#Search “for everyone new to tumblr” on my blog I guess

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Please new people for the love of god decorate your blogs, reblog things, make posts, and appear human. I think I may have accidentally flagged two people as bots because they LOOKED like bots.

[undertalethingems]

Howdy. Odd question, but do you have any advice for new peeps joining the fandom?

i don't know that it's a super odd question, but, i also don't know that i'm the best person to ask, having been in the fandom so long XD

But, I guess I'll give it a shot...?

Watch/play the source material! Undertale wouldn't have such an extensive fandom if the game itself wasn't incredible. If you can't play games or it's too expensive for you right now, there are plenty of great playthroughs on youtube--I like MarcoMeatball's and Symbalily's neutral/pacifist runs. If you really want to explore everthing, Hawlo's no-commentary playthrough is extremely thorough and good for getting immersed.

Watch the 5th anniversary concert! It seems a fair few people have missed it over the years, but it's a beautiful rendition of nearly all of the game's soundtrack by a full orchestra. Their dedication and skill is truly impressive, and the instrumentation is excellent. It's best experienced with some good headphones :>

on a similar note (heheh), the Undertale covers by RichaadEB and Amie waters are great too, and there's plenty of other excellent covers out there. Definitely take some time to seek the work other fans have shared--there are some really talented people out there ^^

when it comes to finding fic or fanart however, i'm not sure how easy it is to search for; the tags on tumblr are notoriously unreliable, both because the search function is not great, but not everyone uses tags. But, if you can find a few blogs who post things you like, check out who they reblog from too--you might be able to find more that way. Don't be afraid to go back into a blog's archives too--there could be buried treasure in there :>

That's all i can think of for now, but I'm sure my followers could think of things to add, so check the comments/reblogs once this post has had some time to simmer ^^

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Sokkla actually saved my life.

In my early 20s, I had left my abusive family to move in with my high school sweetheart. But once we were living together, he showed a side of him I had never seen before.

He became abusive and cruel and began to cheat. And everytime he blamed everything on me and my depression and anxiety (I have PTSD from my childhood). He made it seem like this was the best I was ever going to get because no one would ever want a broken person like me.

Eventually he dumped me and left me with nowhere to go. I had to move back in with my abusive parents and I wanted to kill myself. They agreed with my boyfriend that no one would want me because I came back to them even more traumatized and mentally ill with mean outbursts and constant crying.

I genuinely thought it was over for me. I had always identified with Katara and Zuko the most, so I had shipped Zutara as a teen. But now I could no longer see myself in Katara because she was so strong and kind and everyone loved her.

I felt more like Zuko except a version of him that nobody could love with his scars. I began to see myself more like Azula. Doomed and tragic. The more hate I read about her, the more I searched for it and applied it to myself. Everytime someone called her irredeemable or unloveable, I took those words as a reminder to myself of how the world truly saw me. I guess it was a kind of self harm…

Eventually this became a late night ritual. And it was while doing this one night, sobbing my eyes out, that I clicked on what I thought was another fic about Azula being tortured and hated or punished and executed. But I must’ve misclicked because instead I ended up on a Sokkla fic.

And I don’t know if it was just my emotional state or how late it was, but by the end when Sokka showed her he could still love her, I just broke. I started looking for more Sokkla fics and art. Instead of looking for content punishing and hating Azula so I could harm myself, I started wanting to find stories where she healed and was happy. And Sokkla fics were so good about this without making Azula just a crazy person abuser or erasing all of her problems either.

Eventually I found metas written by some lovely Sokkla shippers on here and I decided that maybe, if I could be kinder to Azula, I could be kinder to myself.

But I made the mistake of sharing this on my tumblr and all my old Zutara friends FREAKED OUT. Lot all of them were mean about it, but some were. And eventually it ended up in tags that attracted other Zutara shippers and they attacked me over and over again, saying the most messed up things. Calling me mentally ill. Calling me homophobic. Calling me an abuse apologist. Even saying I must be an abuser and a horrible person if I identified with a psychopath like Azula at all. All because I said I like Sokkla now and it helped me.

I left the Zutara fandom that day. But I still love ATLA! I love Katara and Zuko as much as I used to, I just don’t really ship them anymore.

Sokkla is my ship now and it upsets me when people Zutara or TyZula or other fans bash it for no reason. Just like what you like and leave us alone! Zutara gives me panic attacks sometimes now because of it. I blocked all the tags and I’m never going back.

By the way, I’m doing better now! I’m back in school and I have new friends. One of my friends has a cute brother who likes ATLA. And his favorite character is Sokka. I asked him if he likes Sokkla and he said he had never thought about it before. But now we send each other fan art!

I have hope now, and a lot of that is thanks to friends and therapy. But Sokkla fandom helped me realize I deserved those things to begin with. If they could show empathy to Azula, then maybe people could show it to me too.

And to everyone in the Zutara or TyZula fandom who harasses people who ship Azula with people you don’t like: FUCK YOU.

Thank you for this blog. It helps me realize I’m not crazy. They really can be that mean and delusional. Sorry for the rant.

...Anon, do you want a hug?

[javis-burner-phone]

To Writers in the Pedro Pascal Fandom:

This fandom went full Chernobyl this summer. I need a hazmat suit to get through these tags. I recently saw an anon reach out to a fic writer here.

The anon is right that there's a problem in the fandom space, but they're misplacing blame. I'm writing this post for the non-hateful writers that have tried to feel a part of the community, but ended up feeling left out. I'm posting this on a burner account for obvious reasons that you'll see below:

The hateful posts about "big writers" have absolutely disgusted me, but I can relate to the frustration that many fic writers are expressing. We see very fun and active areas of the fandom where writers are communal, hyping each other up, reblogging fics, but only within certain friend groups. Most of us writers don't have that. Instead this fandom sometimes feels like a desolate wasteland for many of us.

Here's where us writers need to place the blame:

Since the introduction of algorithms, there has been a cyclical effect: popular Tumblr posts are boosted due to everyone's default feed settings and posts from new, lesser known blogs are pushed down.

Over years, this has impacted fandom spaces in a sort of feedback loop. We're currently seeing the late stages of this. This effect pushes most fandom activity towards the already popular blogs by default. (Yes, Tumblr has always shown popular posts first, but algorithms, and the feedback loops they create, have made the effect stronger over the years.)

Is that the "big writers" faults? No. Are friend groups to blame? No. In fact, we should have more friend groups in this fandom. That's how fandoms used to be. There were dozens of overlapping friend groups that would have long reblog chains and mainly interact with each other. New people could find other new people pretty easily and make their own groups.

Now new people/smaller blogs are far less exposed to other new people/smaller blogs by default. *That* is the problem.

Eventually, I found my people. I feel a part of the community and you can too.

You just need to make 3 virgin sacrifices and find the lochness monster in order to do so. What I mean is, it takes a lot more effort than it used to. Be ready for that:

1. Sort by "Latest posts" when searching fandom hashtags. Imagine if Ao3 used an algorithm to show popular fics first instead of sorting by most recent fics. New writers would be screwed, right? That's what Tumblr does. Support posts that resonate with you, but have low engagement. Leave likes, comments, reblogs! Guess what happens when someone that feels isolated in this fandom gets a bunch of notes from you? They're gonna check out your blog. They may want to connect!

2. DM people. Is there a lesser known blogger whose posts you like? Ask to be mutuals! Start a conversation! If you can't be social it's gonna be near impossible to build community. Sorry if you have anxiety, but that's the truth. Warning: half the convos will fizzle out. Move on to the next person as soon as you sense this.

3. Don't try to connect with bigger blogs for friendship. I've tried and as long as you gush over them, they respond, but the interaction ends there. DMing them works, but the convos almost always feel one sided and fizzle out. I'm mutuals with some bigger bloggers, but I had to add their usernames to my filtered content list in account settings. This means they can see my stuff, but I can't see theirs. Seeing them have fun in their friend group just reminds me of my failed attempts to connect. Maybe filtering them isn't fair, but that's how I deal with my negative emotions. No, they are not rude for not befriending me. I don't feel entitled to friendship.

(edit: I got a weird anon about this part. It's more difficult to befriend people who already have close-knit connections here. It's not impossible, but I've had much better luck with fellow isolated fandom members. The secret ingredient is our shared desperation lol. Befriend whoever you want ❤️)

4. Join/start a small PPCU discord server. The big servers will just make you feel more isolated, but the intimate ones are way more communal and it's easier to make stronger connections there than on Tumblr. 

These tips are for people that actually want to find solutions instead of spreading hate and complaining.

I'm saying this as someone that averages 50 notes on most of my fics after a year in this fandom(edit: saw this poll and thought I'd clarify. I get 50 notes now, but for 8ish months I got 5 on a lucky day. This post is for people who still feel isolated because I know how it feels.) It takes way more effort than in the early 2010s to feel a part of a fandom, not because of cliques, but because of the feedback loops the algorithm creates. 

I understand the frustration, but I'm not going to spread vitriol just because the fandom ecosystem went to shit. 

[cyle]

I'm guessing the new Original Post implementation will strictly capture posts where the blog owner is the OP.

Has the team considered adding in an option where you can also see all the posts the blog owner has added to?

A lot of Tumblr's charm is the collaborative aspects of posts and I know most of my top bangers were made in conversation with other users.

I've actually been working on a little project to scrape all the meta I've posted on a blog into a single document and have run into trouble achieving this. It would've been easy if I'd tagged everything consistently but over the years my tags changed 😔

The Tumblr API doesn't have an explicit method to get purely original posts, so I used a 3rd party tool (Jet Black Code) to pull my original posts. To try to get my "added on" comments, I downloaded my blog backup file, hoping to write up some quick code to pick out posts where the last blog with content on the chain was mine.

Unfortunately, it's less obvious than I thought it would be because in those cases my contribution isn't actually marked with my username like it is for everyone else in the reblog chain. 🤔 I'll need to dig into it more to see if I can rely on the formatting of the final block for these cases.

i don't know if we've thought of that specific case, but that does sound neat. i know there are a lot of capabilities we're looking to add to search, like including reblogs in search results (which should be coming soon i hope), and improving in-blog search. in general, i'd love to spend a lot of time making our API better for the special things people want to do like that, but i just do not have the time. but maybe we'll be able to open up stuff like this as our capabilities improve.

[factual-fantasy]

25 ASKS! THANK YOU!! :DD 🚲

Thank you! And welcome back!! :DD Though what a poor time to come back around to the dumpster fire that is Tumblr--

If you haven't heard the news, we got a bunch of A.I. crap goin on. You'd best go into all your blogs settings individually to "opt out of 3rd party something something". Gotta protect your artwork and reblogs from being A.I. data scraped!

@fnaf-smilingcritters0

Thank you!! :DD

That, and also I think they would get more brittle as they age.. :(

Oh yeah for sure! :D Though Seafoam's beard/hair is made of actual seafoam. So its not that tasty- <XDD

That sounds deliciously dangerous! XDD 😋

I do know that Jam is their blood at least! :0 ..at least I think so-

@tallchest13-blog

XDD I give you an E for effort!

@astaherussy (Referencing this post)

XDD I can almost see him doing that as a social experiment of sorts. Just to see that everyone else would say.

Its all fun and games until everyone starts responding with "Oh absolutely" "Everyday matey.." "Oh yeah, all the time!" Peso would be shocked- XDD

He does not handle the separation well <XD

Well "ship" usually refers to head-cannoning/wanting two characters to be romantically involved. Even if they are not in canon. Blue and Seafoam aren't a ship, they just are.. well, together. Its written into the canon that they are together. So its not a ship and its feels a lot different than a ship would..

As for Peach and Mario, a quick google search says they are canonically mutually romantically interested in each other. Same with Luigi and Daisy. I only tagged my posts as "Mario x Peach" and "Luigi x Daisy".. because that's what people search for when they wanted to see romantic content of those characters-

And even if google straight up lied/is wrong and it turns out not to be confirmed? Those two pairings are so strongly suggested/implied in canon, that I don't get any of negative feelings I associate with ships.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I just don't like ships. It really isn't my thing for a lot of reasons. There's a loooot of not great feelings associated with them. None of my own characters make me feel that way becuase I created them. And their relationships are written into the story..

And the Mario pairings are canon. Or at the very least, they are soooo strongly implied, that I don't get any of the negative feelings associate with ships even if they weren't canonically a thing.. I hope that made sense..?

@citrusfruitman

DUDE THAT SOUNDS LIKE A NIGHTMARE- IM TERRIFIED OF SPIDERS-- <XDD

Huh, the more you know! :0

(Link in question)

XDD Oh yeah absolutely

She will flatten that cake in under 5 minutes. And suffer absolutely no consequences what so ever. Lucky gal <XD

THESE ARE ALL SO GOOD! :DD Rainbow cobbler sounds like it would fit the best considering the ships colors.. But I want the name to relate to coral in some way.. hmm..

@blackcatzcandraw

Uhg.. yeah, I'm aware.. its a good thing I don't plan to post Octonauts content much anymore-

I don't like to think of my OCs as drinkers.. but if anyone did drink, it would be Louis. He's a jolly character that just likes to have a good time with his crew. :)

I do intend for them to raid other ships. :0 But they usually go for ships that can defend themselves to some extent and have loot. You're not gonna see them raid a ship full of orphans and steal their biscuits and pennies-

@yourstrulylightstar283

Sorry, I don't take requests!.. Also considering how tough my DK is, and the fact that he's the alpha- I don't think he would ever get bloody and bruised-

If I remember correctly, the cookie run version of cake creatures are dogs..?

XDD wait doesn't mild dissolve cookies though?-

Hmm.. I'm not sure. I know that there are other cookies in the game that work with metal and stuff. So an electronic toy wouldn't be impossible. If it was small they'd probably assume it was a toy. If it was huge..? Mayyybe they'd think its some kind of malicious machine..? <:0

ALWKNS XDD OH YEAH!

I think Spidercrab is the smart cookie and Louis is the tough cookie XDD

@beryl-shade

Going off of the games.. I thiiiink an "oven" would be like a birthplace..?

[silenzahra]

Hello everyone. I'm back ^^

I'm honestly not so sure about how to approach this post. I just wanted to let you all know that, well... I'm here. I'm not 100% fine, but I'm doing better. I've taken this week off to rest and focus on myself, and it's done wonders. I've been going out as much as possible, not only to go to work but also to spend a good time walking my doggies and playing with them, and I've also been watching some shows and trying to slowly get back to reading and gaming.

Regarding my previous post, there's really not much I can do except learn to live with it. I know it's gonna be a long and hard process, but I have to look after myself and my mental health, and it really warms my heart to know you're all there for me. I checked Tumblr yesterday before going to bed and felt so touched to find all your comments and advice. Again, you made me feel so supported and loved. I just can't thank you enough for being there for me. @itsavee4117 @megamagimugi @roscolate @keakruiser @stripetkattelalala54

@peaches2217 @bberetd @ask-rosalina-and-her-family @c-lavanda, thank you so much for all your love and support on my previous post, for taking the time not only to read but also comment to make me feel better. I'm really so sorry that I worried you, but truly, knowing that you're all there for me really means the world to me and makes me feel so warm inside. You've all given me precious advice that I'm definitely taking and showered me in love with your kind and sweet words. I hope you know how amazing you all are and how lucky the people around you are to have you 💖

Also, @multicolour-ink, I'd like to especially thank you for the valuable advice you gave me. Last night, after reading your comments, I searched and called a free helpline in my country and, again, it's done wonders. It was simply amazing to have someone there who listened to me and never judged my emotions, and then offered some advice on what to do to handle my situation. It was such a relief to, you know, actually talk to someone and feel supported also in real life. Thank you so so much, truly 🫂

And of course, @vulpixfairy1985, my dear friend... How can I even start to thank you. You immediately reached out through Instagram and have been there every single day, sharing your wisdom and offering your advice, and you even made me feel joy again after two days of only feeling bad things. It's thanks to you that I've been able to feel happiness and excitement again, to reignite my spark of joy that I thought I'd lost, and I know no matter what I do, I can never thank you enough. You truly are a gem, my dear friend, and I thank life every day that I met you and our wonderful friends. I know I've said this before, but this community is truly the best, warmest, healthiest one I've ever been in. And I feel so lucky to be a part of it.

I'll still take things easy. I'll take my time to check all my tags and PMs, and I'll probably be active only on evenings (Spain's time). Thank God, I can enjoy again the things I love, so I hope to see all your content eventually. Only that, well, I'll be slow. I wanna keep focusing on myself and taking those walks with my dogs. And this Friday I have a concert and I finally, FINALLY, feel excited about it. It's my favorite band, after all. I was worried I wouldn't get to enjoy it due to my mental state, but I'm actually so eager!

So yes, guess I can say I'm back, even if I won't be as active ^^ I know I have yet to finish checking the doc, and I'm extremely sorry that I'm taking forever, but of course, I appreciate all the effort you made to help me build up this new blog. As well as, of course, your support on the three posts I've fixed/redone so far. Hopefully soon I can get back to it and fix the rest of my old content.

But we'll see. Right now I'm just happy I can be back with you. I hope you've all been doing fine, dear friends ^^ I love you all so much 💖

Also, if you wanna see the little fella who's been with me this entire week, just click below to meet my beloved Baloo ^^

(Now I look a bit different btw, I went to the hairdresser yesterday, but I'll show my new hair another time.)

[bonesnplywood]

tumblr is being DOUBLE OPP this evening because looked through my following list and guess who i couldn't find? and even further when i searched up your old url i couldn't find that either... so i thought i was eternally fucked but thankfully vivi's blog had your new name on it so praising the lord right now

but how've you been homegirl? hope life's been treating you well!

omg harshi hello!!! it's been a hot minute!

AHH yes i did change my url!! sorry for the confusion 😅, i was thinking i shouldve just tagged all my moots so they'd be aware but i also didn't want to annoy everyone with it lmao

i've been alright! life's been a little hectic lately, but other than that i've been good :) how've you been lovely?

[mangocheesecakes]

Fraudulent gofundme's by one "Michelle Diaz" of Berwyn, IL (And connections to tumblr scammer Laura Deramas)

Tumblr user widelys

A few weeks ago, @kyra45 called out now-deactivated user widelys for sending out suspicious asks and failing to provide consistent answers to questions about their fundraiser. (As an example, they couldn't clarify whether they were raising funds for their twin infant children or for their twin sister.) (Check out key's tag for the posts documenting what went down).

On the actual gofundme page, it says that the fundraiser was organized by one Michelle Diaz of Berwyn, IL "to help out a member of the community". The link to this (likely fraudulent) fundraiser is still up and can be found here:

Twitter scams

The other day, user @hannaweeny reached out to me after finding my blog while reverse-image searching pics being used by a twitter user they believe to be a scammer. Sure enough the pics were the exact same ones used by known tumblr scammer (and proven Laura Deramas alt) sheeyancjoje. The now-deleted twitter account (@JKrismoz8405) was once more claiming to be a "homeless trans" but now going by the name "Jess". This "Jess" was using a gofundme that was once more organized by, you guessed it, Michelle Diaz of Berwyn, IL. Link here:

Thanks to hannaweeny's screenshots and links, I found the twitter account that's sharing this new scam gofundme, user @/divinesanxuary. When you look up their account, their pinned tweet is another fundraiser they claim to have created for a Palestinian woman in Gaza named 'Azhar'. The one who supposedly organized the fundraiser is, once more, Michelle Diaz of Berwyn, IL:

I have no solid proof yet that this last fundraiser is a scam, as it is dated September 28, 2023, way before the internet and communication blackout in Gaza, but the way the other two fundraisers above organized by this "Michelle Diaz" person both turned out to be fraudulent makes this third one extremely suspicious and very likely to be a scam. The twitter account that is supposedly owned by this Palestinian woman also looks very untrustworthy (user @/burner74358009 if anyone wants to look them up). If this is indeed another scam, then it's a new low for this Michelle Diaz, to use the unimaginable pain and suffering being experienced by Palestinians right now for their own selfish gains.

Google Results

(After checking these twitter accounts, I then turned to Google to see what would come up if I try to Google gofundmes by Michelle Diaz of Berwyn, IL, and here are a few more that I found that all look suspiciously similar in wording to the ones I've linked above:

Screenshots of these Gofundmes in case the links above get taken down:

Twitter user @/divinesanxuary sharing the fundraisers for sheeyancjoje/Jkrismoz84035 and "Palestinian woman, Azhar"

The Laura Deramas connection

(deep breaths everyone, I know we are all so fucking tired of her. I will make a separate post for the screenshots of what I will describe on this part, as the post is already too long. For now, this is just a rundown of what happened as best as I can recall it.)

While I was writing this post, my mutual @thewondersmith was messaging with Laura on Facebook. Laura had contacted them a while ago asking them to tell me to take down my posts about her and her scams, saying that her irl friends and acquaintances have found out about her scams on tumblr, that they were mad at her and harassing her and threatening to report her to the police, and she was being called to their purok leader in connection with her scamming. After some prodding, Laura admits that she was the one behind the sheeyancjoje account. At first, she was still insisting that she wasn't responsible for the new one on twitter that was literally using sheeyancjoje's pics and typing exactly like her, but eventually, when her whining and guilt-tripping made no impact, she also finally admitted she was running JKrismoz84035.

From that point on in their conversation, Laura admits to owning sheeyancjoje, tumbsrrplzzstop, "A Cancer Girl" that "didn't go very far", widelys, AND the most recent blog milkydonutsh, which was found to have been using a Jessa Malubay paypal account. When asked about her connections to "Michelle Diaz" and Jessa and Joan Malubay, Laura gives confusing and conflicting details, claiming that Michelle Diaz messaged her on twitter saying she can help make her a gofundme (which doesn't explain how the widelys gofundme was made seeing as that one started here on tumblr, long before this recent twitter scheme), that there was another person, a "Tom" who shared it and has a "group chat of donations".

What we were able to understand from all of this, though, is that Michell Diaz organizes the fundraisers on gofundme, presumably using her American bank and money transfer accounts, subtracts a fee for running said fundraisers, then sends the remaining to Jessa or Joan Malubay's paypal accounts, which can then be transferred to Laura's Gcash account.

While talking to thewondersmith, Laura was all cry-emoji apologetic and remorseful, explaining why she was driven to do all of these scams, citing the usual excuses of wanting to fix her mother's house, her many different relatives being sick and needing money to go to the hospital. She begged thewondersmith "not to post about her anymore" because she's afraid people will post about her on twitter and "there are many Filipinos on twitter", sent videos of her son saying Merry Christmas and even had the audacity to ask them for "a gift" as her son's "godparent". She made it seem as if she was sorry for all the scams she was running and gave the impression that she was going to stop moving forward.

Despite all this, the tumblr blog milkydonutsh, which she has admitted to be hers, made a recent update just 5 hours ago (Monday morning here in the PH), as can be seen in this call out post by @confidenceiscrucial. When thewondersmith confronted her about this new update, Laura yet again tries to deny it, saying she no longer has access to this particular account. A few minutes after their convo, milkydonutsh was deactivated.

(The details on this part are up for correction in case I misinterpreted or misunderstood anything as I wasn't the one directly conversing with Laura. Oomf, thewondersmith, feel free to add any correction or clarification based on what you know <3)

[loemius]

31. What post have you seen recently that makes you wanna scream lmao <3

oh boy youre asking me for the spicy hot takes tonight huh. i am always happy to deliver <3 i dont want to put anyone in particular on blast so ill refrain from mentioning specific posts, but i do find that a lot of content lately in the helpol sphere has been very... surface level. a lot of moodboards, a lot of basics, 101 level content, stuff like 'the gods love you!!'. which isn't inherently a bad thing whatsoever. there is a need for that kind of content! however, i've also noticed in my 2 years on helpol tumblr that a lot of the reconstructionist blogs and informative blogs that i used to follow have either went inactive or deactivated entirely. and i can't help but wonder why this is. i think there's a lot of reasons for it: frustration with the shallowness of content leading to people going off and becoming more solitary practitioners, the more you grow in your practice the less compelled you may become to share it, but also i think a lot of people use tumblr and people's ask boxes as a search engine and that leads to a lot of burnout. it certainly did for me -- i took a hiatus from posting for a long time because i wasn't in a place to educate people. it's a lot of pressure, especially on tumblr where it feels like people will jump down your throat if you're incorrect about things or you suddenly become an Authority that people look up to when youre just a person. people who were posting really helpful and informative content about the theoi simply arent here anymore, and i really think the community's gravitation towards easily consumable content and reliance on people to do research for them is a large part of this. i realize not everyone is recon, which is very much okay, although i personally love being recon. that being said, i still think you should do your best to do your research and understand where these ideas come from. they didn't appear out of thin air -- mediterranean culture is very much alive still and is a continuation of the ancient world, and to not acknowledge or understand it is disrespectful to both the cultural context of the theoi and mediterranean people whose culture we claim to revere. i don't expect everyone to become an academic or a classicist. its not accessible to everyone for a variety of reasons, but i do think like. checking out some of the primary sources in a way thats accessible for you or picking one really good book to really deep dive into would benefit a lot of people. basically, i just wish i saw more in depth posts and people engaging on a deeper level with their faith and being willing to post it so we can have more discussions as a community and grow together. helpol is unique among other polytheistic religions because we have a wealth of primary sources available to us, and that isn't always the case for other polytheistic religions. i think it's... honestly kind of sad that we don't really talk about them. its not that i dont want to see peoples upg or that i dont think there should be posts for beginners, because there is a place for it and i enjoy that content too, but i wish there was more variety in the kinds of posts we have in the community. i miss the days when the tags were full of people writing their own prayers or people talking about a new source they read and what they thought, or compiling something for their own practice and being willing to share it with the community. i guess this is my sign to get back to posting my own original content and make the kind of content i want to see in hopes it'll encourage others to do the same. anyway i got on my little soapbox about this and its time for me to hop off before i hit character limit (again lmao). thank you so much for this ask, this was really refreshing and cathartic for me to talk about. may the gods bless you with health, happiness, and love always <33

[mylittleredgirl]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @geneeste. :) i may have done this one before, but tumblr blog search was traditionally unhelpful and i have several very important things i should be doing, so here we are <3

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 219

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 655,471

3. What fandoms do you write for?

stargate atlantis is the runaway lead, then sg-1, 90s/00s treks, the x-files, and a grab bag of other things. only two fics so far for m*a*s*h but the forecast looks good!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

no sooner met (star trek voyager, j/c, eight years of friends-to-lovers in 5k or less)

career day (stargate sg-1, clone!sam/jack, damn that sure was a choice to go back to high school amirite)

next chapter (the good place, chidi/eleanor, the intimacy of reading)

first date (star trek voyager, j/c, falling in love again)

occupational hazards (the good place, chidi/eleanor, eleanor would rather not be the architect)

5. Do you respond to comments?

eventually!!!! i tend to keep nice ones on my home page for a while to cheer me up and then sometimes they get buried. i wake up nights like "damn the good place fandom really went all out with amazing comments on that random fic in like 2018 and i never replied," so maybe i need to go through my inbox and belatedly clear my cosmic debts.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

twilight (stargate atlantis, sheppard/weir, what if john didn't break the cycle). strong on style but real weak on comfort.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

weaving loose ends (stargate sg-1, sam/jack) ends with a wedding! in twenty years of writing romance fic, that has maybe only happened once?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not yet! but the year is young.

a fic of mine did cause a dramatic fandom schism once, in the dancing with the stars fandom no less. a splinter fan group created in exile! a mod claiming to be personal friends with the stars! everybody storming out and then blocking each other! so my fic did cause hate, but somehow i personally escaped unscathed. i didn't even get blocked. (lesson: in some spaces, rpf is encouraged until They Fuck. second lesson: if you start a fire and then stay very quiet, everyone forgets about you.)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do!! i guess!! but i'm struggling with it right now and it's giving me a complex. and "what kind" is like......... vanilla het fic for the most part tbh. gauzy curtain vibes, even. basically, i have to really sit and think about whether to rate something M or E, you know?

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

nope!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

yes, but not since the x-files days. rip geocities webrings we salute you for your years of service.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, but i think i'd like to! passing chapters back and forth sleepover style like "haha write your way out of THIS" would be fun. (or collaborating in a more mundane way, i guess....)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

john sheppard/elizabeth weir (stargate atlantis). first fic in the tag and i'm still fuckin there. three years on tv and a lifetime in my goddamn brain.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

realistically, i'm feeling pretty down on the chances that i'll ever finish ANY wip that's longer than 20k, but the two long ones withering on the vine that i'd like to finish are a sam/jack sg1 episodic soulmate fic and "what if janeway went undercover with the maquis instead of tuvok: the novel."

16. What are your writing strengths?

stealing one of geneeste's answers because "character complexity" is a good one! i don't feel satisfied with any fic unless i feel like i have learned something new about a character, or highlighted it in a new way.

my more specific strength, according to @coraclavia, is missing-scene fics that weave through an entire series canon to make a thesis statement (they are In Love).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

😭 i can't write anything long 😭 i really wish i were different 😭 i envy those of you with staying power who can return to a story after going to work or writing something else and keep plugging away at it. i used to write sprawling things when i was a teen, but since becoming Adult With Job now many years ago, i've totally lost that skill!!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

haaaahahahaha. talk about a weakness. i literally couldn't bring myself to write a fic that required dialogue in Ancient from stargate, a language that -- i cannot stress this enough -- is not even real. i'm like "well maybe i'll study latin for three years and then analyze all the episodes where they speak it to reverse engineer the differences so i can write the bastardized space latin correctly" GIRL WHY. JUST FUCK IT UP.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

first completed story that i recall would have been star trek voyager in my early teens, and by the grace of rural internet and some kind of prescient sense of self-preservation, it does not live online. first internet-published fic was several years later, for the x-files. for better or worse, that one can still be found.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

i think pieces (stargate atlantis, sheppard/weir, catharsis through sex pollen) might be the new best, and i had a lot of fun writing erasers on pencils (stargate sg-1, clone!sam/jack, catharsis through truancy).

--

i am sure many of my fic-writer-meme friends have done this already but @ussjellyfish if your answers have changed since whenever you did it last; i'd love to hear how @havocthecat, @anretc, and @coraclavia would answer this; and blowing dandelion meme seeds over the fence to the mash fandom: @remyfire!

[xxoxobree]

My thoughts on the “very slow” Miles Morales writing community. Don’t come at me it’s an OPINION! and for CONVERSATIONAL PURPOSES! so comment tell me if you agree or not 😌

There is little to no conversation about Miles. I’ve noticed in the Hobie community they share their thoughts and constantly talk about him and that keeps the community alive and encourages people to join in on the conversation and interact ect…. There’s few blogs now sharing anything about Miles, their thoughts, theory���s, anything adding to the conversation. (I’m not gonna stand on this too much, there are accounts dedicated to talking about Miles and ATSV. But I don’t see much “writers” post about him)

Like with everything the hype died :( the movie came out 7 months ago and like with everything people lost interest and they’re onto the next. We’re constantly being fed new things and searching for new thing that feeds our brain cells and I guess it doesn’t for most people anymore (including me, don’t get me wrong I love Miles and ATSV forever but I’m not enthusiastic as I was because of other reasons.)

The content is limiting. The stories that you’re allowed as a writer to write about Miles is limiting (I’ve been saying this) 👀 I get it everyone loves fluff, fluff is safe but it’s only so much fluff you can make before you run out of ideas and the content gets stale and repetitive.

There’s too much “ranting” I get it, it’s public and y’all can post what you want but we really don’t care and it’s not necessary, it’s a huge turn off for people wanting to join the community if you’re just gonna complain and add nothing but your overwhelming negativity vibes.

It’s a really argumentative/hostile/toxic community (I’ve definitely contributed to that.) it’s a lot of back and forth between people a lot of hateful anon bs, “calling out” like relax btch, stop immediately . People are not on tumblr for that and to be harassed, and it’s definitely a turn off and stupid. Block and have a hood mfn day. It’s really that simple and I encourage you all to do it because you cannot control others.

[polyamorousmood]

Some remarks on sending in asks to this blog:

No, you don't have to read this whole thing before you send in an ask. This is for people who are confused or anxious. It's going to be linked to whenever I finally break down and make a pinned post for this blog. I'll update this with anything new.

I am not a messiah, prophet, or buddha. I think my opinions are top-notch, but I'm not handing down the word of any god🛐.

I always want to hear poly positivity and success stories! 😍 Even if I've heard it before it warms my heart please please please

📬"ask box is always open" means only that. It does not mean asks will always get answered (though I do my best). I reserve the right to delete any ask without comment.

There are no rules on what you can/cannot ask, but if your question is vague, already in the FAQ (below), I don't have anything useful to say about it, just plain mean, or otherwise something I don't want to answer, I probably won't.

This means you CAN ask things in the FAQ, you just probably won't get a new answer unless you show me how the FAQ answer doesn't apply.

If you want to be a bro to me, try searching/checking the tag for your topic before asking. I try to use tags and make it navigable. Tumblr tries not to, as we all know, so I don't blame anyone for not being able to find something. Don't sweat it

If you don't want your ask flagged as too vague, give details! I can only work with what I got. "How do I talk to my partner about X?" ❌I've already answered that, too vague for me to give a new answer. "I try to talk to my partner about X, but they keep getting hung up on Y, even though they said they were working on it. I've tried A and B, but Y keeps coming up. I can't try C because that is a major trigger for their anxiety. Its been 5 months. Do you have anything else that might help?" ✅Well now I might have something for you.

I regularly sit on asks for days or even weeks. I have a job and hobbies and multiple romantic relationships to maintain here 😅

If you're a repeat anon asker, pick an emoji to sign your asks with so I can know who I'm talking to! I like friends, I don't like calling everyone "anon"

FAQ:

"How do I talk to my partner about [insert your problem here]?"

"How do I handle insecurity/jealousy?" start here, read this and probably this oh and also this one I guess

"I have a crush on a monogamist, what do I do?" Start here

"Should I break up with them?" -> yeah, probably. If not that, at the very least you need to have a serious talk and lay down some rules: draw your line in the sand and stick to it. It always boils down to that.

"I'm in a One Penis Policy and I don't like that" This one has two read mores. Open them both.

"Am I poly?" Probably, but there's a tag for that if you want

"Can I call myself poly if--" you can do whatever you want forever.

"I still feel guilty about being polyamorous. Any advice?"

"Are you the motherfucker that made an excel sheet of polyamorous songs?" I am💗 and if you're good at identifying music genres and want to help me with that please DM because I'm bad at that and want to improve the list

[isa-ghost]

hey it's the anon who asked what dr*m did,

I decided to do my own research (mainly cause I was curious) but... I can't find much? let me rephrase it - I did find the allegations from 6ish months ago, that he's going to court with one(?) of them, but that's... all? I didn't find the court's verdict, confirmations, or him admitting either... and any post or video I find has both the OP and the comments mostly on his side and believing that it's either not true or true but not grooming, even people who say they're not his fans or don't even like him.

so Im not sure if the confirmation didn't reach youtube or if I'm searching wrong or something?

but honestly while researching I realized that I cant stand him lmao, gotta agree with some comments I read - he made a mistake by showing more of his personality online, looks like any time he can handle a situation wrong/respond wrong he does it

so dunno, guess I didnt find the confirmation but at least now I don't find his old minecraft videos interesting anymore so theres that

Yeah he can't act properly to save his fucking life

Also I think most of the threads on Twitter and stuff that have all the proof he's guilty/etc is probably long buried, unfortunately. You could probably try to ask around saying you're trying to get the whole picture but tbh it's not a huge deal if you can't. You can try searching my blog but Tumblr sucks with that shit. The fact that this and his other controversies have been buried and lost to the void of the internet is typical white boy with a monstrously big platform shit so I'm not surprised. I never heard any details about court (prob for legal reasons) or a conviction either. All I know is there was screenshot proof from the victim that they talked, and Dr*m confirmed the screenshots were real but didn't say anything about other details. But those details literally can't be false if the screenshots & the shit said in them are true.

Anyway, as far as his other bullshit goes:

People found old kkk meme edits on his yt account through the wayback machine. More than once if I'm not mistaken

He has a history of defending himself using the r slur

He cheated "on accident" in a speedrun (the least important thing ever but everyone always brings it up)

He claimed he was going to donate all proceeds during pride month to lgbt+ charities & he'd do charity streams all month but never did

He defended himself about replying to haters, which would send thousands of his toxic stans after the person getting them doxxed/death threats/etc and he refused to address that it was irresponsible of him bc he was too entitled to immaturely clap back at the antis. Even other ccs, like B/itzel called him out about shit related to how he uses his platform irresponsibly & he unfollowed & shaded them like a bitch baby

The whole "accidental" copycat shit with QSMP/USMP and basically softcore stalking Q/uackity online.

His "apologies" for all of the above fucking sucked in multiple ways. And that's just 2021-Now shit I can remember off the top of my head, I lost my Twitter in May last year so now I get my info from people's posts about it on here or links to tweets.

Everyone largely suspects he spontaneously reignited d/smp lore & started the finale to cover up the groomer thing bc he has a history of doing smth "new and cool" every time he causes drama to divert attention and avoid accountability.

He's also suspected of suddenly rewriting the d/smp finale to paint his Irredeemable Abuser Villain Up Until The Last Stream as a sympathetic poor baby out of nowhere and wrote that his victim, c!Tommy apologized to him, which sends a HORRIBLE message about abusive relationships. T/ommy and T/ubbo have both subtly mentioned not liking the finale and that Dr*m had AWFUL communication during the last like 6+ months of the smp.

He also suddenly showed up in T/ubbo's chat lurking while T/ubbo happened to be mentioning he'd do his own research on the grooming situation instead of blindly siding with Dr*m and it was some shit out of a horror movie is2g, he suddenly dmed T/ubbo out of nowhere during it on discord saying they'd talk about it after T/ubbo wasn't streaming. Basically sounds like he was gonna bias T/ubbo about his innocence. Like he hadn't been in chat all stream long but SUDDENLY he was there the second the topic came up. But the d/smp ccs also can't say anything about the situation since it's a legal matter, so a handful of ccs have just stated/implied they don't support him other ways

He only quit MCC bc he threw a tantrum about how he couldn't practice for it but now that MCC island exists, people were getting better than him. He's habitually a sore loser about that kinda shit

He's got that whole weird "is he, isn't he" bullshit going on about him being lgbt. I personally think he's just catering to his stupid d/n/f shippers bc they like to truth their relationship & sexuality all the time and he's never explicitly said he's bi or smth. He's just vaguely been like "yeeeaahhhh I mostly like girls like 99% but maaaayyybeee I like guys idkkkk. 🤪" But he's also done that multiple times so who tf knows. I'm not gonna fully dismiss him & I understand no one including me is entitled to his specific sexuality, but he has garbage credibility on like everything so I'm neutral on the matter and find it hard to believe him

Not directly him related, but his stans went on a long and horrifying witch hunt on Twitter during the kkk ordeal doxxing, death threatening & harassing ENTIRE mcyt subtwts who spoke out against him and called him out on his racism, performative activism, shitty apology, etc. For example, I was part of S/neeg's subtwt and all my mutuals and me had to go private to avoid getting doxxed. It felt like being raided in some dystopian ass horror film. Entire subtwts were going private, panicking, paranoid they'd get outed & stalked & harassed by people just for condemning racism, raising Black voices, etc. It was borderline traumatic to some people, I know people who lost sleep over it bc they were so afraid.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but the end of 2021 to early 2022 was a fucking nightmare between him being an immature entitled piece of shit and his stans blindly defending him and going out of their way to endanger people who rightfully opposed him.

[halfagone]

We need a new name for the Danny/Damian ship... I went to search for a fanfic on Tumblr from last year about this ship only I had no luck and in between all the ship posts there were random posts also with the ship name in the tags... It was annoying.

I don't really know how the naming thing works tbh? I know people will come up with the names on the BatPham server sometimes, but I personally don't really use them whenever I refer to characters or a ship? Sometimes I will for the bit (like with Dead on Main) but otherwise I try to refer to the ship as the two individual characters with a "/" or "x" in between. It's a cute way of denoting a ship, but since a lot of the DPxDC ships with Danny has the word "Dead" in it, it kinda gets... confusing for me personally? Plus, from my understanding that really only became popular for sites like FF.net that NEEDED a way for readers to know the pairings because they don't have Ao3's tagging system.

So I guess all of this is to say that I don't use the ship names because they are confusing and unnecessary (if fun!) and thus I have no claim to a better option. ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ

It does sound like something that could get annoying pretty fast, though. Everyone uses their tagging system differently, and I will admit that I use tags religiously for posterity purposes. As in, so that I can find it later in my archive or blog. I remember the Tim x Danny ship name was changed once before too? Maybe if it continues to pose a problem the Danny/Damian ship name will be changed as well.

[exau-see]

𝑾𝒉𝒐'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 ?

Hey there! How’s everyone doing? I just started on Tumblr, so I have no idea how to use this app and no one knows me yet. But if you’re reading this, please stick around until the end!!! (Pleeease) You might be wondering: who is this girl, and who does she think she is telling us what to do with this old blog? Well, this girl… is me, Exaucée!!! (Eks-oh-say) Yes, my name is really complicated to say, but I love it so much (thanks, Mom and Dad).

This girl has always dreamed (okay, it's been a year) of becoming a fashion journalist, and she had the brilliant idea to create a blog on Tumblr, thinking she'd become a superstar and soon be hired by Vogue France... ( better to try, right?). Seriously, I’m between 10 and 25 years old, born in France, of Congolese origin (free Congo 🇨🇩), and one day I went on Google, searched for “fashion jobs,” and... guess what? I stumbled upon a ton of jobs, but the one that caught my eye was FASHION JOURNALIST. I was like, why not me? And here I am on Tumblr!!!

You might say, “But what’s the point of being here? This isn’t going to get you into Vogue France, is it?” I know, but I thought you have to start somewhere, right? And what better way than to share my thoughts on fashion, music, and everything I love with the whole world? (Or at least with the few people who stumble upon this blog.)

So yes, maybe I won’t land a contract with Vogue France tomorrow, but every thing has its time. And who knows, maybe one day the editors at Vogue will randomly come across my brilliant thoughts (or they’ll just ignore me and focus on their coffee instead).

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗔𝗺 𝗜 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 ?

I decided to create this blog to share my thoughts on everything that inspires me! Well, actually, it’s mostly to critique, critique, and... critique. But hey, you can complain; I’m a Libra (Libra gwooorl ♎️)!

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗴 ?

Expect reflections, critiques, and analyses on fashion, your favorite artists (sure, I said fashion journalist, but a bit of music is okay, right?), and a bunch of other stuff!

Thanks for taking the time to read my first blog. I promise it won’t always be this chaotic (but don’t count too much on that either). And if one day someone asks: “Who is this girl?” you can always say: “It’s Exaucée, the new great fashion journalist who’s going to revolutionize the fashion world!”

P.S : If anyone has tips on how to slide my name into a normal conversation without turning it into a linguistic puzzle, I’m all ears!

This was Exaucée! Exau-See everything and say everything (Did you get the joke, please don’t let me flop) Muah !

(I'm doing an English and French post)