work out a decent tagging system, and at the beginning of my time here I never thought I’d end up camping out here for a decade and falling this deep into the fandom, and I regretted my lack of consistent tags only years later when I realized I actually wanted to be able to go back and find specific old posts again. So... for anyone who wants to err on the side of caution, working out a sensible tagging system really helps if you’re here for the long term. I personally tag content by episode, because some of my other general tags are so large as to be practically useless as a search term. But whatever system you choose to file stuff on your own blog, it really only has to make sense to you. And again, if this is pointless advice for someone who has no intention of settling here for the long term. Please feel free to ignore it. I just wish someone had explained it this way to me ten years ago and saved me the hassle of retroactively tagging something like 30k posts... especially now that using the mass tag replacer is the fastest way to get your entire blog deleted... oops? so yeah, don’t use the mass tag replacer either >.>)

7. Tags on Tumblr DO NOT WORK LIKE TAGS ON TWITTER. If you @ someone in the body of the post, it will show up in their notifications (if they’re the sort of person who even checks their notifications... not all of us do. For the record, I generally don’t...), but putting actor or ship names in the tags on a tumblr post does absolutely nothing. It’s not the same as tagging the actor’s twitter account in a tweet. Nobody’s getting notifications about you tagging a post about Jensen here as “Jensen Ackles.” There is a difference. Please learn it. (and don’t take headcanons and ESPECIALLY RPF or otherwise explicit art or fic from tumblr to twitter and tag the actors in it. That’s just... not okay.)

(I have seen the pearl clutchers getting all in a huff about the mere existence of RPF or even explicit content of fictional characters if it doesn’t meet their purity standards, but tagging those things allows people who don’t want to see it to actively avoid that content here. Nobody has a right to tell people their fictional content shouldn’t exist at all, or that creators of that fictional content somehow deserve harassment or threats for having dared to create such “immoral” content, won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children... and no... you do not do that here. Don’t be the problematic behavior you wish to ban from the world. Learn to use tags to protect yourself from, as i have attempted to emphasize here, fictional content you are personally upset by. That’s a you problem, not a problem for the creators of potentially upsetting content that they tag appropriately for.)

8. General formatting stuff: If you’re writing long text posts, visually break them up so people aren’t faced with one long wall of text. The enter key is your friend. Also, if you put long text posts under a Read More break and send people to your blog to finish reading, please ensure that your blog is actually visually accessible (tiny text, or light grey text on a dark grey background, or a visually busy background might be aesthetically pleasing to you but nobody can actually read it. Loads of folks won’t even try. Which is great if you don’t actually care whether people are able to appreciate your content or not, but something to at least consider if you *do* actively want to encourage engagement with your work. Confirm how your blog looks on both mobile and desktop and make sure it’s actually functional in both, too).

And since I mentioned that most of my experience on fandom tumblr has been in the SPN fandom, here’s a bit of a reminder for folks who are new around here. With the reminder that I have been here more than a decade and still feel like a newbie myself sometimes...

This is an OLD FANDOM. There are many, many people who have been at this longer than some of you have been alive. The average age for creators in this fandom is older than you think (I think of my friends in their 30′s as young’ins okay? okay). With that understood, you are responsible for the content you consume and are exposed to. Curate your experience. Ship and let ship. YKINMKATOK. Don’t deliberately expose yourself to content you find upsetting for whatever reason. Tags and warnings are your friends, not targets for you to attack in some sort of purity war. People will ship things you do not like (or in specific ways you do not like), will say things you do not agree with, and will find their happiness in things you abhor. That is not your concern. Find what you do like, and support and engage with it, and ignore (or block, or unfollow) the rest. Tumblr has a feature that lets you blacklist tags so the content you’re trying to avoid won’t appear on your dash.

Remember the paradox of tolerance.

It is not your job in fandom to police how other people enjoy the fandom. It’s not *my* job to police how *you* enjoy the fandom, UNLESS your enjoyment is in actively harming other real human beings in the fandom. If you don’t like their take on the character or the show or the plotlines or their ships or anything else, you don’t need to engage with their posts at all! The necessary corollary to this is that clarifying misunderstandings or correcting factual misinformation is not “policing.” 

(this is where the peanut gallery reminds me it ain’t that deep, and I plead with them to put down the social media and find just one (1) thing to actually believe in in this godforsaken life, find something other than disdain and cynicism and spite to live for. If those things motivate you to find a larger cause for yourself, then great, use them to your advantage, but use them to find something that makes you a better person or brings you a modicum of joy and connection to your fellow human beings despite living in a dystopian hellscape of a world)

I have seen a lot of posts lately that are founded on the sort of authority that comes with “I watched through tumblr for a few months and then watched the last three episodes of the series” and as such are just... missing the larger context of the entire show, and are unfounded entirely in canon. I 100% appreciate the new enthusiasm for the fandom that we’ve been living in here for years, and it’s wonderful to see new people enjoying the thing we love. Your headcanons are valid, you are valid, but recognize that your headcanons aren’t canon. All of us finale denialists have accepted this in some measure, so we feel you. We truly, truly feel you. But regarding actual canon, we have a resource for that: the Superwiki. Learn it, live it, love it, as Metatron would say.

(which you could discover he said in 10.17 Inside Man, thanks to the superwiki! accept no substitutes!)

(and again, there have been people who have been involved in fandom for years who haven’t engaged with canon in years, either! You can play in this universe however you choose, BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT CANON AT ALL, WHICH I AM AGAIN POINTEDLY SAYING MIGHT NOT BE YOU, READER, AND I’M NOT SUGGESTING YOU ARE WRONG FOR NOT WANTING TO ACTUALLY ENGAGE WITH CANON, but if you DO want to engage with canon, please have some useful resources. Why do people feel personally attacked by being presented a list of helpful resources? Absolutely baffling.)

(also: words have definitions. “Canon” is a specific thing, meaning in this case “the finished media product that aired on television.” Anything beyond those limits is secondary canon (think: john’s journal, which is not canon but canon adjacent at best...), word of god (i.e stuff said by the writers and showrunners), or headcanon (which includes actor commentary-- they may have helped create the show with their acting choices and whatever, but they are not in control of the story overall). If there’s something you dislike about actual canon, you can reject it and supplement it with your own theories or preferred outcomes-- that’s basically what fanfic is-- but that doesn’t make your theories canon (much to all our dismay, that’s just not how any of this works. This is not to invalidate how anyone engages with the show or the fandom, just trying to clarify what seems to have been a source of unintentional misunderstandings. Your theories do not have to be “canon” to be legitimate interpretations.)

***I am setting this section apart, and did make a separate post of just this following information, because this is where we go from being relatively chill about different parts of fandom choosing to interact in different ways and you do you and blog however you want, to “hey can everybody please understand that the way you are interacting with this specific material might be harmful for specific legal reasons, and stating that you do not care about the consequences of your actions does actively make you the asshole here...” Okay, now that we have that understood:

The spnscripthunt collective has been steadily acquiring new scripts (which are posted in full on the superwiki for everyone to enjoy, for free). The language around how some folks are talking about these scripts is... concerning. For very real legal reasons, actually, and not because we’re feeling precious about the collection and don’t wike it when meanies use them in shitposts.

-First off, these scripts are not “leaks.” They are all verified and legally purchased (or gifted, in some cases, but still acquired entirely above board. we didn’t whack anyone over the head in a back alley for these scripts, or swipe them out of someone’s trailer on set).

(in case anyone was unaware, these scripts are the copywritten protected property of Warner Brothers. So yes, how we use them and share them with the fandom could have legal repercussions. We present them as a collected resource of fandom history which SHOULD fall under Fair Use doctrine, but this is untested legal water. Insinuating that the scripts are somehow not entirely legally obtained, or that posting them for public access involved less than 100% transparent and entirely legal transactions is incredibly concerning.

Once again for the peanut gallery, if you don’t care about any of that and are just having a good time with it, at least be mindful of the work and expense a large group of people have gone through to acquire and present the content you’re all too eager to exploit for cheap thrills. Some of us do actually care and are not exactly comfortable with the fact that others don’t seem to care about burning it all to the ground. We can’t force you to listen or behave as we’d hope you might, but at least be aware of the potential consequences of your actions. All we’re asking is for you to not be the douchebag who sets the whole neighborhood on fire with your illegal fireworks display. Is that too much to ask for? more on that in a second, first... a psa)

-If you see a script for sale and are unsure if it’s legit (or believe it might already be freely available in our collection), please feel free to ask us for advice. Our goal is to make as much of our fandom history available to the entire fandom, and we absolutely do not want anyone shelling out money for stuff you can already find for free.

(seriously, we’ve seen a bunch of resellers cropping up selling printed versions of the scripts we bought and uploaded for everyone to enjoy free of charge, or scripts that are otherwise of dubious origin. We’ve been at this for years now and know what’s actually out there. We don’t want anyone to fall for a scam if we can help it)

-Also, the usual reminder that the scripts we acquire ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE FINAL SHOOTING DRAFTS. In fact, the majority of scripts in our collection are NOT. Changes are made daily to scripts, even during filming. Comparing a Production Draft (white pages, effectively the first “final draft” of what usually becomes a series of drafts before filming wraps) to a much later revision (say... green or goldenrod revisions, several of which we DO have in our collection for comparison) and how those earlier drafts often differ wildly from the aired version versus how similar a much later green draft is to the aired version, for example, can teach you a lot about the television writing process. The link above to the superwiki scripts page has a nice little explainer about how this process works.

Differences between our posted scripts (many of which are white drafts, aka FIRST complete drafts, which will likely go through multiple rounds of revisions before filming even begins) and the aired version of the show are not all “acting choices” or a director or editor just cutting whole scenes on a whim. It’s insulting to everyone involved in production to suggest that’s the case.

(and yeah, fine... whatever, make any sort of posts you like regarding how those changes came about, but at the very least understand that it’s not actually the truth about how any of this works. Don’t care that that’s not the truth and want to make the posts anyway because shitposting is fun and that’s the extent of your sense of humor? FINE! You’re entitled to do that! But at least you DO know the truth now, and hopefully so do the people who engage with your posts. Deliberate ignorance isn’t cute, smooth lions notwithstanding)

There’s probably a whole other post to be made on fandom tagging etiquette, but again I don’t really use the tags enough to know what’s going on with that whole situation. I’ve also probably left a lot of stuff out, so please feel free to add things I’ve overlooked.

Thanks also to @trisscar368 and @thayerkerbasy for help compiling this, too. They were kind enough to escort me through the park to feed these pigeons. Now I need to take them out for ice cream. :’D

So I guess welcome to the neighborhood. Make yourself at home, but like... try not to trash the place while you’re here. Some of us live here by choice, lol.

[nazukisser]

Helloo I recently came across ur blog and all ur writing is amazing!! Keep up the good work !

\(//∇//)\ Ah but do u have any advice for someone that just started a writing blog? please drink enough water and rest well!!

╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you like my works!!! <3 As for advice... there's a lot that goes into a blog, so I think this will be a little long. (Please do not be discouraged, it's not as hard and complicated as the length of this guide. If you go with the flow of however it goes you'll be fine. I've been labeled as professional by many people. Please remember these are tips that I find helpful and useful in my blogs so feel free to take some and leave some.)

01. purpose of blog

While I know that you most likely have a reason for your blog, it's really helpful to think about exactly what kind of contents you want to bring to the hellfire of tumblr.

It can be whatever reason, to write fics of your fav, or to try out writing, or to just bring more stuff into the tags, maybe a mix, add in another reason or few.

But it's a guiding point as to where you wanna go with the blog. If you're gonna use it for whatever, that's fine too, whatever you want with the blog. But if you're making lots of goals to achieve a big goal, it's good to have a "vision statement".

If it helps, my vision statement is to write all the ideas in my drafts and to bring more nazuna content in this world. Ultimately, I just wanna have fun with it though.

02. blog setup

URLS: in terms of urls, short and catchy urls are most popular. something related to a character, in-game item, theme, song title, etc. my prev url was nazu-yume, which each part has 4 letters and is easily recognizable. nazukisser is somewhat messier but it describes what this blog is better. also if your url is longer it's best to put hyphens. easier to remember

Solo? Group?: Sometimes, depending on the blog, you might want to run the blog with someone else. it's fun :D but running a blog by yourself is really common. whatever floats your boat

General aesthetic: You can always change your aesthetic tbh, but having a general theme is great to decide on. often times it's a specific card. others its a theme like "angels" or a color like light blue or a song or a specific character, or a specific aesthetic like lovecore but whatever you find pretty

Headers: Usually, most people (me included) like to match headers and icons (see more about icons below). ive been making mine 1100 x 650 px if you decide to crop an image or edit your own. i tend to edit mine because that feels too lazy if i don't. but lots of people pick an image and place it as their header. there's always the option to reposition/zoom in or out/not stretch header !!!

Icons: Usually match the headers, being the same character or similar colors etc. crop into square or circle or have a transparent png with a unique shape (like a heart). this one has all sorts of funky shapes to play around with.

Blog colors: usually match header/icon + pinned (see below). feel free to pick a color from the images you used for the icon/header/elsewhere in the blog. I use this site to pick colors from images.

Blog title & description: these appear in search results for your blog. sometimes i put in "enstars x reader" so that my blog may search up in the search results by any chance. but you can leave either empty or put in your name or a song name or whatever, my main's title is literally "busy kissing nito nazuna" so do whatever. for the description i usually put my name, pronouns and whether requests are open or not. people are more likely to read this than what's on your pinned. reminder that there are many people who do not read the important stuff and just read whatever they want on your blog

Pinned post: Arguably the most important post on your entire blog. it's basically your navigation, home page, and face of your blog. in one. that sounds scary i promise its not. There are a lot of things I recommend having on or linked to on a pinned: - introduction: name, pronouns whatever else - dni/byf - request status (open, closed) - blog & request rules - masterlist - tags used - you can also have: latest/best/most popular fics, mutuals list, taglist information, other blogs, wheatever else you want on there tbh

tags: can be basic, mine are on this blog ("#qian talks" is as straightforward as can get) or they can be fancy ("ocean of orbis" is just fancy on my main), whatever floats your boat. i usually include tags for at least shitposting/talking and reblogs

desktop theme: you can find a lot on theme hunter or coding cabin (you actually can find me in coding cabin haha) you don't usually need to have any coding experience for customizing themes (tumblr has a neat customization thing) but for pages you will need to know how to edit it without breaking the code. (it's not hard, promise) [laptop only] edit appearance -> edit theme -> "edit HTML" -> delete all the code there -> paste in the code you have acquired

03. writing tips

writing is really a self-discovery experience. writing a lot helps you develop your own style and preferences for writing, and writing self-indulgent works is always the best experience imo!

take inspiration from anything. and i mean, anything. i take a look on my desk and i see an eraser. what can i do with an eraser. artist!au, perhaps? objects are difficult to take inspo from, so any media will do as well. lots and lots of my ideas are inspired by manhwa (for example, my kasa series "stamped with flowers" would fit in a very specific style of manhwa

write whenever you can! quite literally, whenever you have enough energy or time to sit down and write, or when you're inspired and need to write something in your notes. i promise you, it's very easy to forget ideas at times. getting in one word is already progress

if you decide to take requests please PLEASE remember that you don't have to do them. it's not as expected as you think. most likely the requester will forget that they sent the request soon and will be pleasantly surprised when they see it posted. if it is not posted, it is not a bother. also don't worry about taking a year to finish requests ive done it before and then sometimes i hold an event and never write any of the requests!! (looks at my 800 event on my main)

don't feel pressured to write consistently... i write a lot, but thats because i stress write a bunch... so please, write whenever you can/whenever you please. it's much better that way, i promise.

if you feel your work sucks i promise that you are the only one who thinks it sucks that much. because one is their own most harsh critic of their own works.

dont be afraid to take breaks too! they're so healthy for you fr

if you need help characterizing, all I can do is to say that you need to read more stories.

prompt lists are wonderful. reblog one and you may find some good requests in your inbox.

04. blogging experience

what do i do if i get hate? the best thing to do is to block the anon/user (yes you can block anons, the same way you can block a user straight from an ask) and delete the ask. they're attention seekers <3 don't give it to them and they'll give up fast. "i've seen you reply to hate asks-" "shh... i'm a bad example, i can't help but roast the anons. not recommended if you are bothered by hate anons

what if i take too long to answer asks? there is never too long.

what if i get an ask that makes me uncomfortable? delete it. (and block)

what if someone makes a comment that makes me uncomfortable? block and delete it.

what if someone who applies to my dni/byf follows me/interacts with me? block. not worth any of your time.

what if i don't like my theme but i'm too lazy to redo it? good luck comrade. i hope you can get yourself to redo it someday.

what is "successful"? A "flop"? whatever you feel is successful and whatever you feel is a flop.

blog recs? see the enstarsblr section of my moots list on my main @lilikags (list might be outdated,,, probably.. will fix later)

do i post too much? no. my main has 12.1k posts.

how do i make friends in this fandom? send people asks and interact with posts

to avoid losing posts, please write in something like google docs. i never learned my lesson on this in reality. all i can ask is that other people do not make my mistakes.

05. helpful links

canva (image editing)

pixlr (image editing)

previous tips post

enstars sortable stories masterlist by fortunebanquet (laptop only)

and... thats it i think?? feel free to ask me any questions you may have that i didn't answer here !!!

[swelldomains]

How Not to Get Penalized by the Penguin 4.0 Real-Time Algorithm Filter

The long and also creepy silence that awaited the air since Penguin's last upgrade has actually lastly been broken. On 23rd September, Google dropped the bombshell as well as introduced that Penguin is now part of Google's core online search engine ranking algorithm.

And it has actually been well worth the 715-day delay! Both biggest changes in just how the filter (or ranking signal, relying on how you look at it) now functions are:

Penguin 4 is actual time. As soon as you eliminate your poor links and disavow those you can not, there's a little bit extra you can do compared to stick around and hope to the other G (god).

Penguin 4 is granular. Your entire website will not be struck out of the park even if a message on sooperarticles.com web links to your out-of-stock item.

A week after the statement, the court is still out on whether Penguin 4.0 has actually fully rolled out. And offered the sheer number of signals, filters as well as data rejuvenates that overlap, it is extremely hard to determine the impacts of Penguin (or any type of other algo variable, for that issue) on a particular LINK or SERP with absolute certainty.

Dr. Pete Meyers of Moz tweeted something extremely substantial:

" My intestine feeling is that we're not going to see a large Penguin 4.0 spike."

That has actually held good for a week until now. A poll on Search Engine Optimization Round Table backs it up:

It appears the first 3 models have succeeded in frightening the spammers away, as well as Search engine optimizations and web designers across the globe have actually transformed a brand-new leaf. Or, it may be that Google has just incorporated the code into the algorithm yet, and with a few tweaks, the effect may be more visible as Penguin strikes every one of Google's data centers as well as turn out over a prolonged amount of time, as when gazillions of URLs are re-crawled.

Eric Enge of Stone Holy place Consulting confirmed this:

So if you, like us, remain in the 72% that typically aren't seeing any kind of fireworks, read on to find out exactly how you can remain risk-free and also far from the warzone.

Don't expect to be warned

As with Panda, there won't be any kind of official word from Google on future updates. The apparent means to recognize if your site had been struck by a mathematical fine was to inspect if you had a website traffic drop on the date of the announcement.

Not happening anymore.

And no usage thronging those online forums or troubling @rustybrick for the newest news. You alone are accountable for your sites, SEO-related activities, ups, downs, and also recovery.

Build great links

“Create great content!”

You listen to that all over. It's exactly what Google has actually always informed us. It's exactly what the physician claimed when my child was born.

Okay, I exaggerate. But not a great deal. While a lot of us are active developing wonderful material these days, we have the tendency to give just a wee bit much less relevance to that old workhorse - PageRank. As well as the road to high PageRank is paved with authority web links. Google gently reminded us of that elephant in the space:

The assimilation of Penguin right into the core algorithm does not make link structure outdated. As a matter of fact, it is a lot more critical compared to ever. Web link building techniques and approaches that are viable or really work have continued to be practically the exact same in the previous half-decade or two. Going onward, the real-time and granular qualities of Penguin 4.0 will certainly make sure that link building also adheres to suit.

How so?

First, let's consider the "real-time" nature of Penguin. Search engine optimizations all over are delighted that their healing efforts (disavowing or removing low top quality web links) will certainly yield prompt outcomes. Nevertheless, the opposite is also true. One indiscreet project, a couple of gaudy sources, or an ill-considered eruption in web link velocity can cause your rankings to plummet at the wrong time and cost you a great deal of money.

That said, it will be much simpler to identify just what triggered the fall, and if you act swiftly, you'll be back in the video game within no time. SEO experts, consisting of (I would love to assume) us, have actually always kept that a "fine healing" doesn't mean you obtain your rankings back, it just suggests there's no spam holding you down any longer. To really restore your visibility and also perception quantity, you have to continually build authority links on the topic (as well as to the page) in question.

In the past, that used to be even more of a spray and hope technique - you proceeded developing brand-new, reliable links, but continued to be in a state of extensive suspense up until the following data refresh taken place. Our clients and site proprietors as a whole took these suggestions (which cost loan, initiative and also time to execute) with a pinch of salt and also a hardly discernible roll of eyes. We currently stand absolved: compared to the old days, Penguin 4 guarantees a basically instantaneous recovery (when Google recrawls as well as reindexes your web pages) - surges in website traffic can be clearly attached to positive initiatives, if any.

Now allowed's take a better take a look at the "granularity" element. As Google said in their announcement (and Gary Illyes later cleared up), Penguin will no much longer randomly demote rankings of entire sites in search engine result. Rather, Google will currently look at "spam signals" and devalue the real incoming links based upon the crappiness of private web pages or domains that are linking out to your site.

I believe this is an indicator that Google is reasonably positive they have actually achieved two points:

They have actually built a detailed working database of spammy domains with the assistance of all the disavow files submitted so far.

They are now able to use something like Moz's Spam Rating on a per-URL basis.

Taken along with the real-time part, this means you could prepare for not only the amount however additionally the top quality of the web links you develop. If you're a gadget seller, for instance, by all indicates up your link building stake with reviews, comparisons as well as whatnot (from anywhere you could obtain them) in the added to Cyber Monday. However get web links with more how-to and benefit-focused web content (on customer technology sites such as Engadget or Wired) the remainder of the year round.

Got my point?

Mind your keywords

One mistake even skilled Search engine optimizations as well as link builders make is to relate Penguin with negative links. Penguin fights much even more compared to spammy links. In its original blog post declaring the arrival of Penguin, Google specifically discussed (and also offered an example of) keyword stuffing ahead of link schemes. They went on to say:

What are these quality standards? Here you go:

So, no matter of whether the web content you produce gets on your website or the one from which you're building a link, ensure it's distinct, valuable, high quality and also provides a good customer experience. It's the same for your tags, markup and meta content. We do remember to produce material for humans now, yet frequently neglect to create titles, summaries and anchor text for them. Explore your abundant fragments, over-optimizing your landing pages, getting innovative with your affiliate programs, or enabling your target market to go crazy on your website, might all cause unplanned consequences.

I'm privy to first-hand empirical (yet not irrefutable) evidence that an URL could be hit by Penguin for certain search terms however not others, so I suggest you go as wide as feasible with your keyword targeting and material optimization.

Don't try to outwit Google

As Google continuouslies delegate progressively bigger pieces of its valued formula to equipment discovering, it faces a predicament that has been burglarizing programmers of their sleep for years: new code inevitably damages the one that presently functions. With AI, this trouble is compounded since, as numerous Googlers have actually admitted, even those who developed and established these formulas in activity don't completely recognize just how they function at the moment.

Gary revealed that numerous Google patents aren't being placed to great use as they weren't yet possible or compatible with existing systems.

We've seen exact match domain name names and specific match support message regularly cycle through now-it-works, now-it-doesn' t phases.

In the past, there have been reports of Google algorithm updates such as Pigeon being rolled back. Penguin 3 demotions will be gotten rid of in order to enable Penguin 4 to function its magic.

Bearing the above in mind, if you are advanced link builder that does not mind attempting out hats of varying color, the genuine time and granular residential properties of Penguin 4 might tempt you to try out stuff along the following lines:

Remember when you put those "borderline" domain names (that you just weren't fairly sure were injuring you) in your disavow file "simply to be safe?" Now is the moment to eliminate them and discover out. While Gary Illyes and also John Mueller both tweeted that Google's disavow referrals haven't changed, Gary later admitted "for Penguin particularly there's much less requirement" for a disavow documents (screenshot below).

Simultaneously shedding the candle at the other end, you can likewise attempt structure links that aren't exactly natural or editorial however you think "wouldn't do any harm." Certainly I don't indicate high rate visitor blogging, rerouted domains or repurposed microsites, ecommerce website cloning, or vibrant PBNs making use of big scale masking incorporated with mass-produced, fresh content.

Build connect to specific web pages or campaign-specific sections on your site. Integrate this with an inner connecting method that involves connecting to these assigned Links from the homepage or various other important web pages as well as tweaking the meta robots nofollow tag to regulate the circulation of web link juice (hello PageRank/anchor message sculpting) to them.

If any one of these methods obtain you in trouble with Penguin, you might swiftly stop as well as transform back.

But ... do not attempt these at home. The threat is absolutely ineffective. If you could consider it, Google has already thought about it. Someone has currently done it and the machines are already dealing with it.

Manual activities seem to have declined externally, but they're significantly alive and kicking, Google sent out 4,300,000 notices of hands-on activities to web designers in 2015. And they schedule an especially horrible revenge for methodical spammers:

You're much better off following their guidelines word for word, also if that white hat does not obtain you that evasive front row seat.

Coda

While Gary is positive that several webmasters will certainly enjoy as soon as Penguin 4 completes its turn out, Dr. Pete's prophecy makes more feeling to me:

" If you didn't see a Penguin recovery, I doubt you'll see it in the following couple of days."

Karma is a bitch but she does not bite everybody. Google continuouslies shuffle and also fuddle its SERPs in order to make "optimization" incredibly challenging, abstruse as well as unpredictable.

The just thing worth optimizing in the future is just what individuals take into the search box - aim to build a brand name and influence the discussion around it to such a degree that Google is entrusted to no choice but to go after it.

If you have any kind of inquiries about Google charges, or require any kind of aid recuperating from guidebook or mathematical activities, don't hesitate to obtain in contact. We have a group of SEO pros that comprehend the principles of Google's search formula, and also have the experience as well as tools needed to keep your traffic and exposure climbing.