#Fandom PSA

[megamindfandombookclub]

On BlueSky social, Both Brett Simons (one of Megamind's writers) and @neil-gaiman (cause he's one of my favorites and I love him.) responded to my questions about how things were with the strike finally nearing completion with better pay and protections for the writers.

This is what they said.

How can you help?

Now negotiations are still being made and as of this moment, the contracts are not signed, but you can help them by donating to the causes, and/or spreading the word!

Solidarity friends!

[gilbirda]

Another fandom PSA - Bookmarks

Hello everyone, I am back with yet another informative post, since I've observed some behavior that could get out of control real fast.

Again, the point is never about shaming those who have done this, but to inform and warn about how disheartening these things can be; and what can you do to avoid hurting anyone in the future.

Let's talk about bookmarks.

Looks easy enough to add a bookmark, just type some notes — maybe to remind future you what the fic was about, maybe some random thoughts of the fic, maybe the chapter where you left of — add some tags if you are that organized and slap the bookmark to a Collection if you have that.

But I want to bring attention to this little guy:

If you are going to leave a hurtful message, at least have the decency to not leave it where the author will see it.

Authors can and will see the bookmarks! I can only speak for myself but I do check the bookmarks because sometimes people get creative and have funny Notes, or their tags are hilarious.

But, sometimes, we wonder if y'all know authors can see the bookmarks, unless you set it as a Private Bookmark.

What do I mean with hurtful bookmarks? Well:

*gestures vaguely towards these*

Granted, not all are rancid takes, but some truly give weird vibes? As in, it feels like people doesn't know authors can see their Notes and bookmarks?

You can have an opinion about the story, that's completely valid, but the option of setting it to Private Bookmark is right there.

So, as a rule of thumb, if you wouldn't like someone telling your words to your face then have the courtesy of not doing the same for someone else.

Mark it as Private if you'd rather not let the author see your Notes.

For more information about Bookmarks, AO3 provides a FAQ page.

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Epic Fandom We Need To Talk! (An Open Letter)

As a former survivor of severe Cyberbullying and harrasment I can no longer stay silent anymore. You have forced my hand.

This has gone way too far and I am massively disappointed. All I ask is that you listen to what I have to say. This is no longer a joke as a survivor of Cyberbullying and harrasment I can say that a misunderstanding has turned into The Epic Fandom putting the livelihood and well being of artists in danger. I ask you to be respectful and understand I am speaking from old wounds and experience. Please don't twist my words, I don't support 🍇 or Antinous he is a horrible character.

Tw: Mentions of Cyberbullying, 🍇 and harassment

Dear Epic Fandom,

You are better then this, I know you are. Polites taught us to greet the world with open arms and accept when people make mistakes and stop holding onto are anger. The fandom is growing and we can't stop it but I'm really disappointed in the people letting hate win and turning the fandom venomous and toxic

We are all Epic Fans but behind the glass on your screen there's a person, a person with feelings who you know nothing about. You all don't know the real Melody typing this but your all probably gonna make assumptions based on what you dont know and that is the danger of being online. The person who posted fanart of Antinous and Telemachus you didn't like, they have real feelings. Complicated messy feelings that aren't able to be articulated enough online.

As a survivor of bullying myself my motto is block or scroll. I myself am very uncomfortable with a lot of the ao3 tags shipping Odysseus with Poseidon or Zeus but do I go angrily type on my keyboard? No I don't cos it's none of my damnn business. When I saw that art, I was confused and uncomfortable but instead of being reckless and sentimental I asked for clarification. Taking Polites advice I used open arms and talked about what was bothering me without attacking the artist. Instead of being like Polites you all became Poseidon. Ruthlessness Is Mercy is not the way to go, it's a toxic way to go about life. Did you all not listen to that Thunder Saga and see how it destroyed everything Odysseus had known for the past thirteen years.

You should all be absolutely ashamed of yourself. This is not what the Epic Fandom should be. You don't like someone's fan art ask for clarification and or block. There is no need to be Ruthless and cruel. The fact two genuine heartfelt Apologises have been made and you still can't let it go very much clearly shows your character. You are very much like Poseidon and Zeus and should be ashamed. In Ares words you are all sick cowards. Not only that but you are clearly projecting. I suggest you go to therapy if you think your time in the Epic the musical fandom should be spent bullying and harassing people then leave. The number one rule is that there is always a person behind the screen and that you should think before you type.

I'm still not over the fact how you have twisted and triggered someone's truama. I also can't believe hate is being given after the artist mentioned her experience. 🍇 is not a thing to weaponise. I feel like the Wisdom Saga has made you far too comfortable in how you handle and discuss 🍇. The artist forgot her trigger warnings and wasn't even trying to imply the twisted image you put on her. Also I pointed out she shouldn't have tagged it Epic and apologied. Jorge has made adaptations to The Odssey a piece of fiction. What Jorge has done with Antinous is his own creative liberties. If you can't have sensitive and respectful conversation about something that is still happening to people I don't know what to say. Accusing someone of supporting 🍇 is not okay at all. The artist wasn't attending that way and understands she shouldn't have done what she did but it goes both ways. Look for context before you slam. Judging someone based on an honest mistake and huge misunderstanding is dangerous and cruel. Do you not understand the dangers this could put the artist in in real life. Please have open arms and think before you type. This is a serious topic and not a joke.

Moving on I want to talk about why I think this blew up so bad. It's because Elian was commissioned to do an animatic for Jorge. Listen you all would have blocked if it wasn't for that. I read comments saying they idolised her and that is a really f**** dangerous thing to do. Idiolising someone because they've been noticed or hired by Jorge isn't healthy at all. At the end of the day we are all human beings. Elian is allowed to make mistakes and grow. Outside of Epic this is becoming a massive problem in genuine.

Worse I've seen and heard about Artists like Mirscy and AnniFlamma getting attacked just for defending their friend. I'm sorry are we not allowed to defend our friends now from bullying? I can't speak for them but if I saw my friend getting hated and harassed on I'd be angry too, it's like a natural emotion to feel. Then again you are the same fandom that mocks Eurylochus for sticking up for his crew so I'm not suprised. These artists are human beings and not God's because Jorge noticed and appreciated their work. Stop twisting these artists into people there not.

I'm not Tiresias but I can see Jorge stopping collaborating with artists on animatics if you keep this disgusting behaviour up. Constructive criticism is okay but falsely twisting the image of an artist is not okay at all by doing this you are dehumanising artists and doing exactly what Hollywood does. Jorge will have to stop commissioning people it you keep using the fact he noticed them against them when they make mistakes like all human beings do.

Please do better and stop being Poseidons. An 8 year grudge was unhealthy and got him nowhere. Be more like Polites and Greet The World with open arms. Not everything is black and white. Tik Tok built the Epic Fandom up and you hold all the power.

Stay kind and great the world the world with open arms.

Yours Sincerely,

Melody

They/Them

Ps: If you send me hate and twist my words be warned I have friends as well. One particular friend was there when a lot of my Cyberbullying truama happened and is aware why this has triggered me so badly and caused an episode.

Attack you will be blocked. I'll also remove reblogs.

Attack and you will be reported.

You don't scare me.

Be nice Epic Fandom and don't become The Monster. I'm willing to have civil conversations but that's it.

[weirdthetag]

Queen's Thief's final year of Yuletide exchange eligibility

...is 2024! Sign-ups are from October 8th to October 18th. If you sometimes offer or request QT in the Yuletide exchange, consider doing so one last time! First time? None better!

Q: Are a lot of people interested in Queen's Thief fic this year?

A: Yuletide always has a lot of interest in QT: it’s in the top 5 most-written about fandoms in Yuletide! It's reliably popular in requests and offers alike, and the fandom has an active fic scene that I can report is excited to go out with a bang.

Q: What characters have been nominated?

A: The usual suspects are all nominated—Gen, Irene, Helen, Sophos, Costis, Kamet, Pheris. We also have Gen’s mother and children (Eugenia and Hector); the Magus, Aristogiton, and Ion of Attolia; and Timris and Verix. And we have worldbuilding!

Q: Wait, what's Yuletide?

A: Giant annual fic exchange for rare fandoms. Works are posted on Ao3, but see the admin team's Dreamwidth as a hub for links and information: https://yuletide-admin.dreamwidth.org/

Q: Wait, why are we losing eligibility?

A: We're posting a lot of fic! To be too big for Yuletide, we have to have 1,000 fics or more that are 1,000 words or longer, complete, and in English on Ao3. @hamiathesgiftexchange and I have done the math: we will hit this before next year's nominations.

Q: I have another question!

A: DM me here or say hello in the fan Discord! https://discord.gg/JYJufae

[themotherofhorses]

Okay, so lemme get this straight.

a lot of y’all within the CoD fandom are perfectly fine with Ghost being paired with a stereotypical “American” person —

— but lose your absolute marbles at me for pairing him up with a Native American woman.

Suddenly I’m:

erasing his sexuality and “canon romance” with soap.

fetishizing my own culture.

sending my own ppl back like fifty years.

Okaaayyyyy?

I’m sensing a pattern here. Some of y’all really love to abuse the fuck outta that tumblr anon button to bash OC creators for creating BIPOC!OCs and shipping them with your favorite fictional characters, especially men.

Maybe it’s rooted in your hatred for OCs, or your extreme love for certain canon x canon romances. I don’t know, but y’all gotta chill the fuck out.

I’ve witnessed this before, particularly in the MCU fandom. A hell of a lot of y’all Steve/Bucky fans seemingly burst a hemorrhoid when Black writers pair either men with a Black!reader or Black!OC.

It is true that many of us carry heavy generational trauma due to discrimination, displacement, and attempted genocide as a result of colonialism and colonization. But that does not mean we cannot find enjoyment in certain fictional characters (that also happen to be white as well).

What to take from this? Stop messaging BIPOC — ESPECIALLY INDIGENOUS WRITERS — with the mentality that we cannot enjoy current, modern fandom topics and fictional characters.

And if Ghost being in an interracial relationship with a Native woman pisses you off THAT BADLY that Andrew Jackson would be proud, the block button is right there.

Thank you :)

[witheredoffherwitch]

To avoid seeing certain tags or posts on your feed or in search results, here's a guide on how to mute them...

I have been getting a lot of questions from my mutuals about how to filter out certain tags or blog pages from their dashboard or search results. Instead of answering each person individually, I decided to make a post about it. With the current state of our fandom, I believe this feature could be useful to many of you. The steps are straightforward, so here's a brief guide:

To begin, click on the Settings option located on the left-hand side of your page. Then, navigate to the Accounts section found on the right-hand side of the page.

Scroll down the page until you reach the Content you see section. Within this section, there are two options for filtering content: hashtags and page links.

In the Filtered Post Content, you can include links to specific blog pages that you wish to hide from your dash. Whereas in Filtered Tags section, you have the option to suppress certain hashtags from appearing on your feed.

And voila! You've effectively muted the tags and blogs without having to block the account. So go nuts and enjoy the peace and quiet – HAPPY muting, everyone! 😙🫶

[schrijverr]

y'all... someone posted a part of my story on tiktok over one of those minecraft jumping videos while an AI voice read it out... not sure if I made it or sunk to a new low lmao

But on a more serious note, I do hope such a thing doesn't become the norm, because there was no credit given to me and no link to my story (someone in the comments did link me, which is how someone found me to tell me about it). It's one of those accounts that reads out tumblr posts, so this is a deviation and the fact that they couldn't even be assed to add my username anywhere or a link sucks. I also don't want to think about how they had to feed my fic to that AI voice... jikes.

Anyway, I'm not looking for a hate campaign against this account, but I would like to reach people who think about doing this for clicks and views and gently tell them not to. Other writers might think differently, so maybe tell them if it happened to them, because I was happy to be notified <3

This is naturally different than recommending fics on your tiktok, if that's what you want to do, then that's fine. You're sending people over to the original creator, but just stealing it is kind of shitty

[itsaship-literally]

I am gonna say this only once…

Chill, guys! It’s fine.

There is no reason to freak out over the film ending on a romantic note….

The original did not end on a ship note either!

The pair were on the antagonistic side. It was a comedic ending with a head shrinking and a dance party.

And I love that! We had minimal interactions and it gave us plenty of things to work with.

We did not have the serenade nor the second wedding with BJ’s goofball simp face. We did not have a this friendly teamwork, nor this understanding that the marriage has an actual use other than the vague notion of life.

We had eww’s and yucks, and a whole lotta yikes….And to be fair, if he didn’t gross her out, would he be Beetlejuice?

Regardless of the ending. It’s not changing anything. Chill. Relax. Enjoy the movie and let’s enjoy the ride.

Also! I’m gonna see it on the 5th with my husband and kiddos, but this blog will remain spoiler free for at least a good month. I’ll save draft reblogs of movie verse fics and art if it contains spoilers not based on promo materials.

But seriously, final time, enjoy the movie, have fun and try not to get so hung up over the ending or pairings becoming endgame.

A non-pairing ending is not going to ruin anything. We got more in the short run of the promo materials than we have had in over 30 years.

Note: This post is in response to multiple posts here and my private DM’s of concerned people.

Note note: do not send me spoilers. I mean it… I’ll temp block ya

[sad-endings-suck]

and if I said that lots of mizu/akemi shippers are actually mizu/fem self-insert and mizu/fem oc shippers then what?

[megamindfandombookclub]

Official anouncment that Part 2 of Season 1 of Megamind rules will be returning to Peacock on June 20th!

21st June on Stan

Taken from our Evil Lair Discord group, here is the current list to stream Megamind Rules in different countries:

"Megamind Rules!" Show Availability:

USA: Streaming platform: Peacock https://www.peacocktv.com/ **Date: ** March 1st AUSTRALIA Streaming platform: Stan https://www.stan.com.au/ Date: March 2nd UNITED KINGDOM (Unknown) Other Countries: Currently unknown. You may need to consider getting a VPN to use Peacock from your location. (The UK and AU have trademarks set, so it's likely you'll be getting it as well.)

"Megamind vs The Doom Syndicate" Movie Availability

USA: Streaming platform: Peacock https://www.peacocktv.com/ **Date: ** March 1st AUSTRALIA (Note: Unconfirmed, but assumed. See <#983559635455856651>) Streaming platform: Stan https://www.stan.com.au/ Date: March 2nd (?) UNITED KINGDOM Streaming platform: Sky Cinema https://www.sky.com/tv/cinema Date: April 7th

(Below info is pulled from FlixPatrol https://flixpatrol.com/title/megamind-vs-the-doom-syndicate/streaming/)

BRAZIL Streaming platform: Amazon Prime https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0GQ8FGUVP06TWTZLX0J4XOJNKM/ ALGERIA, BAHRAIN, CHAD, EGYPT, IRAQ, JORDAN, KUWAIT, LEBANON, LIBYA, MAURITANIA, MOROCCO, OMAN, QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA, SOMALIA, SOUTH SUDAN, TUNISIA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, YEMEN Streaming platform: OSN https://osnplus.com/ DENMARK (Megamind mod Dommedagssyndikatet) Streaming platform: Via Play https://viaplay.dk/film/megamind-mod-dommedagssyndikatet-2023 FINLAND (Megamind vs. Tuomiosyndikaatti) Streaming platform: Via Play https://viaplay.fi/leffat/megamind-vs.-tuomiosyndikaatti-2023 ICELAND Streaming platform: Via Play https://viaplay.is/movies/megamind-vs-the-doom-syndicate-2023 NORWAY (Megamind og Dommedagssyndikatet) Streaming platform: Via Play https://viaplay.no/filmer/megamind-og-dommedagssyndikatet-2023 SWEDEN (Megamind och Undergångssyndikatet) Streaming platform: Via Play https://viaplay.se/film/megamind-och-undergangssyndikatet-2023 Other Countries: Currently unknown. You may need to consider getting a VPN to use Peacock from your location. (The UK and AU have trademarks set, so it's likely you'll be getting it as well.)

Please support Dreamworks to show demand for more Megamind content! We've waited this long-- show them it matters!

Please do what you can to watch Megamind Rules from a legit source so that Dreamworks can get paid. With more views, there is higher chance of being for another season and/or ANOTHER movie.

DW constantly treats Megamind as an afterthought and gave the team a very small budget to work with on the show. They put their hearts into it and made something very fun and cute! Let's show our gratitude by giving back all the support we can.

The Animators Union may be protesting for better wages this summer (as is their right!) so by watching their work, we can give back to them!

Please don't allow Megamind Rules to become lost media. Please help us to keep something beautiful in this world.

If you're fan and want to join a cool and fun loving group, feel free to hop in and say Ollo!!

[brendaonao3]

PSA to the people who need to hear it:

Sorry not sorry I think the MAIN FUCKING CHARACTER in Top Gun Maverick is hot & deserves fic written about him that features him prominently & in a sexual way, but hey, you do you  Just stop being a big baby about the fact that plenty of us find the Hot Old Man to be HOT

[iri-desky]

I cannot make this up

IT'S CALLED WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING [REBORN]

LISTEN TO IT ON YOUTUBE HERE

FANDOMS REJOICE. THE OLD KINEMASTER AMV KID IN ME IS OVERJOYED

[tseliius]

this a public service announcement

ok ok. since we got the devil may cry netflix trailer today i’ve seen my close friends getting worried over what’s gonna happen to the fanbase after it releases and if viewership increases.

buckle in because this is a sorta long post

for those of you who don’t know, the devil may cry anime is apparently in the same extended universe (of sorts) as netflix’s castlevania.

in the past, when castlevania got big, new fans began to flock to the fandoms and get to posting, as fans do. all was well.

except it kinda wasn’t.

some newer fans were not as kind to fans of the castlevania video games, and instead of- i dunno, playing the games themselves and experiencing the reason why we have a castlevania show in the first place, they decided to completely disregard and ignore them and the fans, and essentially substitute the games’ canon with the show’s canon.

these fans, sometimes, were very disrespectful towards the older fans and the love they held for the original video games. my friends were there to see it happen (on this very site, no less) and it was incredibly disheartening for them to see.

i would also be hurt if someone, who is a fan of a newer installment in my favorite franchise that has a new continuity, completely disregard the previous canon and the love that older fans like me have for it and just substitute it with the new one without once acknowledging or engaging with us in the first place.

if this sounds nitpicky, it’s just because i’m bad at words — if you understand what i’m getting at so far, then great!! now let me get to the main point.

there is a good possibility of new fans coming in when the anime comes out next spring, and if you originally knew nothing about devil may cry and you will be watching the anime for yourself, then:

1. welcome to the crew. we have pizza!

2. this message is for you!!!

i will also be watching the new anime! i’m always excited to have new people to talk about something i love with. however, i am also a fan of the original video games. i may not be good at them, but i love them.

if you decide to engage with us in any way, we welcome you, but we humbly ask this of you:

be kind.

it is okay if you like the show’s canon more than the games’ canon! if you haven’t given the games a try and you want to, then please do!!! don’t let the difficulty spike fool you — there’s good shit in there, we promise.

however, we ask that you don’t completely disregard or ignore the original games, or be disrespectful to older fans in any way. that can be disheartening to a lot of people, and a little exhausting considering how i’ve detailed that this has happened before.

tl;dr, be kind and civil to your fellow devil hunters, people. we love this just as much as you do, and we want to share that love with all of you as a community.

but y’know, i’m just a strange gal on the internet. i’m not your mom.

hope this reaches the right people. don’t forget: i love you! 🩷

[bibi-likes-to-draw]

Just a a lil reminder that his name is Bruce

Not Spruce

Not Spruce/Bruce

Not (Sp)Bruce

It’s Bruce

Trust me, no one in this fandom will be confused as to who you’re referring to when you say Bruce. You don’t need to clarify it or use his deadname for ppl to understand.

This is the basic respect that we provide for each other. You’re not gonna call Mike Matthew because that’s not their name.

If you can’t even respect the chosen name of a fictional character, I don’t wanna know how you feel about real people with chosen names. If you claim yourself to be one who respects chosen names, call him by his name.

PSA over!

[themotherofhorses]

Hi guys, it's Vic! Also known as:

Round TWO at addressing the extreme racism in the CoD fandom!

So it’s both odd and funny that my Indigenous fem!OC has pissed off so many random people, especially with the fact that I created her to ship with Ghost.

(A fictional character that has NO canon love interest, FYI. Sorry to bust y'all's little bubble. Well, there's Mara and Urban Tracker....)

Anyways, I really don't care if this post sounds bitchy in nature. I really don't, not anymore. Some of y'all need a damn wakeup call. Several months ago, in December of 2023, I made a post (here) regarding the sudden influx of hate I began receiving following the posting of my OC, SilentDove Reyes. For around two weeks after that post, the hate died down, and I felt motivated to create more content involving Dove and Ghost.

Until the hate picked up again with every little thing I posted that related to my OC x Ghost.

However....this new hate incorporated the MMIW. A bold ass move, in my opinion.

If you are not aware, the MMIW stands for "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women." Alternate spellings include the MMIWG & MMIWGTS (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirits). As of 2023, statistics indicate that Indigenous women face a 10x murder rate than any other race/ethnicity. I have made a previous post regarding the issue, seen here. The unfortunate truth is that young Indigenous girls are more likely to be SA'd and murdered than to attend college. Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, I am an Indigenous woman. That is no surprise there; I fashioned my OC to provide myself (and, by extension, others) with Native representation in a franchise I greatly enjoy. What IS surprising, however, is that me doing so has pissed off so many people. I'm very certain some of y'all must descend from Andrew Jackson, or John Wayne cause, christ on a bike driven by a pike.

Here is a screenshot of a hate anon I recently received:

Listen, I don't care who you ship Ghost with. I really don't. I've blocked numerous shipping tags, remained mindful of the content I'm interacting with, and surrounded myself with fellow mutuals who also have personal OCs. It is really that easy.

What I do care about is the fact that some of you CANNOT separate fanon headcanons from canon material.

Exhibit A:

So let’s clear some stuff up!

Soap x Ghost is NOT canon.

Ghost being queer is NOT canon.

And, most definitely, Ghost being a woman abuser who would harm/abuse/murder a woman (either physically, emotionally, psychologically) is NOT canon.

What IS canon is his and Soap's strong bond. In my eyes, that is a brotherly bond, reminding me of a big brother/little brother relationship; in my fanfiction, Soap is Ghost's children's uncle. In fact, his son (second-born child) is named after him.

You are, of course, free to view them as romantic; what you are not free to do is attack OC creators/non-shippers for not perceiving them like that.

That is just fucking weird and delusional behavior. Knock it off. You're giving your fellow normal shippers a bad name.

ALSO! Let’s clear things up!

1. I’m not straight — I’m bisexual and demisexual.

2. I’m only half white (Spanish, with Mexican heritage). I’m QUITE LITERALLY an enrolled Native, so I guess the best way to describe me is “biracial.”

3. It’s y’all ruining the canon gay representation by shipping Laswell—a GAY woman—with Price, despite the fact that she canonically has a wife.

4. My OC does not have a “dumb fucking name.” Her name is an Indigenous name with a specific backstory to it; it’ll be explored further in future fanfics once I find the motivation to return to writing.

Anyways, I highly doubt this will be the last post I create regarding this problem; apparently, a nice chunk of the fandom has this intense animosity towards fem!OCs, fem!Y/Ns, and BIPOC!OC creators. Alright. With that being said, I invite anyone who has similar experiences to share yours, either in the reblogs or in separate posts.

As sometimes we say during pow wows:

“The floor is all yours.”

Thank you!

[gilbirda]

Yet Another Fandom PSA - tagging ships

Hi, it's me again.

Today I come with a small (ish?) pet peeve regarding proper tagging - tagging ships.

(⬆ This is where the magic happens)

What should you tag in "Relationships"?

Tag only the main relationship(s) that show up in the story. The relationship the fic is really about. Is about siblings? Is about a romantic relationship? Is about a platonic ship? Tag that, and only that.

Note: For Romantic relationship, use Character A/Character B. For Gen and Platonic relationships, use Character A & Character B

Don't tag relationships that are not relevant, or appear as background.

That includes, secondary ships that develop in the background or are established "off-screen" and don't actually have any screen time in the fic.

What if I want to warn/describe a ship that does show up anyway?

You can tag them as background in Additional Tags, adding some information that nuance how they show up if you want. For example, if it's a mention, or past relationship or if it's a temporary pairing but not the endgame.

eg. "Background Character A/Character B" or "Minor Character A/Character B" or "Mentions of Character A/Character B" or "Past Character A/Character B"

You can also use the Summary to specify and give context in what manner these relationships show up.

Why would I care? Is just a tag.

There are many reasons why tagging relationships properly is beneficial for the fandom as a whole.

First of all, keeps your tags clean and simple. It is easier for people browsing the Archive to know at a glance what the fic is about if your tags give the right amount of information and nothing more.

Second, it makes very difficult to filter if you like a ship that's not as popular as others. It can get very frustrating expecting your favorite ship to appear only to get to chapter 13 and neither of your ship shows up.

Third, the "otp:true" trick can only do so much.

If this is the first time you hear about "otp:true", it is a filtering trick that will automatically filter out all fics that have more than 1 "/" ship tagged in Relationship, leaving only the ones that have just the main ship tagged.

ID has been added to the pictures as ALT text.

For more info, you can check out AO3 official Tagging FAQs and this helpful guide: "The Fanfic Author's Guide to Metatext" (This is the chapter about relationship tagging)

Here's more filtering tricks for AO3

As always this post is not meant to shame if you do or have done this. I have done this too.

I felt so bad when someone approached me and said "hey, your crossover fic with this ship is the number 1 fic by kudos when you search for one of the main fandom's small ship" and honestly? wake up call.

So there's that!

Remember to be kind and happy fandom! 🥰✨