#i don't know how many of my mutuals in the fandom use discord or especially fandom servers

[elvenbeard]

Exposing myself here a little and sharing the current rule-set for my CP2077 Discord I'm the process of setting up below the cut! Below the cut, cause this post it's a lot of text as is.

I think I got all channels set up how I want them for starters, but there will always be room for improvement :D First and foremost I want this to become a place of encouragement and sharing and fun... I really just want it to be an extension of my fandom corner on tumblr here and have a room to chat with everyone I love in one spacereally, that's the whole point XD

Still though, I think some basic rules are good, especially if I decide to open this up to more people down the line - but also, some might find a strict ruleset (or my specific ruleset) not to their taste, hence, before sending out invites, I wanted to put this here.

If we're mutuals, or if you're following me and like what I post, original content and reblogs alike, AND if you wanna be part of this server under the prerequisite of accepting the rules below the cut... Like this post or DM me or leave a reply etc. And I might send you an invite.

(I want to open this up specifically also to people I'm not mutuals with, since I don't always follow back for a variety of reasons. But I have a good memory for user-handles and will recognize you if you interact with my posts on a regular basis!) Important: If I don't send you an invite, please don't take it personally. I might not know you or your vibe well enough yet. Especially if we're new mutuals, or if I'm not following you. But I will check out everyone I don't recognize or don't follow who reacts to this post. I want to keep the server somewhat small in general and especially to begin with, but if all goes well, I might come back to this post here somewhere later down the line and send some more invites! I love you all lots, and especially with my semi-forced hiatus recently I missed interacting with everyone. Being welcomed back so warmly repeatedly by so many people in your tags and replies and all really meant so much <3

So yeah! Server-rules below, react to this post or get in touch with me if you're interested to join based on these prerequesites, invites will go out during the weekend most likely! :D

1. Don't be a dick and use common sense. Be kind to each other. Assume ignorance over ill intentions first and foremost, and when in doubt, stay civil and ask a mod or admin for help via DM.

2. Homophobia, Transphobia, Queerphobia in general, Racism and Hatespeech towards other server members will not be tolerated. Report any talk of this sort to a mod or admin asap if you notice it.

3. This is an adult/NSFW server. You need to be at least 18 years of age to participate and can expect respective content. This is not to exclude anyone younger than 18, but for legal reasons.

4. No 18+ content needs to be spoilered ||like this|| by default. If you choose to spoiler something, which you are always free to do especially in general channels, use a label/indicator describing the content you're spoilering (e.g. [explicit sexual content], [nsfw], [blood/gore], [xyz kink], [tmi]). No kinkshaming please, but also, note rule 5.

5. If someone asks you to spoiler a specific type of niche/extreme content (e.g. extreme kinks, dark and disturbing topics, (mental) health themes like self-harm or terminal illnesses, or any content that could fall under 4) please do so. Be mindful of each other's comfort levels with being exposed to certain darker topics. Being asked to spoiler content does not equal being kinkshamed.

6. Everyone's boundaries are valid and you are free to set them. Simultaneously, nobody should have to censor themselves or their creations either. Spoilering (extreme) content on someone else's request does not equal censorship but is part of being a community.

7. If someone forgets to spoiler a topic that has been previously asked to be spoilered, do not assume the worst and kindly remind the op to spoiler. If the same person keeps forgetting the same things though and you feel like it is on purpose or targeted, let a mod/admin know.

8. If a topic that makes you personally uncomfortable is being discussed in a group setting, stepping away from the conversation temporarily is an alternative to asking to spoiler something (also applies to rule 6). Simultaneously though, due to no blacklisting options on Discord, be mindful of what you post especially if others whose comfort levels you don't know are there with you.

9. Please keep discussions on the server civil. If you've messed up, apologize. If discussions get personal or touch upon server-external issues, please resort to DMs to resolve them. If you need a neutral party to listen, @elvenbeard is always happy to.

10. Do not post content that isn't yours without the explicit permission of the original creator (be it mods, VP, art, writing, etc.). This includes posting links to external works that aren't yours.

11. Start no arguments or spread negativity by discussing non-server-members and their activities.

12. Keep shippy content to the respective channels. Respect each other's ships and headcanons (exceptions: see 13), but also respect the source material(s).

13. If you notice headcanons that are queer-phobic, transphobic, racist, hateful or something similar, especially if they are being framed or discussed as positive, inform a mod or admin asap. Everyone is entitled to their own headcanons, but any falling under these categories will not be tolerated.

[saintqueer]

I'm sorry you got harassed again just from a simple post with a (imo pretty valid) opinion. If that person is the same that answered your post by reblogging and repplying on their blog with unnecessary hate (apparently queer but a solo louie) then it's the one I just blocked. I love to currate my experience in this fandom. Anyway I just wanted to say, I used to love your posts in this fandom! I lost track of your blog and thought you'd disappeard. I'm glad to see you're still on Tumblr and enjoying other fandoms. I'm well aware of how toxic this fandom can get (between the hets, the solos often queer themselves but hating on queer larries and more, to many groups to count tbh, louis' attitude on social media ect), especially when you dare to voice an opinion, which I'm mostly don't lol. I'm staying for the art, the fics, the great memes and ofc the music and the people. You're "y'all" made me think 'I Hope she still got good times and friends out if it. I made some great friends in the larries bunch myself. Anyway sorry for the rant, I lost track of what was my point here. Just was happy to see you pop on my dash through a mutual and wanted to say so I guess?? So once again thank you for the fun times I had reading your posts back in the days; have a great time out here, enjoying your favs fandoms, you do you! Sending love xx

so i was trying to avoid posting any anons regarding prev fandom discourse but i opened this one and read it through and it was just so amazing i had to respond, not just in tags 🥹🥹

of course, it's lovely to hear that you liked my posts on fandom back in the day etc but what really got me was when you wanted to make sure i still got good times and friends out of it, that nearly made me cry

because YEAH I FUCKING DID 🥺😩🥺🥹🥲

blue ( @wastelandbabyblue ) is literally one of the coolest people i've ever known while also being one of the kindest and funniest. id literally kill to meet her one day in person. i still keep up with brenda and several others i met in her og discord, some of which are the only remaining 1d fandom blogs i still follow here - they are so kind and funny and i still talk to them occasionally in a fandom discord i stayed in because i didn't want to lose touch with them.

and 🥹🥹🥹

i met 8 of who i would consider my closest friends in the whole world through fandom. through the most insane wild and unruly fandom discord drama, i literally located my found family: wedo, nino, iza, katja, olia, hanis, chloe, and su

we talk everyday still even though we live all over the world and we talk about nearly everything except fandom nowadays and they've helped me survive living day to day through some of the worst moments of my life. i don't know what i'd do if i didn't have them in my life

last night, i had a bit of a shame spiral thinking about all the time energy money i devoted to the 1d fandom. i felt embarrassed for being so loud about something that ended in so much disappointment. it wasn't fun and i know it was probably triggered by being involved in some discussions i hadn't been in so long

so when i opened this ask, anon, it reminded me so much that whatever was lost from that time, so much more was gained. the embarrassment of remembering dancing around like a fool with a rainbow flag for someone who couldn't even say something as simple as "look at all those colors" pales in comparison to the lifelong friendship i gained with these 8 beautiful women all across the globe

nothing will ever compare to the people i met and the way they feel closer to family than any of my blood ever felt

i'm glad that you found so much goodness as well and thank you for reminding me that it was all worth it for what i got

[therapardalis]

Multi-fandom OC. (Fandom based, but with original lore.)

1. Mun is severely over 21. Victoria, Australia (Australian EST). Not mutuals only, but semi-selective. 18+ only, please.

2. Rules are under the Readmore below. Last rules update 27th December 2023.

3. Muse Information on Carrd. For her main verse, please read at least the summary at the top. Several of her AU verses have different versions of the muse. Marvel, Dune and Tolkien verses are movie/TV based.

4. Policies on this blog. Not 'rules' but how I do things here.

5. Mains and Exclusives.

6. Please don’t reblog memes from me if you’re not going to send one. Reblog from the source instead. Memes - Ship Memes - NSFW Memes / NSFW HCs - Munday Memes - Open Starters

7. Muse Stats Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue-Grey Age: In AU verses, usually 30+ Place of Birth: In her main verse, Cornwall, England Gender: Female Sexuality: Heterosexual

8. Rules under the cut.

Basics Original character and writing are mine and not for reproduction. (2012-2024). Likewise original graphics on the blog (icons, promos, background images) are made by me and are not for general use.

I do not consent for any of my writing or graphics made by me to be used with, for or as part of any form of AI generation.

Things I don't do:

RP with anyone under the age of 18 years. Selective with under 21. No age mentioned, no follow.

RP with anyone who does not have a rules page somewhere.

RP with personal (non-RP) blogs. I'll check to see if you have RP sideblogs.

Instant smut (see below).

Infidelity/cheating plots.

Non-con, dub-con (including A/B/O) or sexual assault.

Animal abuse.

Thread with abusive/manipulative characters. I’ve had abusive relationships OOC, and I do not want to be dealing with them in my RP as well. Villains are on a case by case basis, but muses who are by their canon nature or intended to be played as abusive are not.

Very, very selective with;

Pregnancy threads. Thera is not going to be pregnant, and I'm selective on threads where the other muse is.

‘Unrequited crush’ threads need to be talked about first, and boundaries set.

‘Fight’ threads where it’s Thera against someone else’s muse. Her vs random NPCs is fine.

Child muses (under 13). NPCs are OK, but not children who are the main muse. Any threads with older teens will be strictly platonic.

Shipping / Smutting. No instant smut. I will write smut, but only in the context of an established ship. And on that note …

Shipping needs to be talked about first. Thera is multiship, male-attracted, and we enjoy shipping. It's entirely possible it's crossed my mind already when we start writing. But it’s still not going to be an automatic-everybody thing. There’s got to be some sort of IC build up and OOC talk as well, to see how the muses get along and that we're on the same page. If we haven't talked about it OOC, it's not happening.

No means no. On both sides. If I say no to something I expect you to listen. Conversely, if you say no I’m going to take that as final, so if you change your mind later you need to tell me.

Also please do not say yes when you mean no. Just rip off the bandaid, OK?

Interaction Please communicate, please reciprocate. As it says at the top this is a hobby, but it’s a hobby we should both enjoy and it’s not enjoyable when something’s all one-sided. Busy happens, favourites happen, but if I’m doing all the sending and messaging and you don’t do any, especially if you’re active with others, then no hard feelings but I’m going to move along.

Discord I'm not going to engage 1x1 on Discord with people I haven't spoken with either here or in a group server there. I have no problem RPing on Discord, but I'm not going over there with someone until I've talked to them a while first. I know many (most) are genuinely just trying to find partners to write with, but I've seen and met too many who are looking to 'get someone alone' for unpleasant reasons.

Reblogging Memes Please don’t reblog memes or starter lists from me without sending me one. You don't have to send me something, but if you don’t please reblog them from the source instead.

Post length I’m good with any, as long as we’re on the same page. But if I’m doing paras and getting one line back, it makes me wonder if you really want to be doing it at all. If you’re stuck, I’m totally open to waiting, plotting or re-writing.

Starter Calls (mine) Starters take me time, effort and ideas, but a lot of them go unanswered. So, I have a 3-strike rule. If I write you starters you request three times and you don’t reply or let me know there’s a problem, I won’t write any more for you.

Triggers and Tags NSFW or strong violence will be tagged (smut is tagged ‘BadThings’ and 'NaughtyList'), potential triggers as '[thing] tw'. If you need anything specific tagged, let me know (if you have a tag already blacklisted, tell me and I’ll use it).

Likewise, if there’s something you’re not comfortable RPing (or thought you were but then realise you’re not) please say so - I only ask that you do the same for me if needed.

God-Modding and Meta-gaming

God-Modding. I write my muse, you write yours, and if in doubt, ask. Please don’t decide for me what she does, thinks or feels (or did before the events of the thread), that your muse has done something major to her, or put her in a certain situation, without running it past me first. Also, ignoring what I’ve just written and continuing as if Thera never said or did something counts as god-modding, too.

Verses are separate unless it's been discussed OOC beforehand. Please don't shoehorn Thera into your own existing group verse without talking about it with me first.

Meta-gaming is giving your muse OOC knowledge IC. There are muses out there powerful enough that they could know things, but please talk to me about it first. Your muse suddenly knowing all about Thera for no IC reason and without asking me is not going to work out.

On those last two points, I also reserve the right to say no.

Vague/Guilt-Posting Trying to pressure or guilt me into RPing with you is going to have the opposite effect to what you want. Asking if I saw a post or reminding me once or twice is fine, talking to me directly about a problem, likewise. Messages specifically intended to make me feel bad for not replying/RPing with you are not.

Thanks for reading through!

Last rules update 27th December 2023.

[16woodsequ]

Hi! I’ve been following your Steve fics for a while and just wanted to say I really really love everything you’ve written, especially the Alternatively series.

Idk if you give writing advice and sorry if this comes out of the blue, but do you ever struggle comparing yourself to other writers on Ao3? I’ve been posting on and off lately but get so discouraged when I see fics with hundreds of thousands of hits and thousands of kudos and comments. I just don’t feel like I’ll ever compete with that, you know?

Hello! Thank you for your kind words! It always lifts me up to hear things like that :D

I've been thinking about this ask a lot to think of how I handle that feeling. Because it might surprise you considering how many people read my fics, but I also feel discouraged sometimes when fics don't get the engagement I'd love sometimes.

Here's some things I've done to help myself:

First, I added a skin to my AO3 to turn off numbers on fics. This blocks comment numbers, hit counts, kudos, that sort of thing. @ao3commentoftheday has good tutorials for ao3 skins. I made a google docs with the coding for the skins I use if you're interested.

I find hiding the numbers really helps me, because I found I was beginning to focus a lot on the numbers of my fics. These skins block the numbers on your fics and other people's. Doing this helps me not fixate on the numbers and take more happiness in the fics themselves.

When I first changed my ao3 skin I didn't turn it off for several weeks, to wean myself off of it, but now I turn it off on Sundays and give myself the day to enjoy looking at the bookmark numbers and stuff like that, because now it sparks joy more than discouragement, which is the goal.

Second, I try to treasure the good stuff. When creating things I find it very very important to remind yourself of the good things. Our brains are kind of wired to forget the positive reception we've gotten for things and we keep chasing more, which can leave us discouraged.

So find ways to treasure whatever happy things you've gotten from your fics or fandom experience online.

For example, I have a personal discord serve with just me where I save screenshots of amazing comments, touching notes, tags, bookmarks, asks etc that people have left on my fics and posts. This way I can go back and look at them anytime.

I also save my favourite comments in my ao3 inbox instead of deleting them.

And I've also started a scrapbook with my favourite comments so I can hopefully really remember them and imprint them into my brain.

Train yourself to truly appreciate the interactions you get. That's a whole person there! And that's pretty amazing.

Third, often what fandom people are truly looking for is community. That's why we want people to comment on our fics and art because we want to share this amazing idea we had and we want to talk about this thing we love!

So find a community that will listen to you. On tumblr or on discord or with a mutual. Find people who will be excited when you share a headcanon with them or a meme or an in depth analysis of a character.

I find that helps me feel appreciated and excited for what I'm working on and that really really helps.

Fourth, Don't compare your fics to someone's fics that have been posted for a year of more!! This is really easy to do, I do it with my own fics all the time.

But we forget that numbers accumulate over time! Of course your new fic doesn't have as many hits or kudos or whatever as a fic you posted three years ago!

Comparing the two is like getting to the party, putting your cake down and feeling bad because no one's taken a bite, while Brenda's cake, which has been here for two hours is mostly crumbs. These things take time sometimes!

Anyways, I hope this helps. Thanks for the ask!

[koolkat9]

Sorry if this is asking too much but I was wondering, when you were newer to posting, how did you get over like, the overwhelm of people not interacting with your posts?

Or did you get it at all. I'm currently trying to keep it up but find that people just don't interact and I want to know how to push through.

Oh not at all anon!

It's rough trust me. I find not many people reblog in this Fandom and even I'm guilty of this. I don't know what characters or ships you're working with but when you work with rarepairs like me it gets even less interaction which is even more disheartening.

Even now. I'm lucky if I break 20 notes on my fics or art (on average. There are times my art or fics/headcanons blow up). Reblogs are few and far between. So I really get you anon. My greatest advice. Make things you want, that you'll go back to enjoy. Because you ensure you at least get one reader. I know it's easier said than done and I came into fic writing wanting to make myself more Gereng.

Participating in event weeks I think also helps. You get your work out there to more people.

If you're a fic writer, post not just to Tumblr. Hetalia tumblr is not where you go to get a lot of interaction on fics (i do it because i know a handful of my followers/mutuals use tumblr for my fics. I find Ao3 is great, especially for rarepair shippers like me.

Join discords. I made some great friends through discord and they support my work. It's also a great way to bounce off ideas and headcanons and rake in inspiration.

Just be patient. I know it's discouraging, I've been there. I still get fics that only get a few notes. But I keep going. Because I kept going and I made a little place for myself and made so many wonderful connections.

If you're comfortable revealing yourself, even just in dms, I'd like to check your blog out 👀👀👀

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

I am really needing Advice and I don't have many people in my life that can help.

Here in the fandom I am wanting to reach out and try and make friends with of the members but I ......just don't know how.

I don't want to freak anyone out I just want some friends from here people to chat with and get to know.

I really enjoy my interactions with some of the members I just very socially awkward.

Hey there, anon! First off, I want to assure you you’re definitely not alone in this fandom and thank you for judging me an appropriate person to help. I’m definitely very socially awkward as well (even if it doesn’t show much since I’ve gotten very comfortable around here), so I’ve been there. I’ll share what I’d do in your situation (basically, what I’ve been doing since the fandom began sgksbsjsbs), I hope some of it can be of help to you <3

How to make friends in the fandom:

1- Discord

I, personally, do not really use discord chats. But I did back at the beginning, and they’re an amazing way to find people in the fandom to chat with! Essentially the etiquete of discord (as far as I know) is that you’re welcome to join in on conversations that are already happening, so you don’t need to stress about intruding. I’m pretty sure the biggest Hilda discord is Hilda Guild-a, but the tumblr community also has the Hilda Fandom Network. I (and any other member) can send you a link to the latter if you’re interested and don’t mind shooting one of us a DM! There’s also a sketchbook discord (and I’m assuming you’d be interested in talking about sketchbook since you’re. You know. *gestures vaguely around my blog* here), but I’ve been trying to find the link for jetcat for weeks and still haven’t managed to 🫠 wish you a better luck than mine, anon

2- Tags!

If you’re a person who makes content for the fandom — and I don’t just mean fics or art; shitposts and meta count too — pay attention to the people who not only reblog your stuff, but leave tags adding their thoughts/agreeing with you/screaming as well. They will probably be more open for dialogue since they not only already know you, but also like what you do and how you think!

Likewise, interact with the people you want to get closer to! You have probably already gotten a feel of some bloggers in the fandom, so make sure to reblog the posts you like from the people who sound kind and interesting to you, and let them know what you think!! This way they, too, will know you’re open for dialogue

(Also in this fandom it’s very common that we check the tags on our posts and answer them if there’s anything to be answered; so it’s already an unobtrusive way to get a blogger’s attention!)

3- Asks :O

See, you’re off to a good start! xD

Probably the main reason why I refuse to move on from tumblr, tbh. Asks are just so useful when you’ve already had some interactions with a blogger via their posts and want to talk more. You can always ask about safe topics; if it’s an artist or fic writer, I assure you they’ll be delighted to talk about their work. Also sending jokes or thoughts about characters/ships the person likes, or just about the series, is also imo a very nice thing to do :)

4- DMs (*sinister music playing*)

Okay, this is the scary part that you probably want to be careful with (I know I always want to, at least)

Once you’ve been interacting with people for some time in the ways I already mentioned, you might try sending them direct messages (this is especially acceptable if you’re mutuals btw, though that’s just unspoken etiquete and not a Rule of any kind). Depending on how long you’ve been in each other’s orbit, you might send them a fandom thought (that could admittedly have been an ask, but sending it in a DM will make it even clearer you’re interested in chatting), a post that reminded you of them and you think they might like, or even something a little more personal. I truly think this step will rely a lot on you sensing what is the most appropriate course of action

From then on I’d say it’s relatively easy (even for socially awkward people such as you and I) to sense whether the person you’ve approached is also interested in having a back and forth or if they’re just being polite. But either way, if you ever want to ask them (or even begin the chat by asking) if it’s they’re okay with getting DMs and/or apologizing if you’re being in any way intrusive, I think that’s a pretty chill thing to do. I can’t really see anyone in this fandom telling you “no”, but it’s still polite and would put your heart at ease evekvdjdbsjdb

Honestly, this is a cookie cutter-ification of a process that is generally organic, but as a general rule it’s what works for me. You might want to keep in mind that up until last year I was only in DM terms with *counting on fingers* uh. One (1) (☝️) person in the fandom, so I might not be The best person for you to copy xD though that might also be just because I wasn’t necessarily looking to make friends over here. It sort of just happened haha

Honestly, the bottom line is just that this fandom is filled with lovely people and I think wanting to make friends is all but a guaranty that you will. Something that I’ve learned from experience that helped me a lot to keep in mind is that if you’re afraid of being intrusive or impolite, you most likely won’t be. Just from the way you worded the ask, you sound pretty sweet!

I do hope you find what you’re looking for, and that you have a lovely time at the Hilda tumblr! Have a lovely day, dear 💜

[sailorchampion]

# SAILORCHAMPION

a heavily canon divergent usagi tsukino from naoko takeuchi's SAILOR MOON. written by moe. 07 / 26 / 23.

⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳ meet the writer ⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ my name is moe ( twenty-four she / her ) I'm black and cherokee indian, welcome to my writing blog. No hard feelings but minors and non roleplay blogs will be immediately blocked.

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ all of the icons used on this blog was made yours truly unless stated otherwise. I got my icon border from calisources and I will be sharing my SM resources on this blog for free.

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ speaking of resources, I have both the english (DiC / Viz / Clowoway) and japanese dubs of the sailor moon series via my terabox account ( + the movies, manga, and light novels ) and I'm more than happy to share these resources as long as you ask nicely. The size consists of 320 GB and you must have a free terabox account in advance.

⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳ council guidelines ⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ the content of this blog will feature dark and triggering themes such as, but not limited to: genocide, murder, violence, death, nudity, suggestive themes, body / cosmic horror, etc. Viewer discretion advised.

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ this blog welcomes mutuals and non-mutuals alike! I also adore original characters and love crossovers of all kinds: MARVEL, sonic, DC universe, winx club, demon slayer, bloodplus, bleach, Inuyasha, jujutsu kaisen, unicorn warriors eternal, symbionic titan, castlevania and soooo much more! so absolutely come in with all your ideas!

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ because I'm not well versed with cutting posts on tumblr ( especially with all these ever-changing updates ) I primarily use discord for roleplaying until I figure out how to do it correctly. My discord is: moon_princess0462 please just let me know who you are so I don't accidentally block you.

coming soon...

⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳ canon divergency ⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ my canon follows the DiC dub but does acknowledge and incorporate some of the original material such as japanese culture (because the story takes place in tokyo) the canonically gay and lesbian couples of the show, etc.

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ my version of usagi tsukino is specifically white and asian (japanese / korean) and I will be making my own version of her father for my canon divergency. Though please keep in mind, I'm kind of new to the sailor moon fandom and I haven't gotten very far. I say kind of because I was one of the many american kids that saw the DiC dub years ago and I'm revisiting it as an adult now.

☾ ࣪˖ ⊹ ִ ་ because of this headcanon here, I strongly write Usagi as someone with undiagnosed and severely untreated ADHD because I too have struggled with it.

⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳ closing thoughts ⭑ࣶࣸ ֺ✦⸼࣪⸳

[thelucyverse]

How to Interact with Fanfic Authors - for Beta Readers

I wanted to make posts both for fic authors and beta readers, because I realized in several recent interactions that some helpful unwritten rules of fandom seem to have become lost to people who are new to it.

This isn't meant to be a call-out post against anyone to say 'you did it wrong!' (really, how could anyone be mad if you just didn't know any better), and there aren't even any definite rules for anything - but I just thought these things might be nice to know and helpful to share around. This part will be @ the betas, the post for authors can be found here :)

Selecting a story to beta read

If you already stumbled across someone asking for a beta reader, you can skip ahead to the next part.

What and why do you want to beta read?

Are you looking to improve your skills in finding grammar and spelling mistakes because you want to be a teacher or a parent? Are you just bored and looking for something to do? Do you want to help your friends, or anyone who happens to need help right now? Do you have time today, for an hour, or are you willing to edit 100k over the next weeks? What content are you comfortable reading and editing? Do you want to be able to show others that you beta read a story? All questions you should ask yourself and find an answer to before you go about contacting any fic authors.

If you want to practice grammar and spelling, you want to beta a story of an author who is only looking for that, and not a deeper check.

Depending on how much time you have, you should look at the wordcount of fics and only agree to beta those you have time to do in the time-frame given by the author.

To help people you know, you could ask writers you are friends with to let you know when they need a story to beta (don't ask too many at the same time, or you will get swamped in work), or make a tumblr post saying any writer mutuals of yours can ask you whether you currently have time to beta. Many fandom discords also have a @/helper role that will ping you when someone is looking for beta readers or other help. If you want to help anyone, go to the next step, otherwise skip that one.

Finding stories or authors

On tumblr and ao3, you can check out the 'beta reader wanted' tags and similar ones like 'to beta', 'fic beta wanted', 'looking for beta reader', etc. If you are looking for a specific fandom on tumblr, you probably have to be willing to scroll for a while, as most people don't tag things with '[fandom] beta reader wanted', and even if you would have to check many different tag variants to even find a single fic. On ao3, you can search for a fandom or pairing and then filter for the beta tags (one at a time).

On ao3, some authors also allow beta work of completed stories - but make sure to only do it on works of authors who are comfortable with this, do not give unsolicited advice or criticism! No matter how 'helpful' or 'constructive'! Comments with beta work without the author asking for it in notes or profile are anything but nice.

Most authors won't be mad at you if you point out a typo or two, but still check the notes of the fic and the author's profile for whether they actively state that they do not want this kind of beta work, and if you do end up leaving a comment, make sure to a) include something you liked about the story, so the author doesn't just check their inbox to get disappointed with a 'here's a typo' message, b) ask whether they want you to keep doing so in the future or rather not, and c) always stay polite.

For anything more than a single typo or grammar mistake, you should ask the author - best in a dm if you can find their tumblr - whether they are looking for a beta reader for this story of theirs that you enjoyed reading. Still leaving a nice comment on the fic first will help your beta/author relationship along, trust me :) Again, before you ask to beta, check the notes and profile or of they have an about section on their tumblr or other sites to find out whether your help might not be welcome, as perhaps for them a fic, once posted, is not going to be edited anymore.

You can also specifically look through the profiles of authors you like, to check not just for whether or not they are alright with corrections and/or constructive criticism, but also for whether they are actively looking for a beta reader!

Working with a fic author

Once you are in contact with an author, you need to find out whether you are really compatible, to then work together well.

Preparation: clarifying what you can, should and will do for the author

What does the author want you to look for? Examples can be found on the post for fic authors. Most authors will tell you without prompting, but some might not know that clarification is necessary/ are so used to their kind of betaing that they didn't think to/ plain forgot about it. In this case, you shouldn't just make assumptions - even if you worked with the author before, they might want different things for different fics, depending on length or how important a story is to them etc, so ask what exactly they want you to do.

Make sure the instructions cover the kind of beta work, the format (directly in the text, tracked editing functions, comment next to the text or direct messages), the content of the fic if there is anything you wouldn't want to read (rating, pairings, warnings), and the time frame in which they need the work to be ready to post.

Once you know what is wanted, really think about whether you are able to do as requested. If you can't - whether because you won't finish it in time or because you can't or don't want to do the kind of beta work they need (I for example hate to only beta spelling and grammar without also correcting wordflow, I would do it for a short fic but I won't agree to beta something longer if I can't bring in my own opinion at least a little), and honestly say what you won't do and why. If it doesn't work out, they will just have to look for a new beta, and there's no shame in that.

The actual beta work

Only do as much as the author asked you to, and do that well! You know what works best for you - reading the entire text first, then going through it again to beta, or starting with the corrections and suggestions immediately. Don't correct or suggest things they haven't asked for, it is not a curtsy but might even be hurtful unsolicited criticism.

If you aren't sure about something, for example a grammar rule, either look it up or honestly tell the author that there may or may not be a mistake there and they should check it out.

Be nice! Phrase your comments in a friendly way, and unless the author told you not to, you can even write additional notes pointing out things you especially liked.

Don't expect the author to accept all of your corrections and suggestions into the final text! You may think they would improve the work, but it is their decision, and maybe they have a specific writing style they want to stick to, or any other reason to ignore a suggestion. Don't argue about any of this.

Being credited as beta reader

Do you want to be credited for your beta work? If so, you should tell the author in advance so they can decide whether or not they agree to this, and to the way you will be credited, whether in name mention only, @ on tumblr or link on ao3.

Let me know if I missed anything, and I will add it to the post!

The post for fanfic authors about dealing with beta readers can be found here.

[noire-pandora]

About me

I’ve been tagged @kunstpause @dismalzelenka @queen-kass-the-writer @curiousthimble @morganlefaye79 @barbex thank you for the tag, you’re always so nice with me!

1: Why did you choose your url?

Noire comes from a character I used to love as a teenager from an anime that made me cry like an idiot in front of my PC (once, I cried so hard, i got a nosebleed. What can I say, I’m a cry baby). The name of that character is Gauche Suede (from Tagami Bachi) that, after becomes the “villain”, he goes by the name “Noir”. I just added the “e” because “Noir” is the masculine French for the colour black (i hope I’m remembering that right) so the “e” made it feminine. Look, I used to love and study the French language when I made this Tumblr, I had to respect the grammar rules xD.

Pandora comes from Pandora’s box because I consider Tumblr to be a freaking Pandora box. So Noire-Pandora= My Pandora’s box. (Yeah, I was 15 when I made this. So edgy, right?)

2: Any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

I have....too many of them. 

-  noirepersonal is my personal Tumblr where i can reblog all the memes I want without spamming the people following me for Dragon Age. 

-  twcgreen is my Wayhaven Chronicles one but I don’t use it anymore because I’ve noticed the fandom is kinda shitty, to put it mildly. (not everyone, ofc, but the people who stirred up shit in the DA fandom are very vocal in there and I’d rather not deal with them. I’ll yell my love on the TWC discord servers)

-  ina-shep is my Mass Effect one because I had the pressing need to reblog Mass Effect art. 

3: How long have you been on tumblr?

2010.....10 years...no wait....this month marks the 11th year. Since I was 15 years old. Wow, I really haven’t changed that much huh.....

4: Do you have a queue tag?

No. In 11 years, I haven’t got the hang of the queue option. I just log in, reblog everything and log out.😂

5: Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Because I was curious to see what was this Tumblr place everyone spoke about on Yahoo Messenger. xD

6: Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

That's my lovely Elluin made by Tobio Fish on Twitter. I choose her because I'm obsessed with her.

7: Why did you choose your header?

Because I think the dragon age games are neat.

8: What’s your post with the most notes?

This one.....

I made it when I was 15 years old and it's still me. I'm a douchbag friend.

9: How many mutuals do you have?

I don't know how to check that.

10: How many followers do you have?

Before you say something, I want you to remember I had this Tumblr for 11 years and I've been in too many fandoms. And yes, I was this loud in every single one of them. Anyway 3582 but I'm sure only 20 people reblog my stuff.

11: How many people do you follow?

1241 tumblrs. I need to do a following clean up soon.

12: Have you ever made a shitpost?

Nah, I'm not funny enough for that.

13: How often do you use tumblr each day?

I used to spend too many hours on this site. Since I've started writing, not so many.

14: Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

Nah, fuck that. I won't fight people here. I've deleted every shitty anon message and blocked every person that tried to start shit with me. I refused to answer to any vague posts made towards me. I don't have the patience and the brain cells to fight.

15: How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

No one can make me reblog stuff I don't want to reblog. This is my Pandora box and I will do whatever I want with it.

16: Do you like tag games?

Yes, I love them! Please tag me in stuff.

17: Do you like ask games?

Oh yeah, especially when I can yell about my OCs.

18.Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Platonic crushes? Heck yeah. Y'all are too awesome not to like. Romantic ones? Nope.

Tagging: @emerald-amidst-gold @oxygenforthewicked @cleverblackcat @ma-serannas-vhenan @little-lightning-lavellan

@musetta3 @roguelioness @dreadfutures @fandomn00blr @dragonswithjetpacks @sidhelives @potatowitch @best-of-the-vein

No pressure at all. Let me know if you don't want to be tagged anymore or of you want to be tagged more!

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

About Me

Thanks @roguelioness and @best-of-the-vein for the tags!

1: Why did you choose your url?

Dunno honestly lmao it was a spur of the moment kind of thing. I had no idea for a fancy name (I am. very bad at naming things) so I was just like. "dnd is cool. Dragon Age is a dnd based. let's go with that." and that's all there is to it

2: Any side blogs? If you have them, name them and why you have them.

This is my side blog haha. Decided to make it cos I was (and still am) very deep in Dragon Age Hell and didn't want to spam my main blog with my shouting about it and rambling about my DA OCs 24/7

My main blog (which is @layalu) I started getting more active on because I was getting really fed up with deviantArt (they overhauled the site about a year ago and it's even more of a mess than it was before), and while I'm still on there too it's mostly just for one single ARPG, and even that is slowly transitioning to discord/their own website so who knows. I mean knowing me chances are I'll stay there anyway lol because yknow, sentimental attachment, but I think the switch to tumblr is gonna be more or less permanent. For now, at least

3: How long have you been on tumblr?

I joined in October 2017 but wasn't really active until April this year. Made this blog around the same time too. Tbh didn't expect that I'd stay active for more than like a month or so lmao

4: Do you have a queue tag?

Nope, still haven't gotten the hang of queues lol. I did try a few times but it's still really weird to me?? Sometimes I'll draft a thing I wanna reblog later and sometimes I make a mental note to reblog a thing which I forget 60% of the time, but mostly I'll just reblog things then and there when I'm online

5: Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Again, so I can have an outlet for (one of) my current obsession aka DA lmao. Didn't expect that I'd be this active, but the community is really kind and fun and that's what's been keeping me here. It's the first time that I've ever like. actually interacted with a fandom (usually I just stay in my own little corner and am very cautious about getting involved in fandom) but so far it's been pretty cool~

6: Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I was really proud of that drawing and because I believe in Pink Flower Crown Bull supremacy

7: Why did you choose your header?

Originally screenshotted that loading screen in case I needed it for reference/lore theory notes later on and just thought it looked cool. Also the colours fit

8: What’s your post with the most notes?

https://dungeons-and-dragon-age.tumblr.com/post/651126014406197248/leliana-please-its-3am-people-are-trying-to this one (just barely beats the Bull one)! It blew up MUCH more than I expected, and I'm unironically glad that shitposts are are popular as ever lmao

9: How many mutuals do you have?

18 (about 12 are for this blog I think)~ I don't talk/interact with everyone yet, but yall are very cool! owo

10: How many followers do you have?

Almost 400 now, somehow??? Which is absolutely insane. I don't know how that happened and it's a bit scary because that is a lot of people (for me it is anyways), but I'm really grateful and flattered too!! <3

11: How many people do you follow?

61 :') I'm kinda picky about who I follow because I'm always very wary about how far I want to extend out into the reaches of the internet, especially in fandoms, and I'd rather have my small circle of people who I'm comfortable with. Much easier to stay out of drama and nasty places that way

12: Have you ever made a shitpost?

Pff yea. I'm more likely to reblog shitposts than make them myself though because I'm not the best shitposter lol, but you better bet I love me some good shitposts

13: How often do you use tumblr each day?

Depends? Probably comes down to like 1-2 hours most days, more when there's a lot of stuff to read or art to admire on my dash or I'm answering asks etc.. Usually I'll just check my notes every now and then in between doing things and maybe scroll through my dash, so I'm rarely on for long at a time.

14: Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

Nah. I don't have enough reach/contact for others to come and start arguments with me luckily, and I try to stay away from drama and fights myself. I'm not conflict avoidant and will debate/defend myself within reason if need be but I'd still rather the need for that doesn't arise at all. I'm just here to vibe, not to fight. Also like. not getting into fights really isn't that hard lol. Plus, everyone's been super nice so far so I don't think I'm gonna have beef with anyone any time soon.

15: How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

If you tell me "I need to reblog" I will not reblog on principle.

16: Do you like tag games?

Yea, they're fun! I'm always a bit insecure about tagging people myself (if I ever tag you and you'd rather not get tagged, please tell me!), but I always get excited when I get tagged haha

17: Do you like ask games?

Hell yeah! I'm not exactly a writer and I suck at explaining lol but I do still love an excuse to ramble! Huge shoutout to my mutuals who always send asks btw, you're awesome <33

18.Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Bruh I don't even get crushes on irl people lmao. I do really appreciate and admire my mutuals (and a whole bunch of people who aren't mutuals) though!! There are some I-think-you-are-very-cool-and-I-would-love-to-be-friends-but-you-feel-way-out-of-my-league kind of people though, if that counts haha

tagging @dumbassentity, @a-drama-addict, @nomouthtospeakof and @exotic-inquiry (again no pressure ofc!)

[thequibblah]

I LOVE UR FIC COME TOGETHER SO MUCH any tips for new fanfic writers?

yes!! definitely!! myriad thoughts on writing here

i said this to someone else earlier — start small. try things like the 30 day drabble challenge (those still exist, don't they?) or inktober, where you have a small-scale prompt that you can turn into a quick little idea. you'll want to exercise your writing muscles in a smaller playground before you hop to something big — not because you're not capable, but because you'll have a stronger grasp of your own characterisation by the time you're writing something with bigger stakes!

especially when starting out, it's good to have friends you can share your writing with, people who'll look things over and tell you what they think. now, this comes with a lot of caveats. people on the internet don't owe you their time, and be conscious and careful when asking for favours. BUT, one way i remember doing this in ye olde days was just showing up in someone's comments every now and then to support them, and eventually those people became mutuals and did end up reading what i wrote. be patient — you can't rush this, and no one likes to feel like you're only using them to improve yourself. also try and seek out spaces where you can connect with betas — e.g. discords for the fandom

let ideas marinate. i can think of so many fic concepts that i started in my teen years that i definitely jumped the gun on, in hindsight.

if you're new to writing as a whole, it takes a lot of time to hone the countless skills it takes to tell a compelling story. but that should by no means put you off! the point is, be kind to yourself — things aren't going to be perfect the first go-around, and there's just no way to avoid that

get used to criticism. i know, easier said than done, but hand in hand with searching for friends to hype you up is being able to tell when those friends have feedback that is not personal and is entirely well-intentioned. it's okay to feel upset when something you write is (in your opinion) taken the wrong way — god knows i do it now! but there will always be people who, for right or wrong reasons, don't like your writing. and that's fine. the real deal is parsing out the criticism that does ring sincere, and figuring out how to make use of it. it's true that most people on the internet don't owe you anything — but at the same time, most people on the internet aren't going out of their way to put you down.

hone your internal writing instinct by reading, reading, reading. read other people's fic and try and consider the following: 1. how would my headcanon differ? if so, how would my characters react differently? fic is different from original writing in that you are not the sole and final authority on these characters, which is a great learning (and sharpening) opportunity. you don't have to tell anyone how you disagree with them unless asked (in fact i would recommend that you don't, lol —from someone who is uninterested in hearing about how her james is not english enough). but this is how you figure out how your iteration of these characters would act in any given situation 2. how would my story decisions differ? again, don't tell anyone this, but it's beyond useful to look at any media from a craft perspective. you can do this with published books and even movies and tv — develop an instinct for when, say, pacing flags, or a plot is stretched too long, or something comes out of nowhere. is there a reason a book left you unsatisfied? try and put it into words, and then try and come up with a solution to get around that problem. the better your answers to the above questions, the better your instinct for what criticism is warranted and useful, and what you're better off going with your gut on

don't self-deprecate. i know this is often a personality thing, but. seriously. don't do it. there's a difference between humility and putting yourself down, and fandom spaces are hard enough to start out in without you devaluing your own effort. you are your own best advocate first and foremost, and the sooner you can quash down impostor syndrome to remind yourself of that, the better you'll feel!

conversely: collect your compliments. not to get all corporate america on everyone, but have you guys heard of the piece of advice that you should file away every work-related compliment so you have reminders that you’re like, actually valued or w/e? (grim, but anyway) that is so so useful for writing — keep a folder of screenshots of things that have made you feel warm and happy inside, because you will absolutely have days where you need the reminder that people do like your writing!

hope this helps!!!

[iacon-stargazer]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE: MUN & MUSE

fill out & repost ♥ this meme definitely favors canons more, but i hope oc’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. multimuses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: stolen from @oneshallfall like.... months ago. im a slow gremlin hjksd. it's been in my drafts and i finally decided to finish the last few sections while working on clearing them out

tagging: steal it

MY MUSE IS.   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO.

is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  Well.../ NO / IDK. (i know optimus is but i don’t really... know about orion? i have seen a handful of fanartists who turn him into a very sexualized moe baby but i’m not sure about the fandom at large)

is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

are they underrated?  YES / NO. (lmao there’s like no fan content with him unless it’s with megatronus) 

were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO.

were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO. (not yet.... lol)

how’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

This... this is a trick question in this goddamn mess of a continuity. That said, I try my absolute best to make my portrayal coherent with the TFP show... even if said show contradicts itself at times. I take inspiration from the earlier parts (the thirteen primes section) of the Covenant of Primus for his origin backstory, but ignore the rest of the Covenant since it makes absolutely no sense with his characterization in... literally anything else. I’ve peeked at Exodus and it utterly sucks, but I’ve picked up bits and pieces of concepts that originated there just from spending time in the fandom. Aside from that... I spend a ton of time thinking about how to weave everything together in a way that both makes sense and makes for a character development arc.

SELL YOUR MUSE! (aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.)

Orion is genuinely kind, thoughtful, and introspective, very loving of the world around him.

He’s also a more complex character than is initially obvious - despite mostly being good sweet pure baby nerd he’s still flawed, with many of those flaws being his strengths put into the wrong situation. His strong morals can lead to dogmatism, and he’s only slightly less likely to deliver lectures than Optimus. His determination to be kind and help everyone can come off as unintentionally patronizing at times; he has a very “well-intentioned semi-privileged middle class” perspective that he’s not always self-aware of. However, he’s also willing to look at himself critically and learn/adapt. 

Essentially, he has many of the same traits as Optimus... just more or less apparent and/or developed. He's less confident than he eventually becomes through his future experience with leadership, wanting to change the world for the better but sometimes struggling to ground his plans in reality—something that continues to apply, but with reduced intensity and frequency over time. Idealistic cinnamon roll will eventually develop some realism, though never really quite enough. His selflessness remains a strength for now, but we know that eventually it will dip into martyristic tendencies.

NOW THE OPPOSITE! (list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

He could be potentially ‘boring’ in some senses. he’s the polite, considerate ‘next door’ type, who has for most of his life has just lived as a very average middle caste nobody. He’s more laid-back than he eventually becomes as optimus, but where others might get into trouble and shenanigans he’s most likely to just express concern. And since I try to keep him at least mostly ic, even with non-serious posts, this can derail ‘fun’ stuff and I fear dissuade some interaction.

While I try my best to give him realistic flaws that work with his character, he could still be seen as a little too good. very kind, understanding, forgiving, patient, considerate... almost endlessly so. A lot of my “he’s so good and pure” interpretation comes from using his having been the thirteenth prime as backstory, where he was pretty much the epitome of that, but some might not like the “he was a literal deity in a past life” idea for its “super special chosen one protagonist” elements.

His responsiveness to his environment can also be a downside. He’s not the type to start things; he just reacts and responds, standing his ground and finding himself when things get crazy around him. without megatronus, he may have eventually attempted political campaigning, but it wouldn’t have gotten very far. He needs to have more intense characters or events around him for major plots to really go places. Without those nothing would ever happen besides slice of life fluff, because he’s content with that kind of life.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?  

Honestly I just wanted to write op/ratch fhsjkdjsdh. But I also wanted to be able to interact with a variety of muses and so I chose Orion over Optimus because he’s not so emotionally closed off, which I figured would give more flexibility beyond the handful of characters op would reasonably have close personal and/or plot-important relationships with. Also, I can relate to him on a thought-process level which lets me get into his head easily, which additionally made him an appealing choice for my first real rp muse.

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?  

I just love him so much, especially with the layers of his character I've built up around him. I don't always have inspiration to write or rp, but I think about him a lot. When I do find motivation to write, it's generally out of wanting to continue to work on developing him and just having a chance to express his characterization.

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO.

do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO.  (i should do it more...)

do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES / NO.

are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. (at least most days fhsdhfskj)

are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. (it waxes and wanes. I know I'm a good writer but I could still be better...)

are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

I’ll be honest; I’ve never gotten criticism. I haven’t been here very long in comparison to some and I’ve never been that popular, so I figure I’m pretty easy to just ignore. I guess how I would feel about it would depend on what it was and how it was delivered, though I like to think I would be reasonable regardless

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?  

yes? yes absolutely?

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  

I would be curious to hear their reasoning, but I think enough about how everything fits together that chances are I would agree to disagree

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?

Depends on if their disagreement makes sense. Maybe I’ll give back my own reasoning for why I characterize the way I do. Maybe I’ll just agree to disagree, if their view is just totally different from mine. If they have valid points I’ll probably overthink it and spiral into self doubt. In all cases I’ll spill my thoughts to friends on discord.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?

......Orion in general or? ... fhsjkdhf...... Well if it was mine specifically that might hurt lol. But at the same time.... I doubt i’d agree with their takes either so... fair enough.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?  

Sure. I’m good at grammar so if something glaring is there it’s probably a typo I missed and I’ll be grateful for the chance to edit it out before more people see it lol

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  

Yeah. I’m pretty quiet most of the time because I just don’t have energy to talk to a lot of people, and I never want to get caught in drama. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in a situation like that. I tend to avoid conflict, I’m quick to apologize, and polite with anyone I don’t know very well.

[swiftbell]

1. Why did you choose your url? I wanted to start using a proper username that I could be identified with over several platforms, and I didn't like the names I'd used up to that point. The name itself is based of a character from a book who was called "Slowswift", an information booker of sorts who had a role and personality I just really wanted to embody, so I took the swift part from that name and added bell to it because it sounded nice. (points if you know where this character is from, it was a very minor appearance for just about a chapter, but he stuck with me) 2. Any side-blogs? If you have them, name them and why you have them? I have to side blogs, one being @swiftly-reblogs-and-absconds that I wanted to use for reblogs that I didn't want to have on my main (not that I've been very good at reblogging). The other is a private rant account that I won't name, where I post rants of stuff I just need to get out of my head or off my chest, and then never interact with again. 3. How long have you been on tumblr? I think since 2013? Spring 2013 I think, so it's been a while now! 4. Do you have a queue tag? I have never used a queue on here in my life, so no =P 5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? Some of my friends had moved from other websites to here, and when they also introduced me to a new fandom that was popular on here I decided to follow. (You can figure out what fandom it was by going to the very beginning of my blog, but I will say that it was not Superwholock) 6. Why did you choose you icon/pfp? It's a version of my... online persona I think you can call it? Basically I don't want to use photos of myself, and instead I have this sona I draw. Which reminds me - I need to draw a new version of that, I should really get to it. 7. Why did you choose you header? It's some fanart I drew years ago that I was very proud of, back when I knew next to nothing of using digital drawing programs. I still like it, and am so used to it now I don't want to change it. 8. What’s your post with the most notes? That would be this fanart I did back in 2018! It's also the only post I have that has more than 300 notes. 9. How many mutuals do you have? I have no idea, there isn't a mutual counter on here so I really can't tell. 10. How many followers do you have? 455 surprisingly enough. I barely post stuff so I have no idea why I have so many. 11. How many people do you follow? 169 blogs, I like to keep it small and tidy. 12. Have you ever made a shitpost? Nah. 13. How often do you use tumblr each day? A few times each day probably, if I'm on the internet I'm either here, on youtube, or on discord. 14. Did you have a fight/argument with a blog once? Who won? Bold of you to assume my blog is noticeable/popular enough to get into fights. Honestly though I just tend to stay away from any drama if possible, and I engage with drama even less. 15. How do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this post’? I really don't like the guilt-trippy aspect of it, especially if they're followed by some variation of "or else you're a bad person". Nobody can be involved in everything all the time without draining themselves. Just take care of what you can, and help if possible, but don't make "getting involved with every injustice in this world at all times as soon as you hear about it" it a mandatory part of your life. 16. Do you like tag games? Love them! I try to do them as quickly as possible (even if this took a few days, sorry!) 17. Do you like ask games? Love them too! Please ask me stuff, I like to answer questions. 18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? *makes an I-dunno sound* 19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? I'm too aro-ace for this ask. 20. Tagging some people: Tagging @winking-owl, @indigoire, @space-pastels, @cookiemonsterextreme, and @myfirstrode-oh ! Thanks so much for the tag, @chloe-elizabeth-price!

[understanding-media]

Is there a shift in how celebrities are viewed, and is it good?? would you agree??

BA (Hons) Media Production

Kane O’Brien (Student ID: s5314184)

My case study for this essay - "is there a shift in how celebrities are viewed by, and interact with fandoms, and is it for the better?"

This essay intends to delve into some new shifts in celebrity perception by a new form of fandom that celebrities are cultivating and how there's a change in how they present themselves and interact with these fandoms. Also looking briefly at the importance of this for society, how with more accessible celebrities there can be less of an invisible social wall between them and how "normal" people feel locked off on one side of it while celebrities know the secret to get over it. But also, with this wall crumbling, celebrities can become more in tune with the real world and less outcast, and seemingly ignorant to the real world and its issues.

I find this case study important to look into even though is still a fairly new shift but such a significant shift because with this change people goals become less impossible. From my experience with getting into music production and with finding a large music producer that casually streams on twitch himself giving advice and showing what he does but just like any other person and showing I can get where I want with effort and that they aren't so far away from normal people.

The two concepts I will use to analyse my case study are Fandoms and Participatory culture. Fandom being looking into the people who have these celebrities as a part of their life more so than just liking their content and participatory culture where the fandoms participate in the content and life of the celebrities. A prime example I will be using throughout this essay will be a music producer by the name 'Kenny Beats', he's a prime example of both a fandom where he's built a community he regularly interacts with and live streams with other celebrities that the fandom tunes into daily and bond over their common "idol". Participatory culture is his main allure to his fandom, he runs a discord community that he gives free royalty-free content, and also linked with his streams the community participates in 'beat battles' where he reviews, gives advice, and has even gotten people signed to labels. He contributes to his fandom and also has the fandom casually participate in his content with even offering salary paid jobs at his business "D.O.T.S"

To state the cores of my chosen concepts are "Fandom as a whole is a subculture that celebrates a mutual bond formed between people over a book series, TV show, movie, band, or other forms of pop culture" (Morrison, 2016), and "the idea that various peoples, societies, and cultures to interact with new media in a way that allows them both to add and take away information from this medium." (Jenkins, 2006) is the core of Participatory culture. These are the most important concepts for this case study as having a good fandom allows for a blossoming community that can feel connected to and understanding of the celebrity, having good participatory culture allows for that fandom and other participants to offer something to the media or industry they desire to be a part of and feel a connection rather than separated as people and the media and its celebrities. Of course, though with fandoms there's the risk of them becoming toxic with a higher feeling of entitlement and gatekeeping to others making the celebrities even more dejected from normal society and even less accessible.

although I do firmly believe that the integration of participatory culture it levels that out allowing the celebrity to intervene and shape their community. As with participatory culture being endorsed in new fandoms, it allows a level of self-governing where they can communicate with the celebrity in question to allow changes to be made that the people want and can solve issues of toxicity directly.

This is the basis of what I desire to focus on and evaluate to reach the answer of my case study with my research to bring this to light and create discussion on the topic.

is there currently a shift in how celebrities are viewed by, and interact with fandoms, and is it for the better? In the past and up till recently celebrities were viewed in a very specific way as idols and out of reach and touch with "normal people", they are regularly presented as beings above the rest of us and people obsess over their lives seeing them as "the best of the best" or remarkable idols, it's a strange obsession developed over years. (Levy, 2015) (for example, how people are obsessed when they date "normal" people rather than other celebrities)

with this presentation and obsession, celebrities are dejected from societal norms and the issues that go on around them. For example, "A-list" celebrities like Drake, Jamie Fox, and others don't interact commonly with "normal" people or have their fans/fandoms participate in their lives casually or in their work having suggestions or adding something to the content these huge celebrities create and fans love. But in recent years there's been a shift in a few of the "lower tier" celebrities where they develop a community that feels involved but not entitled to the lives of these people. The best example of this and who I will regularly refer to is music producer 'Kenny Beats' who has produced some of the biggest Hip-Hop songs in recent years and is extremely idolised and respected.

Kenny Beats started a YouTube show In March of 2019, in this show he casually met up with huge celebrities in Hip-Hop and it showed these people and himself joking around in a studio that seemed 3rd rate, it showed a human side to these people and started a fandom around him and these people that weren't obsessed in the common way celebrity fandoms are. Then at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, he started a Discord community for his fans to talk to each other and communicate with him in, as well as a Twitch live stream where the new wave finally began for this shift in celebrity representation and community. He would casually talk to this community as a member rather than "the face" a sole reason for it, he would take fan advice and that would go into real songs, his fandom actively participated in his work and he actively participated in theirs. This wave of participatory culture developed his fandom into an organic and casual state where he would get people jobs and signed to a label but also where these "normal people" were a part of his content and art. His Fandom became something casual, and the people never saw him as some famous pariah they idolised and obsessed over, they don't pry or feel entitled to his or his celebrity guests/friend life like most fandoms act.

Although this sounds great and progressive on the surface, with this shift towards this new wave of fandom and fan interaction there comes risks. People are so set in their ways of idolising and believing in their right to know about their favourite celebrities. If the more "A-list" celebrities with these already obsessive fans and invasive swamping paparazzi culture around them take a step in this direction of cultivating a fandom with real participation between them and their community, without a smart and smooth transition and commitment they run the risk of cultivating and growing the toxic and entitled way of thinking further removing them from "normal society" and have a huge surge of gatekeeping and people feeling more entitled as they now have a community the celebrity is involved in. especially with cancel culture growing and growing where even then with a casual approach they run the risk of people not liking if their expectations aren't met. And this causes celebrities to become more detrimental to themselves and is what creates the commonly seen narcissism in celebrity culture, this toxic isolation and obsession with their lives creates many issues for celebrities and their fans (Brian H. Spitzberg, William R. Cupach, 2008)

But this is changing, slowly but surely. With a couple of celebrities that are much more high profile than 'Kenny Beats' but following in his footsteps with this shift in. fan interaction, these being 'Snoop Dogg' and 'T-Pain' now also doing regular streams on the platform Twitch and shows them doing pretty normal stuff and grounding them. Snoop Dogg now regularly streams games he plays and takes recommendations from his fans and just using twitch, in general, entices participatory culture on the fan side of actually having a part in this new venture of his into streaming.

T-Pain also streams and has a discord very similar to Kenny Beats, but T-Pain focuses more on a discussion about the music industry and helping his fandom to feel secure and capable but in a realistic way rather than the old "you can do anything" crap. He shows a side we don't get to see from most other huge celebrities and shows the truth of how he's just a guy that worked hard and slowly became famous and that it doesn't happen overnight. Showing that this shift so far is positive and has created very friendly and inclusive fandoms where participatory culture plays a huge role in its success and casual nature rather than the toxic obsession format we're used to.

The celebrities we see taking part in this shift are also far more involved in talking about the real-world problems which is a great thing as celebrities are a huge factor in what people care about and are exposed to, especially where fewer and fewer people watch/read news sources and its mostly through word of mouth and public figures addressing it, celebrities that have these more caring and social fandoms are detrimental these days for the awareness of distant suffering issues and it's improving from the old ignorant ways of celebrities and their narcissism due to their activity and participation with the fans who are caring of these issue's and contribute to the celebrities world education and vice versa (Scott, 2014)

Personally, for this topic, I do find it important. I'm very passionate about getting g into the media industry and more specifically into music production, but that sort of career was always a very far-off dream and so very inaccessible to some random kid from a small town in England where nothing ever happens. But finding 'Kenny Beats' who I spoke on in the main essay changed that way of thinking for me. I originally had a lot of disdain for the sort of celebrity culture and the fandoms that surround them as most are toxic, obsessive, and filled with gatekeeping. For example, used to be extremely into metal music but the fandoms in that are elitist and unwelcoming to anyone who doesn't know everything, but when I found Kenny Beats fandom and how he interacts with everyone and that they participated with him I was amazed and felt welcomed, and everyone is there teaching each other all the time about music and even just talking and helping people just with anything. It re-inspired me to do what I was passionate about as I saw him as just another guy that was good at what he does and that he cares and helps people, he even ended up getting a 16-year-old boy from Scotland signed to 'XL Records' (the label that does Adele and Radio head!) this new, completely different fandom to what I'd ever seen before inspired me and helped with my anxiety of wasting my time working for a "silly pipe dream of a career"

So, in conclusion to my case study. I feel the answer is yes, in my opinion, we are starting to see celebrities more and more as people rather than commodities and it's an incredibly good thing for society as these people are important to the public's decisions and what we are exposed to and care about. And with them being more grounded they can be more involved in the world rather than dismissed because they're "dumb celebrities". Although yes there are the risks of cultivating a more toxic and entitled community with higher-profile celebrities but with something as simple as starting with a good social presence on a platform like Twitter, especially like 'Lil Nas X' who is rather huge now but is seen as a rather normal person from his casual and human-like tweets that ground him and make him relatable. because that's all it is in the end, celebrities need to take this shift and become more grounded and relatable to the "normal" person, and this shift is that starting to happen, and it will help the world and its people be better. slowly but surely, at least in my opinion. what's yours??

(please use this link to see sources used, recommendations for future use are welcomed)

[raniamich]

EXPLANATION TIME

For everyone that is not interested scroll past this but for any mutual (or not) that is I would really appreciate it if you read this post of commonly asked questions.

Why a personal main blog?

I made tumblr a while ago. And when I say I while I mean when I was 15 and I'm 20 now. That means I already had this blog. Why not making a new account or replacing my main? Mainly because I already had a decent amount of followers that liked my stupidly random posts and because the struggle of logging in and out made most of my ask.fm rp blogs inactive and I didn't want this happening here.

Do you still use your other rp blogs?

Yes and no. I am still there if you message me and I try to reblog a few things to keep everything active but most of my attention is focused on the threads I have in my multimuse. I already have plenty of threads there and sometimes (more like always) I'm struggling to keep up so I can't be jumping between accounts especially when i have a rather lower muse for my other two blogs.

Why SO many muses?

Well, because I have so many muses and I love working on new characters or experiencing new fandoms. I always wanted to write so many characters here and on ask but I never knew how until the idea of a multimuse popped up so I took the leap of faith

Are all the muses on your multimuse active?

Most of them. I have over 50 muses and sometimes it is difficult to keep every single one of them active. But that doesn't mean I stopped writing them or that they'll be removed. I don't really wish to remove muses mainly because I can't know if or should I say when my muse will return because I'm almost certain it will.

Why no bios for the OCs?

As I already mentioned 500 times now what I loved but at the same time hated doing on ask.fm rp was writing character bios. It was cool having to sit down and write but it was exhausting and took too much time. And as a journalist I have little time to spare in this. Most of my cannon characters have bios anyone could revise by the magical method of Google searching them but not the OCs. That doesn't mean I don't have bios ready for them though or that I am not willing to write one. So if there's one or more of my characters that you are curious about please come to my inbox and I shall send you everything you need to know.

Do you write nsfw?

Again, I do and I don't. I don't have a thing against nsfw but I prefer doing something else instead of this. I have a thing for angst. My characters probably hate me for hurting them both physically and emotionally as many times as I do but I guess I can live with that? Well, some things come out more naturally than others and such plots are easier for me to write. That DOESN'T mean I won't do nsfw. I'm just not a natural at it. So it's harder for me to write it and enjoy it.

What about trigger warnings?

Trust me guys, I have some myself so I'm trying to tag as many as I can but sometimes I fail. They will be present in every writing blog. For example I have a character called Hemorrhage. The blood tw will be present in every single one of his threads since blood is literally his ability. So sometimes I just forget to tag it especially if it's not much or if it is a character like Rhys I just mentioned. So beware that some of the tw might not be mentioned especially if not present enough in the thread.

What about icons?

I prefer using icons over gifs but gifs remind me of ask.fm so I can do both depending on what the other writer prefers. I do make icons since some of the face claims I use aren't widely popular yet it is quite exhausting so most of my icons are not my own. I mainly use icons my dear friend @sabrinasrpiconhelp (her blog's amazing, check her out) made for me or others I found online that were free for use. I do claim in my bio and in tags that something isn't mine especially when it comes to gifs but like before it's difficult to do it all the time so don't assume something is my own unless I claim otherwise

Discord?

I do not use discord for personal reasons. Yet I am more than willing to share my social media if I know you well enough and I'm willing to use tumblr messages as well! As a matter of fact I already do for some plots that me and the other writer didn't want to put into threads. I know discord is a big part of this but as I just mentioned, I'm not going back to it or at least not yet mainly because I don't feel like it. Yet as mentioned above, I'm right here for you.

If you actually made it this far, wow thank you fellow mutual / person. I hope this answers most of your questions! If you can deal with me and my speed of replying and other multiple flaws you can always hit me up for a plot!