#crossposted on lj

[yasutomoe]

Full Metal Alchemist The Stage [dl]

Cast: Isshiki Yohei : Edward Elric (double cast) Hirono Ryota : Edward Elric (double cast) Mashima Shuto : Alphonse Elric Okabe Rin : Winry Rockbell Aoki Jin : Roy Mustang (double cast) Wada Takuma : Roy Mustang (double cast) Tsukui Minami : Riza Hawkeye Metal Yoshida : Alex Louis Armstrong Okamoto Yuki : Maes Hughes Kimisawa Yuki : Jean Havoc Harashima Motohisa : Denny Brosh Mizuki Sakurako : Maria Ross Abe Yutaka : Tim Marco Oishi Keita : Shou Tucker Ono Hikari : Izumi Curtis Sao Kurama : Lust Hiramatsu Raima : Envy Kusano Taisei : Gluttony Hoshi Tomoya : Scar Suzuki Shogo : Solf J. Kimblee Kuge Megumi : Pinako Rockbell Saito Mizuki : Gracia Hughes Ogawa Himari : Nina Tucker (double cast) Shiribiki Yuika : Nina Tucker (double cast) Tatsumi Takuro : King Bradley Sakurada Kosei : Alphonse Elric (suit actor)

✨🦾✨

hello, 2.5D community! this would be my first time sharing my copy of a blu ray purchase so i hope i ripped the files properly. i haven't checked them due to my very packed schedule, so please message me if there are any problems.

here is the link to the files for both disc 1 (hirono ryo as edward elric, wada takuma as roy mustang) and disc 2 (isshiki yohei as edward elric, aoki jin as roy mustang). i might remove the link on this post after a while so please save it asap.

then as for the rules, just like the others, please do not upload on streaming sites.

enjoy the stage play!

[imbecamiel]

New Tag Game: Rec Your Own Fics

I was tagged by @chimaerakitten for this one - thanks! :D

Rules: If you’re tagged, make a rec list of your own fics that you’re most proud of. The ones you personally want people to read because you know they’re good. The ones you get extra excited when you get comments on them because people are responding to what you know is your best work. As part of the list, say why you’re proud of them! Participant’s choice on how many that is and where you draw the line on pride, but the more the better. Bonus points for fics that you like to reread yourself or fics that have low engagement because they’re in a small fandom or an unpopular ship/trope. Then tag however many people you feel like to continue the game. (If you want a guide number, try for seven or however many fics you listed)

Secondary rule: If you get tagged and you’re not a fic writer, consider doing the same for art you’ve done or meta you’ve written that you’re proud of.

Tertiary rule: This is the time to be the opposite of humble! Hype your own stuff! Share why you’re proud of something. Do some self love! And please give the game a chance even if you haven’t written much or are just starting out etc etc.

Down for the Count (DC, Batfam)

This one was inspired by some great fanart by @terracyte

I've loved Batfam for quite a while now, and I am absolutely delighted this was enough to break my writing brain loose from the stranglehold Life Stuff has had on it the last few years. I can still write! \o/

The Joke (Marvel, MCU)

I.e. "What if Steve Rogers, one, could wield Mjolnir from the start, and two, was under the mistaken impression that everyone else's talk about Thor being the only one capable of that was some kind of running joke."

By far the most popular thing I've ever written, a fic I still get kudos on very regularly 10 years later, and it's incredibly satisfying to see a fic I'm extremely fond of myself enjoyed by others so much.

Birthday (Marvel, MCU)

Tony's just created JARVIS and feels the need to tell Rhodey about it immediately.

This one's basically the polar opposite of "The Joke" in terms of popularity. It's never gotten much attention, but it's funny and I think it's well executed and I like it.

Strike (Marvel, MCU)

Like "The Joke" this kind of hits the sweet spot of one of my favorite things to write - things that could easily be cracky, but are written with a lighthearted but genuine tone. In this case, in the immediate wake of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when everyone was delving into all the angst potential, my brain went "yeah, but... what if they also went bowling?"

Out Of The Cold (Lord of the Rings)

Pre-series sickfic/hypothermia fic where Aragorn falls into a frozen lake rescuing a child.

Much of my LOTR writing happened in the verrrrrrry earliest days of my discovery of fandom as a teenager. So many good memories. This one's not recent-recent, but much more representative of my current writing abilities and it still makes me very happy when I go back to reread it.

Tagging: @cairistiona7 @hollyhock13 - and anyone else who sees this and feels like participating, please do consider yourself tagged!

[idiosyncreant]

I made my first original post to Dreamwidth on why One OK Rock’s “Taking Off” live perf. video is making up a significant portion of my personality right now

[anneapocalypse]

The thing about tumblr's death knells is... it's news, but it's also not. We've been watching company after company try to make tumblr profitable and fail for like a decade now. We've had sign after sign that this site isn't sustainable. We had the NSFW ban. We've had any number of changes hostile to the userbase in the name of making tumblr more like this or that platform and trying and failing to appeal to new users. That tumblr's staff is being reduced to a skeleton crew is unfortunate but it's in no way surprising. Automattic was never going to make tumblr profitable in the way that a company wants a platform to be profitable and frankly, I'm surprised it took them this long to realize that. Because, and this is also a discussion that has been going on for years, fandom is not profitable.

I left here and came back once already, so my personal response to all of this is a big shrug. It's a bummer, but we don't have a lot of places to go. I like dreamwidth but it's not a viable tumblr replacement and without major changes it's never going to be, though I do encourage people who are interested in a mainly text-based platform and don't mind an LJ-style interface to give it a shot. Back up your stuff, get in the habit of crossposting, and make arrangements so that you can keep in touch with friends across multiple platforms. And at the end of the day, recognize that any corporate-owned social media platform will ultimately be hostile to fandom, and approach them accordingly.

[ds30below]

ride_4ever's meta recs

Crossposted from Dreamwidth with permission

A fun list of meta/resource recs below the cut. Some of them have been shared before, all of them bear citing again. Personally, I am deep into backreading ds_workshop, which is extremely fun and helpful when it comes to writing.

"For Canon Appreciation Week of the due South 30th Anniversary "30 Below Fest," one of the suggestions was to rec some meta of canon.

Earlier this month, shade_nightwalker wrote a sweet bit of meta called "You Must Remember This". Read it at DW's due South Virtual Bar.

fox did a time-and-labor-intensive gift of love to due South fandom by creating an annotated transcript of every episode of the show. See fox's "Return to due South: index of annotated transcripts" at fox's DW.

dS meta by truepenny was originally on LJ. That account has been deleted and now appears on DW as truepenny: entries tagged with due south. It covers the pilot episode through the second episode of the last season. (Do note that truepenny stopped short of going to the end of the final season. And perhaps new comments on those posts might inspire her to complete the meta for that season?)

For a meta-specific dS comm on LJ, there's ds_meta.

Additionally, somewhere you'll have to hunt around a bit because they contain meta but also contain other dS topics, are these two LJ comms: ds_discourse and ds_workshop."

[krudy7kk]

Analysis of Spirealm's ending

Never posted anything on my tumblr but I have the most unholy Spirealm brainrot rn so I'm posting my analysis of Spirealm's ending. The preface, a lot of people interpreted the ending of Spirealm as depressing and the series to be very tragic overall, but, I feel like the ending is mostly happy, and here's why;

Crossposted on MDL as a review

Heavy Spoilers

Spirealm ended with seemingly “it was all a dream” type of ending but my interpretation of the ending was that Lin Jiu Shi , through the act of completing the game, “saved” the game as his childhood friend intended. “Saving” the game in this scenario, reverts all the tragedy the game has caused without erasing anything that’s happened… kind of. The way the story goes about it is a little convoluded but through picking up the themes of this story, is not indecipherable. 

Proving that the game did all happen; there are three main points that infers this. The first, most tangible point is that, at the end of the series, LJS wakes up in the middle of the traffic. Assuming everything that’s happened after the traffic accident at the end of the series was dreamt up, it does not explain why the internet cafe boss at the beginning of the series– who’s seen the game before the traffic accident– has no recollection of LJS having played the game. The second point, if everything in the game had not happened, it would make no sense for LJS to accurately know the name of people he’s never met before. The third point, which is the most confusing one, explains one of the main themes and why the director probably chose to take this route. 

One of the main themes of Spirealm is the legitimacy of the “virtual world”, where the characters have debated multiple times if everything that happens “virtually” in the game is real or not. I forgot which episode it was but, LJS in the latter part of the series pondered “If the feelings in Spirealm are more sincere than real life, what really is the difference between virtual and reality?” ( Also not a direct translation, I’m too lazy to go find the exact episode and translate it) The point of this quote is, even if the memories don’t exist anymore, the feelings and relationships that were formed during the time in Spirealm were “real” and sincere. We can see this through the way Chen Qian Li fhaving familiarity towards LJS at the end of the series, despite acknowledging that he doesn’t actually know him. This is a little more debatable but you could also argue that the differences between the depiction of the people around LJS before and after he woke up also shows the effects of the game. One could interpret Tan Zao Zao being an influencer instead of an actress as something unconsciously influenced by the events of Spirealm. While being in Spirealm, TZZ felt like she constantly had to mask herself as an actress, you could argue that her being a influencer instead of an actress in the new world as a choice she made unconsciously due to the feelings of restriction she’s felt in Spirealm. Same with instances like Chen Yi Xie watching horror movies as a hobby and Li Dong Yuan being content working as a street vendor that makes little money.

In the last scene of the show, when LJS goes back into Spirealm, he sees TZZ where she tells him “it feels like I woke up from a long dream”, referring to life outside of the game. This further emphasizes how the game is actually “real” too, since when LJS is outside Spirealm, Spirealm is referred to as a “dream”. Whichever reality they are in is the real one, so by proxy, they are both real.

Another point to consider is the relationship between LJS and RNZ. If everything was a dream, then essentially, LJS dreamed up a lifelong companion (boyfriend) in elaborate detail seemingly out of nowhere… It makes more sense if RNZ did exist, but was simply erased from existence due to the game also having been erased. The whole last arc of the story also repeatedly states that he would be erased once the 11th door was complete.

The game bringing people back to life, erasing everyone’s memory, and altering reality also seems entirely reasonable when the whole basis of the game is based on its ability to kill people and warp time. Realistically speaking, there was no real way to depict RNZ and LJS saving the game besides erasing the game completely, therefore, the erasure of everyone’s memory and the game’s existence is the intended effect of “saving the game”.

I also believe that LJS reprogramming the game essentially is the equivalent of him fulfilling his friend's wish of  “restoring the game to its original state” as the game he ended up recreating was essentially the original intended game. 

I believe that the ending of Spirealm was the perfect happy ending, Everyone is alive again, they get to live their life to the fullest, and in the end, LJS finishes the game where he likely decides is his new “reality” with RNZ. They all live together happily as Chen Qian Li wished for in the 11th door. This is the 12th door, LJS’s completed door of happiness.

That’s mostly all I wanted to say, I’ll probably rewatch the series when Subs (that are comprehensible) come out so I can make exact quotations and give actual episode numbers (plus there are probably more things I have missed). But for now that’s all I’ve wanted to say. I’m open to debate the ending since I feel like the ending was definitely left a little ambiguous but I feel like a lot of these things were changed from the novel with the intent of creating this ending specifically. (ex. Slight novel spoiler: TZZ being a famous and acclaimed actress in the Novel while being mildly unpopular in the series) 

Add my discord if you want to talk about this show with me, it lives in my head rent free: krudy7kk

TLDR: Spirealm was not a dream, everything that happened got erased due to LJS completing the game. Everyone gets transported into an altered reality where they are living their happiest lives (indirectly bc of games events) and LJS reunites with everyone towards the very very end where they all live peacefully together.

[cookinguptales]

I almost wrote a small essay in the tags of that "fanwork as content" post but realized that it would probably be better off as its own post. So now it's... a large, rambling essay. lmao

Like... to preface, AO3 is great, it's a great resource for fandom, it feels good to have a centralized location that works well. That said, there has been a steady decline in how I've felt treated as an author since we switched to an archive-only model of fic.

For people who are newer to fandom, pre-AO3 (and even in the early days of AO3), people often crossposted fic. Sometimes to websites, sometimes to journals (particularly LJ/DW), sometimes to communities, sometimes to kink memes...

AO3, while certainly one of the primary places you could upload stuff, wasn't necessarily where you would get most of your primary interaction about your fic. It was always designed to be an archive, not a social media site.

But since we moved to an archive model (and away from LJ/DW) I've noticed that fic gets almost no traction on sites that actually are intended for social interaction. I'm not saying it's easy for any creator in fandom, but god. The numbers on fic posts are just downright demoralizing.

I don't mean to sound arrogant here, but I think I'm a pretty good writer. People seem to really connect with my fic. In multiple fandoms, I've written fic that most people have read and enjoyed, to the point where people have just taken it for granted that if someone reads fic in the fandom, they've probably read something I've written.

All this is to say, I know I've written fics that people like. I know I've written fics that people connect with. And I know those posts still only get like 5 notes sometimes on Tumblr.

I'm proud of my work and I'm happy that it's gotten such a warm welcome on AO3!!! But there are times when I feel like all this means that I could write literally the best fic on earth and still no one would talk to me. People still wouldn't want to interact with me on social media sites.

I wrestled for... honestly, a long time with all this. I had a hard time putting into words why this felt so uh. Bad. Was I just self-conscious about my own writing? Yes, but that's a separate issue. Was I just jealous of others' popularity? Sort of, but it went deeper than that.

I had an issue with a fandom that I don't write in anymore. I got a lot of fanart based on my fic, which was great, which was amazing, there were even fan comics made. Visual media travels better on social media than fic. That's just a fact. And I had to watch as repeatedly, art based on the fic I wrote got thousands of notes while my fic got maybe 12. And I realized the power of social media vs. AO3 because it did get to audiences that weren't familiar with my fic and people started to give those artists credit for my ideas.

I remember watching the tags of those posts because it was occasionally the only way I'd hear feedback on what I'd written (imagine getting one comment and 5 notes on a fic, then seeing dozens of people in the tags of fanart saying that it was their favorite fic in the fandom! it was weird!) and seeing the tags gradually devolve into "oh, this is such a neat idea for an AU, artist OP" or "wow this dialogue is perfect [artist] I love it" and like

It's weird to feel so happy because so many people are enjoying your work in a transformative way but also so unhappy because you have been completely removed from the equation. No one... even knows you wrote those things anymore. You have been removed in favor of a more "marketable" version of your work.

It's uh. It's a bad feeling. I stopped writing in that fandom eventually.

So again, I felt like... idk, like there was no point in me even trying. Because I could write the best fic on earth and still somehow get erased as a person. People would want my "content," but they wouldn't want me.

I think that's what hurt my feelings so much.

What I've realized is this: what I miss is the sense of community. On LJ, you could post a fic, cross-post it to a community, and there would be comments that would become conversations that would become lasting friendships. Not always! But often. I still talk to some people daily who I met through fic on LJ over a decade ago.

In the archive model, there has almost become a death of the author. The me on social media and the me on AO3 are very different; more importantly, it's almost like it's viewed as the "me" is on social media, but the work is on AO3. I am absent. There is only the fic, not the person who created it.

And that's okay, but when you try to combine those two things on social media and it goes over like a lead balloon... idk. There's an odd sense of dehumanization. I don't mean it in like... I don't know, a dramatic human rights violation kind of way. More that I literally feel like less of a human person the way I interact with fandom these days. Like I'm no longer a person who writes fic as a way to connect with my fellow fans and more a "content creator" whose human side is separate from my creation and never the twain shall meet.

(And I'll admit it feels especially galling to be forced into the capitalistic "content creator" box when it's not even a thing I can make money off of, lmao. It's like the worst of both worlds. I feel like if I can't make money off fanfic, I should at least be exempt from capitalistic social trends during its creation.)

I'm not so much complaining about my current fandom; WWDITS has actually been one of the best fandoms for interaction I've been in since the birth of AO3. That's one of the reasons I keep writing stories for fellow fans to read -- many of those fans feel like my friends, and I want to make them happy.

I think that poster was right when they talked about how the pivot from fan to "content creator" has fucked up fandom. There is this sense that we should be treating fandom like a job, often a fast-paced one with no pay. There is this idea that we should be separated from our "content" like you might a worker from their product, and blah blah blah alienation of labor, Marx, I get it, but damn if that isn't a shitty thing to do to your fellow fans who are making art for the love of art.

There are so many things I do love about AO3. I like having a central, organized place to put my fic. I like not having to worry about my work being lost to the ages. I like having an organized comments section I can return to on bad days to cheer myself up.

But I don't like the way that fic has kind of been relegated to a portion of fandom where people aren't particularly social. I don't like the way that authors are separated from their writing. I hear people complain sometimes about A/Ns because god forbid an author leave any trace of their actual personality to distract you from their content.

I can't have DMs with someone on AO3. I can't add someone to my friends list. There are no "beloved mutuals." There is just my work and the people who are kind enough to comment on it, even if they never actually engage with me elsewhere.

It's... a weird feeling, to feel so loved and unloved at the same time. Like you keep writing trying to make something good enough that people will talk to you but like. That's really not how it works. lmao. The best fic in the world won't make you friends anymore. It won't make people see you as a fellow fan rather than a pen name under a title.

My fic is some of the most personal stuff in the entire world, but my personhood is stripped away from it. It's so fucking weird. People like my fic, but they don't like me. They remember my stories but not the person who told them. It's bizarre. It feels like having your life and experiences strip-mined for content, and then the rest of it is just... left behind.

Frankly... I work in the publishing industry IRL and I have had opportunities to write professionally. Real, tangible opportunities. But I turned them down because I've seen it, the way that trying to fit such an intensely personal art form into a capitalistic framework can be exhausting, dehumanizing, and stressful. I don't want that for my work. Fandom has always been an escape from that.

But now fandom is starting to conform to those exact same capitalistic frameworks (and ofc without any kind of capitalistic compensation) and I hate to see it. It's so stressful. I feel like we're losing a lot of what makes fandom fun for writers and we're getting pretty much nothing in return. I'm not surprised that so many writer friends I know in fandom have quit.

like damn, I just wanna have fun with a bunch of dumbshits who love to overanalyze vampires and cry over their dumbshit shenanigans, not take on a second job. one that, I reiterate, I am not being paid for.

(Note: I am not asking for payment, just that I not be treated like a worker. The tradeoff for treating someone like a worker is that they get compensated for it. If I'm not being compensated, no one gets to treat me like this is my fucking job.)

It's a weird thing, because for a lot of people, fandom has become their job. Fanartists at cons selling fanart, youtube essayists making money off videos, professional cosplayers with sponsorships, etc. And so fandom is becoming more corporate, more capitalistic, more marketable. It's frustrating for those who don't want to capitalize on our fannish output, and doubly frustrating for people who are legally unable to do so.

I'm realizing as I write this that I'm most upset about the nonconsensual capitalization of fandom, particularly when imposed on people who are unable to access the very meager benefits of capitalism. I didn't ask for any of this!

Feels like when I'd be forced to go to assemblies for the US military when I was in high school. Like I'm morally opposed to all this but I'm also not physically fit for "service" anyway, so it's doubly insulting. I feel like I've been opted into the, ah, corporatization of fandom when I'm not even eligible for employee benefits. None of this should even apply to me! ;;

Okay!! I'm all het up now so I'm gonna go eat lunch and go for a walk! No monetization of hobbies, only trees.

[cadene]

Realized way too late that my pinned post should be an about me/interests page rather than my to-do list for Pokemon tasks to finish before April 8th. (oh nooo it's coming) (hey, that's Eclipse Day!!)

So, that said! I am an adult human cis woman of varying able-bodiedness, rapidly approaching middle age at a rate I wish I could slow down. (Except for menopause. Please come for me.)

I'm trying to crosspost my own shit between here and my Dreamwidth. Still working on making it pretty. (also deeply appreciate that DW kept LJ's interest section so that I can point at it and go, 'hey! it me!')

My webcomic is here, and despite the last update being almost three years ago, it's not dead. Promise.

My favorite movies are LOTR, Pacific Rim, Violent Night, Moana, and Godzilla. All Godzilla. And Kong: Skull Island.

I watch just about everything, unless there is a certain bone injury or harmed cat in it.

I play Pokemon, 7 Days to Die, Minecraft, and a bunch of other games off and on.

I crochet, and I daresay I'm not terrible at it.

Lessee. I have a terrible tendency to overuse XD, I tend to be stupid despite trying very hard not to be, cats and red pandas are my favorite animals, and migraines suck.

I will fall back into any fandom at the drop of a hat. It doesn't even have to be a direct mention! I'm back on a Dinosaucers kick because of a series of obscure animation posts that haven't even covered it. (yet? 👀)

[deliciouskeys]

Writer Tag

Thank you for tagging me, @kosmochlor and @saintmathieublanc<3

How many works do you have on AO3?

47 apparently.

What's your total AO3 word count?

469,180

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1) Attack on Titan rated T fic, macro micro (it was part of the canon there lol), blind character element

2) Zinc Molybdate (rising star but very far behind #1)

3) Another Attack on Titan fic rated T. Anime fans are all under 18 I guess.

4) Negan/Rick mpreg lol. I abandoned it when TWD season 8 deeply disappointed me and hopefully that doesn't happen again with the current fandom D: (I don't think it will unless they do something truly idiotic like kill off Ryan in an inexplicable way)

5) The Selfish Gene

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes I do. It's the least I can do when someone takes the time to write something. Plus many of the comments are so thoughtful and sometimes helpful to the writing process. And I just enjoy responding.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Um. Probably an "original fic" set in the holocaust, unfortunately. I've written fics long ago where main characters die, but those are not angsty somehow, just dark/shock value.

What’s the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I think it might be Zinc Molybdate lol. First of all it has an ending. And I'd say it's very optimistic about the human spirit and possibilities for change.

Do you write crossovers?

The only true crossover I ever wrote was Alex from a Clockwork Orange x Norman Bates. But I never crossposted it to AO3 from LJ. Can't imagine why XD I'm more of an AU where you recast the characters into a different world girl.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes, writing bible fic is controversial apparently. Writing holocaust fic is controversial apparently. Mpreg is controversial apparently, although I have never received hate for mpreg on ao3, only on tumblr.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do..... I wouldn't say it's my forte, despite having it in almost every fic and fic chapter lol. I'd say there's always some element of something being 'off'. Normal people having bad sex, or a fucked up pairing having unsettlingly wholesome sex.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so. In small enough fandoms some ideas become sort of communal, but that's usually just fun 'sharing'.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

YES! And it's in a language that I'm pretty fluent in (but maybe not fic-writing fluent) so it was a surreal, amazing experience. I've translated several fics from Russian and one from French which was a stretch for me.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Only in terms of translating others' fics. I've always wondered if I'd be able to do it with the right person.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Butchlander. Which probably means my favorite ship is whatever I'm currently hyperfixating on, but I've been on this kick for like 20 months now, so I don't take these things lightly :)

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

My very first fic, which I started writing at 18 and abandoned at 19 or 20. I couldn't do it, I couldn't give them a happy ending because the pairing was just too messed up, I couldn't give them a sad ending because that's just not within the realm of what I'm willing to do.

What are your writing strengths?

I think I am all about the Emotional Journey, and thus by extension, characterization. I like writing dialogue, so hopefully that's a strength, otherwise the readers get to suffer lol.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I have to remind myself to write even the most basic setting/scenery details. Most of the time I don't think it's very important. I'm probably not a very visual person (although that doesn't mean I don't love art and fanart!). I can write multiple characters outside of the pairing, and those scenes are fun, but I tend to prefer hyperfocusing on just the 2 mains, which is probably a limitation.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Oh god, I did it in a fic, and ... I shall leave it as I wrote it in my 20s, but... it was ill-advised. I'd say don't do it unless it's a language you know, and even then... why.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Uh. Peter Pan. And I don't mean during the Once Upon a Time craze that happened much later.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Within the Boys, I'll also say Starlander. I like it, and honestly the canon leaves much to be desired, so it's fertile ground. Fandomwise, I read quite a bit of Batjokes and Symbrock, but never wrote anything for them.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

I'll go with Zinc Molybdate. It's got that new relationship fandom energy that is impossible to just bottle up and deploy when wanted. But I like them all.

Zero pressure tags (and sorry if you've been tagged elsewhere) @phoenixtakaramono @eutz @merry-andrews and anyone who sees this and has ao3!

[lostdrarryfics]

Do you want to search for a lost fic on your own before submitting a request? Curious about how we have found hundreds of fics? Want to learn more about how to navigate ao3’s tagging and search features? The lostdrarryfics mods have put together some helpful tips for you!

First and foremost, ao3 is usually our main focus. FFN, LJ, and other fanfic sites are much more difficult for us to search. The beauty of ao3 is the wonderful tagging system, filters, keyword search, and the handy ‘Entire Work’ button!

Your first step will probably be to check your browser and ao3 history, and your ao3 bookmarks. You'll have a better idea of whether a fic has been deleted if you can't find it in those places. (Ctrl + F can help you search your ao3 history more quickly)

We typically start with this page on ao3, which is already pre-filtered to include: Completed works only, Excluding crossovers, >1000 Word Count, English, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter as the pairing, and sorted by Kudos (descending). Most fics we find fall under those filters, but you would want to change them if they don’t fit what you’re looking for! (Lower word count for microfics, change completion status for WIPs, filter by date instead of kudos if you know the fic was posted very recently, etc. We usually sort by kudos because a large number of our found fics are typically located on the first couple of pages within those search results.) From there you can start adding tags, keywords, and side characters.

Keep in mind that ao3 tags can be tricky. For example, Nice Things by aideomai will show up if you add the tag “Weed”, but will be excluded from your search if you use the tag “Recreational Drug Use”. Try rewording your tags and using different combinations of tags. If you’re looking for a Sickfic, try using “Sick Character” or “Illnesses” instead of “Sickfic”. Try “Drinking”, “Drunkenness”, or “Bars and Pubs” instead of “Clubbing”. Or...

Avoid the tagging system altogether!

Many fics are not properly tagged, especially older ones or ones crossposted from other fanfic sites. Or sometimes details you remember won’t have suggested tags on ao3. The tags “Writer Draco Malfoy” and “Journalist Draco Malfoy” can be searched, but specifically “Reporter Draco Malfoy” will not be an option. You can simply type “reporter” into the Any Field/Search Within Results section and you will find results that don’t show up under those Journalist or Writer tags! Searching keywords will search for words in tags, summaries, and titles and can be extremely useful. Please click the (?) next to the Any Field/Search Within Results section to find out how to search for phrases and how to use special characters for more specific searching.

Another great example is the keyword “identity”. The fic you’re looking for could be tagged “Identity Reveal”, “Secret Identity”, “Mistaken Identity”, or “Identity Porn”, but if you were to just search the keyword “identity” you would see the results for every one of those tags instead of trying each one separately, in addition to results for fics with “identity” in the summary or title. Fics taking place in Grimmauld Place may not be tagged with the location but may show up if you search keyword “Grimmauld”. Same with keyword “Manor” instead of tag-searching “Malfoy Manor”. We've honestly found many fics by simply using one or two tags and adding keywords like “house”, “portrait”, or “godfather”.

Narrowing things down can be quick and easy! If you remember a fic where Harry has a dog (keyword “dog”), Luna is involved somehow (Character: Luna Lovegood, or keyword “Luna”), and you’re pretty sure it was rated Explicit (Rating: Explicit), you can enter those three things and you would only have to sift through 8 results. Exclude the Explicit rating and you still only get 14 results. Searching for an Eighth Year fic with Bill as a side character (Tag: Hogwarts Eighth Year + Character: Bill Weasley) will get you 22 results (these are examples using the pre-filtered search we linked). Always try different combinations before giving up, and definitely always include words you very clearly remember being in the fic summary or tags.

Arguably our most useful tip: Page Searching & The Handy ‘Entire Work’ Button!

When you’ve found a fic or multiple fics you think could be the right one, but you’re still not sure, you can search entire stories for plot points you can remember. For multi-chaptered fics, click the Entire Work button at the top of the page (FFN and LJ do not have this option). Now you can search keywords and phrases by using your webpage search (Ctrl + F on PC, Command + F on Mac, Find on Page in browser menu on mobile). Does the fic you’re looking for have a scene where the characters ride on a bus? Search “bus” and go through each occurrence of that word. Can you remember the name of an OC that wouldn’t be in the tags or summary? Search the entire fic for that name. We rely on this method to confirm found fics for almost every request we answer.

Google and Tumblr searching (*sardonic laughter*)

These are usually a shot in the dark, but sometimes when you type in fic details on google + “fanfic” or “draco/harry” you might get lucky. In most cases fics from FFN will show up. Searching tropes or plot details can even bring up tumblr or LJ reclists you can browse! Sometimes Reddit posts will pop up too. If you’re trying to use tumblr’s search feature… godspeed. Very ambitious of you! We almost never use it for good reason. You’re better off using google to find tumblr posts. We hope this helped you find your lost fic! Please let us know in the comments if you have any questions or need clarification. We may update this post with new or altered information. Happy finding!

ETA: part two of fic finding tips is up!

More resources:

tips for Google searching

ao3 FAQ

tumblr post on methods for excluding tags

how to: search within results part 1 & part 2

ao3 search cheatsheet

@ao3commentoftheday's entire blog is so informative! Check out their previously answered questions.

[awesomeladiespodficanthology]

Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology XIII Info Post

This year will be the thirteenth and final Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology. For one last time, we'll be collecting short lady-centric podfics by different readers in different fandoms to release as an anthology and as a collection of individual files. The submission deadline for podfics is February 14th, and we will post the anthology on February 28th. The theme for this year's anthology is transition. It's optional—all podfics are welcome as long as they follow the rules laid out in the Submission Guidelines—but feel free to let it inspire you if you'd like. If you are not familiar with this project, you can see the previous anthologies here. To Podficcers: Interested in participating? We'd love to have you. This should be a low-stress project, even for people who are new to podficcing, due to the word-count: 1500 words or less (with many being as short as 1-2 minutes). If you'd like to record something for this anthology, please fill out this quick google form and we'll send you the link to the spreadsheet where we'll be keeping track of all the podfics. If you would prefer to interface via email instead of using the form/spreadsheet, you can email klb at sekritproject@gmail.com, and she will reach out to get you set up. Here are some good places for finding short fics about female characters: -The Women Being Awesome, Female Characters, Female Character of Color, POV Female Character, and Female Relationships tags at the AO3, limited to word counts of 1500 or less. -The Misses Clause Challenge from Yuletide -Femslash Minis -Awesome Ladies Ficathon (original LJ ficathon deleted, but these works crossposted to AO3 remain) -Real Women Fest -Female Character Trope Fest -The Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon -The Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon II -Where No Woman: Un-erasing the women of Star Trek and Women of Star Trek -Femslash Kinkmeme -The Femslash February Collection -Focus on Female Characters Collection -Purimgifts Since this project has a relatively quick turnaround time, you may want to refer to this database of authors who have posted blanket permission statements and/or install this browser extension that highlights all blanket permission authors from that database in green. To the Podcurious: If you have ever thought you might like to create podfic, this is a really great starting place. It's low pressure, you might get listeners you wouldn’t otherwise reach, you're contributing to a cool fanwork that celebrates our love for female characters, and it's not too intense of a spotlight, because your piece is in the company of many other voices. To Everyone: Feel free to comment with links to other fests or specific works that you think would be a good fit for this anthology. Additionally, we are looking for beta listeners who can absolutely commit to at LEAST two hours of beta listening between February 17th and 24th. Please let us know if you'd be available and interested; we'd be very grateful! To Authors: We've had some awesome authors get involved in the past, in pod_together style, to create short female-centric pieces for the anthology in collaboration with podficcers. If you’re an author who’s interested and is seeking podficcers to work with, feel free to comment below. Podficcers who would like this sort of collaboration, please reply directly to the authors. See this post for the rules and submission guidelines. If you have any additional questions, please let us know!

[olderthannetfic]

After talking about nostalgia, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at posting patterns. And since I can’t get at fandom’s posting patterns overall, I decided to look at mine. This is a product of jetblackcode and my archive pages on DW and Tumblr.

Both DW and LJ share some info about you on your profile page. It doesn’t precisely match what I found in my calendar view. Does it include posts to communities? One’s total comment count definitely does. And of course, plenty of people have left and aren’t showing on profile pages anymore, but I think there are still some instructive points of comparison.

Tumblr:

According to Jetblackcode, 96.60% of posts are reblogs and over 50% of blogs have >5k posts. They average 617 original posts on the blogs they look at.

My tumblr has:

1,094,647 notes

25080 posts including 13,687 original and11,393 reblogs

935 original photo posts

534 original text posts

12218 other original posts (i.e. ASKPOCALYPSE)

I follow around 700 people and am followed by 6k, 1k of whom have arrived in the last 4 months.

As you can see, askpocalypse only took off in the last couple of years. Before that, I had bumps of activity when I was reblogging the MFU movie or deadpool or some other then-current fandom every day and started to get a few followers who were there for topic-specific posting. I started going viral a bit more around the porn ban because I’d posted the prescient A History of Fandom Purges just before, but all of my viral meta from back then combined is nothing to now.

DW/LJ:

According to DW:

4,989 comments received

5,606 comments posted

792 journal entries

I have ~300 subscribers and follow similar numbers, but that’s not because DW is quieter than LJ. That’s in line with what I would ever have had on LJ.

According to LJ:

2,192 comments received

16,433 comments posted

713 journal entries

The actual number of journal entries I counted on my calendar on DW for the chart above is 680. Did I miss a bunch? Did I really have that many in communities? Possibly.

Anyway, you can see on the graph above that I was highly active on LJ from 2003 to 2011 with a dip in 05-06 for moving to Japan and then NYC and being busy with personal life stuff. After that point, I was still crossposting from DW to LJ and I was still in the journal world, but things were tapering off.

A big thing to notice is how many more comments I posted than received on LJ: that’s the product of me being active in other people’s comments sections and not being a BNF at all. I didn’t post much fic, and I didn’t have anything serialized in my journal in a way that would have brought in big crowds, nor was I making most of the popular top-level meta posts in those days.

Comment counts got more even on DW, but that’s not a good thing: it’s a symptom of people talking 1:1 but I don’t mean in private. A thread will be ABABAB, not the branching, multi-person conversations of the height of LJ.

The other big takeaway from my LJ/DW is that I have always been garbage at tagging. Heh.

Let’s look at a BNF:

Astolat’s LJ info page shows

28,969 comments received

11,703 comments posted

1,203 journal entries

262 friends

2,829 followers

And DW:

32,996 comments received

4,166 comments posted

1297 gives access to

2149 followers

Those are more BNFy numbers. IDK whether astolat used to follow a thousand people on LJ instead of a few hundred, but it’s possible the move away from calling them “friends” made her more open to following people back.

We can see the typical skew in more comments received than given, but we’re still looking at a very different kind of distribution than on Tumblr. These sorts of numbers are what you get on a platform where a higher percentage of interactions are contentful and meaningful.

(If you’re curious about astolat’s tumblr presence, you can put her blog into jetblack code. She apparently has 51,590 notes 395 original posts and 1669 reblogs.)

As we bemoan on modern platforms all the time, producing solid work of our own is slow and difficult and easily drowned out by viral sharing and repackaging activities. DW/LJ show a glimpse into what a slower, less viral site looks like.

[icarus-suraki]

I know we're all sweating and stressing about if/when Tumblr might close, given the announcements about it being run on a skeleton crew. I'm certainly anxious about it.

I'm not sure where I'll go. Unlike the Livejournal exodus, there's no clear place for Tumblrites to go. Dreamwidth is basically a copy of an earlier iteration of Livejournal, so it made sense to go there when LJ started fucking things up. But Tumblr? There's no place like Tumblr on the current internet--which is unfair in so many ways and speaks to how corporate and commercial the internet has become and how much that sucks. And we're over here, not being marketable and not being a "good" market.

On the other hand, LJ is still kicking, despite falling out of favor, so hope is not completely lost.

But I want to make sure I can keep up with everyone just in case. Drop me a line, DM me, whatever, and I'll gladly trade contact info. I have email and Discord at the moment.

I may branch out into other sites soon too. I'm currently investigating my options. I think I have an old pillowfort account.

That said, I've been here since 2011. I'm basically fused to the servers Videodrome-style. So while I'm going to be backing things up and maybe crossposting, I'm not leaving here until they make me leave.

[spangelkinkmonthly]

Hey everyone! I've decided to make a prompt list for Kinktober. You can start writing as soon as you like to get a head start on the month, but please hold off on posting until the date of the prompt.

You can use either or both prompts for each day, just be sure to tag accordingly or specify the prompt in an author's note.

Tag each fic post with the tag #spangelkinktober2023

Feel free to crosspost here and on the LJ comm.

There's no word minimum or maximum. Write as little or as much as you want as long as it displays the prompt.

Do not feel pressured to complete one for every day. Feel free to skip around and do whichever days speak to you.

Many of these prompts allow for the inclusion of other pairings, but please keep Spangel as the main pairing.

Each prompt can be its own fic, or, if you're feeling ambitious, you can make a 31 chapter fic (just make sure each prompt is used in the correct order).

Remember to keep it spicy! You don't have to make it explicit, but the ratings should at least make it to mature.

If you have any questions, the inbox is open!

[tuulikannel]

Such a blast from the past to suddenly get an email from LJ. I wonder if my journal's just going to be there forever and ever... I left it in 2012, when I too migrated over to dreamwidth. I think I was crossposting for a while tho.

And yeah, tuuli-chan, just cause both tuuli and tuulikki were taken, and half of my friend's list past then had names that ended with -chan XD

ETA: I went to see my virtual gifts, just for the heck of it, and I didn't remember I'd gotten all these! All the snow! ^^

[mazarinedrake]

imho the one big strength tumblr and twitter have over dw (and the thing I'll miss the most when/if the site dies) is how easy it is to share posts. On LJ if you wanted other people to see your fic, you had to crosspost it yourself to communities made for that purpose. Here your followers take over that job for you.

Of course the negative side to this is that posts can go viral and spread far beyond their intended audience, which was only possible on LJ if people took screencaps of your post and posted those elsewhere on the site. But I'm really going to miss the fun of seeing artwork from people I've never heard of show up on my feed for no other reason than because the people I followed liked them :<