#talking interaction

[hotchs-bitch]

Hey y’all! I have a bit of an announcement to make.

If you follow myself or pretty much any other creator, I’m sure you’ve seen posts saying ‘hey, if you enjoy a fic/gifset/piece of artwork, please comment or rb or tell us that you liked it!’

The thing is, we don’t reblog that stuff because it’s fun to clog up our feeds by begging for validation. We reblog it because (speaking in broad terms for a sector of one side of this fandom) interaction sucks right now.

“Where are all the hotch writers going? Why have so many left tumblr?” Great question, and I’m happy you asked. We’re leaving because why would we post something, when we know that it’s going to do badly? We end up feeling bad about ourselves or our writing, or even worse, jealous of blogs that are doing well.

When we hit ‘post’, we put a part of ourselves out there. When that isn’t well received, we know it’s not personal but sometimes it can’t help but feel like the fandom is saying ‘no, actually, you aren’t good enough’. And that never feels good.

That’s the long and short of it, but onto my more personal announcement:

I haven’t posted in a month, but I’ve been writing. Trust me, I’ve been writing. However, I’m not posting it. I don’t know if I’ll ever post it. I put too much time- that I don’t have in the first place- and energy and care into my fics to be made (inadvertently, I know) to feel like shit when they inevitably flop.

Basically, I’m announcing a posting break. Maybe I’ll try again once I have enough stuff written, because of how well consistent content is received. Maybe I’ll try again in a week or a month or six months. In the meantime, expect me to be as rbing as many fics and gifsets as possible, because creators deserve recognition.

It breaks my heart to say it, especially because I’m so close to a milestone celebration that I’ve been so excited for, but if you’re just here for my fics I can’t promise you’ll get any anytime soon.

I want to write for myself, not the notes. And this is the safest and smartest way to do that for now. I love y’all, and if you’re still here thanks for reading❣️

[bugboi-connor]

If u interact with my posts, just know I respond like this:

[drops-of-universe]

I need several hours of Quiet Time each day or i become the worst person alive

[magnusbae]

To illustrate this post by @mayahawkse I would like to visualize to you the difference:

A post in 2023:

A post in 2014:

A zoom out of the same post:

This is what a community looks like.

See how in 2023 almost all of the reblogs come from the OP, from their few hours/days in the tag search. Meanwhile in 2014 the % of reblogs from OP is insignificant, because most of the reblogs come from the reblogs within the fandom, within the micro-communities formed there. You didn't need to rely on tags, or search, or being featured. Because the community took care of you, made sure to pass the work between themselves and onto their blog and exposed their followers to it. It kept works alive for years.

It's not JUST the reblog/like ratio that causing this issue, it's the type of interaction people have. They're content with scrolling and liking the search engine, instead of actually having a reblogging relationship with other blogs in their community.

Anyways, if you want to see more content you like, the only true way to make it happen is to reblog it. Likes do not forward content in no way but making OP feel nice. Reblogs on the other hand make content eternal. They make it relevant, they make it exist outside of a fickle tumblr search that hardly works on the best of days.

If you want more of something, reblog it.

[strangestcase]

becoming a furry nonhuman otherkin objectum genderweird relationship anarchy freak has made me immune to weird conservative whatifs. "what if people want to identify as animals" let them "what if people want to marry furniture" let them "what if-" is it hurting YOU? personally? or are you just so joyless that you can't conceive a living thinking person that isn't as repressed and deprived of whimsy as you

EDIT: Incest and pedophilia (including simulated pedophilia) don’t count because they do hurt people. I can’t believe I have to say this but things that hurt people aren’t part of the list of things that are weird but don’t hurt people.

[kicktwine]

so important to me that Y’shtola is a rude little beast who grew up in a cave. she just happens to look like a beautiful socialite but she did grow up with one old woman in a cave learning mildly illegal magic

[critterbitter]

Language divides and building bridges.

Elesa’s feeling homesick. Emmet, bless his heart, tries to help by infodumping while Ingo frantically runs off to find water (crying is a very dehydrating experience).

((Would you look at that! The kids are picking up kantonese and galarian from each other!))

BONUS:

Heh. Callback.

Want to see more? Here’s the masterpost for submas!

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

anyone else have multiple traumatic memories associated specifically with holidays/family vacations? because that is a topic I never see discussed in all the So You Had A Shitty Childhood, Now What? self-help books i've been reading. but for me, it was a significant thing. and the more i think about it the more it seems like this would be an (unfortunately) common experience. would be grateful to hear if this matches other peoples' experiences...

[bababaka]

Yall need to interact with fanfiction author's more.

So. After the ddos attack on ao3.

I was encouraged to write more comments and make my love known to fanfic writers.

I dont really like commenting. Because im a bit shy and soooo lazy.

Now though. I am writing more comments. And dude. This is so heartwarming. Ya'll need to treat writers better. They are doing the lord's work.

Take for an example, couple of days prior, i was searching for something interesting to read, and found an oneshot quite compelling.

I read it. At the end of it, i was blown away by how good it was. It promised me something and it went beyond my expectations. But then i saw a crime, zero fucking comments!

At that moment, i wasn't feeling up to writing a comment. Because, normally i like to write huge paragraphs. But because im lazy i decided to be brief.

Next day, the author answered that the comment lift their mood for the whole day.

That warmed my heart.

Duuuuuuuude! Write comments! Suport the writers of the fics you like! No need to be something super elaborate. Just give your thoughts. Freak out. Ramble. Ask something. Make theories. Compliment. Make a joke about how you wished to give kudos every chapter but ao3 sucks(not true bby) and won't let you.

Truly. Just. Comment. It can make someone's day. And that is part of the apeal of writing fics. Interacting with people.

Just give love to fanfic writers yall. They deserve this and so much more.

[seiwas]

thinking about katsuki finding out about that little crush you had on shouto since seeing close-ups of him during the televised sports festival—you were in high school then, too.

he shouldn’t care about it because it doesn’t matter, it was so long ago and shouto’s always been marketed as the pro-hero pretty boy—consistently top 3 most handsome, the front cover of magazines, all that.

this is to be expected, it’s what everyone’s been tempted to react like.

but since finding out, he’s been stewing in… in whatever this bubbling, throbbing feeling in his head means. he’s snappier than normal, face scrunched up more than usual.

and every time he sees shouto he wants to strangle the hell out of him.

[hotchs-bitch]

hiiii!! i saw your post and it made me wonder (bc i have absolutely no idea about the difference): is it different to post here, archive of our own or wattpad? bc maybe the problem could be tumblr, bc maybe people doesn’t want to reblog or comment here, but will have no problem doing it somewhere else? idk just having thoughts and thoughts hahah im sorry this is happening to yall :(

Hi anon!!! This is a really good thoughtful question, and I’ll do my best to provide an equally thoughtful answer.

In my humble opinion, as someone who has only posted to tumblr and ao3, each site has their pros and cons. (Yes I keep meaning to get wattpad oops)

Ao3 pro- the filter options make it easy to find work curated to exactly what you’re looking for, and filter out anything you don’t want to be reading. Also, bonus for it being a 100% fanfic website. As a reader, I believe that unless you bookmark it publicly, no one can see what you like/comment from your profile so that also lends some privacy when it comes to reading and supporting things you’d be ashamed of people knowing you’ve read (if that makes sense)

Ao3 con- it doesn’t bring the same level of connection that sites that feel more ‘social media-y’ might, so whereas friends might hype each other up on tumblr and reblogging is possible, ao3 is based solely off of tagging and hoping that someone searches up something along the lines of your tags. No external boost or support to get your work off the ground; it feels a bit more like it has to prove itself to get kudos

Tumblr pro- basically the opposite of ao3 cons. Reblogging and supporting other peoples works are a couple great things about this site, not to mention the connections that can be made because of it that might not happen on ao3. Follows and DMS are two features that aren’t on ao3 either

Tumblr cons- a lot of people treat this site like Instagram, where they scroll without interacting (this is the big one). There’s also all kinds of filter blocks, especially for nsfw content, that can make it harder to find particular pieces. When you reblog, it’s public; that means that if you’re reading the dirtiest and filthiest smut on the face of the earth and you’re a blog about how cute puppies are, your followers are in for quite the surprise when you decide to support your secret favourite author

Wattpad pros- again I’m not on wattpad, so I don’t know much about it. I’ve heard very good things about the line by line commenting feature, and that makes me think that interaction is likely to be better there for fics that people enjoy

Wattpad cons- you know what? I hate that you have to have an actual book cover to post. I think that’s really annoying. Also I don’t know enough about wattpad to d factually give you any other cons

[revengebian]

sometimes i just brood about how i can't walk around shirtless in public, which is such a simple privilege males have over females that really shouldn't mean much. however, it's impossible for me to rebel against this expectation on my own; the reason i don't just say "fuck it" and walk out shirtless is because i would become a sexual object to every man i see. the intent i had would be hijacked by the male gaze, if that makes sense.

i also see this hijacking thing happen with sexual liberation, where women were/are trying to reclaim their agency and right to have sed with whoever, but many men don't see it like that. they just see women they can have sex with, and the meaning is lost on them.

this observation has always frustrated me and it just sucks that you can see the pattern in a lot of aspects of feminism, where men will pick out parts that benefit them and THEN support those parts for their own benefit.

[porrigens]

raison d’etre + sushi = profit

[zzoupz]

[frocio]

i still remember clearly one of my first interactions at pride with a 40-something member of the lgbt community. I asked him if I could take a picture of him with the bear flag (because I was really happy to see it irl for the first time!) and he asked, "are you feeling like a she-bear a little bit?"

and being gay almost exclusively online back then aside from maybe two friends, I was shocked by that question. me? a 19 years old kid who thought themselves to be cis and bi? I was basically the polar opposite of what a bear is.

but now, six years later, I see it. I'm fat, I'm hairy, I'm shamelessly a dyke, I'm masc. yes I'm butch, but fuck it, I'm also a she-bear. that guy was right. I hope he's doing alright and he knows he's changed my view on labels forever.

[mariabonifas]

Only Fans in bio 😏