#a lot more people know than the fandom thinks

[biowaredisasterbisexual]

Okay, so, I see a lot of people talk about “stats” on fics. Here, Reddit, other social media…often in a way that suggests one can gauge quality of a fanwork based on those metrics. Writers using them to try and determine if their work is “good.” Readers using them to filter fics for just the “best” ones. So let’s talk about stats.

And yeah, this is going to be long, so let’s have a cut, but TL;DR:

AO3 stats numbers can, in the aggregate, tell us some things but they cannot tell us the quality of a piece. Authors, stats don’t mean that your writing isn’t good, no matter what the “ratios” are. Readers, stats are poor indicators of fic quality, but you should know that writers are using those numbers as indicators of engagement with and enjoyment of their work; engagement is the encouragement writers use to keep writing.

I’ve read so many posts — on Tumblr, on the AO3 subreddit, fanfiction and writing subreddits, in other social media arenas — by both authors and readers talking about the stats on fics. Wondering if they’re good, or if they aren’t. Lamenting or judging a writer’s skill based purely on those numbers. Using those numbers as a way to filter fics to find the “best” ones. Wondering if writing is even worth doing in the writer’s fandom.

Usually, because of where I hang out, they’re talking about AO3 stats, but I occasionally see stuff about Wattpad in a similar vein. I don’t know Wattpad; I’ve never used it. So I’ll just focus on AO3 here.

So, first things first, I’m not going to tell a fanfic author that they should just not care about their stats. Not because I think stats matter, really, but because I know that’s an impossible ask. If we didn’t want people to read and enjoy our stuff, we wouldn’t post it. I can read my own writing with way less work and effort if I don’t post it, honestly. I post it to share it. So I get that saying “who cares what the stats are” is actively not helpful advice for a demoralized writer and doesn’t encourage participation for readers. So here’s what I’ll say instead about what we can, and more importantly can’t glean, from AO3’s stats as writers, and try to put those AO3 stats in perspective for writers and readers of fanfic alike:

AS A WRITER:

1) Comparison is the thief of joy. If you’re getting engagement with your fic and it makes you happy, try not to dwell on whether other authors are getting more engagement. I know this is a tough one to implement.

2) If you’re going to compare, it needs to be apples to apples, and I see a lot of folks comparing apples to oranges and then feeling let down by that comparison.

2A) Someone writing for the most popular ship in your fandom while you write a rare pair is probably going to get more engagement; not because it’s better, but because more people are going to see it. They will get more hits because more people are filtering for that pairing. That doesn’t mean what you wrote isn’t good or compelling.

2B) This goes even more granular: someone who is in the Neve/Rook tag on AO3 and either excludes M/F or filters for F/F isn’t going to see my fic. And that’s okay; they’re looking for something specific and I’m not writing it. I’m writing M/F Neve/Rook at the moment. The longer a fic is up, the more engagement it’s likely to have gotten, so I need to look at dates. If I were going to compare - and I don’t and shouldn’t for my own sake - M/F Neve/Rook posted within a few days of my post would be what I should compare myself to.

And even then, given that different fics tackle different subjects, have different OCs, etc., it’s still not likely to be truly 1:1.

2C) Multi-chapter fics and long fics get different numbers and ratios of hits/kudos/comments than one-shots. The engagement pattern is different.

2D) Smut/NSFW/Archive Warning fics also tend to get different engagement patterns than fics that don’t have those markers. Some people are concerned about their usernames being linked to those themes/plots/topics. Some readers are smut fiends (and we love that for them). Both these things can skew numbers here.

3) A registered user who is logged in can only kudo once, even if the fic has multiple chapters. Someone can read an entire 27-chapter 200k word novel and love it and only be able to leave a single kudo. Guest users are tracked by IP address, so if their IP address hasn’t changed they too can only kudo a fic one time.

4) The above means that re-readers are often not getting seen in kudo numbers even if they’re your biggest fans.

5) “Hits” counts individual views, but only if outside certain timeframes. If someone reads your fic 5 times in 24 hours it won’t count as 5 hits. However, outside that time box it will register as multiple hits, which may mean you’re getting more hits and no kudos because of re-reads.

6) Engagement from readers is lower across the board. There’s been entire articles about it. It’s not just you, I promise.

7) There is no “hits to kudos” or “kudos to comments” or “hits to comments” ratio that can reliably tell if something is good or not for all the reasons above.

AS A READER:

1) Writers want engagement. Crave it. If an author didn’t want engagement, they wouldn’t post their fanfic. It’s not like they’re getting paid. And it can be incredibly discouraging not to receive any. Writers use those stats numbers - hits, kudos - and those comments to determine if people are looking at and, more importantly, enjoying their work. It’s a way of gauging engagement.

Does that mean a writer is entitled to engagement? No. But if you want an author to keep posting fic, engagement is the way to encourage that. Like I said, I can read my own stuff with much less work if I don’t post.

2) As I said above, a registered user that is logged in (or a guest still on the same IP address) can only kudo a fic once, no matter how many chapters it has or how many times they’ve read it. If you want to show you like a new chapter after you’ve dropped that initial kudo, or show a re-read, you’ll need to comment. Even if it’s just a “❤️” or “have another kudo!”

3) You aren’t bothering writers by commenting on something; really, you’re not. I see so many readers worried that they’ll come across as weird by engaging.

Friend, we’re all weird here. Go for it.

I love when people send me a multi-paragraph comment or kudo 7 of my fics in a single night. (I also love all comments, to be clear. An “OMG” or keysmash is also great. So’s a random one-off kudo.) Don’t worry you’ll annoy the writer. We can turn comments off if we don’t want them.

4) Writing and posting fic is time consuming. There’s the writing itself (already a major labor of love) and, even if there’s no editing or beta-reading, formatting and summarizing and rating and all that. Bare minimum. If there’s editing or beta-reading, now there’s an additional (and often lengthy) part of the process that has very likely meant a time investment not only from the authors but the folks that helped them. Engagement is the only pay they get.

5) To put a finer point on topic 1: Yes, lack of engagement has absolutely ended fics people loved or led writers to stop writing/sharing fanfic at all. I don’t say that to insinuate you owe a writer your engagement, but no one wants to shout into an empty room; if fanfic doesn’t involve participation from both sides, the system does eventually break down.

If you read a fic and don’t kudo or comment, the author has no way to know if you liked it or if you accidentally clicked the wrong link and immediately fled. Writers aren’t mind readers.

If you’re someone who reads a rare pair, this is doubly true. Authors of rare pairs can face a lonely existence in fandom spaces if the readers that read rare pairs don’t engage.

6) Please read the writer’s list to understand why kudos/hits/comments numbers are poor indicators of fic quality.

In Conclusion:

I don’t say all of this to suggest that someone’s feelings about fic stats and engagement levels aren’t valid. Writers, you’re allowed to be frustrated or let down by engagement levels; I’ve been there, and I see you. Readers, I have absolutely been the person that read an author’s entire catalogue of fics and didn’t comment because I didn’t know what to say or if I should (though I’m working on that). Like many people, my earliest days in fandom were spent lurking with the lurkiest among us. I’m not judging. But I think some of this stuff is helpful to remember.

You all make fandom better by your presence. No matter what the numbers are. Be kind to yourselves. And, if you’re ready, maybe throw your writers a kudo or comment. It’ll make their day.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think that we are getting book 8 that will focus on Grim since we almost are on the end of book 7? And how do you feel if that what happened and we get book 8 that focus on Grim and Yuu like why are they here all of that? Do you want to see a specific thing that wasn't mentioned in the main story?

Last question how do you feel about twst ending? Would you stay in the fandom or find another interest? I'm not ready for that like if twst ended I will move to twst fanfics 🥲

But to be honest with how they are using the 3D animation as inspiration too now for the new events I have hope that even if the main story ended we will still have plenty of new events coming plus we have the anime coming too and manga chapters still going. I don't want this fandom to die as soon as main story end.

Honestly I don't mind if the game kept going forever 😂 not necessarily the main story but with events and talk about the world.

Imagine something like twst: The New NRC Generation like they did with many animes XD

Okay I talked so much sorry for the rambling.

As I have stated in the FAQ section of my pinned post (I kindly ask that people check that first before sending asks because I have been asked some variant of “what do you think about a potential book 8”/“how do you want book 7 to end” dozens of times; I don’t answer them because the answer is already out there but overlooked, but I feel bad for ignoring so many people 😅):

"I want to actually see Yuu going home and the current students moving on to the next year of schooling. We could focus on how the guys have grown and are growing, how these more mature versions of the characters interact with the incoming freshmen/first years, or the long-term consequences of their OBs (particularly Malleus's, which probably caused an international crisis). It would also be cool to learn more about RSA students after book 7, but I don’t want them to rehash the OB formula."

"As for a potential book 8, I don’t know if there’s enough evidence for it? Book 7 is cramming a lot in right now so it’s possible that all the loose ends will be tied up there. Book 8 also implies a strong focus on Ramhackle, which… I know we love Yuusonas and all, but the game cannot canonically fill in their backstory a ton or it will ruin player self-inserting/projection. That means we’d have to rely on Grim and Grim alone to be the emotional crux that somehow transcends even Malleus’s chapter. I think that’d be hard to pull off, especially since we'd be expecting book 8 to be even LONGER than the 290+ book 7 is. If there's a book 8 at all, it might have to be closer to prologue length...? Because even if they push the Mickey stuff and revealing Crowley's motives to a theoretical book 8, I can't imagine this would take up more parts than book 7 already has 💦"

Secondly, I don’t think “Twst ending” is… the best phrasing? It’s not like the game is going to shut down as soon as book 7 finishes. Live service games close when they’re no longer financially viable, not because they finished a main story arc. Several of these kinds of games continue the main story into a new arc—and while we don’t have any official confirmation of this for Twst, it would be just silly for a money and merch machine to be shut down for an arbitrary reason. If it's not broken, then don't axe it. I would be genuinely shocked if Twst just left the main story untouched after book 7, though it may take some time before new main story stuff comes out, as the writers would have to... you know, write. Running the servers based on events alone, especially when we are not guaranteed new story events every month, doesn't sound sustainable in the long term. There's still going to be new Twst stuff coming out for a long time between the manga, anime, and light novels too. That's at least a good couple of years.

dyugaoydaswqyb Anyway, I'll be staying in the fandom even once book 7 finished; it's very near and dear to my heart ^^ Like I said, I think Twst will probably continue its service for a while. And it's not like you can only have one interest at a time, right??

[ironworked]

i mean people were calling for bucktommy to be endgame after like two episodes lol so i don’t know why it’s so inconceivable to introduce another character that could be endgame…. except for the fact that fandom has latched so hard onto this one

Well, my opinion?

Firstly, people who were calling for Bucktommy endgame after 2 episodes were most probably being hyperbolic, more expressing appreciation for the dynamic than anything else. ETA: But it is true a lot of us got invested very early, and also there were fans who just recognized the chemistry and how different this couple was from the very beginning (this show has been training us Goldilocks-style to recognize a good LI), and wanted the series to seriously pursue this story and make them endgame. And actually it's part of the argument here: is it likely that something like that will happen again?

Why it is 'so inconceivable' to introduce another character that could be endgame: I've always said that I though getting Buck a good love interest is easy in concept because Buck is a very loving person and OS has easy chemistry with people.

However! his path during these 7.5 seasons has been leading him towards a certain type of person/relationship as he's developed as a character and he's done the trial-and-error thing with his love life. And then there's Tommy.

With Tommy they crafted a character that fit in the show and with Buck, and gave him Moments that are hallmarks of The One™ (unforgettable kiss; Dramatic entrance; Father approved; Calls him by special name...) which are now unusable for any future LI.

They've raised the bar. On season 8.

Now: how do you find someone easy to include? (journalist? done. Dispatcher? done. Firefighter? done. Meet on a call? established as Bad Idea). Buck has to date this person, and then how long do we think it's going to take him to reach the 'move in' stage after the three (3) previous attempts ended in break-ups? How do you find someone whom the audience prefers to Abby and/or Taylor and/or Tommy...?

And it better be on the first attempt too, because every relationship would take at least one season given the number of eps guest stars are contracted for, so the next break up would leave Buck starting season 10 as a single man.

Plus, the later that LI materializes and gets serious with Buck, the less time we have to see the relationship reach marriage/kids/etc. The show won't last forever!

Would it be absolutely impossible to find him another good LI? no.

Would it be damn hard? YES.

[olderthannetfic]

Aye...Hope this does not come off as shaming but I do not understand "kink is not inherently sexual" at all! I see it a lot in fandom and kink communities, but I don't get it, because to me kink is always a sex thing?

I wanna say I do RESPECT that, whatever it means, and when I say I don't understand I literally just mean that in the most actual meaning, that I don't understand! Maybe it's something as simple as a language barrier and I just dont get it, but honestly I'd rather ask here for clarification than google anything lol.

Like, does it mean that people like stereotypically kinky things for nonsexual reasons? Am thinking of Shibari practice in particular, which can often be nonsexual!

or does it mean "kinks" that don't inherently involve sex? Like things that are like -- I dunno, latex or leather? Which can be so very completely vanilla! But can also be sexy if that's what you're into.

Or is it more about asexual inclusion, even?

I'm asking to learn, not to bait - I feel there is an actual language and/or experience barrier here, and regardless of the meaning I WILL agree with "kink does not have to be sexual"! Like it is not me disagreeing, it is more so me... not understanding? It is I wanting to know what actually defines a non sexual kink? But only because of my understanding of the definitions of the words, not because of my beliefs, if that's makes sense?

For context, I literally only have one kink, and it is very very very vanilla and "soft"...I like praise lol. But I don't see nonsexual praise as kink. I just see it as compliments. So I'm wondering, how nonsexual kink works? Again, I wanna say I'm asking because I want to learn and be inclusive! Also I'm sorry if my message was worded weird or misinterpreted for any reason, my first language is Spanish, and while I grew up in an area that speaks enough English that I *almost* know it natively, I still very very struggle with conjugation, that on top of learning disabilities is very much a "wow what actually even IS proper grammar" issue for me lol.

--

Oh god, this again.

Yes, it's an asexual thing, basically. There are people who like kinks in a BDSM kind of way but not in a genitals touching kind of way. It's not like regular old praise. It's praise kink without fucking.

[murderinfinity]

Left 4 The Walking Dead

So, cheesy title aside, I'm ashamed to admit it took me ELEVEN YEARS to finish Telltale TWD season 2. You'd think it would be much sooner considering my nearly lifelong L4D2 hyperfixation, but I suppose not.

The whole time watching Jacksepticeye's old playthrough, this drawing just kept coming to mind, and I knew I had to do it. It took me so much longer than I'm used to, and I'm not too sure if it even looks all too good, but I'm proud of it anyway.

I'm genuinely hoping the quality doesn't get absolutely torn apart, but it's my own fault for making such a detailed drawing to begin with lol.

The background gave me a but of struggle because I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with it, but I'm happy I did it anyway. I would've been too sad leaving it as just a transparent background png ;-;

And I thought I'd include these, too. Nothing remarkable but it's related so why not post it. I've never drawn these characters before and I'm still figuring out how I want to stylize them.

For those of you who like this content, I have a lot of unfinished L4D2 drawings and even more ideas for this crossover. I know I'm a decade late, but hopefully there's still people out there who love L4D2 as much as I do, and are interested in new fan content. I would love to see a resurgence, tbh XD

Also cooking up other fandom content as well, so don't worry, my precious followers, you'll get a variety of content heading your way :P

[aroceu]

yes!!

i've been putting a lot of free time lately just finding more stuff (and also because it's fun for me) so here's another list of some tools.

here are some guides! they do go through a lot so i recommend reading at your own pace, and you can even start projects on the side based on what you know rather than trying to read and absorb them all at once. i usually like using guides as references more than a how-to manual before starting anything, but for the very basics it's usually a good place to start.

Interneting Is Hard (but it doesn't have to be), a guide on the raw basics of what a website is and how to make one, written casually and friendly for beginners

Marksheet, a thorough and introductory website on how to make a website, from starting with the basic stuff to introducing more complex techniques

The Quick ‘n’ Dirty Guide to Making a Website, a guide for how and why you should make a website, geared primarily towards artists/creatives

sadgrl online's webmastery resources, particularly: the what you see is what you get layout maker (no coding required), and html & css snippets, which i have heard great things about

petrapixel's layout generator, which also allows you to customize and generate your own layout with no coding required

web design in 4 minutes by jeremy thomas, an introductory tutorial on thinking about webdesign/website structure

tutorials at htmldog, which was my primary place in learning how to make a website in like... 2008. and yet they're still so relevant today

make your own website, a beginner's guide to making one's own website. it was written for the writer's 12 year old child if that may be less intimidating than the rest of these guides

other sitely resources!

easily download your ao3 fics for archival purposes and if you want to reupload them

owls' guide to webshrines, if you're ever interested in or have considered making in the shrine in the form of a website for something you really like and are a fan of! from a fannish perspective this has always been common among fan-inclined indie website makers - people just want to make websites dedicated to things they love, because hey, that's what the rest of us are doing in fandom anyway. this guide goes into detail how, why, and some suggestions for how to make a fan shrine!

how to make your first randomizer at lions-garb.net. you can make a randomizer through just inputting the stuff, sure, but this is a small guide on how to do it on the backend so you can also make your own randomizers while also making them look pretty on the internet.

resources list for the personal web, a very extensive list of a variety of webweaving resources, from tutorials to code snippets to tips to ideas! it may seem very daunting so i recommend just skimming it and seeing what catches your eye first, there's no chronological way to learn things once you have the very basics down

kalechips's layout thrift store, which has a bunch of free codes already created as basic web templates that anyone can feel free to take and adjust and edit and learn from to their liking! there's a lot of different already preset layouts so you don't have to worry about that part, and learn and modify them (if you want) instead

petrapixel's coding self-study checklist, a thorough list of some webdev coding necessities that hobbyists may have i missed (i know have!)

and if you get to the point where you want your website to feel like part of a community as much as you are, you can join a web ring!

the fic ring for self-hosted fanfic sites

the fandom webring, a webring for any webmasters in fandom

here's a consistently updated list of current indie web-rings!

In the wake of the TikTok ban and revival as a mouthpiece for fascist propaganda, as well as the downfall of Twitter and Facebook/Facebook-owned platforms to the same evils, I think now is a better time than ever to say LEARN HTML!!! FREE YOURSELVES FROM THE SHACKLES OF MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND EMBRACE THE INDIE WEB!!!

You can host a website on Neocities for free as long as it's under 1GB (which is a LOT more than it sounds like let me tell you) but if that's not enough you can get 50GB of space (and a variety of other perks) for only $5 a month.

And if you can't/don't want to pay for the extra space, sites like File Garden and Catbox let you host files for free that you can easily link into NeoCities pages (I do this to host videos on mine!) (It also lets you share files NeoCities wouldn't let you upload for free anyways, this is how I upload the .zip files for my 3DS themes on my site.)

Don't know how to write HTML/CSS? No problem. W3schools is an invaluable resource with free lessons on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and a whole slew of other programming languages, both for web development and otherwise.

Want a more traditional social media experience? SpaceHey is a platform that mimics the experience of 2000s MySpace

Struggling to find independent web pages that cater to your interests via major search engines? I've got you covered. Marginalia and Wiby are search engines that specifically prioritize non-commercial content. Marginalia also has filters that let you search for more specific categories of website, like wikis, blogs, academia, forums, and vintage sites.

Maybe you wanna log off the modern internet landscape altogether and step back into the pre-social media web altogether, well, Protoweb lets you do just that. It's a proxy service for older browsers (or really just any browser that supports HTTP, but that's mostly old browsers now anyways) that lets you visit restored snapshots of vintage websites.

Protoweb has a lot of Geocities content archived, but if you're interested in that you can find even more old Geocities sites over on the Geocities Gallery

And really this is just general tip-of-the-iceberg stuff. If you dig a little deeper you can find loads more interesting stuff out there. The internet doesn't have to be a miserable place full of nothing but doomposting and targeted ads. The first step to making it less miserable is for YOU, yes YOU, to quit spending all your time on it looking at the handful of miserable websites big tech wants you to spend all your time on.

[saintsenara]

Perhaps not the point of your ongoing Snoldemort (Vape?) masterpiece, but I really like how you write Lily. She’s adventurous and determined and charismatic, but also utterly careless about Severus’ emotions and especially his poverty in a way that’s - for those of us who’ve been in the same boat - utterly demeaning. And I think that’s all clearly there in canon too! I know she’s rather underwritten due to her mystery being kept under wraps for 6.95 out of 7 books, but I don’t think she’s *quite* as underwritten as many people think considering she’s only got about 10 lines. So I really love it on the exceedingly rare occasions when she flashes up in fics to be less saintly and more…correct in most respects, but also such a dick about it.

i can't believe i've been foolishly persisting with "snapemort" as the ship name when "vape" was in front of me the whole time.

[a shot of lord voldemort listening to the radio broadcasts of the wizengamot...]

thank you very much for this lovely message about scylla and charybdis, anon! i'm delighted you're enjoying it.

the starting point for her characterisation in the fic was - basically - god forbid a teenage girl not be the most selfless person in history.

i'm always really struck [and completely unsurprised...] that both sides of the fandom debate about snape seem to focus a lot on lily's supposed saintliness. since i'm a snape fan, i end up seeing the anti-lily side of this fairly often - endless rounds of "well if she's so great why didn't she do exactly what snape wanted all the time? why did she simply not accommodate everything he thought? checkmate, snaters" nonsense, which then quickly devolves into "every even mildly negative thought she had about snape was driven by her pure evil"...

but the thing is... even without any of the rest of it - the fact that she's a member of the wizarding world's persecuted underclass and there's a war on, for example - she's allowed to not be constantly thinking about other people's problems. and she's allowed to be annoyed and selfish and uncharitable and rude. and she's allowed to not be constantly filtering her words and actions through every single possible societal nuance in order to make sure she only responds in the most perfect way ever... not least because that's fundamentally impossible.

i like the fact that she never quite gets how snape's poverty changes his engagement with the world - especially in the most recent chapter, when she's thirteen and she thinks she's having a nice time hanging out with her pal and she thinks he's saying what he means when he says he doesn't want anything from the ice cream man, rather than pretending that he doesn't because he hasn't got any money and he finds the idea of admitting that to her to be too humiliating to bear - because it's a situation where neither of them are in the wrong, which i just find much more interesting than the fandom's determination to divide characters who are in conflict into the winner and the loser, or the good person and the bad one, or the person who's right and the person who's wrong.

snape's feelings about his poverty are entirely understandable, and lily clearly hasn't thought as much about it as might be admirable... but it's also his own fault that he doesn't share these feelings with lily, and just expects her to read his mind and modify her behaviour without him offering her any explanation as to why he wants her to do this or offering her any chance to refuse or to ask him to compromise on these desires.

and this lack of honest communication leads to their bigger, much more clear-cut resentments - over james, over mulciber and avery, over dark magic, and - of course - over voldemort. lily's obviously completely correct to say that voldemort is a terrorist and she won't respect anyone who's obsessed with him... the moral argument is black-and-white, lily's the only person who's right.

but the issue is that snape isn't actually arguing from an opposing position. he's not arguing that voldemort isn't a terrorist - he's arguing that voldemort is a terrorist who's also the only person he's ever met who's offering a tangible way for him to get out of poverty. and this is true - both in the fic and, in my view, in the canon text. the material argument is much, much more complicated than the moral one.

lily can't solve these problems - she's just one person, and she doesn't have to risk her own safety to try and deradicalise someone seeking to join an organisation which hates muggleborns - and i don't expect her to have ever been able to do so.

but i also like the fact that - just as snape's major failing in canon is indifference [he can tolerate what voldemort does until it affects him] - the good guys' major failing is indifference too.

the ministry and the order are principled people taking a righteous moral stand against terror... and they also have no idea how the system they're fighting for oppresses all but the elite of wizarding society... whereas voldemort understands this intimately, and he uses it to swell his ranks with disaffected recruits who are looking for someone to blame for their conditions...

[hence why he's the person - even as the text tries to present him as someone whose aims are pureblood oligarchy - who canonically commands the support (or, at the very least, the toleration) of the working classes and the non-human peoples oppressed by the wizarding state...]

but these recruits are nonetheless entirely aware what they're signing up for... they're not joining a legitimate political party, or a union, or an activist group seeking to bring about change through non-violent means... they're joining a terrorist organisation...

but their experience at the hands of the state makes them easy to convince that they've got no other choice...

i like this sort of vicious cycle approach to both the first and the second war because it's so much more interesting than canon's "this is a straightforward battle between good and evil" vibe.

[justiceiscalling]

my biggest fear when writing a fic for a fandom is mischaracterization. i feel like some fandoms are just so big and theres so many versions of one character that they're just so easy to 'fuck up'. i believe in criticism constructive or not, and i know a lot of people will YELL when they're favorite character gets butchered, but there are others who take the hit and move on. like wtf am i supposed to do with that? please let me know if i write a character insanely wrong! it's way more embarrassing to continuously write a character wrong than it is to write them wrong a couple times, get told off for it, and then correct it.

in other news, i'm trying to make new fics for characters i haven't written before so if anyone would like to leave comic recs i'd love you forever. the names of all characters are listed below (most of them, i've consumed some of their media but i don't know which ones preferred by the general public)

peter parker, miles morales (movies r my fav and i read one issue from when he like kissed kate i think?), roy harper, oliver queen, tony stark, jonathan kent (do i still just keep his supersons characterization? i have not touched a comic with him since he grew up), dick grayson, selena kyle, wally west, harry osborn, stephanie brown, connor hawke (please don't recommend me robin 2021), barry allen, donna troy, and johnny storm (or the fantastic four as a whole).

most of these i've read comics where they're side characters or where i'm told they're characters are butchered OR i've watched movies/shows which i dont think can ever properly characterize comic characters (the flash, titans, arrow, etc). so please rec something. thank you and i love you.

[blinday]

1. Not a specific character, but it does feel very passive agressive. Yes, it does seem like fandom policing. It's all in the intent. Like, what's the point of it? "Oh look. You like a white character amongst your shows? Shame on you." That's stupid.

2. a) I don't know, but I doubt it's something like 'oooh! The only white character in the show! I'm gonna kin them instead of the mc'.

b) It certainly criticizes it. Or do you have a different purpose for this comic? You certainly made it seem like it's a bad thing to pay the white characters more attention than the poc ones.

c) Yes. Yes, actually. I've been and seen fandoms in which a character was there for very short period of time and got a lot of attention. Hell, the whole thing in MLP is that background characters get backstories because the fans love them.

3. Actually, no. Most of my favorite characters are black/asian/blasian coded ninja turtles. I like the characters based on how skrunkly and hurt shaped they are.

4. Yes. I do think there's a reason. White people already have many spaces for them, so it's frustrating when they're more beloved than a poc character. Even so, it doesn't make it wrong or bad or harmful for people to like them. What I personally do is to promote my favorites and make content for them.

5. Well. I saw something stupid that a lot of people talk about and decided to give my own 2 cents, since you know. It's the internet. And sometimes it's important to see other perspectives.

For the last question: Actually, no! I was raised in South Africa and am a Brazilian, now living in Brazil with my black boyfriend and family members. Speaking of which, before I posted, I asked for his input, because of the amount of people saying I don't have a say in this because I'm most likely white. I didn’t want to be disrespectful. Well, let's just say, he beta read this response and endorsed it. So. I think I'm in the clear.

Also, I tend to use sarcasm and paused structure sentencing to make my posts humorous. I don't have anything against you personally, I just wanted to participate in the debate. It is a funny comic and it's something that does happen. It's a bit annoying, but I just don't think it's harmful or too deep.

[dreamwreaver]

I know canonically the chances of charlastor becoming canon are basically nil, but I do think Alastor at least cares about Charlie. You can’t tell me this man is still 100% only manipulating her after he nearly died while fighting for her/her hotel. Originally, it was obviously manipulation but I’m convinced at some point, it turned into genuine care (or, dare I say, affection).

All I'm gonna say is that if Viv wants to break the trope she better have some damn good writing behind it. Nonny, I was in the miraculous fandom for literal YEARS, I still have a soft spot for seasons 1-3 at which point the series ends. There's a lot of tropey bad writing I can forgive.

What I cannot, however, is "subverting" tropes for the sake of subverting them so you feel smarter than everyone else. Yes I'm bitter still and that guyTM can suck a sour egg for wasting nearly a decade of his fans time after continuously mining the fandom for content he then took credit for because he's just THAT GOOD.

Where were we? Oh, right, Hazbin. I think we're a bit more in luck because Alastor is one of Viv's oldest characters and she's definitely more prone to letting the characters evolve over time rather than trying to force characters that developed past their original inception and thus no longer fit the roles into them like a square peg in a round hole. Viv's writing has its problems, and I'm not saying either hellaverse show is some brilliant masterpiece of animation, but at the very least her use of tropes is consistent with the trope she uses. All her current narrative setup seems to indicate that Alastor will grow to care for Charlie, deeply. He already does if we consider that Alastor isn't technically bound by anything to help the hotel. Their arrangement is that he is ordered to help for as long as he so desires.

Until that specific line from the pilot is contradicted I consider it canon still. Technically the pilot is still canon since episode 1 takes place a week after it. Alastor doesn't HAVE to do anything with the hotel if he really doesn't want to. He can walk away at any time, and he probably will; at least in that "I'm developing feelings I don't want for people so I'm going to isolate myself" loner way. But it's too late. He already cares.

Amir's caginess about the question of who Alastor would do anything for is also highly suspect. Like we know one person definitively is his mother. The odds of it being a male character are almost nonexistent based on current characterization. So out of the main cast? Charlie is the most likely candidate. Viv has also confirmed that Alastor likes people not too much like him, but not too different either. Charlie is the one who fits that exactly. Two sides of the same coin. The other's dark reflection; everything they could be if circumstances were different but aren't. Could it be someone else entirely? Yeah sure I guess but we better get some hints as to who before the big reveal or else it wouldn't make any sense.

I'm not saying charlastor has to be canon. But to deny that all current narrative tropes indicate that Alastor is growing to care for Charlie in a deeper but platonic way is just insane to me.

[zinesbycee]

i can definitely understand this, and agree with a lot of it. i'd like to highlight some of the issues not broadly covered by this post, though:

-a universal price (translated directly from £ to $ etc) inherently excludes people from countries with lower average incomes. when it's proportionally more expensive for people from poorer countries, it's not a worldwide universal experience like they're framing it as

-the merchandise is only available in ~15 countries. countries excluded include basically all of the continents of Africa and Asia. obviously no one is entitled to the right to buy merch, but it's disheartening that none is available to such wide swathes of the world (again while the online event is treated like it's worldwide and accessible to all). the exclusion of Japan specifically feels kinda weird given the multiple videos themed around Japan and the entire merchline themed around Japan - if they're gonna profit from Japanese imagery, it'd be nice if they could include Japanese fans in merch.

-the refunds are being issued very slowly if at all - i bought and then emailed for a refund VERY quickly after the announcement, and have only had the automatic refund of a very small portion that's being issued universally. i imagine i was one of the very first to contact kiswe, and have had no acknowledgement of this contact. i'm not demanding instant response - i understand that these things take time - but i have yet to see ANYONE get a response or a full refund

-the company is seemingly making false claims, such as that only paypal users were impacted by the various issues, when even just in the replies there are multiple people who paid by card who were impacted. it's frustrating that they're whitewashing the scale of the fuckery.

-the company is the same one used for dan's tour livestream, with whom there were assorted issues (such as merch not being dispatched for 4 weeks with broken tracking links, and pro-palestine sentiments being censored in chat). it would have been nice if a different company was chosen, or if those problems were acknowledged more widely by kiswe.

-many people have reported quality issues with TIT merch, including packs of cards containing 5 duplicates, designs on shirts dissolving after one wash, and holes wearing through jumpers after one wash. the response has been slow (i'm personally a month in to my wait for replacement merch for something i got that was defective), and it's just another element of Frustrated With Dan And Phil As A Brand that people are dealing with at the moment.

everyone who worked on the tour deserves to be recompensed for their labour. dan and phil deserve to be recompensed for their labour. the company who run the livestream (whether that be kiswe or any other company) has workers who deserve to be recompensed. but this is a series of fuckeries that primarily negatively impact viewers who already didn't get to see the show live and which was avoidable.

i largely agree with you op, and i definitely think some people have been INCREDIBLY disproportionate. i just also think it's important to not minimise the significance of the problems and also to highlight the specific criticisms from, for example, African and Asian viewers.

(sorry for the many words lol, genuinely 0 hate or anger or frustration to op at all, i'm mostly expanding on the situation as a whole because i feel like there's a lot of nuance and details that only people Deeply Chronically Online know about. i also remember tabinof (and i remember the criticisms when danandphilshop was launched, and when dan and phil had separate online stores back in like 2011, and when they did the sim etc - i've also been around a long time and have seen a LOT of ridiculous, petty shit go down in this fandom) and i remember the deeply disproportionate comments (and video responses holy shit). i just think there's a Lot more substance to this topic than many of the others <3

maybe a hot take idk

look I know many people are upset about the pricing/fee situation of the TIT livestream (me included, I was pissed as hell that I got a large surprise fee), and I hope everything gets sorted out. I’m proud of the phandom for being loud and demanding fairness from the platform. you will not get shit past us.

I understand that. however, I completely disagree with some opinions I’ve seen (mainly on twitter but whatever) that charging for the stream at all is greedy, especially for people who have already paid to see the show. this is a weird take imo because this stream is supposed to be an opportunity for people who didn’t get to go to see it with an audience as a communal experience. but if you already spent money and don’t want to spend more, don’t!

and I don’t know anything about anything but based on the very little information dnp have provided about the cost of touring, I really don’t think they have the option to just do the stream for free. this is just my opinion, but based on how dan said he lost money touring WAD, i would not be surprised if the livestream paid for the rights he needed to release it for free on YouTube (and the extremely important rights to play All Star in the credits). just because he wrote and performed it doesn’t mean he owned it. it would not surprise me at all if the profits from the stream don’t go to dnp only.

and also, Things Cost Money, including livestreams. I think the platform has really showed their ass, but if we remove them from the equation for a second - everyone who put on TIT, including Dan and Phil, deserve to be compensated for their work. I don’t expect them to bleed money into this project forever just because it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I’m sure they’re doing just fine financially, but they are not and never have asked anyone to take food off their table to support them.

I actually find it really disheartening to see just how many people were like, legitimately, personally angry with dnp before they had even had a chance to respond to our concerns. I’ve been around long enough to remember when they announced TABINOF, there was an uproar about how they were sellouts because they were writing a book just like every other youtuber, making a shitty cashgrab when they had nothing to say. in the 2 days before we knew what the book would even be about, the Discourse had never been more annoying or mean spirited.

and it made me wonder, what are yall doing here if you assume the worst like that? have you just been waiting for the masks to slip? are you appalled that they participate in the heinous capitalistic act of selling their labor like everyone else? have your years of support not earned a little bit of grace when there’s a miscommunication?

I’m not saying approach everything like ‘they’ve never done anything wrong once in their whole lives and never will’, but the vitriol that seems to come out at minor fuck ups is alarming. some of yall do not like them and it shows. (I am looking directly at twitter dot com now)

I find that attitude really sad. after the TABINOF drama, I promised myself I’d never lose sleep over phandom nonsense again, so I’m going to bed, just had to get some thoughts out there. 💙

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina! I just wanted to share something:

I spent a lot of time on the larrie side of twitter and tiktok and I honestly thought that this part of the fandom was dead because there weren't so many posts and the comments were always full of antis making fun of us. after the last louis denial I decided to re-educate my algorithm because my fyp was taken by antis and unlarring people and it was unbearable. so I started using tumblr and omg this fandom is so fucking ALIVE; and now I honestly think there are more larries than we imagine, but they are well hidden because we know That people - antis - are usually wild lol

🩷 So glad you found us. I agree TikTok is full of antis and solos who hate larries, think Larry was never real, think Louis is a dad, and just generally are lacking common sense.

[mango-dot-yum]

As someone who has very mixed feelings about Pearl, I think a lot of the things she gets blamed for in the fandom aren’t actual criticisms of her actions and it’s just misogyny.

Pearl is played in two ways, either being very naive and not understanding that her actions hurt others, or just being a sucky person who only cares for herself. A lot of people only acknowledge Pearl as that second version and force it onto any version of the character and assumes when anyone talks about Pearl, they’re talking about that. For this, I will be talking about the more naive version of her.

Pearl is literally the brand new girl, for all we as the audience knows, she could have been manufactured like, 3 days ago. She clearly doesn’t understand certain things(ex: how important race partners are as a relationship to others like Dinah or Rusty) and while it doesn’t excuse her actions, you cannot frame a character as the devil reincarnated for being born yesterday.

Also, her actions aren’t even that bad- when compared to the actions of others in the same show. She doesn’t race with Rusty- which she has no obligation to do if she doesn’t want to, even if it makes Rusty feel bad- and she gets with Greaseball right after he breaks up with Dinah then proceeds to tell Dinah to stop crying. The second thing is a really mean thing to do, but people blow it way out of proportion. C.B. repeatedly crashes others for fun/money, Greaseball is at the very least emotionally abusive to Dinah, and a lot of the other engines are attacking each other over the race, but as soon as Pearl does ONE shitty thing, she’s worse than all these characters combined?

I’m not trying to infantilizing Pearl or imply that because she’s new that all her actions can be excused. What I’m saying is that she is not some evil person like so many people portray her to be, and even in versions where she’s portrayed as being more knowing, she’s not nearly as bad as fandom favorites because her actions are the same even if the intent behind them are different. If you hate a female character for doing a few shitty things, but love a male character with him doing a bunch of shitty things, that’s misogyny.

(I am NOT saying that everyone who dislikes Pearl is misogynistic or that you’re misogynistic if you like Greaseball or something. I don’t like Pearl outside of a lot of her costumes and songs, the issue is portraying her as if she’s some terrible person)

[angofwords]

How many works do you have on AO3? 44 on AO3. I have some older stuff on ff.net and other places, but I've never brought them over.

What's your total AO3 word count? 574,585

Your Top 5 stories by kudos

A Farewell to Arms: Banana Fish - My one and only fix-it fic, where Ash finds a way to cheat death, but nothing goes quite the way he planned. (2,861 kudos)

In the Closet: Banana Fish - A sexy little first-time romp in the darkroom that Eiji set up in the fancy apartment. (1,474 kudos)

Wishful Thinking: Banana Fish - A misunderstanding causes Ash to reveal far too much about what he's willing to give Eiji. (1,010 kudos)

Bound to You: Lord of the Rings - Wherein Legolas and Gimli go from enemies to lovers to soulmates. (930 kudos)

The Landscape Was the Same on Both Sides: Banana Fish - Ash is upset because Eiji seems to be avoiding his touch. Then he finds out why. (876 kudos)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I love comments. I haven't always responded to all of them--there were periods when my kid was little, especially, when my actions didn't meet my intentions, but nowadays I respond to all of them. I consider fanfiction as my way of engaging with the fandom, with the people who love the same stuff I love, so when someone reaches out to me, that's my best opportunity to connect. I've made a lot of friends in the comments of fanfics. <3

Do you write crossovers?

Not really. I don't read them, either.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, but not often. I love a good romance and even a bit of a build up of tension and kissing and touching, but more often than not, I leave the real smut to the imagination. A notable exception is:

I Get By (With a Little Help From My Friends): Lord of the Rings - Legolas and Gimli seduce Aragorn as a way to distract him from his troubles. (This is the fic I hope my LOTR-loving mom NEVER finds!)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of? I'd like to think that someone would let me know if that happened.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've had a lot of people ask/offer to translate them, but a handful have really been done. I'm super grateful that these lovely people did the work:

Прощай, оружие: a Russian translation (by Fuyu_no_Mafuyu) of A Farewell to Arms

Stars: a Russian translation (by rootofallevil) of Stars

In the Closet: a Mandarin translation (by Voltsliart) of In the Closet

Последняя ошибк��: A Russian translation (by Fuyu_no_Mayfuyu) of His Last Mistake

Комета Эша: A Russian translation (by Fuyu_no_Mayfuyu) of Ash's Comet

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I started out in fanfiction by collaborating with my sister on Little Women fanfics that never saw the light of day, and yes, we've also collaborated on a few other stories, too. Namely, a series of Legolas/Gimli fics that are all in the same universe:

The Second Breakfast Club: Lord of the Rings - A high school AU where the fellowship come together in a series of Saturday detention sessions. Co-written by lisafer

Closer: Lord of the Rings - Legolas and Gimli explore their brand new relationship in a way fairly typical of teenagers. Co-written by lisafer

St. Aule's Fire: Lord of the Rings - When Legolas and Gimli move in together, they quickly realize that love isn't enough to keep a relationship strong. Co-written by lisafer

What's your all time favorite ship?

My husband jokes that AshEiji is the primary relationship in my life. I've shipped those two for over 20 years and I don't see any other ship coming anywhere close, honestly.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but probably never will?

I started a novel about Eowyn from Lord of the Rings. I really want to finish it, but I need to learn how to write in a way that works. Right now it's okay, but I need it to sing. The first few chapters are on AO3:

Untouched: Lord of the Rings - the events of the War of the Ring from the point of view of Eowyn of Rohan.

What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I'm good at characterization, dialogue, and conveying emotions. I think I'm good with word choice and adding rhythm to my prose.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm slow. Part of it is that I'm meticulous--I've never learned to draft, so I can't move on from a sentence or a scene until it feels exactly the way I want it to. That has derailed many, many fics over the years. Also, I'm not great with strong endings. I'm working to improve that.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet, but want to?

I have SuperBat in my head and heart, but I'm far too scared to write it. I don't know if I can do that ship justice.

What's your favorite fic that you've written?

This is a difficult question, because I tend to love the stuff I've written most recently. But I really like these:

Just Say Yes: Banana Fish - This is an extreme canon-divergence, where Eiji doesn't get to New York until five years after the events of Banana Fish. He's an Olympic medalist in a bit of an identity crisis and ends up in fake marriage to Ash Lynx to get a green card.

Dear Boss (A Confession): Banana Fish - Ash gets a letter from Alex, his second in command, who feels obligated to confess a secret that might get him killed.

The Undying: Lord of the Rings - Gimli helps Legolas finally build the boat that takes him far from Middle Earth.

Triptych: Banana Fish - My one and only exploration of Shorter/Ash/Eiji

Shades of Light: Gundam Wing - Quatre and Heero deal with their shared grief after Trowa is killed on a mission. (This is VERY old and I've outgrown the writing style, but I still love it!)

I tag @localvampirebitch @gioia-writes-and-others @lisafer @roselightfairy

[khaoala]

Can I request fkt lore(does this count idk) joong fkt vacation? Or like a compilation if there is one(I searched but I'm still new and don't know how to look tbh) of all the stuff joong posted with them cause I saw some stuff and wao

anon, there's nothing i'd like more than to give you more context about it.

so, this little trip joong took fk happened in december last year and it was a little getaway healing trip they went together for no reason that they bothered to give us. as we know, joong has become a beloved nong of firstkhao since they started working together in thk (joong saying he loves firstkhao in a special way because they treat him like an actual younger brother when most people don't will forever have a place in my heart. their relationship is truly so cute) and joong is obviously a more adventurous soul so he encouraged fk to do new things hence their boat trip.

needless to say they had a lot of fun and enjoyed their time together, and i must also say, we even got a very romantic video of firstkhao watching the fireworks together as they chatted and laughed.

here are some photos and videos of their trip:

(these three pictures can be found on joong's twitter x, x and x)

(we got this one of first also on joong twitter here x, and it also has a video that i won't post because ask limit, but it's on the same post)

(this one is also from joong's twitter and it was posted a few days later here x)

(mr. joong archen also blessed us with this amazing reels on instagram here x and might i say, the most boyfriends things ever tbh. so well done and so beautiful, fandom thrived the day he posted this here are some screenshots that i feel are really important for us as a fandom)

(first also posted this picture and a video on his instagram here x)

(i also have this picture saved but i have no idea from where this is)

(joong posted a ig stories with first that you can find here x)

and i think that's mostly it? we didn't have a hashtag for it since it wasn't an event, but i was a really fun day for somdom. unfortunately we didn't get the 1M tweets joong wanted to fulfill his promise to pay for a vacation for the four boys to the maldives i think it was, but this boat trip was quite remarkable. i hope they get the chance to go on similar adventures even if they aren't on thk anymore (there are still the fanmeets so technically, in my book, they are still thk tho)

[chemyaart]

Rant about the cookie run kingdom fandom

Okay, so I know I'm gonna get hated for this, but I don't care. Ignore if you're sensitive.

First, I just want to clarify that it's for every fandom, of course, bad apples exist everywhere. But at this point, I can't believe what I'm seeing. The more a media is cute, kid-friendly, the more the fandom is crazy (and not in a good way)

So, I want to adress the things that bother me a lot.

Firstly, I think the Beast Yeast update was both a good thing and a bad thing to happen. Let me explain. Of course, the enemies into lovers trope has always existed and it's the most popular trope, but I think that update actually flipped upside down the fandom. Toxic ships has always existed (like affocara, redpastry, etc..) but they weren't that common I think?

But after that update, it never became the same thing again. It honestly makes me uncomfortable how shippers say "hAhA ToXiC yAoI" for everything, especially Shadowvanilla. It makes me cringe (I like sometimes when it's funny cringy, but not uncomfortable cringe you know?)

I hate how CRK content mainly ships (like 90% of the time) it's sexual.

Of course, I guess sex jokes/suggestive jokes can exist, but it comes to a point where it's like everywhere. These shippers only think about these 24/7.

One thing that adds with the fandom, is how people love to woobify the characters. The misrepresent/misinterpret the character for something they're not. Headcanons are fine, but when I see Shadowvanilla, and purecacao fans... I'm really concerned. They woobify the characters into "b-b-b-but he's g-g-g-ood!" or "I'm j-just a-a innocent uwu gay boi" I understand if you're a kid/teen, but when I see adults doing that, I'm like actually scared.

Every character is complex, and it doesn't have to be romantic. I actually like the Shadowvanilla ship, but not to this extent. And I don't like them romantically. But I would love to see them grow.

Plus, not just woobifying the characters, but also just changing them entirely. Like their personalities, and just only keep one trait. For example, Pure Vanilla Cookie. He's the most popular cookie with Shadow Milk, and all I see is just him being all innocent and nice. Of course he is friendly and generous, but (especially purecacao shippers) think he's weak or something. But when you see him defeating Dark Enchantress ALONE in the video, he isn't WEAK at all.

Or Dark Cacao, all they make him is "manly man who is strong and protects his boi" or "neglectful dad bad dad". When it's much more complex than that. I'm shocked when their account is JUST about this ship. Like I like Purelily and Cacaolily, but I don't post to this extent about them. And even if I wish for Cacaolily to be real, I'm not delusional enough to repeat that they're canon like some shadowvanilla and purecacao fans do. Of course, you can say that they're joking, but there are actually people that seriously do this ☠️ (do what you want, but I just can't belive it myself)

Plus, the amount of times where these shippers also looked at the tiniest details of an interaction, and thought, "it's canon" it's actually crazy. Like I've seen a post about how Dark Cacao's face in the fight between the ancients and Dark Enchantress Cookie, meant that he loved Pure vanilla cookie in a romantic way ☠️

Obviously characters can care about eachother without liking them romantically. Plus, not only Dark cacao was saddened, but also Hollyberry and Golden Cheese. But you don't include that for your ship.

You guys can understand that I really hate Purecacao, right? Well, unlike Shadowvanilla fans, they don't attack me personally, and they're actually cool. The experiences I had with Purecacao shippers made me hate this ship.

Also, stop hating characters for no reason, because of misunderstanding or something. Whether it's Golden Cheese Cookie, where there are people who think she's selfish and as bad as the beasts, Lord Oyster, or anyone tbh. A lot of characters are hated for no reason, either from their design, or what they did. What I mean is, okay, hate a character, but PLEASE have a at least a reason why you hate the character, and not just because it blocks your ship 😭

It's actually crazy Kingdom fans hated Revel Cookie and Okchun Cookie just for their "simple" design? A lot of CRK fans are so narrow minded it's sad. I really hope your minds opens up more, especially to other ships. For example, rare pairs are cool, and I don't see the problem with it except if they're problematic like age gap, pdf things yk?

I hate Purecacao, Affocacao, but I just block their tag. They just love drawing them kissing and making out. As much as I hate them, I won't threaten them or sending death threats over it, you know? I'm really sorry if I was too rude, my emotions get over me, I really hope it didn't hurt you.

At the end of the day, do what you want. Just don't interact with me. And please improve yourself, a lot of you guys need therapy, myself included. I needed to rant.