#why not download the zine for something to do

[littledashdraws]

two pieces i did for Pas de Deux: an Azura/Laslow zine!! running this project was such a pleasure. you can download the zine for free here!!

[sansculottides]

my full piece for the pentiment fanzine @palimpsestzine !!!!!

i wanted to paint something with the tassing women just hanging out. a tribute to the burden of work historically borne by women....at least they can do their work together. (also why the marginalia also shows animals doing work and various tools for work, heh heh)

you can download it here on itch.io! it is genuinely .... the best fanzine ive ever seen, so much love was poured into it. you can either get it for free or pay what you want, and all earnings will be donated to librarians for palestine. we'll collect donations until april 30! AND PLAY PENTIMENT IF YOU HAVENT YET PLEASE!

thank you to everyone that has shown some love for our zine so far!

[antariies]

how to build a chair........... director's cut ∠( ᐛ 」∠)__ this is about to be a very long very self-indulgent post where i just talk about my own writing. i also doodled on all the pages i think it makes the whole thing more fun to go thru. welcome to my ted talk

SIKE before i begin. credit where credit is due, this post was the start of it all. it changed my brain chemistry my jaw was dropped i was in awe i was obsessed and before i even finished it i knew that i would eventually have to make something similar for the commander or else i would be cursed to think about it for the rest of my life. and i Was cursed for like two years every day i would just be like........ is today the day i sit down and draft the commander chair fic of my dreams....... maybe tomorrow......

and then i got accepted as a writer for the gw2 zine ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ the chair idea was actually my backup option in case my first idea didn't pan out, and thank god it didn't, bc this one worked so much better. (still working on my initial idea, just turning it into a full fic! it was wayyy too long to be a zine submission.)

this is the chair i used. i downloaded the assembly instructions and tried out a bunch of different free pdf editors until i found one i liked, which ended up being sedja. if anyone's interested in doing something like this, i recommend printing out the pdf and writing directly on it! it was a lot easier for me to just figure out everything on paper first and then digitalize it after :P here's a picture of my physical copy

okay actually getting into it for real this time !!!!!

1. yeah i could've just erased the ikea logo and left a blank space but then i realized i could turn it into an in-universe joke. and then i ran with it.

2. i ripped this straight from the product description on the website. thanks ikea

3. i'm not sure if anyone went and looked it up, but it's a real item code!

hehe :3c

4. if your commander willingly goes to therapy i'm happy for them but TO ME? you'd have to drag the commander kicking and screaming. it's not that they don't know that something is wrong with them, they know, and they know YOU know. you're just never supposed to talk about it. they don't look at their own psych eval results bc that's none of their business.

5. i normally avoid specifying the commander's race when i write them bc i enjoy the challenge, but for the zine i was assigned to write about a norn commander! as a human main i was uhhhh very ill-equipped. but that just meant i had to study up on my norn lore (•̀ᴗ•́)و i spent hours on the wiki, then went around interviewing norn mains for their opinions, which was great fun :D it all helped me narrow the focus of my piece: joining the war on commander objectification on the side of commander objectification (ㅅ´ ˘ `)♡ and no one self-aggrandizes quite like the norn commander!

and to balance that i knew my narrator had to be patronizing as shitttt. they've clearly been following the commander since the beginning and seem to know a lot of intimate details about their life, despite not thinking very highly of them. wonder who that could be :3c

6. i can't stop making references. so the original part number is actually #122620 in the manual but i've changed it here (and on the previous page!) to #082812, as in 08/28/12, the date gw2 was released! no real reason for it, @dalennaugw suggested it for funsies and i liked it. if you're my pal and i show you a wip and you have a cool idea for it, chances are i Will put that shit in. hi dale if you're reading this

7. another thing about me. i loveeee repetition. here the word "over" is repeated four times to match the picture. honestly a lot of the creative process for this piece was just staring at the pages and figuring out how to tie the pictures to the commander in ways that weren't extremely corny or trite. idk why i enjoy writing like this when i could be frolicking in the beautiful prosaic meadows of a word doc instead but. it's like i see a tiny little restrictive box and i'm like OH BOY can't wait to think inside of that thing!!! i like when the format matters just as much as the content and in some cases informs the content. am i making any sense here. well all you need to know is that i'm a virgo and my favorite book is house of leaves

7. aw fuck just realized i wrote 7 twice. whatever i'm not changing it this is 7 part two now. the theme of my piece is glory, what it means to the norn commander, and how far they're willing to go for it.

8. does norn culture place emphasis on seeking individual glory Yes are norn also very community-oriented Also Yes. i think it's common to see norn kids napping together in a big pile, usually after they've worn themselves out playing games outside. it makes sense practically (apes together warm) and socially (pack bonding good) but that's just my hc. growing up i used to share a bed with my cousins all the time so it's normal to me.

a young, naive not-yet-commander, with no real combat experience, has no point of reference to compare a "blaze of glory" to. but the way everyone talks about it, it must be a good thing. a wonderful thing. a reward fit for a life well-fought and a legend hard-earned. so they imagine it must feel like falling asleep surrounded by the people they love, who love them in turn.

9. .........i was playing a lot of ace attorney when i wrote this page. i wish i was joking 👍🏼

10. ohhh shit the truth come OUT this whole chair thing was all a ploy just so i could write about the departing. again.

will i ever stop thinking about her. reply hazy, try again later.

11. out of all the pages, this one has the most emphasis on text placement, like comparing the enlarged picture of the screw to a sword, the numbers counting the screws, and "up up up" being arranged to mimic a wisp of smoke.

i also wanted to lean into the viking/norse mythology influences with my word choice.

12. more nods to norn culture. i didn't know they referred to the six human gods as "spirits of action" until i was doing the research for this piece :O

and the domain of the lost is called a hall of ghosts....... cause valhalla.....

13.

i'm sorry this so funnyyy. SAYS the guy who literally clawed their way back to life for a rematch.

me when i'm in a sore loser competition and my opponent is the COMMANDER!!!

14. arms as in "limbs" and also arms as in "armaments" :•]

15. haha get it because the picture makes it look like there are two mirrored speech bubbles while the text paints two opposing interpretations of the norn commander. one that's selfless and humble versus one that's selfish and vainglorious.

16. and the best part is IT DOESN'T MATTER which one is true bc at the end of the day no matter what their motivation, balthazar is dead by their hand. ofc i'm of the opinion that the most compelling interpretation of the commander is both, simultaneously. contradictions are good for the soul.

17. i could've name-dropped kas, the only person present that would do something like that, but i felt it was better to leave it ambiguous.

18. low-hanging fruit. the metaphor was so obvious here but i had to do it. for the culture

19. the alternate title for this piece was "THIS COULD BE GLORY". "how to build a chair" was only supposed to be a placeholder title til i figured out a better one, but the innocuousness of it grew on me. also i came up with the other one too late and had already advertised under the chair title lol

20. my first instinct was to end it with something more reassuring, like "what you have built so far is enough" but that would've been an ooc switch-up for a narrator who has been nothing but snide and detached this whole time. gotta stick to my guns

21.

obligatory chair joke as the last line. for realsies though it’s meant to be an earnest appeal to the commander to take a break, to have a seat, but it’s also a challenge. are they willing to lean on their friends? are the bonds they’ve forged strong enough to hold their weight? are they willing to put their faith in someone else’s hands? are they brave enough to try? well. only one way to find out.

also guess what that wasn’t even the real last page of the manual. it's THIS

but no way i was letting this be the image we ended on. IT LOOKS LIKE A DICK AND BALLS!!!

and on that note, THANK YOU if you made it this far!! a very special shout-out to @hawkepockets, my lovely boyfriend and beta reader, without whom this piece would not be nearly as polished. i would bring him pages to look over and he would say Scrap half of those lines you can do better than that. kill your darlings. i would complain and argue for a few minutes then we would revise. rinse and repeat until we had honed this thing to perfection. i can't stress enough the importance of having a second pair of eyes on your work throughout your creative process, even better if it's someone who challenges you. i don't even pay him 🫶🏼

and if there was anything i didn't cover that you still have questions about, please feel free to shoot me an ask! (ㅅ´ ˘ `)♡ thanks for reading! see u later dudes ;P

[subbymothpimp]

One of my contributions for the SILCO QUEER ZINE - excerpt, view the whole piece on my Twitter

Colourful scars - I have many. I think we both do, maybe it connects us. Some of the struggle and some of the victory. I used to hate them, now I treat them as diary entries. This is when I was at my lowest. This is when I lost something. This is when I became a man.

This is why I choose to portray trans scars

Download Zine here Instagram Twitter Tumblr

[hillbillyoracle]

The Algorithm is AI Art

Last year, I used DALL-E to create a series of images for a digital tarot card deck I was making for my personal use. When I shared some of those images here on my blog, I got a massive amount of push back and even threats in my inbox. I'm still putting my thoughts together on that experience but it did make me realize that most people don't seem to realize they're supporting the AI art they hate so much - to the tune of millions and even billions of dollars per year depending on the platform - almost everyday through the algorithms they use.

So if you genuinely hate AI art, I'm here to tell you that you've got to do what you can to get rid of and not use the algorithms in your life. That kind of support is more materially complicit with AI's intrusion on art than someone making a few images for themself ever could be.

Yes It's Possible

For many platforms, especially when they're accessed on desktop, it is possible to greatly reduce your contact with the algorithm. I use browser extensions to cut out the AI curated feeds on YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit. I mostly use Instagram on desktop to answer messages.

I generally do not use Instagram, Facebook, and other apps that do not allow users to control their feed on mobile. I know Instagram is mobile only - when I use it on mobile, I download it, upload what I want, then delete the app again.

I am considering cutting these out entirely again once this phase of my experiment for a zine I'm writing is over because honestly, they're not worth it, but that's a different post...

I also really recommend either making a separate email account or getting ruthlessly organized in your current one, so that you can sign up for artist's newsletters and other forms of human centered curation. RSS readers like Feedly can also be a good alternative.

The point here isn't perfection - the point is doing what you can. Not because it will change companies - but because it's better for you and the artists you care about.

Why?

Algorithms in these spaces determine who's work gets shown and more importantly - who gets paid enough to continue making their art.

AI has consistently been shown to reproduce and even exaggerate biases already present in society. This video by Ann Reardon of How to Cook That talks about YouTube's lack of transparency about the potential for a sexist bias in YouTube's algorithm and shows that in the top views at least, there's a clear slant toward male creators. The only woman in the top 10 does not show her face in her videos - unlike most of the men in the top 10. This discrepancy is even larger the further down the list you go.

Who gets shown is who gets paid enough to keep making their content/art. Less pay means people can afford to put out less content/art and can't scale - meaning less diversity in content/art.

What art gets shown influences what inspires new art and content to be made. You are seeing art directly shaped by AI everyday - and more than that - by continuing to click on what it serves up to you, you support it.

This AI influence on real world art has become so normalized that people consider it as natural a force of nature as wind. It's not. This was designed - and it can be redesigned.

I want to be careful not to overstate the influence of a click either - your clicking on something you choose is not a form of activism. Your clicks cannot retrain the algorithm at scale. A lot of people have the misconception that you can train "your" algorithm but what the algorithm on your feeds is doing is actually comparing your clicks to it's database of similar user profiles and their behaviors to decide what to suggest to you. Your clicks don't retrain the AI as a whole, they just match you with a different user type.

The real reason I think those concerned about AI in art need to find ways to take control of their feeds is because it ensures you're able to support a diverse array of creators through your views and it ensures that what you're taking your inspiration from isn't what the AI decides is worthy of attention.

I realize there are those who are reading this who either might not have been old enough to remember or even weren't born when YouTube basically took your Subscriptions off the front page. It used to be they would pop up at the top of the front page. Then it got knocked down on the front page. When it got shoved into it's own sidebar link and then that link progressively minimized through redesigns - there was actually an outcry about it.

People warned that this would lead to a watering down effect, where smaller channels didn't get the chance to grow like already established ones would. Creators of marginalized identities saw their views drop dramatically. Similar things happened when Facebook and Instagram fully took away a user's ability to have a chronological feed (this was possible in the early days). I know of more than a few creators who fully had to step away from their work because of the change over. I miss their art.

And then the outcry petered out. The companies didn't lose users over it so nothing changed. Eventually people got used to it and the protests went away. These companies now know they're "too big to fail" and can ignore user outcry until people acclimate the new normal that serves them. This normal serves them because it does actually increase engagement and keeps you on the platform for longer - which means less time spent on your own creative activities, yet another way they impact what art gets made.

TL;DR: if you hate AI's impact on artists and their employment opportunities, take control of your feeds. Make your own. Choose what you click. Take back your time and make more art.

[starscelly]

for those interested in printing and creating your own zine! jpegs of the template for the hockey zine here, link to download from drive (+ more info on that) and a tutorial below!!

if you can print from somewhere that supports psd files (also in the drive) i highly recommend, to preserve the colors better (: these appear weird as rgb color profile right now but Should print properly as they'll convert to cmyk. let me know if thats not the case!

also, i'm. not charging for any of this. but instead if you're able to, please consider donating esims for gaza or in some way supporting those in palestine (even just doing your daily arab.org click!!)

again, if you have somewhere to print psd files that is what i would Highly Recommend, the colors and quality will just turn out better, i think.

here is the link to a drive folder where u will find these files as well as tutorials (both specifically for this zine and for this type of zine in general)

some further info not included/expanded on in that drive! :

this is meant to be 8x8in when laid flat (not folded) and the files there should print as such, you wont need a special printer or anything, i literally just used the normal library printer on printer paper.

you will need to cut off the edge around the printed bits as straight and close to the edge as possible, as well as the 4x4 empty square in the middle.

if you're able to line them up, you can print these back to back as they are. if you can't, or want the zine to be a little thicker, you can just print them on separate pages and glue them back to back (the way theyre currently oriented, if that makes sense) and fold it like that. that's how i did it!

there are 24 image slots, but if you want to make your own you will only make 6 images. these images will then be split up into 4 sections (theres an example of this in the tutorial folder) in order to be folded, which is why there's 24 little sections.

i would recommend folding around every square of an image before doing the Actual Final Fold, it'll be soooo much easier to manipulate it from there imo. then, once you have done the final fold, taking something and creasing around the edges of the zine on each page you flip to will help it be easier to move, as well.

also this is the video i originally used to learn to make these (but found to be a little confusing/not friendly to those making their own)

if theres anything i missed/is unclear/doesn't work, please feel free to send me an ask or message about it!!! i hope you all enjoy and make ur own zines <3

[wendigho]

Every time I see AI art discourse I think of my new media teacher in college talking about remix culture.

I think about how much I love collage and how much it inspired me to keep going with art because sometimes all I can do is cut and paste.

I think if taking a few tracks I loved from a downloaded album and learning to use audacity to make something new.

I think about how much capitalism kills art.

So much so that we can't even agree that it's more messed up that life could be ruined by sharing creative energy.

No one will engage with the fact that maybe, just maybe, it's messed up that a form of creation even has the possibility to make artists unable to live.

It makes me sad when people say it's theft, abuse of other's work, lazy... It's art.

It's as much art as when I'm drawing, painting, cutting up magazines, folding zines, making a mix tape, over painting a thrift store find, making book art.

The issue is it shouldn't be paywalled, it shouldn't be censored, or centralized. Just like the Internet itself honestly.

Human beings should all feel free to create and remix any fucking thing they want.

The AI algorithm is not the problem, it is as it has always been, capitalism.

Don't want to lose your livelihood to a machine? Consider those who would use that machine against you in the first place. Side with free open source systems that do not generate profit. Actually consider why the problems exist and stop scapegoating and dismiss real actual tools for artists who are not traditional.

AI can make lovely stuff, I use it for references and to speed run sketches sometimes. I can input my art into certain things and run variations to find new directions for a sketch. I can visualize ideas, I can make something.

There's no reason anyone should be opposed to that.

But then, people hate collage too. People hate Tumblr gifsets and image posts made from screenshots. Those old composite gifs are "cringe" but they also took a hell of a lot of work. Just stitching together a fantasy.

[moon-language-0]

10 Questions for Writers

wasn't gonna do this bc i thought nobody probably really cares about this stuff but since i got double tagged by @meidui and @sunnysideprincess here goes nothing:

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

32 and climbing!

2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

ugh i had to go into my stats to find this number (hate looking at stats) but to my surprise that number is a whopping 816,828! (if added to my ff.net word count that figure grows to 1,062,375 🤯)

3. what fandoms do you write for?

stony exclusively, though i opened up to the idea of writing for steve and/or tony paired with any mcu villain for marvel trumps hate, and now i'm writing a steve/loki (with steve/tony as endgame) fic that's more fun than i would've anticipated! (x) still wouldn't call myself a "multishipper," though -- more of a serial shipping monogamist ;)

4. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i do! sometimes i'm a bit slow to respond for various reasons (e.g. when people angels comment on my WIPs i like to reply when/right before a new chapter drops), and on a few occasions i've belatedly encountered comments that i forgot to reply to (😱) that i'll immediately rectify, but i very much want to encourage people to keep leaving them. a single comment—even short/sweet ones!—can be like rocket fuel to my creative drive -- and as someone who finds myself running on empty and trying to get by solely on fumes from time to time, getting that boost in my inbox is truly priceless.

5. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not in whole but in part :(

6. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i don't even know how that would work!

7. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

currently steve/tony. once upon a time it was spock/kirk, and the flame burned so brightly that it troubles me to wonder how it ever managed to go out. i collected vintage zines. i made insanely thoughtful fanmixes (one of which i recorded onto cassette tapes one-at-a-time by hand through a painstaking process and distributed to a few like-minded folks, with hand-drawn cover art and liner notes!). i read AMAZING fic that changed my brain and yet i never wrote a single thing! i made a secret spacehusbands clubhouse underneath a pool table during one long and otherwise unhappy summer. i even made spirk-themed patches and pins that sold quite well on etsy, and turned one of my large back pieces into the central design of a fully decked-out jacket (which was made specifically to wear while loitering around disneyland while baked). here's some photographic evidence of all of the above:

8. what are your writing strengths?

smut-crafting is the obvious answer, but i flatter myself to think that i also manage to tap into a particular kind of haunted beauty that hovers about, casting its ethereal moon-shadow over all the most poignant relationships; something i've been obsessed with in life, that i'm compelled to pursue further in writing.

9. what are your writing weaknesses?

keeping it short. my punctuation can get pretty erratic sometimes. also, this might be a cop-out of an answer since it can be interpreted as a 'strength' but it really can throw me for a loop: i tend to let the characters tell the story 'they' want to tell rather than keeping a tight hold on the reins and sticking to my own agenda -- this can lead me off my intended course, for better or worse! as a storyteller i'm a bit of a pushover—always open to sudden inspiration wherever it might issue from—and steve and tony are such *strong* personalities that this openness can be a problem when i 'channel' them.

10. first fandom you wrote for?

harry potter. i was a bit of a snapewife for awhile there (don't judge). ff.net has been having some server issues so i recently logged back on to download my 245k unfinished epic from 2012, and found over a thousand people had left comments! some people were calling it a "masterpiece" and/or "the best fic [they] ever read [for that pairing]" which made me doubtful, so i skimmed over some of the story expecting it to be cringey but uhhh... it actually holds up? i mean, 2011/12 was quite a time for me: i was simultaneously finishing my thesis on "fandom, fanaticism, and religious fervor" and can recall having full-on religious experiences of my own while writing that [truly 'inspired'] fic, so i guess i was onto something after all!

some of these folks have already been tagged but i'm whispering a soft 'hello' into the ears of @carsonian, @soliloquent-stark, @pia-bartolini, @avengersnewb, @tinystark616 & all writers who aren't as averse to mirror-gazing as i can be

[polaroid240]

Use that vhs filter app to record moments in your daily life and put them in a real vhs.

Download some recent songs you like and burn them onto a CD. Put said CD in a portable cd player and listen to your fave beats anywhere you want.

Modify that old mp3 player so it can store more gigabytes.

Torrent a streaming-service-only movie or series and burn them onto a blank bluray/dvd. Go crazy with it and make a fake cover for the bluray case, you don't even need a printer to do so. Just draw something on paper, or glue together some random stickers/photos you feel like are appropriate to describe its content.

If your old clothes don't fit anymore, modify them, cut them, take the sleeves off with a pair of scissors, put a different type of sleeves on, sew a patch on them, make a patch out of them. Do whatever you want, it's free material and you might have paid for it. But even if you didn't, it's yours now and you should do whatever you want with it. Fashion trends come and go, so why should you care?

You'd be surprised how much stuff you can do with a 1€ set of hot glue sticks and a 3€ hot glue gun.

Make a zine out of a random piece of paper just for the sake of it. Show it to your friends or keep it for yourself, it doesn't matter. Just be wild and express yourself whenever you want.

Plastic bottles are great diy material. There's thousands of tutorials out there and you'll surely find something useful or fun to do with it.

Don't waste your money while going to the beach (except for sunscreen cream, that's the only thing you REALLY need to buy). All you need is a bunch of strong wood sticks, beach towels and strong hair ties. There's plenty of methods on how to do it on the net, but these are the bare essentials.

Fix a stuck suitcase zipper by applying candle wax on it. Keep moving the zipper towards the right direction and keep using said candle wax until it's good as new. I did this one and it worked, so I'm speaking from personal experience.

Cut your own hair. It might look messy at first and you should always be careful while doing it, but it's a great skill to have when you can't afford an hairstylist. YouTube is your best friend here.

Be a fucking menace to society.

It's fun.

[if-whats-new]

FAQ - (Frequently) Asked Questions

Do you have a question about the zine? Check below if we haven't answered it first before sending us an ask!

May be updated if needed.

About the Zine

Why the Zine? why A zine?

Because there is so much happening in the IF community, it is becoming increasingly difficult (if not impossible) to keep track of it all. So instead of checking a bunch of different website or servers for announcements, we hoped by compiling and centralizing all these news, it would make it easier for people to get reminders on updates of games they might enjoy or events they'd like to participate.

And zines look neat!

If short concentrated format is not for you, check out ChoiceBeat for in-depts reviews and articles, or The Rosebush (@the-rosebush-mag) for theory/criticism essays, or The Fortnightly Amare Bulletin (@amaregames) for Amare-specific news.

What's in the Zine? What can we expect?

All that IF good stuff! Mainly covering what happened the past week:

Events happening right now, from conferences to jams to competitions (registration, submission, voting, or just ended)

New games and demo released

Updates of projects

Game recommendations

And more! Essentially whatever we find!

We are also in the process of including more cool stuff, like short essays and interviews!

When is the next issue coming out?

Every Saturday, around 9-10 am EST. Unless something happened, then it might be a bit later. But you will be notified.

Where can I find the Zine?

On Tumblr (most pages* and transcription), and Itch.io (full viewable current + downloadable past). *omitted pages include table of contents or repeated from previous weeks

How do you make the Zine?

Google Drive to compiles notes, and Canva to make it all pretty. Also Notepad for the .txt transcription. And EZM Reader to make it "playable" on itch.

Why more than one (readable) format?

For the sake of accessibility, it was important for us to include multiple medium and venues to read the zine. This is partly the reason why What's New in IF? is viewable both here and on itch.io.

We loved the vibe of the visual template we chose, but we are the first to admit it is not the best: images can't be read by screen readers, links can't be clicked, and because they are so large they might not even fit a screen!

So we decided to have:

the OG ZINE format on itch.io, with flip-able pages because it looks cool!

a downloadable PDF with clickable links, to easily get to the content you want to check out.

a .txt file with just the text and the links because it is the most accessible format for devices (Noi insisted)

a transcribed version on Tumblr, easily share-able

We retired the image folder starting Issue 14, as it added nothing.

Why can't you add colors to make the zine pop?

Axelle is color-blind (achromatopsia), making color contrast difficult. To ensure it is both contrasted enough (in greyscale and color scale), pure black and white was the easiest option, and providing the most accessibility for any lambda readers. We've tested colors, and ended up with bright red on bright pink -> unreadable. Axelle: this is also why parsers are so cool to me, because I can set the interpreter to whatever contrast I want! but it's harder with choice/visual games...

About the Content

Can I submit something?

YES! PLEASE! WE'RE BEGGING YOU! 🙏

We know that we will miss stuff, even between the 4 of us, because we have in the past. Especially smaller projects not in our feeds or followed tags, or on platforms we don't really go to. And even during our weekly search, we will still miss major stuff!

So, if you know of a cool thing that was published, or update, or currently happening, let us know! A dm can change everything!

Are there things you don't accept?

Project without playable content, not even a demo. Otherwise, there would be way too many projects to keep up with for the zine.

Projects that violates copyright, like plagiarism or for-profit unlicensed

Projects that glorify themes of: LGBTQ+ phobic rhetoric, racism, religion phobic rhetoric, sexism, gratuitous sexual violence, fascism...

This list may change at any time, if we think it needs to.

Where I can send you news/games/other stuff?

There are multiple venues, for your convenience. You can:

Send us an ask (anonymous open)

Submit something (anonymous open)

Edit our Google Sheet (can be anonymous) <- preferred method

Post it on our itch.io page

And also:

You can fill in the form with our game recommendation!

What's the difference between recommended and submitted by?

In our Highlight on section, we share titles that we liked or were sent to us by other users. In the later case, some send us just the link, other send us a whole sentence about why they like it.

We call the first recommended (because we have to come up with a little bit of text for it) and the second is submitted (because we only have to copy-paste the submission). Granted, we haven't always stuck to the naming convention...

Hey! You didn't include [my/this] project! What gives?

Sorry, we probably didn't see it or maybe missed it! While we do our best to follow as many people and tags as we can, there's always some that falls through the cracks...

But if it's within the time range (posted/updated the week mentioned in the latest issue) and has at least a playable demo, throw us a link, so we can add it to the next issue!

If it's just outside that window, better submit the project as a recommendation!

You make a mistake here.

Thank you for letting us know! We'll try to correct it ASAP! And if it's too late, it will show up on the next issue!

Why do you promote old IF games (parser)? No one likes them!

Because we try our best to promote all types of Interactive Fiction, just like choice-based, links, or visual novels. Like any IF community, Tumblr and itch.io has both parser authors and players, so it makes sense parser games and events promoting parsers are included in the zine. If it weren't for Axelle, we probably wouldn't have known about them, and made the grave mistake of sidelining the form of IF that made what we have now possible!

About The Team

Who are you? Why haven't we heard of you before?

Marjorie, Erika, Axelle, and Noi. Just your run-of-the-mill IF readers and lovers. We talk a bit more about ourselves here [TBL]. But that is all you will learn about us!

What's your handle? I want to follow you.

No, thanks.

Are you authors too? What's the name of your projects?

Absolutely not. We're not good enough writers to have more than three coherent sentences together. We just want to play cool games and tell other people about those cool games.

Is it Axel or Axelle? Why can't you pick one? It's confusing.

It's Axelle. Just use that (I was named after this other Belgian Axelle). Please only use that name. Same with getting my pronouns right (surtout en Français!!).

If you're just lurkers... How did you get together as a group???

It wasn't actually IF that brought us together at first, but TTRPG. A Vampire the Masquerade one to be exact, with a friend looking for players. It was only after some chatting about other non-TTRPG stuff that we realized we all loved IF (different kinds of IF at first). And we've been sharing recs with each other, and thoughts, and rants.

Other questions

Do you have a Discord server?

No, and we don't plan on making one. The zine is already enough work for the 4 of us. And there are already plenty of IF-focused servers out there!

Do you have a Ko-Fi/Patreon/tipping jar/subscription?

No, and we don't plan to. The whole project is meant to be free forever for everyone. This will not change as long as we are working on this zine*. *If one day the zine mantle is passed to other members, they may change the stance on the tipping jar. But the zine will always stay free.

If you want to support the project, the best thing you can do is share it with other people. Throw the issue link in servers or dms, share on Forums or other social medium, reblog on Tumblr. If you really want to spend money on us, you could blaze the posts here. But we are better fueled by kind words and cheers! Kuddos are our motivations!

Another great way of supporting the zine, is to share any IF-related content you found (new games/demos, updates, events, articles...) or recommend us some neat hidden gems! This is honestly the best way to help us!

And, instead of spending coins on this free project, consider giving your money to actual cool organizations (like the IFTF), IF system programmers (Twine format creators), and game creators/authors!

~

Last updated: 16-July-2024

[gender0bender]

Some pages from my Discourse Queen zine, now avaliable for view and download on my itchio! Payment is optional but I really appreciate it.

IDs: Three zine pages. The first depicts a cutting from a magazine showing a PC poking out of a hollowed out red telephone handset mouth-piece, there is a keyboard attached to the monitor. There are words written around the image made with various cuttings from magazines, these letters spell out Discourse Queen Magazine, there is regular text at the bottom that reads by Gender0bender.

The next page is two cuttings of old white/cream coloured pcs with the screens removed. The text inside the two screens reads: You've heard of a size queen a salad queen a scene queen etc but in our digital age a new queen has sprung up THE DISCOURSE QUEEN. The final three words are all in caps, and made out of letter clippings. The background is made up of red diagrams of tapes and keyboards.

The final page is made up of text that reads: HELP! Rules of Discourse Queening the worst faith interpretation must be the right one. 

-if dehumanising others is bad why did God make it feel so good? -don't think too much about why you hold minorities to a higher standard than their oppressors.

-your follower count is your life force do whatever you must to keep it going even if it means livestreaming your death.

-never let a drop of genuine emotion slip out.

-big issues like capitalism are too overwhelming but if you cyberbully enough people you too can be the made up saviour of a made up cause.

-why experience something for real when you can just imagine it?

The word help has been interplaced in between the lines along the page. ED.

[olderthannetfic]

Something I find really grating is people who self-identify as fandom olds who think it's gross of these damn kids these days to like and admit to liking interaction with their fanwork. "Back in my day I read fic in a .txt file with no ability to comment at all and we all liked it that way!" Okay but my mom wrote Star Trek zine fic and people would respond and pass on comments to the zine distributors about things that other fans wrote, drew, etc. It wasn't a moment of great shame where they awkwardly admitted yeah, they are guilty of the uncool sin of liking a thing someone else created. It was a "I love this and I want you to know I love it!" that was not done with a disclaimer going "not that I need human interaction, I'm a super cool lone wolf who needs no one!" and was received happily by fandom creators, who did not then cringe and go, "I'm sorry I like feedback, that's super gross of me, I know I should be against social interaction like the cool kids". Before fan zines, people were still writing fan letters to creators of things they liked. Before I knew what fanfic was, I still doodled fan comics when I was eight and liked it when my friends read it and said they liked it. Before fan letters, people still had fans of their work. Shakespeare spoke with fans. It's not a new, rare, sick thing to enjoy creating something and enjoy people commenting on what you've made.

"You're trying to turn fanfic into social media!!!1!" is always the strawman this gets met with, but... no. Before social media was a concept, before the oldest fandom old's grandpa was born, people were still sharing things with others and enjoying getting a response. People have not, traditionally, created in the hopes of never having to put up with something as awful as someone saying "I loved this!" about their creation. Either my entire Art of World Civilization class last semester was wrong or in fact humans have traditionally been totally fine with people reacting to what they create and in fact sharing things with the intent no one speak to you about it is a very foreign, unusual thing, not a new-fangled trend of the icky teens. Creating things for the joy of it and not hiding it away lest someone make a comment was the way things were done for thousands of years. That's how folk art works.

Maybe some people really long for the days of downloading things as a .txt file and not seeing hits, kudos or (worst of all) comments. But the idea that liking comments or liking replying to comments means you're part of the problem in fandom baffles me. Why would I dislike it when someone says, "I really like this line!" and why would not replying be better? I get it, I'm Gen Z, I'm a special snowflake, I'm desperate for attention, etc., but so are most generations before mine. Art galleries in pre-Revolutionary Paris didn't exist because of us darn kids and our need for validation. They existed because liking feedback is pretty natural. And not wanting to see feedback is natural, too - that's why I know so many adults who have never shared anything they've written - but it's not the only "correct" opinion out there.

It's weird that in an era of death threats, rape threats, suicide bait, racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, transphobia and queerphobia in fandom all being discussed, instead of going, "Harassment is bad" a good chunk of people went, "Interaction is bad and liking it is bad, too."

Fandom as a solitary endeavor doesn't make sense to me. When did we go from "fans interacting is fine" to "oh gross, fucking kids and their attempts to turn AO3 into social media"?

I see people like the anon who proposed the "win" solution of not even being able to leave kudos on a work on AO3, shutting down all features that might risk a word being spoken to another person, and I just don't get it. I don't get why that would be a good thing. I get that if you speak to others you risk a negative interaction, so some people don't want to do it. Wanting existing spaces to rip out any and all features in place that allow communication, I don't get. I genuinely do not see what is wrong about interacting with someone about something you wrote, or about something someone else wrote.

It's honestly kind of depressing to me to imagine not being able to gush and write a super long comment to an author about how much I like their work. I love picking out individual lines I loved and pieces of prose that painted a picture for me. I enjoy quoting bits and explaining how that worked even better for me on a reread than it did the first time now that it's in full context. I like telling authors how a scene made me bite my lip because I was worried and tense because I was so invested in their writing. And no author, not one, has ever turned to me and gone, "Ugh, you Gen Z and your comments! Whatever happened to the good old days?"

I see the "don't speak, want to be spoken to or respond" attitude on DW and on tumblr from people who self-identify as fandom olds and I'm sorry to get all Gen Z psychoanalytical on you, but all I think to myself when I read that is, "Who hurt you?", because that's the only reason I can imagine someone viewing people interacting with others as bad. It reads as a trauma thing.

--

Really? That's a "fandom Old" thing now? I thought most people were still hung up on how community was so much better on LJ or whatever.

[lixxen]

can you tell us about the worldbuilding of your new au?

Why of course!

To start this off though, let me tell you a fun little thing about the Blog AU that is built in!

We made this AU with the idea that people who read it can put their characters into it. You know the Cafe AU that everyone is sticking their OCs in? You can do something similar! The fic is going to be canon to y'all but y'all won't be 100% canon to the fic so you guys can interact with the canon! So we genuinely encourage you guys to make outside content and make your OCs blogs or designs for this. Go crazy with it and join in! I will eventually need usernames and a few other things for the blog/forum skins. If you make anything, make sure to tag me on here (and if it's on Instagram, I'm Lixxendraws). I want you guys to be able to draw/write your characters in this AU because it'd be such a fun thing to do!

Anyways.

There are a few doodles of their official outfit designs but I don't like how they look. But I will post them eventually!

Here is the world building Under The Cut

Branch's Kismet identity is Bass while his in person one is Lapis for the sake of his safety and privacy.

Technology:

Napbug: digital audio sharing website whereP3 files are shared. Mostly for music rips and downloads

TOL: the internet hosting. Mostly known for the chatroom they speak on. You need to know the person's connection code to directly connect to them. You can chat on it and view forums/blogs directly from their TOL. You can have up to four identifications per computer

PHP (personal homepage): the blog domains they use. They can be reached outside of TOL, along with personal forums

Trollums: the nicknames for forums. You can find people's TOL & PHP on trollums and it is how people mostly find blogs

BeeperBugs (beepers): little hugs that act like pagers. They will send and receive messages somehow (they never figures it out). You will hear them beep and they can carry codes; you can put them onto landlines and they will put in the numbers. They also can use Morse code to send messages instead of needing calls.

Computers: dial up computers. They are simple and can connect to CD drives (not built in), VHS players, floppy disks, cassettes, and can burn CDs/DVDs. They're big and chunky; no laptops. Internet cafes and libraries are popular due to not as many people having them. People learn coding to break and customize them

Cassettes and MP3 players: they are popular and do not have earbuds. Only over ear headphones that are wired.

Very basic printer/fax machines that run off landlines

Televisions: tube/box TVs. Podbuster is a popular VHS and DVD rental/store. DVDs are barely used due to being new

Film cameras are very much still used and popular. People will develop themselves or take them to the library to be digitalized. There's services to develop photos still

Zines exist! They will be produced by a group of fans and sent out. They will trade items or find ways to collect money to pay for them. You will find forums dedicated to zines and posting zines months after print release. There is big fan culture

Blogs are every big. Normally personal blogs will interact with each other and have fun; but then there's fan blogs. They only post about their interests and will post some personal stuff. They're almost always anonymous unless you directly know them.

Blog lore:

PinkBandLyfe is a popular BroZone and Kismet blog that always has the best images, videos, and MP3s. They've nicknamed the blog owner Pinkie and know her bias is Clay, but since she is around Bitty B’s age, she has a soft spot for him. Bass in Kismet is her bias. But since Bass is a private person she promotes healthy boundaries and privacy. She preaches for Bitty B and Bass’s privacy. She's speculated a few times but that's it. Everyone gives her her privacy and keep her identity secret since she is big on that and they respect her (and fear her disappearing). Her blog is chaotic but well organized and out together!

BatterBug is a survival/doomsday blog that people learn survival skills from and it talks about literally everything and anything about tragedy and skills to use in them. They call the owner BB and call him paranoid. But it's useful so he has a following

ReverbFan27 is a Bad Hair Day blog that isn't as in-depth as PinkBandLyfe. The blog is run by the user who has been nicknamed 27. He tends to be more practical and people enjoy watching him ramble about the technical aspects of the performances. They know his older brother, who is nicknames Ef, was into them first and got 27 into it. They only know that, he is a Billy Reverb bias, and he is the youngest child. The rest is a secret. They speculate who he is because sometimes he has the best pictures of BHD. But they haven't figured it out yet. He's VERY organized

Everybody knows Pinkie and 27 are friends and they helped each other get popular. Sometimes you will see them give each other content to post! 27 somehow has never before seen BroZone stuff or will mention he has rare collectibles that Pinkie lives for

People ship Pinkie and 27. They laugh and brush it off

Misc story lore that isn't spoilers:

Bergens made peace 10 years earlier when Poppy accidentally ran into Bridget when she ran off angrily. She helped Bridget on her own and it creates positive political ties!

The kingdoms live how they are post Trolls World Tour due to (unspecified) events happening! It is noted to happen a generation ago with King Thrash and King Peppy taking thrones

The kingdoms now have bigger populations and are more spread out! They have multiple cities and towns. Neighboring troll tribes now touch, but you must put in effort to travel

Royals freely live amongst their people in society due to respect from the people. They're big on “humanizing” the royals. Royals are not big on public appearances outside of their kingdoms. The ambassadors are the only ones seen in the wild

Branch spends his free time reading/writing in the coffee shop or in a library. He normally has his headphones on with a Walktroll (walkman). He lives to write his blog posts by hand first, so he writes them in the coffee shop. He also carries around a camera to take pictures of things. He develops them himself in his pod and put them on the walls if they're good then in albums if they're okay or bad. He has a TON of childhood photos from Rosiepuff, who died a natural death before he joined Kismet. He uses her camera. He so takes a ton of pictures of Kismet and sends them to Pinkie!

[lonelyrosebindery]

What is Lonely Rose Bindery?

Hi!

If you're reading this, you're probably either interested in fanbinding, or a fic writer trying to ensure I'm not some rando on the internet trying to get your personal information or a scammer planning to illegally sell something. Feel free to message me if you have any concerns that aren't answered below!

I'm TS, but you can also call me Rose. I write fanfic on AO3 here and (previously) Fanfic.net here, blog about diabetes in fandom at @type1diabetesinfandom and @yourfavisdiabetic, and flail about misc fandom stuff on my main @too-short-for-my-own-good. I'm also on Discord @ tooshortformyowngood.

I've been in various fan spaces since the early 2010s, and I'll probably keep at until the day I die! I'm multifandom and multiship. Besides writing, I also draw fan art and make podfics, moodboards, playlists, meta, and headcanons. I've attended local and online cons and been to fan meetups.

And, at the end of 2022, I started fanbinding.

Why do I bind fanfiction?

It's March 29th as I write this, and I've read approximately 2 million words of fanfiction this year. I have over 1600 bookmarks on AO3.

I bind fics primarily to preserve them. I've seen many fics be deleted or locked before I downloaded them. (I'm sure we've all been there.) Keeping a copy on my shelf means I don't have to worry as much about losing a favorite story.

A physical copy makes rereading much easier! I get eye strain easily, and some websites just have horrible formatting.

I get to show a writer that I loved their story enough to HAND BIND it. I've met some amazing people this way!

Traditionally hand-binding fanfic pushes back against the notion that fic isn't "real writing."

What to expect on this blog:

Here, I share some of the fanbinding projects I've done, which includes fic, fan studies, meta, freely-available original fiction, public domain works, comics, and zines. Each book is lovingly crafted to honor its creator/s.

As a proud member of the Renegade Bookbinding Guild @renegadeguild, I'm part of a wonderful community dedicated to celebrating fic writers and preserving fandom's dying gift economy. It's an honor to contribute to this cause, and I love getting the chance to give people a bound copy of their writing/art--it's an amazing feeling to get to hold your own work in your hands!

To Authors & Artists:

To all the talented authors and artists whose works I've bound: consider this an open invitation to reach out to me for an author's copy! It's my small way of saying thank you for the joy (and angst lol) your projects have brought me.

I usually try to contact writers/artists directly, but sometimes it doesn't work. Don't be shy! I want to give you a gift!

I don't share any personal information (I would hope that's obvious, but this IS the internet...), and I encourage people to use a PO Box or a friend's address when being offered a fanbinding. Just make sure the friend or other proxy in question is ok with being sent fanfic!

If you don't want to risk receiving a physical copy, I can share the typeset with you instead! The typeset is the formatted PDF, to make the fic itself look like a traditionally published story. These can be plain or artistic, depending on the project and the style of the typesetter.

If there's artwork that's been made for the fic, please let me know! I look for that but it can be tricky, especially when things aren't linked together.

I do NOT share typesets to anyone outside the Renegade Bookbinding Guild, except the author/artist. Even in Renegade, I only share with established members via personal requests unless the author gives me blanket permission to share with the guild as a whole.

Lonely Rose Bindery operates on a NON-PROFIT basis.

Please note that while I pour my heart and soul into each project, I DO NOT accept commissions! I am a hobbyist driven by a deep, deeeeep love for fanfic. I bind purely for the joy of crafting, and the preservation of stories that mean the world to me.

If you are not the author or artist who worked on a specific fic, do NOT request a copy! You are welcome to ask questions and talk about the craft. My askbox is open, and reblogs are turned on.

Message me if you...

are an author/artist who wants to request multiple copies (i.e. for friends or family, or different editions)

kindly want to help with shipping costs (because international shipping is fucking expensive)

have specific colors or themes in mind for your fic

I will not take requests for specific materials, nor accept payment for any materials used.

Lonely Rose Bindery is not just about preserving fanfiction; it's about celebrating the creativity and community of fandom. With each project, I try to honor the stories and art that I love and to promote a gift economy against the rise of consumerism that has recently plagued multiple fandoms.

I look forward to sharing more fanbinds and continuing to improve my bookbinding skills. I never knew how many ways you can make a book until I started this!

Remember, my askbox is always open, so feel free to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or just to say hello. Happy reading!

[imsodishy]

The reason some people feel weird about it is because over the last two years with AO3 becoming popular on TikTok, there's been a trend of people downloading fics so they can re-upload them to other sites to "share", pass them around if the fic gets deleted, and re-upload them to AO3 on their own account if the fic gets deleted. There was also talk of a Discord server where you could share links to the downloaded fics if they were locked, removed, changed, ect.

Obviously when authors remove their works intentionally its for set reasons and they don't want the fic to keep existing in a publicly accessible manner, so that's why the narrative around downloading fics in general has changed.

That's why I specified for personal use. Reposting has always been an issue and it has always been bad, but that's not the same thing at all.

Now, this next bit might be an unpopular opinion, but please understand I say it as a writer (and artist); While a creator absolutely has the right to pull their work from public display (and i do think something like a discord counts as public by the way) they can't strike it from existence. And that's fine.

Look, there are fics I wrote when I was a teenager that just thinking about makes me want to curl up like a pill bug and scream, but there is every chance that people out there still have copies of them and that they might even show them to someone. Even though I nuked my ff.net account, even though the forums I was posting on don't even exist anymore (hell, zines from the 60s and 70s have survived!). And it's important to make peace with that.

[angie-j-kay]

OC in Fifteen, doubling as a Snippet Sunday because I AM TIRED.

I'm sneaking into @k--havok's open tag, and tagging @dyrewrites and @doublegoblin. Also leaving an OPEN TAG FOR EVERYONE as well. :D

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

Writing for Agent Bethany Larson, FBI. We'll meet her in Chapter Six, I believe.

1.

"Well, the fellow at the desk called me 'Missy,'" she shrugged. "I showed him my badge and everything, and all Officer White did was grumble about how 'first Nelson let the perp go, now the feds are here effing things up.' Only that wasn't the word he used. I don't like that kind of language. Besides, I didn't get this far by not being curious."

2.

"Yes, that's a lovely thing to say in front of the FBI agent, Chief Perkins. Great job. Now could you give him the keys before you write up his dismissal paperwork? For some reason, I just don't trust you to give me the right evidence."

3.

"To be fair, anything that can shred a man without leaving any signs of forced entry is probably outside of your weight class."

4.

"Ever get a really bad feeling about something?"

5.

"She's gone, glitter or no."

6.

"That's not mildew in the bathtub ... that's blood residue or I'm Martha Washington."

7.

"... if you're not here to kill [SPOILER] then... I really don't know why you're here.”

8.

"...I take it you were responsible for that, Little Miss Arson?”

9.

“You picked a heck of a damsel to play shining knight to"

10.

“This isn't about one person's job, you know? There are things out there, very real things that could cause a lot of death and destruction if they wanted to. You cops couldn't handle it. The army probably couldn't handle them either, some of the things I've dealt with... Demons, monsters, cultists. That one in ten case I investigate, I wasn't kidding when I said you needed a stiff drink afterwards.”

11.

“It's pretty far off, don't you think?” Miller cocked her head sideways at the church. “If you want help from a higher power, though, we've got the time.”

12.

“Get your danged gun, Rutledge!”

13.

“Good guys do not dismember people, Rutledge!” Miller yelled back. “I shouldn't have to tell you this!”

14.

“Son, I drop this gun and your mole escapes!” she called back. “Now why don't you go radio your boss and tell him I have the genius who burned down [SPOILER]'s office, hm? ... Can you do it fast, please? This one's got kind of a foul mouth on her!”

15.

“A peace offering, that's all.” Miller dismissed him with a small hand wave. “You've got bigger problems, [SPOILER], and I think you've already lost people to that problem. Now, I also think that young lady in there knows more about this murderer than she wants to tell me. She might tell you.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Angie's Patreon

Angie's Ko-Fi

Alright, folks, I've got my first Patreon and Ko-Fi rewards queued up and ready to go! For $3 USD a month, Tier 2 supporters on my Patreon and Ko-Fi can download printable chapters of my novel, What You Cast Out: A Tale From Little Egypt. The first two chapters are set to go live on February 1, though if I'm completely honest my first time posting things on Ko-Fi glitched a bit and all of the February rewards are already available for download there. Oops.

Anyway, while Tier 2 supporters will be able to read this before everyone else, chapters will be made available every other Monday on both of my sites starting on March 5.

All of the art on these covers is made by me, a combination of watercolor, collage, and just a smidge of digital manipulation for the covers themselves. NO AI WAS OR EVER WILL BE USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF MY ZINES.

--------------------------------------------------------

If you like this post, I'd love it if you shared it so more folks could see it. The more people share this post, the more people will be able to read the novel!

And if you'd like to join my taglist, let me know!

The current taglist: @wedgie-of-destiny, @nightacquainted, @storminmywake, @brokenandlonelysouls, @tattur, @theamazingchickenman, @solstice-muse-collective, @axl-ul, @tucsonhorse