#what we really need is an 'all media types' tag for the fandom

[olderthannetfic]

I found AO3 pretty intuitive. Took me like 5 minutes to realize how all the little buttons work. They're pretty straightforward. Apart from the AND filters - took me a while to realize what type of filters AO3 used. Beyond that, I'm not sure why people have a hard time? Wattpad and FFnet are way more of a pain in the ass.

--

It's all about familiarity.

I mean, look, AO3 works how my brain works. When we first set it up, it was what we were all used to, more or less, but an upgrade. It was hard to even see how it could ever be unintuitive because this was just How Things Were. From the style of trope tags to the fact that there's an index of fandoms by media type, it was all familiar.

But that thinking is a trap.

It's easy to say "Oh, well, that person's just an idiot", and sometimes, the problem really is laziness or sleep deprivation, but a lot of the time, it's different cultural context.

By the time we were designing AO3, I'd had many rounds of formal instruction in how to use library catalogues of various sorts, familiarity with Delicious, years in LJ slash fandom whose assumptions form the metadata structures of AO3, etc.

There's nothing strange about going "Why are ship types a top level system of organization?" or "How do I search for genre X in any anime fandom but not in non-anime fandoms?"

It's strange to me, but it's not strange in the context of people who read fanfic overall.

It's not just about learning the search features that do exist: it's about unconscious assumptions about what metadata must exist.

If you don't know to look for something and you aren't coming from a culture where poking buttons is encouraged, you're going to take a lot longer to find things than if you already have a good idea of what's probably there somewhere.

To pick two very obvious examples:

If I were designing a gen-focused archive, I'd make genre a top-level organization system, like on FFN.

If I were designing a more x-reader-focused or One True Character-focused archive, I'd make the ship searches work like Character X/Anyone instead of having to click on each ship of your blorbo or each ship with Reader.

If someone has years of experience searching for some bullshit 'trickyfish' style nonsense ship name because they're on sites with garbage searches, they'll go to AO3, plug some words into the search bar at the top, and then feel like they can't find any relevant results because everything that turns up is just that word in author's notes on an irrelevant fic. They might even go to advanced search...

...and then totally miss that the sidebar filters are the best part of AO3, and they don't appear when you do a search search as opposed to starting from a tag.

Isn't Advanced Search the most... well... advanced search? On every other website, it is, but not on AO3.

--

Each new site/technology/culture/etc. a person has to learn takes time and attention. If you're exhausted and burnt out, that's hard. Even if you're not, it takes at least some effort. It doesn't Just Happen, not for every person and every new thing.

We should tell people to read the damn FAQ, yes.

But I can't say I always do that myself on every site unless I'm both having a problem and invested enough to care about solving it.

--

On an average day, most of us don't need to care why some people have a hard time figuring out AO3.

But if anyone is planning to design a site or needs to teach a bunch of kids how to use the library or something, it's worth keeping in mind just how many unconscious assumptions are hiding behind the idea of something—literally anything—being "intuitive".

[saurons-pr-department]

If there is something you don't want to see in fanfic on AO3, this box is your friend:

How to use it under the cut

This box is found as a side bar next to the fanfic listings. It's a grey side bar that has 'sort and filter' written at the top. First you will see a list like the one above for including specific items (items you want to see) in your search and below that there is the exclude (items you don't want to see) option.

What do you find in each drop down menu? Ratings: Here you'll find a list of each of the ratings (gen, teen and up, mature, explicit, not rated). Warnings: Here you will find the different archive warnings (e.g. major character death). Categories: Here you'll find check boxes for the different relationship categories (m/m, f/f, f/m, gen, etc) Fandoms: If it's a large fandom with multiple works and media types they may be separated out here. E.g. within the wider 'Tolkien' fandom The Lord of the Rings books and films have different tags, as do the other books, films and the new show. Characters: Here you'll find a list of the most popular characters by number of tags. (More below on if the character you want rid of isn't in this list.) Relationships: Similar to characters, here you'll find a few of the most popular ships. (More below on if the ship you want rid of isn't in this list.) Additional tags: Here you'll find a list of popular tags you might want to exclude, e.g. hurt/comfort, romance, humour, enemies to lovers, fluff etc. etc. (More below on if the tag you want rid of isn't in this list.)

Using the filters You can open any of these drops down menus and tick off what you want to remove from the search results. As an example, here I've opened the Ratings drop down:

All I need to do is select the box next to the ones I don't want to read, like in the below image:

Now that those are selected, just click the sort and filter button (found at the top and bottom of this side bar) and there we go! No mature, explicit or unrated fics in our search results! And as I said, any of the other drop downs work the same way.

What if the character/ship/tag I want to exclude isn't on the list? If you are looking to exclude something that isn't included in the drop down menus you can use the 'other tags to exclude' field below the drop downs.

For example, the characters drop down lists a couple of the top most popular ones, by number of tags. But what if I want to exclude someone else? Just type their name into the field. The character's own tag, plus other tags they appear in, will come up as suggestions. Either leave it at what you've typed yourself and hit enter or select one of the suggestions. You're not limited to one excluded tag:

Use both the include and exclude options together to really tailor what comes up in your search results.

There's also options relating to fic length, completion status and crossovers below the exclude criteria, under 'more options'. Again these work as drop downs:

And there are more advanced filtering options using special character operations and all that jazz and you can search within your current search results. I've not included it here because most of the time I see people complain about not wanting to see x,y and z on AO3 their problem could be solved by simply checking a few buttons in a drop down.

[weirdo09]

hobie brown

i’d just like to say, i hope y’all never meet a black boy nor man because y’all’s behavior over one black teenager is honestly disturbing.

like the racist headcanons, the not taking accountability for your disturbing fics about him because “HIS AGE ISNT MENTIONED!!” like don’t act dumb, you know them people said that he’s a slight older boy than miles which would be like 1-2 years, making him 16-17. it’s also just the “i want his dick inside of me” “i want to have his kids” and the sex hcs where it’s like “he’ll fuck you hard and not give you aftercare, just leaves you to take care of yourself.”

i’m not really bothered by the smut fics and hcs cause he is attractive and i will read them every once in awhile but y’all be taking it to the extremes, calling him toxic, making him out like some abusive boyfriend, he’s only sweet when he wants you to have sex with him, he only wants you for sex, he’s a full person but only cool because he’s in a band and has sex with you, he lets his band mates fuck you without your consent, he rapes you for whatever reason (y’all’s writings not mine), he doesn’t care about stopping to see if you’re okay or if you need a break.

basically what i’m seeing is that he’s only good for sex and some of the good fics about him only portray certain parts of him. like i’m all for writing about your favorite characters n what not but if you’re basically gonna treat his character like you’re personal boytoy and not see him as anything else, it’s really harmful. especially with y’all not tagging your fics correctly and the smut fics i previously mention get seen by a minor who would want to read smut of him but not that bullcrap.

y’all literally write him being abusive to his partner, not just physically but call it “teasing”. i’m sorry but if my partner said something about breaking up with me or that i’m not good enough, would i think that that’s just “teasing”? like honestly, if you treat all your ‘blorbos’ like this then i feel sorry for you because hobie’s an amazing character that isn’t just there for you to dream about fucking and getting pregnant by him.

he’s there to show you how corruption and fascism impacting your way of life can lead to you wanting to rebel and become an anarchist to that society. he’s there to teach you that you can make your rules, that you’re more than what one person tells you, you tell yourself what you wanna be. he’s a symbol for black people who don’t wanna follow the rules of a white supremacist, fascist society, for the people who’ve ever just been like “fuck the government, i’m my own person.”

i really feel like y’all take him for granted and he is a character for a children’s type of media so the “well minors shouldn’t be looking for his smut!!” doesn’t work here. honestly, do y’all ever care about characters that aren’t perceived as “fuckable” or “attractive” by your standards? it just really pisses me off because y’all act like that’s all he’s there for, your yearning for BBC has really dimmed your perception of this character. HES A IMPORTANT CHARACTER FOR YALL TO ROLE MODEL CAUSE ITS OBVIOUS YALL DONT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE MOVIE’S CHILD AUDIENCE BUT YOU GIVE A FUCK ABOUT HIM SO

if you care about hobie, please remember that there’s more to him than you wanting him to fuck you and he would hate the things that you’ve done to him because you have bigger issues in the world than “he would fuck you with his big cock.” LIKE WAKE THE FUCK UP WE COULD BE MAKING ANALYSIS OF HIS CHARACTER BUT INSTEAD YOU THINK THAT HES JUST THERE TO BE EYE CANDY LIKE OMGGGG

just please for the sack of everyone, learn more about his character and stop tryna be antiblack and sex crazed over him. if you love hobie, just stop being the way that you are because it’s honestly disgusting to have to see grown adults wanting a canon minor to fuck them. you ain’t slick, the fact that i even have to write this is disgusting. do better, fandom is more than saying that you would fuck a character, care more about the teenagers on this site that are in the fandom with you as well. stop being selfish and start caring about the other people in the fandom.

[assistedbytherats]

Omg our first hate mail :D Bonus points for anon <3

(This was received on the shared sideblog @probablybadupgideas )

In all seriousness though, this is so fucking funny. “This is why Reddit atheists make fun of us” okay and? Oh nooo the Reddit atheists don’t approve of my religion. Fuck off, that’s embarrassing that someone would try and make that our problem.

Also, “silly fake pronouns”? My guy… we put up “any pronouns” and “he/they”, I fear for the day this person finds out about neopronouns.

Whats wrong with being openly neurodivergent? It’s another way to connect with people over common ground, and a very gentle suggestion to use tone tags. I see absolutely no issue with this.

We put “fandom dni” because it’s a religious blog and we want our posts to be interpreted that way, rather than headcannons for a piece of fictional media. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but wanting to be taken seriously and being open about our identities aren’t mutually exclusive things, actually. Reddit atheists may say differently though, so you should probably go ask for their input /sarcastic.

I thought this would be kind of obvious, but if you’re tired of seeing a type of content or creator, there’s this really cool option you have, which is to ignore it. It’s so easy to do, you can actually just move on like nothing happened rather than making silly hateful asks anonymously so it won’t impact your rep.

PSA to anyone who sees this post:

hate is actually so sweet, like aww you have opinions about me? How encouraging!

Stay safe out there guys, I love all of you <3

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

let the stars align

by silver__butterflies “Peter,” Karen suddenly spoke up. “I am getting no results for a Gotham, New Jersey. There is no location by that name that exists.” “What?” Peter turned away, even though Red Robin couldn’t technically see Karen. “You’re sure?” “It’s likely that this person is from an alternate universe,” Karen continued. “I suspect the black hole was a portal being opened.” Peter turned back to look at Red Robin. “What do you know about the multiverse?” he asked.   OR: After Doctor Strange's spell, the barrier keeping the multiverse separate is weaker than ever. When Tim Drake ends up in Peter Parker's Queens, they have to figure out how to get him back to his universe. But the road home is never an easy one and Peter and Tim may be in more trouble than they bargained for. OR OR: I've seen a lot of "Peter in Gotham" fics but not a lot of "Batfamily member in Queens" so I wanted to put my own spin on the spider-man/batfamily crossover! Words: 5050, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen Characters: Peter Parker, Tim Drake (DCU), Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Michelle Jones (Marvel), Ned Leeds, Other Character Tags to Be Added Relationships: Tim Drake (DCU) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Batfamily Members (DCU) & Peter Parker Additional Tags: Dimension Travel, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt at Humor, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, and he's gonna get one if it's the last thing i do, Genius Peter Parker, Genius Tim Drake, Tim Drake is Red Robin (DCU), Fake Science, like half real half fake science, BAMF Peter Parker, BAMF Tim Drake (DCU), jason todd is not paid enough for this, Found Family, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Canon-Typical Violence, Post-Movie: Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), post...some time in DC canon, canon is my bitch and i am god, no beta we die like robins, Crossover, Fluff, there is a plot but like is there really, Batfamily (DCU), Bruce finds another orphan and breaks out the adoption papers, Tim Drake's Missing Spleen, is that relevant? in my heart it is via https://ift.tt/cb9Xh6B

[cyber-skeletons]

You asked, we delivered: a sequel to Whoops! We had soooo much fun with this <3

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: None

Fandom(s): Transformers: Prime

Relationship(s): Megatron/Optimus Prime

Characters: Megatron (Transformers), Optimus Prime

Additional Tags: Sequel, Mech Preg (Transformers), Unplanned Pregnancy, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Angst, Magical Healing Cock, Spark Sexual Interfacing (Transformers), Fade to Black, Getting Back Together, Transformers Spark Bonds

Fic below the cut!

In response to learning that Optimus Prime was carrying his sparkling, Megatron called for an immediate ceasefire. Initially it was conditional, limited only to Earth, but one threat from Optimus to make Ratchet the sire and raise the bitlet as an Autobot had Megatron grumbling to all his forces throughout the galaxy to not engage in hostile actions against Autobots or any other species — save for self-defense. Megatron wasn’t an idiot, despite certain claims.

“So when can I see you?” Megatron prompted through a wide grin, resting his chinguard on his palm and swinging his leg where he sat on call with Optimus. “Send me the coordinates to your base and I’ll come over immediately.”

Judging by the sigh on the other end of the line, Megatron could perfectly imagine the petulant look on his sparkling’s carrier’s faceplate (his sparkling, he was carrying Megatron’s sparkling!). As things stood, he could only stare dreamily at the caller ID image of Optimus frowning constipatedly at him. “This trust is very, very tentative, Megatron,” the Prime said tiredly. “And the circumstances of this conception are quite volatile. If we were in any other position in our respective factions, our… dalliance would be considered high treason. I do not think it wise to reveal the location of the Autobot base on Earth to you.”

“Come now, Optimus,” Megatron crooned, tilting his helm and tracing hearts around his picture. “Stop stressing about such things! It’s bad for the bitlet! And you know, separation from the sire is also bad for a carriage. I’m sure your medic can tell you that. We’re going to be lying together many, many times over the course of this next stellar-cycle; can you really not trust me?”

“You have given me nothing to make me believe that you will not offline me immediately post-emergence and raise our sparkling as your heir while you lay waste to my armies.”

“Fine, how’s this: I give you my word.”

“Allow me to rephrase: nothing substantial.”

Megatron smirked and purred, “I like it when you’re feisty.”

“Megatron, be serious.”

“I am deathly serious right now.”

Another petulant sigh. “I would be willing to… t-to…” The sound of a shaky vent came through the call.

“I know, this situation is quite breathtaking,” Megatron chuckled, resting his chin in both his palms and swinging both legs.

Optimus made a noise on the other end of the call as if he were beginning to speak, only for the loud whine of overclocked machinery to sound off immediately before a deafening crash.

Megatron snapped to attention. “Optimus?”

Muffled shouts and yells came through the call, but none of them were Optimus’s voice.

Megatron stood up and yelled, “Optimus, are you alright?!”

The call ended.

--

Megatron was nano-kliks away from ordering the entire Decepticon fleet to invade Earth in search of Optimus when Soundwave pinged him with an urgent comm from the Autobot line.

Making his way swiftly away from the bridge and to Soundwave’s station, Megatron stepped up to his amica’s side and answered the call. “Optimus?”

That grouchy Autobot medic Ratchet’s ID picture appeared instead. “Megatron, whatever slag you’re thinking about doing, cool it. Optimus and the bitlet are stable for now, and the last thing they need is more stress to bring on another attack.”

“Attack? What kind of attack?” Megatron snapped, deigning to ignore the disrespect in leaving out his title.

“Optimus’s forge is drawing extraordinary amounts of power from his frame, far more than any carriage I’ve ever seen. If it weren’t for the Matrix keeping his spark stable, Optimus’s spark would have been snuffed out completely during his episode. As things stand, he’s exhausted and weak, and energon infusions aren’t working.”

“What does he need? You’re a renowned medic, what do we need to do to fix this?” Megatron babbled. “Whatever it is, I will do it. I will raze the galaxy for this sparkling. Just-”

“Will you shut the slag up for 2 fragging nano-kliks?” Ratchet snapped. “Look. I’ve never seen anything like this before, which means that there’s a variable we’re not accounting for. Now what about you of all mechs being the sire could destabilize a Prime so terribly, hm?”

Cold dawning realization washed over Megatron as he rested a servo over his spark chamber. “Dark energon…”

“That’s my conclusion as well,” Ratchet said tiredly, a faint tremor in his voice. “Which is why… it is my… very, very pained recommendation that… you personally attend to Optimus through his term. Optimus has requested as much from berth rest.”

Megatron cycled his optics, then set his shoulders. “He will have a place of honor aboard the Nemesis with full attendance by myself and my finest medical staff. Let me take the ship into Earth’s atmosphere and we will send you coordinates to ground bridge to so we may receive him.”

“Good to know you can be reasonable.”

“Why, you…” Megatron growled with a deep rumble of his engine, but the medic already ended the call.

--

Megatron’s entire army was in position to receive the Prime by that evening. His vehicons and seekers stood at attention in neat lines on the flight deck of the Nemesis, with Soundwave and Shockwave standing at attention and Starscream sporting a sneering grimace-smile that didn’t reach his optics as he idly clapped.

Sure enough, the ground bridge opened up at the end of the runway at the agreed-upon time, and the Prime walked through under his own power, displaying no signs of weakness save for the palor that had overtaken his plating. He looked around at Megatron’s army critically for a long moment, inclining his helm in acknowledgment to a few vehicons and seekers before locking optics with Megatron.

It was the first time Megatron had seen Optimus since learning of his carriage, and even with a sickly palor, he had never looked more beautiful.

Megatron found himself drifting forward, breaking his very painstaking, professional, grand formation to first walk, then trot, then run towards Optimus, a beaming smile on his faceplate. Optimus braced himself as if to meet an attack, only for Megatron to reach out and fold his servos around his abdominal plating, cradling it tenderly.

“Optimus,” Megatron greeted, his plating flared out happily.

“Megatron,” Optimus returned, his optics softening.

“EVERYONE!” Megatron then bellowed, turning around while Optimus cringed and covered an audial. Grandiosely holding his arms out to frame his Prime, Megatron projected, “GREET THE CARRIER OF MY SPARKLING!”

All the vehicons and seekers began clapping and cheering; Knock Out had some kind of human noisemaker for some reason where he sat on Breakdown’s broad shoulders, Soundwave displayed a :) on his visor, and even Shockwave was clapping.

The ground bridge closed behind them, and Optimus grew tense, finnials twitching wildly as he stammered, “This is… very kind…”

“Oh, don’t be shy, my spark,” Megatron soothed, sweeping Optimus off of his pedes and into his arms, prompting a squawk from the usually stoic Prime. “You will want for nothing with me, I assure you.”

“We shall see,” Optimus muttered, though as Megatron walked them down the runway and carried him through the threshold of the Nemesis, a small smile overtook his intake.

--

As night fell over Earth, the planet turning away from its star to sleep, Megatron and Optimus lay in Megatron’s berth after Optimus finished unpacking. He had paltry few belongings to his name, despite his status — only a few physical pictures in frames that he lovingly set up on Megatron’s side table of his team and the fleshlings.

Currently, Megatron was spooning Optimus from behind, arms wrapped protectively around his abdomen.

“How are you feeling, beloved?” Megatron murmured into his neck.

“...Tired,” Optimus muttered back, finials twitching.

Megatron chuckled and spared a servo to trace one, stilling it and inciting a shiver in the Prime. “I know you well enough to know when you’re thinking.” Optimus hid his face in the berth and released a long ex-vent. Megatron frowned. “Your finials always used to twitch when something was upsetting you.”

“That,” Optimus grunted, servos curling into loose fists. “’My spark,’ ‘Beloved’… You used to call me those things, back when I…” He sighed. “I’m not Orion.”

Megatron clenched his jaw, looking away. “No,” he agreed. “You’re not.”

“And you are not Megatronus. Those young lovers are long offline.”

“Is there a point to this morbid thought spiral?” Megatron huffed, caressing the Prime’s abdomen once more.

“You don’t love me,” Optimus croaked. “This, all of this… if it were not for our sparkling in my forge, you would try to tear me limb from limb.”

Megatron paused. “...Would you not do the same?”

“No,” Optimus said immediately. “I wouldn’t.”

Slowly, Megatron let go of Optimus and sat up. Optimus weakly mirrored him, finials pinning back.

Oceans of hatred, betrayal, and resentment roiled between them.

Eventually, Megatron said, dark and flat, “It is as you said. Megatronus is dead. You do not love the mech before you. There is no Champion and his little archivist anymore. If you wish me to cease the epithets, then I will, but do not ever doubt my genuine care for this sparkling.”

“I do not doubt that,” Optimus huffed, the faintest tinge of amusement in the sound as he caressed Megatron’s chassis. “But you’re wrong.” Megatron arched a browplate and sneered. Optimus stood firm. “I do love the mech before me, and not as a ghost. You changed, Megatron — you changed into something, someone dark and twisted and full of hatred, but that is not all you are. All this time, I have ached to touch the part of you that has not been corrupted by your hatred, not to change you into the mech you were but to realize the potential of the mech you could become. And now…” He carefully grabbed Megatron’s servo and returned it to his abdomen. “I have. But I am afraid.”

Megatron tried to stoke the fires of his deep well of anger and rage, but the warm thrumming of the plating beneath his servo broke him and made his walls crumble. “Of me?” Megatron asked weakly.

“You terrify me,” Optimus managed, blue optics so painfully sad, and… dim, flickering. “Not for what you could do to me, but what you could do to yourself. What you have done to yourself.”

Tensing, Megatron tried, “Optimus…”

“Y-You… Our sparkbond, Megatron, I thought the Matrix burned it out but we could not conceive without it, it’s still there, so surely there must…” Optimus started swaying. “There… m-must… hunh…” And with that, Optimus fainted, optics going dark.

“Scrap,” Megatron hissed, catching Optimus and settling him down to the berth. He was having another attack, but — what could Megatron even do? Contact? He could do contact. Straddling Optimus, he gently pressed himself over the frame of his sparkmate like a weighted blanket and frantically pinged Knock Out. He could feel Optimus’s rapid, erratic sparkpulse through his own chest plating, growing weaker and more irregular.

Think think think. Scrap this was bad.

That was when Optimus’s chest plates swung open and smacked him across the face, making him rear back and splutter.

The Matrix of Leadership shined up at him in the darkness, all-powerful and resolute. Behind it, Optimus’s spark wobbled dangerously. And orbiting around it… a small, fragile little flickering light.

Megatron plowed through all his dark, inky compulsions to rip the Matrix out of the Prime’s chest and claim it for himself and instead opened his own chest plates, baring his own spark before pressing their chests together.

It was like being plunged into a celestial pool, spinning through the cosmos surrounded by light and sound and sensation, all of it pointless distraction. Megatron saw Optimus sinking deeper into the celestial sea and fell after him, throwing himself through the blinding rivers of light and leaving darkness in his wake, reaching out for him. Optimus looked up at him and reached back.

The two of them immediately clung to each other, pulling each other flush against their plating, and a supernova went off around them as they sank into each other and became one.

Light and darkness rapidly flashed all around them in cacophonous storms as they felt eons worth of pain hate hurt fear but also longing warmth grief love.

I miss you.

I know.

I’m sorry.

And suddenly, they were apart again, floating in a serene dawn, light perfectly blended with darkness, as a warm light flowed out of their sparks to be kindled into a fragile flame between them, pulsing in time with their synchronized sparks. Each of them leaned down to kiss it, and it flared into an inferno, whipping wind around them harmlessly with a chiming sound not unlike a newspark’s laughter.

Then Megatron was back in his frame, and their chestplates were closing. They stared at each other, optics bright with charge, vents heaving for air as their cooling fans roared. Optimus smiled. Megatron smiled back.

Both of them whipped their helms around at the sound of slow clapping.

Knock Out smirked, a carefully polished browplate arching as he drawled, “Good show, you two, very lovely. Am I still needed?”

“GET OUT!” Megatron bellowed, priming and aiming his cannon while Optimus laughed, and Knock Out shrieked before scrambling to leave so fast he transformed and sped out the door.

“That was unkind,” Optimus chided, immediately calming Megatron by cupping his helm in his servos.

“I’ll show you how kind I can be,” Megatron purred with a rev of his engine, right before he leaned down and kissed Optimus’s lights out.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

RRVerse Fandom, Please Hear Me Out...

Message to the wider Riordanverse fandom:

Please correctly tag your fanfics with the correct fandom tags.

I am getting tired of seeing non-Apollo fics cluttering up the Trials of Apollo tag (such as Percy/Annabeth. like. what. they're barely in ToA. why are they there.). If your fanfic does not deal with Apollo, Meg McCaffrey, or the story of ToA or the consequences of it, please do not tag it as such.

I have seen fics tagged as ToA and not even have the MC, Apollo, tagged as part of the cast. So please. I am begging you. Please stop. You have the Percy Jackson & the Olympians - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, AND The Heroes of Olympus tags.

Solangelo writers, you now have the Sun and the Star tag, as well as the All Media Types one. Unless it happens during or alongside something to do with Apollo & his story, please refrain from tagging it as ToA.

And no. I do not think just being Solangelo should qualify all Solangelo fics to be tagged as ToA. If anything, they should be The Sun and The Star tag or even The Heroes of Olympus tag because that's when it all began! However, if, say, it's during The Hidden Oracle or takes place in the ToA timeframe then sure! ToA tag it!

But if it's just like an AU or something that only focuses on Solangelo? Then please don't. It's not ToA then.

This is what the ToA tag looks like btw:

I know, Nico, Will, and Percy are all popular characters, but COME ON. This is Apollo's tag, please give him this! It's so hard to find fics I want to read because it's so cluttered! Apollo's not even in the top three most-tagged characters in his own fandom tag.😒

And look at the gap between the number of fics Apollo's in compared to Percy! A 354 gap! And there's 1,616 gap between Apollo and Nico! And I can say with certainty that not all of those fics Percy - and even Nico and Will - are in are related to ToA.

Meg McCaffrey, the second MC of the series, is not even on the board. And she's a very close second MC.

And trust me. I know a bunch of these fics have nothing to do with ToA. I have scoured the tag many times and have figured that out.

So please, please, please leave The Trials of Apollo tag be unless you are writing for The Trials of Apollo. We are our own fandom and frankly, it's getting annoying having to shuffle through a bunch of fics that have nothing to do with ToA just to find ones we want to read.

Fic authors, it would be such a big help if you could remove the ToA tag from your fic if it doesn't have anything to do with ToA. I know you want your fic to be seen, and use a bunch of tags to do so, but this really inconveniences the ToA fans who just want to read about our favorite loser god and his gremlin adopted sister. ☹️

Sincerely,

A ToA fan who just wants to read fics about her favorite character but can hardly wade through the fics even with the filtering system.

Thank you. It needed to be said.

[damnfandomproblems]

Posting a compilation of responses to Fandom Problem #5234

Anon:

PLEASE watch the Contrapoints video on Twilight. It is by a trans person named Natalie Wynn.

(anon includes a link to a YouTube video titled "Twilight | ContraPoints")

This video has changed the minds of tons of people who initially thought Twilight was "rape and stalking abuse", by explaining the history of where all this panic comes from and why people are drawn to dark fantasies. It changed my mind and I'm hoping it'll change your mind too.

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Anon:

going through every point bc this personally ticked me off for literally no reason but i have nothing better to do. so. sorry if this seems overly pissy /genuine. (also typed this in my notes app so sorry for the lack of italics/caps in place of italitcs) 1. not wanting to see incest/whatever isnt purity culture. blocking tags/accounts that make you uncomfortable is something that is HEAVILY ENCOURAGED. the only people i have ever seen discouraging this are antishippers. what IS purity culture, however, is saying that EVERYONE ELSE should not make something because it makes you personally uncomfortable. as someone who was literally raised within purity culture, that is exactly the kind of shit they say. 2. fiction DOES affect reality! but not in the way you think it does. yes, propaganda works! but that is because it is specifically constructed to convince people of a certain view. representation is important because people who arent cishet white men exist and deserve to see themselves in fiction. but i think the best way i can explain it is this; if you were to watch Hannibal, would you automatically assume that cannibalism is okay? what if you watched a John Wick movie or Deadpool? Is mass murder okay? the answer is obviously an astounding no, because you are able to think about the media you consume. this is expected of any media that isnt literally a show aimed at children. There's at least one media btw. i'm not entirely sure about Hannibal because i've never seen it. 3. that is literally a coping mechanism therapists recommend. those are all UNHEALTHY and SELFDESTRUCTIVE coping mechanisms. you cannot compare the two. 4. if you are getting mad about porn then that is an entirely Puritan viewpoint. 6. "make the story frown upon it." if you cannot gauge for yourself that these things are bad then you should not be engaging with those stories. 7. last point isnt a proship issue, its a jerkwad issue. people who dont tag things are dicks, at least we can agree on that. however if someone doesnt tag something it is on you to block them. YOU need to curate YOUR online experience. (it may also be worth it to KINDLY send an ask about it. its the same as tagging flashing. sometimes people just dont think about it and sometimes people are doing it on purpose to be a douche. you need to block the latter as they are not worth your time or energy.) Last point was something you did not mention so im not including it in the list itself; if you were to ask a proshipper if they supported pedophilic/incestual/abuse relationships irl, they would most likely say no. If they say yes then they are just a pedo/someone who is okay with incest/an abuser. those people are not bad people because of the fiction they consume/create. they are bad people because they want to hurt people and do not see anything wrong with it/are not willing to see why they are in the wrong. apologies for any typos, ive reread through it but i tend to miss things.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anon:

Op really just compared writing fictional scenarios with fictional dollies, a method of processing trauma that is recommended by psychologists and actually -is- effective at helping people process stuff, to alcoholism, street drugs, and socon which can and do kill people. You ever seen someone withdraw from alcohol abuse? I have. You actually spoken to a psychologist about friends who write things to cope after being raped at a party? I have. Are you still a clueless child? Yes. So take your moral panic and shove it. You're a kid but if you want to get involved in serious adult conversations, you need to be prepared to accept discussing serious, real things. You can't even look at a rapefic without getting triggered (I use this word in the proper sense, not hyperbolic sense) and ascribing blown-out-of-proportion, emotional judgments on people who, if you passed them on the street, wouldn't stand out to you at all. Because these are normal people. This to me is a huge sign you're just not ready for this kind of conversation.

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Anon:

"...really ticks me off how someone can say "It's really fucking gross how you wanna see a minor and an adult make out" and proshippers can be like "UGH PURITY CULTURE" Like, how is not wanting to see pedophilia and incest purity culture. Especially when you're a minor. dumbass I was a minor when I wanted to se OCs modeled after myself hooking up with the hot adult leads from my shows. I wasn't stupid enough to think it was OK to happen in real life but if Dream of the Endless was in an arranged marriage with my OC for reasons I wanted to see it. Like. "Minors" have sex. A lot. And yeah, age gaps can be problematic in real life but on paper? Who cares? It's fake. It's not real. It's a story. Acting like minors are sexless little angels until the day they turn 18 is crazy. Minors want to see boning and they want to see people their own age boning, and sometimes they want to see people their own age boning That Old Man or Milfs or 1000 year old vampires or whatever. Not even gonna bother with the rest. Others can get that.

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Anon:

Where to even start here? I guess I should start by saying that proshipper doesn't mean what you think that it means OP! It doesn't mean that we support incest or pedophilia, it simply means that we're anti harassment. I don't like incest or pedophilia. It's weird to me, and yet one of the most popular series, Game of Thrones, features both incest and pedophilia. Romanticizing villainy? Can I ask what your definition of romanticizing is? What if the story revolves around the villain? Like Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? Are stories like that not supposed to exist? What about the anime and manga called Overlord? What About Hannibal Lecter? What about the Joker movie? Do none of these have any value? Do you expect the villain to deadpan into the camera every 10 minutes confessing that he knows his actions are wrong but he's doing it anyways? And if the writers don't make their characters do this, are you going to accuse them of condoning their characters actions? Because I think it would be pretty dumb to make a villain out of character for the sake of, "I know this is wrong, but I'm doing it anyways!" Do you want no villains in stories? Is that what you prefer? For everything to be sunshine and rainbows all of the time? Because that would be really boring. Are there any true heroes without a villain. A bad coping mechanism? Really? So now you're a psychologist who knows everyone on the planet that knows exactly what everyone needs to get better? Coping mechanism looks different from person to person. What is important is that the coping mechanism helps you process your emotions and what happened to you and sometimes it is helpful to write your emotions out in the form of writing and sometimes that can be fanfiction. I am someone who had been diagnosed with trauma and depression and I'm currently doing therapy for this and taking medicine. You know what's helped me all of these years before I started going to therapy on a regular basis? Characters with a lot of baggage like me. They can be hero or villains. I don't care which it is. If they have a tragic back story and I'm all over that. Fiction doesn't effect reality? It can and sometimes does. You're right. But you know who's problem that is? Your parents, the school system, and whoever else never taught you that fiction is fiction. That characters aren't real. If your parents let the TV or Internet babysit you growing up instead of being a parent and teaching you right from wrong, or being able to tell fiction from reality, well then that is the fault of your parents. Do you know who's not at fault? Stranger on the Internet. We're not here to hold your hand, you are not entitled to that. It is up to you to curate your own experience and mind your own business. If you don't like something, blacklist the tag, block the person posting it or log off of that site and find something else to look at. You think you've debunked everything, but really you're just naive and living in a fantasy world. The world is not an idealistic place, nor will it ever be and that is why these stories exists to begin with. Covering up everything that is bad in the world won't ever make it go away and that is reality. Period. Let people cope the way they need to, and unless you have degrees in psychology, you have no right to tell people what they can and cannot enjoy. Again, I myself would never write or read about some of the things that you've posted about OP, but will I continue writing about my trauma? I sure will, because it is something that I am still dealing with many years after it happened and I'm sure others will do the same with the things that they've had experience with, too.

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Anon:

OP, one of your top posts is an AO3 reference and contains a link to an AO3 fic. In case you didn't know, AO3 was directly created to be a host for fanworks that got censored by other sites. Functionally, it is an archive, like a library. And like libraries, it hosts anything that is legal to host under US law. One major driving factor behind AO3's creation was the "Livejournal Strikethrough Boldthrough", an incident where "concerned parties" successfully lobbied to get Livejournal, a site that hosted writing, to remove its "yucky fics". Guess what? Gay fiction got removed in the process because, surprise, certain parties found that yucky too. (I'm talking about conservative groups who are obviously very anti-gay and anti-LGBT.) Here's one post about it: https://pretentioussongtitle.tumblr.com/post/624690560646676480/like-wathever-antis-delete-your-blogs-pls-thx So... You can't say you're okay with calling to censor things, without looking at the full picture and where it ultimately leads. You're asking for a lot of collateral damage. And like someone else said, engaging in discussions about heavy, adult topics with strange adults on the internet (and most of us are adults, OP) is very dangerous. There have been a lot of cases where someone has cried foul about certain kinds of fictional writing, only for an "anti proship" person to walk up to them and groom them, and it worked because the kid was under the pretense that the person was a "safe, good person". Please do not put yourself in danger and get out of the spaces you frequent.

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Anon:

It's interesting you use Lolita as an example of what to do "right" when it comes to depicting things. You believe tons of media must be censored or kept away from the light of day, yet Lolita is an example of what to emulate to prevent that from happening? You would be very shocked to discover Lolita is among, if not the, most notorious piece of fiction for censorship groups to attack. So I really don't know if you fully understand what it is you're arguing for, here. You're just a kid, so I'm assuming you haven't actually read Lolita. That's the first thing. The second thing is, given the fact virtually all people who are invested in censoring and banning media actually hate Lolita, but you seem to have a totally opposite, 180-degree opinion about it, I have to wonder if you've happened to find a lot of random stuff from around the internet, but have yet to actually put it all together and cross-check everything to see if it actually makes sense. There's a lot of stuff in your post that is either plain out wrong, poorly strung together, or contradictory.

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Anon:

I'm going to look real tinfoil-hatty in two seconds, but I swear some of y'all antis in the notes are following tags like "pedophilia" and "incest" and that's the only reason you found this confession. Cause I haven't seen half of you here before. And if so, that's kind of weird. I hope I'm wrong. To be fair there's no way to confirm either way but I just thought it was funny because I can see it happening if not for the antis here, than for others. Gotta get that daily dose of outrage.

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Anon:

""Fiction doesn't affect reality" So why is representation so important? Why has propaganda worked so well?" you're taking this statement too literally. fiction obviously affects reality. if you cry over your favourite character's death, well there ya go. fiction has just changed reality. it made you feel sad things. representation is important because it makes those represented feel acknowleged and because it makes their existence more known to the world. propaganda is designed SPECIFICALLY to heavily affect reality. a doujin artist does not sit down and think "hmm. today i will draw a loli hentai to turn people into paedophiles". ""Well I'm not gonna become a murderer just because I've seen people murder in pieces of media" Name one piece of media where murder was portrayed as unironically, fully okay." as someone not well-versed in shooters, fortnite. murder is encouraged in fortnite. the point of the game is to kill people. i'd also like you to name one piece of media where rape is portrayed as perfectly fine and dandy. ""I'm coping with trauma" Well that's an awful coping mechanism. If you have been traumatized by incest, abuse, or pedophilia, why are you creating/consuming content where those are all romanticized?" because the fact that they're not alone in their suffering is comforting to them? as an abuse victim, i like characters with abusive parents. it gives me a character to sympathise with and characters to absolutely loathe with all my being. now that i think about it, i like that i'm not suffering alone. other people acknowledge the things i, and other victims, have to deal with. there are other reasons, but that's one i thought up ""You're ableist for criticizing our coping mechanism!" ... You know what else is a coping mechanism? Self-harm. Alcoholism. Excessive drug use. Those are frowned upon EVERYWHERE, because they're self-destructive. So why is thinking adults and minors should be cute together (sometimes real life adults and minors, but I'm not gonna get into the whole RPF discourse because RPF is even more fucking disgusting) suddenly okay?" there is a difference between doing things that being actual harm and because the latter is harmless. besides... isn't this circular logic? this argument is based on the conclusion you draw from it. "proshipping as a coping mechanism is bad because proshipping is bad". ""Rule 34 and gross ships is always gonna exist!" In our current world, bigotry is always gonna exist. Doesn't mean we should stop getting mad about it." bigotry excludes a specific group of often-innocent people for no reason. rule 34 is just porn of fictional characters. completely incomparable ""I'm exploring unhealthy relationships in fiction!" Okay then! That's great! Don't romanticize it. Tag it accordingly. Make the story frown upon it. Lolita, the book, frowned upon the pedophilia and thought it was disgusting. Do that." nobody romanticises anything. most loli hentai just... depict a loli having sex. it doesn't depict it as this amazing thing that you should dp. most lolicons that talk nabout wanting to fuck... idk, klee from the funny gacha game don't actually wanna have sex with kids. it's omly romanticised in-universeww, if you will. it doesn't say anything about it being good to do irl. and on nhentai, we use tags. we have a lot of 'em, including the recent 'kodomo doushi'. you jujst have to take a look at the tags section of a doujin and search for any tag you may not want you can also filter them in the search bar. we tag our shit, it's just your fault for being an irresponsible fuck. "But you're not gonna do that, are you." we will. the importance of tagging can NOT be stressed enough anon, i am gonna be blunt here. you are not smart. you did not debunk shit. god will slam the pearly gates of heaven on you for this post

[aita-blorbos]

FAQs

You've asked, and we've answered! ...a lot! Here's a compilation of (most of) the questions we've been asked, all in one place.

What types of submissions are not allowed? Anything that 1. makes the mods uncomfortable or 2. is inaccessible (... for people using screenreaders, for people with low vision, for people with migraines, etc). There's a list here, but that's just stuff that's come up often enough we feel the need to mention it. A good rule of thumb is that the closer it is to any real-life horrible thing, the less inclined we are to post.

Genocide, especially if your ask can be summed up as "AITA for submitting/being the victim of genocide?" (Also, if you explicitly term what the POV character has done as genocide, we immediately stop caring about if that's actually accurate.)

SA of any kind, especially if your ask can be summed up as "AITA for committing/being the victim of SA?"

Incest, especially if it is really central to the submission (Also, we may have a different definition of incest than you, so be warned in advance in case your submission that you thought was fine gets sent back or deleted.)

Abuse of any kind, particularly if your ask can be summed up as "AITA for abusing [x]/being abused?"

Suicide, especially if your ask can be summed up as "AITA for committing suicide/making someone commit suicide?"

Extreme violence towards children, especially from the POV of the person doing the violence.

Anything that could be alternately summed up as "AITA for being a bigot?" Yes, fictional bigotry counts.

Submissions about real people.

Harry Potter submissions.

MCU submissions.

All-caps asks. Depending on what software is being run, this can mess with screen readers.

Small-text asks. These are hard to read for people with low vision.

Leetspeak asks / typing quirks of any kind. Again, screen readers, but this time it's for all of them.

Colored text. It can cause migraines.

... For the last four, if your ask makes minor use of caps, small text, leetspeak, or colored text, it will probably get posted with tags like "small text," "not screenreader friendly," or "colored text."

Excluding, to the best of our ability, Harry Potter, we do not delete submissions based on what the source material depicts. 9 times out of 10, we don't know what the source material even is.

Can I submit something about real people if they've been dead for a long time? We would still prefer that you not. If your media of choice is something like SIX, Hamilton, Our Flag Means Death, or any other fictionalized account of real peoples' lives, we may choose to delete your submission even if we recognize the fandom... or there may not be enough to distinguish it from real life, and delete it because we thought you were submitting something about the real Anne of Cleves.

What about Jesus? Jesus was probably a real person but we'll make an exception.

Are 'sequel' submissions (the same scenario from another point of view, a followup, etc) allowed? Yes! However, it's up to you to figure out a way to tie back to your previous ask. You are welcome to do this in the form of a reblog, but we probably won't see it.

Can I submit an ask about my OCs/fanfic/roleplay/other non-canon thing? Sure! Though if you're submitting something about someone else's fic, we'd prefer if you had the author's permission. Same principle with roleplay--everyone involved should be OK with it going here. (We won't know if you don't have permission, but we'd like to remind you that it's polite to get it.)

Do I have to tell you if I’m submitting something from a fic/roleplay/AU/OC/whatever?

You do not! You can if you want to but it doesn’t make a difference to us.

Can we post stuff that has spoilers for X media? Yes*. * Please don't send in submissions for stuff that's less than a month old, as we can't realistically tag spoilers.** ** The exception to this is remakes/adaptations/remasters/etc, which we don't consider to be "new"*** *** Unless something new actually is added, in which case only that specific thing is considered "new." So, if you have a scenario that utilizes that specific thing, please wait a month. If not, you're good.

Can I ask if you've gotten my submission/if it's been queued? Yes, but only off anon, and we will only tell you if it's in the queue or the askbox. We want to answer asks like this privately instead of clogging up peoples' dashes with them, and we do not want to dig through our blog for a specific post. You do that.

If I submitted something off anon, will you let me know if you decide not to post it? Yes, we will answer your ask privately to tell you why we do not want to post it.

How many times do you post a day? 12 posts are published a day.

Can you post more? No. This is an irritating question. You are encouraged to make your own blog if you don't like the way this one is run--we don't have a monopoly on this idea!

How long is the queue? A few days to a week, usually, including stuff in the askbox that hasn't been properly queued.

What do these acronyms mean? YTA = you're the asshole NTA = not the asshole (this means someone else is) JAH = justified asshole NAH = no assholes here ESH = everyone sucks here INFO = more information is required to make a decision

Some of the characters I want to post about are nonbinary. how should I format my submission? We do not require submissions to include the age or gender of any characters. However, if you want to include this, what we've seen other people do say is 18NB or 18X.

Can I put trigger tags at the top of my submission? Yeah that's fine! We also try to tag common triggers, although we don't tag for murder or human death because so many of these stories involve murder.

Right now we tag: - Unreality (every post) - Animal death - Suicide - Rape/CSA - Child harm/death/endangerment - Abuse - Kidnapping - Stalking - ... And a whole bunch of other stuff

All our trigger tags are just the trigger with no CW/TW

Why do you sometimes post submissions that are basically just a characters name? They're not what this blog should be for.

People think they're funny, so we publish them. It's not the joke format the blog was originally intended for but it's one that people seem to enjoy, so we're happy to post those types of submissions!

[secretsofthewilde]

There's something particularly frustrating about how academic fandom studies tend to talk about fandom spaces as being a place for inclusiveness and queer representation when there's still a very prominent misogyny problem throughout them. Even when these studies address issues of racism within fandom shipping dynamics, they still tend to perpetuate the idea that fandom is the rare place where queer ships tend to be more popular than straight ones, without really addressing the fact that this tends to only true when it comes to cis, white, m/m ships. If you want some kind of numerical evidence of this, you just need to look at the statistics on ao3 to see that f/f ships are the least popular kind of pairing on that site. And when you think of the stereotypical big name fandoms, most of them are well known for their m/m ships, with the f/f ships often being dismissed or treated as a joke.

I'm not of the opinion, nor trying to make an argument in support of the idea, that this is due to the stereotype of fangirls fetishising queer men. Instead, I think it's largely due to misogyny* - shocker, I know. I really do think that the stereotypical fangirl gravitates towards slash pairings due to both internalised misogyny and the general prominence of male oriented media over female oriented media (which will therefore have more male characters that are fleshed out with more engaging writing as opposed to their female supporting cast).

However, it's one thing for the abundance of male driven stories to generate more fan works exploring said characters, and another entirely for those same fans to then ignore when we do have media that gives us well written and enjoyable female characters. I think it's in part due to our internalised misogyny that fangirls have a tendency to gravitate towards their familiar male orientated shows and then fixate on the same familiar character types, rather than exploring and celebrating the breadth of female-centric media we have finally been getting produced in recent years. And this inability to allow ourselves to enjoy female characters the same way we do with male ones is what leads to an abundance of slash pairings being celebrated in fandom spaces, while femslash ones struggle to get recognition**. The fact that there's a common joke in fandom spaces about popular pairings developing between two characters who never interacted (or for only a brief scene) is all very well and good fun, but this is almost always referring to a m/m pairing.

As fans we should really reflect on why we might celebrate a male character for doing morally grey things, but then hate a female character for exhibiting those exact same traits. It's fine to genuinely not enjoy the writing of a female character (especially when sexist writing is often to blame), but we should consider how much more willing we seem to be to forgive poor writing when it comes to male characters than we are with female characters. If we can make a million headcanons and claim to love a poorly written male character, who is now viewed as something so far removed from the canon of the media he appears in its practically a different character entirely, why do so many of us seem unwilling to do the same for female characters?

We should be doing the same with our female characters - we should be putting more female characters into our favourite dynamics and tropes. I want to see more enemies to lovers headcanons with femslash pairings; I want nbc hannibal levels of art and meta posts about toxic femslash couples; I want johnlock levels of delusion posts about a femslash couple the story writers are claiming they didn't write the subtext for. I would just really love to log into tumblr and see a femslash pairings tag is trending more than once in a blue moon.

*note: obviously misogny is not the only contributing factor, and this initial argument I'm raising doesn't address the issues surrounding racial, gender-queer identities, and other inequalities within fandom. Please do not think I'm ignoring or downplaying them.

**Theres also an argument to be made here about fangirls projecting themselves onto male characters in order to explore queer relationships, without having to challenge their own internalised misogyny/homophobia, but I'll come back to that later (and this in general) and expand on it some other time I think.

[emilykaldwen]

"Blocking isn't some personal insult. Its a method of saying; hey, we clearly shouldn't interact, so I'm gonna build this soundproof wall between us to make sure we can't."

Except that's not what the people you associate with do and encourage you and others to do by extension. I really liked your writing, but it's disappointing to see the type of people you've chosen to buddy up to, who use blocking as a way to weaponize social media and make pariahs out of certain people in the fandom who don't bow to their whims. I hope they don't burn you the way they've burned so many others, but with their track record, I'm not holding my breath.

Okay let's do this. I'm tired. I would like to go back to sleep. Get off my lawn, etc etc.

I have been dealing with anons harassing me since I started posting HotD stuff back during the Season 1 show run. I got hateful anons saying terrible things about Abby back in December. When I interacted with NONE of the people that I currently interact with today. This escalated when I properly began posting Maiden in the summer of last year, and then escalated in the fall. After receiving some truly foul anons in regards to my writing, my OC, and my work, including one telling me to kill myself, I shut anons off. Because what the actual fuck. I have been on the internet for 25 fucking years and this is the first time I have EVER dealt with such bullshit.

Before these anons ramped up, I, like many people, blocked. A lot. I blocked mostly people thirst reblogging stuff about the actors that would cross my dash or in the tags because it made me uncomfortable, I didn't want to see it. I blocked a lot of blogs that were posting these weird reader x canon character thirst lists that I just found bizarre and didn't want to see scrolling through a character tag. That, friends, is what the block button is for. I block people with takes that I disagree with as well, I'm someone whose pretty liberal with my block button. I block things I don't want to see on my dash. It's honestly as simple as that.

No one has fucking told me to block anyone. I am actually deeply fucking insulted that I, a grown ass adult who is nearly forty, needs to be told to block someone/someones when people are setting up blogs called 'ihateemilykaldwens' and trying to terrorize me, and my friends and mutuals, and then try to frame another one of my mutuals for being responsible for it in the process. I only just recently started speaking with "the individuals" I've chosen to associate with long after I have blocked the people you're saying are being bullied.

And if this is about my post the other day about the culture I see: It was never actually about anyone specific, it was genuinely trends I have seen cross my dash as well as discussions with friends in other fandoms. That's all. If someone(s) thought I was talking about them specifically: Dude, IDK what to tell you. That's a you problem.

So let's stop playing coy. I'm tired of it.

THIS. IS. A SMALL. BLOG. I do not pass a block list around and TELL people or encourage them to block them, nor have I ever have it done to me. And even IF someone said 'omg you should block all these people' uh, no? I have free will and can make my own judgements?

Anon, if this situation is upsetting to you, either come off anon in the DMs and talk to me, or you are welcome to unfollow me. I don't care, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Because the people I've blocked on my own make others feel the way you're claiming they make you feel.

Because we all know who everyone is talking about. And I'm done. This is 12 year old behavior and I don't interact with minors.

I'm going back to bed. Whatever is in the fucking water, I want none of it.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I posted my art from a zine early?

I (23nb) joined a zine for a semi obscure 2000s manga/anime as a page artist with two of my friends. I enjoy this media but I don't really consider myself in the fandom, I only joined because one of my aforementioned friends is a huge fan of it and the other friend is also a casual enjoyer and we thought it would be fun if we all did a zine together.

However.

Most zines have a timeline of around 9-10 months from beginning to publishing but this one's been in production for almost 2 years. I've been in a few zines and this one has the worst organization I've ever seen in any project. The timeline on the discord only covered the first 5 months and had no estimate for how long the production would be, but a year and a half for publishing is pretty unheard of. The only check-in for progress that I remember didn't even require sending in your piece, you just had to say if you were finished or not and only a handful of the 30ish people on the discord responded lmao. Both of my friends ghosted at this point and the Singular mod (there might be two mods. I can't really tell) didn't dm them to see if they still wanted to participate or anything. Since there is only one person doing everything me and a few others have asked if they need any help and every time the mod(s) say that they're fine. every month or two someone will ask how the production is going and the mod will answer, and then another month goes by and the cycle repeats. I think the zine has finally gone into its “preorder interest check” stage (so not the actual preorder) but judging by how long everything takes i estimate that it'll be another 2 months at least before it actually goes into preorder. Its also never been clear if this is a free zine or if the sales will be donated to charity or distributed among the contributors. Since there's Allegedly going to be a physical copy it's gotta at least use the sales money to pay for production and shipping costs, but I have no idea if I'll be compensated with a physical copy or any money, especially if I do the thing that I might be TA for.

So here's my actual question. WIBTA if I posted the art I made for the zine before the mod says it's ok to do so? A big part of zine etiquette is that you do not post the final piece until the zine is finished, and the repercussions for someone who does range from a mod dming them to take it down or being kicked out of the zine entirely or in the absolute worst case, called out and blacklisted in the fandom and zine circles (I don't think anything that serious will happen to me but I have anxiety so I'm always imagining the worst thing) Most of the people on Tumblr in this fandom are kind of annoying fandom mom millennial types so I don't really want to deal with any possible backlash from them lol. If I just posted my art on Instagram idk if any of them would see it, but they Definitely would if I posted on Tumblr since the zine originated on there and it's such a small tag. I'm also so frustrated with the experience I kind of want to write something cunty in the description about how it's a zine piece for a zine that probably will never come out but I know that's just being petty and would probably invite drama. Also since I drew this thing a year and a half ago it's a little busted looking so I might redraw parts of it, so posting it would still be kinda shitty but it would technically be a different piece from the original one I submitted to the zine.

What are these acronyms?

[wizard-finix]

Ao3 tag game!

THANKS @ragecndybars FOR THE TAG I APPRECIATE IT

*cracks knuckles* lets do this

How many works do you have on AO3?

24 works! I would have never expected to have that many 5 years ago, hahaha

What's your total AO3 word count?

186,291! oh wow, almost 200k!! (unsurprisingly PT minato takes up over a third of that LMAO)

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

10 fandoms! I'm counting Persona 3, 4, and 5 and separate, but I'm grouping all the Zelda fandoms together since it's all Linked Universe fic.

Here's the breakdown!

The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms (6)

Persona 5 (5)

Persona 3 (5)

SPY x FAMILY (Anime) (3)

Wizard101 (Video Game) (3)

SPY x FAMILY (Manga) (3)

Runescape (Video Games) (3)

Pirate101 (Video Game) (3)

Persona 4 (2)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom (2)

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga (1)

Star Wars - All Media Types (1)

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors (1)

Top five fics by kudos:

The Ghost of Mementos/Stygian Ringlet (Persona3/5) - to the surprise of absolutely no one, since this is currently my longest fic. I'm very happy with Stygian Ringlet being the top because I love my boys :)

True Crime Special on the Midnight Channel (Persona 4/5) - my Ren has a TV Dungeon fic! also very proud of the dungeon concept for this one, I really need to finish the last two chapters

Dark Clouds on the Horizon (Linked Universe/TOTK) - I feel like this one got a lot of momentum partially because it was directly in the wake of TOTK's release, but I'm happy with how it turned out :)

Strangers Are Just Friends You Haven't Met (Persona 3/SPY x FAMILY) - this was a collab series with mewrose and a few others in the marigolds discord! we were throwing ideas at the wall to see what stuck and I really had a lot of fun with Shinjiro-related prompts, because I LOVE him and hitting him with the isekai baseball bat into a universe with Anya brings me great joy

Salt Tears and Raindrops (Linked Universe/TOTK) - directly related to Dark Clouds, and I'm glad people enjoyed good ol' fashioned angst >:) (I do need to post more of my wips, I do have a couple more roleswap AU wips that I want to post)

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I almost always do because I really appreciate them and its my way of saying thanks for the comment! If I don't comment it's because I lost track of it or because I can't think of a response.

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

Probably Salt Tears and Raindrops. I was in a Mood and decided to go for the tried-and-true method of putting fictional characters I like through the emotional wringer. That's how I got the rough draft for this fic :)

Do you write crossovers?

*looks at my persona fics and recent LU fics*

...I think it's safe to say most of my fics these days fall under crossovers lmao

Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

I wouldn't say I have? One or two comments that came off as rude, but no actual hate, thankfully. If I did, I forgot about it. I've been blessed by wonderfully nice readers <3

Do you write smut?

Nope. I don't read it, so I wouldn't know how to write it anyway.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of? I sure hope not.

I have seen a couple short fics slightly imitate Ghost of Mementos though, which I thought was really sweet that they liked it enough to inspire their own writing.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but I'd definitely be open to it!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

RYOMINA. Hands down. I love them so much, I am so mentally unwell about these two

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

My two Runescape fics, Whispers in the Temple and Welcome to the Jungle. I absolutely loved going hogwild with rewriting old quests in Runescape, but I psyched myself out of Welcome to the Jungle because I got overly anxious about accidentally doing bad representation.

(in hindsight, it probably wouldn't have been as big a deal as I thought; it's hard to make it worse considering how bad Legend's Quest was with the british-african stereotypes. that quest DID NOT age well.)

I also want to finish Snake in the Grass; that was my first attempt at a genuine mystery plot and I really liked playing with Warriors in that fic in the context of the gang trying to figure out who the heck is trying to murder him.

What are your writing strengths?

I feel like I'm pretty good at dialogue! I try to make sure it matches the character's speech patterns and personality. Really well-written dialogue can tell you who's speaking without actually telling who it is. (For example, the way I write them: Minato speaks as few words as possible and has very little filter with his observations when he does share them, and Shinjiro is pretty rough around the edges, with shortened words and the occasional swear. Warriors is good with words and wit, but he has a certain military-esque directness and doesn't dance around the topic.)

I do try hard to keep the plot clear and understandable over everything else, so probably that as well.

Also, now that I think about it, maybe fight sequences? I don't do them much, but I do enjoy the challenge of making a clear sequence of what happens in a fight and trying to make it understandable. Fight sequences are easy to skip or gloss over, but I think of them like their own miniature plot. What happens? What surprises are there? What are their movesets? How do they get the upper hand? (and of course, what looks cool as fuck)

What are your writing weaknesses?

Time management. I tend to over-proofread since I beta my own work, and often I'll go back to tweak stuff if I had additional thoughts to add to it, or extra insight. Lately, it takes longer to write chapters than I'd like.

Also, dialogue-heavy scenes often get very chaotic in my WIPs because of the way I rough out fics. I'll throw together a bunch of dialogue bits I think would be cool to include, and sometimes they'll clash or get really messy, especially if there's lots of characters (looking at the latest two chapters of Stygian Ringlet)

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I think it's cool! It adds flavor to fics. If it's more than one short phrase though, or if it's story important, then I do prefer that there is a translation in the author's notes. I haven't done any non-English dialogue in fics, save for one memorable adventure into trying to figure out how Latin grammar structure works for a character that didn't speak English.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Wizard101 and Pirate101. I was obsessed with those two for YEARS. I really, really liked pirate stories in high school, and having a cast of crewmates that accompany you throughout the game really inspired me to write my first fic featuring my OC. (I was also into One Piece at the time, but I never wrote for it.)

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

Stygian Ringlet. It's really dear to my heart. I have poured so much love and effort into that fic, and the reception on it has completely blown me away.

THANKS FOR THE TAG!! Uhhhmmm for tags I'm going to go with @skyward-floored, @catreginae and @breannasfluff (but only if you want to!! no obligation of course)

and of course any other writers that want to do it as well!! go forth

[s1urpjuic3]

Hi guys, it's me again, here to give my 2 cents on a another fandom.

Now, I felt the need to do this because as I pleasantly scroll through some Jarley content, I see 'Shipping a toxic couple is gross' 'Jarley is weird' 'Their not even together anymore' (If I could find the original post, I would so tag whoever made it because TODAY I CHOOSE VIOLENCE'

This literally might be my first ever (Omg they're so cute together as a kid. THis is my childhood right here. Jarley. Now, I respect and love her and Ivy as much as the next, but as a child, I didn't see the toxicity and the violence of Jarley, all I saw was my favorite cartoon villians, and it's just carried along to who I am now.

The main flaw about this is that THIS. IS. FICTION. Not even like, Game of Thrones or King of the Hill fiction. THIS SHIT WAS ORIGINALLY MEANT FOR FUCKING KIDS! Mf an 8 year old don't gaf abt or know about no abuse and shit. (Unless they come from that type of household, in which cases I completely respect that) Like, it's no reason that people should be this pressed over CHARACTERS that you literally can write them to act different. The writers of DC comics decided that 'Hey, this is how we want Joker, and he's never gonna change or treat Harley right' They could just as easily wrote it another way, henceforth, fanfic writers writing it a different way.

It's not about them being toxic it's about them matching each others' freaks. Everyone acts like Harley isn't fucking insane either like be so fr. She was gonna break eventually either way. The freakyness is rooted deep down inside her fr fr.

I personally/secretly wish their relationship was more like Cleo and Deuce from Monster High (Yes, I'm comparing them to someone again, I can't think of anyone else rn) Where; Yes, the Joker is mainly still and evil shitty Batman-obsessive weirdo, but he was always nice to Harley, and Harley was just like "Radical dude" (Lmaoooo) But in all seriousness, a plot where they both mutual respect each other, make realistic mistakes and hurt each other, but work it out in the end would have been great.

But I love the fact that the writers touched on the topic of abuse. I feel like not enough comics/media or anybody really talks about things women go through, or they romanticize it. I don't think anyone who ships Jarley wants to take away from what she went through. You can love them together and still not like what The Joker did to her. These feelings don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Anyways, this is too long again. Love y'all open minded Jivey fans. To the rest of y'all though? Eat dick and ☠️

(Side note: I reblogged a post on my page that talked about fans making Poison Ivy a one-dimentional character by making her entire personallity about Harley so HA SUCK ON THAT)

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

(K)Night Light

by Hailrose88 Jason Todd was no stranger to violence. He has seen his fair share, from muggings, to actually getting killed himself. What he didn't expect, however, was finding a strange girl in the middle of an abandoned building. Where a shootout took place moments ago. Ayla didn't know how she ended up here. She remembered bits and pieces, sure, but no concrete ideas on how everything went down. How she was stolen from her home and thrown into unfamiliar grounds. Maybe, with the help of others, she can start to understand why she is here. OR Taken from the "Peter Gets Sent to Gotham", but with an OC instead. IE: Ayla gets adopted by the BatFam. Words: 3405, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 1 of You're On Your Own Kid (You Always Have Been) Fandoms: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Original Work Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen, Multi Characters: Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Tim Drake (DCU), Original Spider-Man Characters, Bruce Wayne Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Batfamily Members & Jason Todd Additional Tags: Mentioned Cassandra Cain, Mentioned Duke Thomas, Mentioned Stephanie Brown, Mentioned Gwen Stacy | Spider-Gwen, Mentioned Harry Osborn, Mentioned Green Goblin, mentioned Olivia Octavius, Ayla is trying her best to get home, She seriously needs a hug, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Good Sibling Tim Drake, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Feelings, Bruce Wayne is Good With Kids, Not Canon Compliant, maybe everyone is a little OOC, I haven't watched enough DCU yet, Or read many comics, Just really love the relationships I've seen written by others, Inspired by Fanfiction, no beta we die like jason todd, acting more spider-like, Dimensional Travel, DC stands for disregarded canon via https://ift.tt/z3jFnZA

[theladyofshalott1989]

Hello.. 👋🏻

I read your answer about the motivation to write with low engagement and want to thank you for your words, because I currently struggle a little with this topic.

I love to write, always have, but beeing in the HL fandom helped me to (more or less) consistently write and publish something. For the last months I changed from writing mainly little snippets, to focus on my long fic, because I finally want to put everything on paper, that lingers in my mind. 😅

And I will keep writing, because it has become very personal and some sort of healing for me.

But from time to time I struggle, because I think it's not good enough. There are people who read it, but barely any engagement. And I want to learn and become better so badly.

Sometimes I think, it's because my first language isn't English and I can't convey all the feelings with my translation. But then, it's not that the original is doing so much better.. 😅

I'm sorry for venting to you and it feels a little weird because I don't want to fish for compliments.😅

But maybe you have some tricks up your sleeve that can help with the feeling to be not good enough? Or writing better in general? 😊

Hi! Thank you so much for your ask. First off, you are not alone. Your feelings are valid and shared by many, myself included. <3 I am so glad that HL brought you back to writing. It was the same for me too, and I will also be forever grateful for that. Before I share my practical tips, I want to establish that engagement does not always equal quality. It could FOR SURE (I am not calling out anyone here!), but, like with all things, certain tropes/pairings/topics are more popular in one fandom than the next. Sometimes someone started writing at the perfect time, usually right when a new fandom pops up, or they are uber talented and can provide not only a story but also fan art! Those people blow my mind and I have so much respect for them.

But I digress! Onto the practical tips... Keeping in mind that I do not always follow my own advice, so typing this up is making me laugh at myself. (It's good to laugh at yourself sometimes though.) 1. Pick up another hobby so writing isn't your only one. For me, it's classes at my local gym. IMO, an active hobby is the most helpful because the endorphin rush helps a lot. 2. Set a day aside each week where you do not go online at all. I did this during peak Covid, and it was so therapeutic. Our minds are not designed to be constantly on. We need a break from social media and the internet every so often. 3. If you can, find a small group of buddies and interact with them. <3 My HL buds keep me sane a lot of the time. They're lovely people too and they've introduced me to other fandoms as well. 4. Block tags and/or blogs you're not interested in seeing. I have only blocked one blog (I'll be transparent here: it's the Hogwarts: Legacy Confessions blog, just for my own personal sanity; no hate toward the creators at all), but I block a lot of tags for personal reasons, and it really does help a lot.

5. Have you tried a review exchange? On Reddit there are groups that swap and review each others' stories. I've done this a few times for some of my one-shots and it's great! You can even specify if you want critique (or not). I can send you links to these subreddits if you wish. Just let me know! I really hope these tips help. Also, please never apologize for venting. Putting yourself out there creatively is a very vulnerable thing; it's only natural to be upset when you feel like you don't get out what you put in. <3

My messages are always open too. Please don't hesitate to reach out!