#also all fandom discourse is chronically online

[musicalmoritz]

Every time you ship Mitsuba with a girl, Kou punches a wall

[problematicbyler]

an incomplete history of byler sexuality discourse

and how widespread fandom purity culture and homophobia created a flourishing nsfw sub-fandom

some may call me chronically online, but i call myself a fandom historian. i've been a member of some fandom or another since i was about thirteen, and i've always been interested in the rise and fall of fandom discourse. though it's annoying in the moment it's happening, i think it's very interesting and telling to look back at the overall arcs and trends.

so, let's talk about the many times the fandom has cancelled people over byler sexuality, and how each level of "hornygate" has contributed to the growth of the proship/byler smut community.

(i use the term proship in its intended definition, which is to say, not "problematic shipping," but rather being pro-fiction, anti-censorship, and anti-harassment; it is a position of believing the fiction one creates or consumes doesn't reflect a person's real life beliefs or morals.)

i have been a stranger things lover since season 1, a byler shipper since season 2, and an active part of the byler community on tumblr since season 4. i'll mostly be focusing on post-season 4 discourse because that's what i've really been most present for and that was the period that really marked a turning point in the fandom.

seasons 1-3

i wasn't as plugged into fandom discourse back in the day, but the broad strokes of early discourse was mostly thinly veiled homophobia. claiming that it was sexualization to assume will or mike could be queer despite blatant queer coding, implying that analysts were no better than will's bullies to assume his sexuality, etc etc. people were criticized for shipping byler at all because they were so young (but these people naturally had no issue with mileven, so, again, homophobia).

season 4 (may-july 2022)

now, season 4. this is where byler was brought to the attention of a lot more fans, and stranger things' viewership reached wider than ever. the byler fandom on tumblr booms from 4k to 100k over the course of season 4's release.

this brought a lot of new people who have never been in fandoms before, people who never learned don't like don't read or your kink is not my kink and that's okay or ship and let ship.

or, a lot of times, people who had only been in fandoms for celebrities and bands, which tend to have different rules when it comes to shipping and sex, because they're real people. hence a lot of young antis' conflation of character with their actors, but that's a different rant.

so with a rapidly growing fandom, a show ripe for analysis, and the art of media literacy bleeding out on the ground in front of us, the hellscape of the fandom post-season 4 in 2022 followed as such:

august 2022

jo/kendra gate where two extremely popular analysts were called out for "sexualizing" byler while being adults (early to mid 20s). they were dogpiled and harassed because one of them said that will was giving mike "bedroom eyes" (he was) and one of them said mike was checking will out (he was):

pyshiie and moogate. the proship side of byler twitter rose up and started to divide itself. i'll credit my own joining-the-dark-side to pyshiie and moo, formerly barbjeanisms, who were two popular artists called out respectively for sexualizing byler and generally being proship. similarly, people were called out and criticized for even following or interacting with those accounts after this discourse.

september 2022

hosegate is the most famous across the byler fandom, and it's when some users proposed that the scene in the pizzeria uses phallic imagery to imply mike turns will on (or vice versa) and a lot of people thought that was too sexualized, it caused a divide, and more fanpolicing, etc.

october 2022

the artist noodlesandtea was harassed for having liked arguably nsfw bakudeku art (they were shirtless, it wasn't explicit) on the same account where they draw characters who are minors. they also drew byler kissing, which was a problem for some? anyone who defended them was also called a pedo, naturally. noodles also got called out for having drawn fanart of the popular e-rated fanfiction....

the unmarked mixtape. a massively popular sequel to a massively popular fic, the red envelope. for a long time, those were the most widely recommended byler fics, but it very soon became taboo to even admit to reading them because the sequel has explicit sex and the first has them making out.

sonnet116 gate is another fic that was beloved and then rapidly turned on by byler twitter because it had implied, fade to black sex scenes. it was about them hooking up but had no smut. and even the non explicit idea of that was offensive and pedophilic of anyone who dared read it. around this time, another fic was called out for having will moaning into a kiss, because writing a teenager moaning was also offensive and pedophilic.

i'm told i (jana / troublebyler gate?) may have influenced a lot of people joining twitter for byler smut after writing illicit affairs and some other smutty oneshots in rapid succession, seeing a lot of byler shippers moving to the proship side of the fandom just to discuss and write byler smut. i also hosted a little fandom gossip column on my curiouscat where a lot of folks confessed to reading or writing smut while pretending to be "normal" in the "main" fandom. it basically revealed/implied that a large amount of popular authors, artists, and accounts were secretly pro byler smut, and that many proshippers were "undercover" in the "main" fandom.

the blocklist era. around this time the "main" fandom also created a "st twt safety" account on twitter which was basically targeted harassment and mass reporting of proshippers. the account does warn of some genuine bad actors sending gore images via dms, being racist, etc. but by far, the majority of it was simply calling out proshippers for sexualizing byler, sharing screenshots they thought were "gross," which only resulted in spreading nsfw content to unintended audiences of minors that likely never would have seen the nsfw accounts otherwise.

november 2022

practice kissing gate is where a handful of popular fic writers were criticized for writing practice kissing fics (such as undertow), and in fact, any amount of byler making out, because adults "fantasizing" about teenagers kissing was "gross."

the proship corner of st twitter continued to grow a lot thanks to so many lovely fan creators, all of whom i couldn't possibly list but who have done a lot for the community! but we continued to get bombarded with endless callout posts and block lists and witch hunting. people were unabashedly policing people's following lists and likes on twitter to call people out for engaging with any questionable users or content. (if you search byler twitter now you can still see the wreckage of so many witch hunts.)

onward through 2023

over time things have mostly calmed down, or at least enough of the folks on "opposing sides" of the fandom have mutually blocked each other to survive. this is likely also influenced by the hiatus leaving the fandom to quiet down, the collapse of twitter-turned-x having many users migrate their fandom content elsewhere, and the mass exodus of many people from the fandom for political reasons. if i had to guess, the ramp-up to season 5 will see all new conflict as more "casual" fans return to the fandom. but who's to say.

which brings us to now:

spicybylerpolls gate, wherein the byler tag on tumblr collectively had to reckon with the fact that people want byler to have sex and it doesn't make them creeps to vote in silly polls about it. people criticized the blog for being overly sexualized and pure fantasy versus more "acceptable" analysis, with many making sweeping moralizing statements about anyone who dared interact with the blog.

this has kicked off tumblr's own sort of horny revolution in encouraging folks to be more open on here, whereas previously we were confined to our corner of twitter.

so in summary:

people over and over again put fan creators on a pedestal just to turn on them when they're "betrayed" when a person's views did not one-to-one line up to theirs.

teens in the fandom especially were "betrayed" by adults in the fandom they thought were "safe" (and i would argue that self proclaimed "safe" adults in fandom are far more dangerous to real life minors than the proship fans who sexualize fictional characters but dont interact with real teens)

most everything has been fueled by widespread ageism at any fan over the age of 18, widespread homophobia and puritanism in regards to exploring queer sexuality or discussing sex at all

so much hate has been over what are essentially "thought crimes", with people watering down serious accusations like pedophilia into a petty insult over disagreements on fiction

and the cycle repeats itself endlessly until things devolve back into witch hunting and policing peoples following and likes etc

the best part to me is that every single cancellation just resulted in more people flooding to the horny side of the fandom to post more freely and without shame. every time a person on twitter posted screenshots of my account to say how "gross" it was (while simultaneously exposing my 18+ nsfw content to their audience of minors) i had a surge in followers. the more the fandom squeezes, the more people slip from its hold.

but that doesn't make the harassment campaigns okay, and it doesn't mean the fandom didn't do massive amounts of harm to real people in an attempt to protect fictional characters.

my hope going forward is that the fandom can coexist as a community where people don't have to like or agree with certain content to treat the people who create it with respect and dignity. and i hope that, while this side of the fandom might grow more on tumblr, we don't have to relive the same old discourses and go through the same cycles we went through on twitter.

and remember kids, the block button is both free and fun.

[olderthannetfic]

This is a rant that is going to end in a question that I genuinely want the answer to.

I've recently seen (in the past year or so) an uptick in people online using the word "delusional" casually or as an insult. Worse even than that, "delulu" which I believe originated on Tiktok or Twitter (likely places for ableism to come from, yeah, fork found in kitchen etc etc). The only people I really see calling this behavior out are, you guessed it, actually delusional or psychotic people.

Typically it's thrown around to describe someone's "weird" or "chronically online" beliefs. Like using it to talk about reality shifters or RPF shippers who think their ship is actually together or etc. And, like, while I don't disagree that spiritual psychosis or "the belief that someone is sending me signals via social media" are real actual delusional behaviors/can lead to actual delusions, I really don't think that believing you can shift to Hogwarts to see Draco or that you have a mental connection to the Stranger Things universe or that Taylor Swift is queer and flagging via music videos really fits the criteria for spiritual psychosis or erotomania or what have you *in itself* - meaning if you live an otherwise normal life and only get out of touch with reality when you're on #MaraudersTok or r/LarryStylinson, you're likely not delusional, or at least not delusional enough for it to impact your functionality.

So, that begs the question, WHY? Why use delusional to describe stupid chronically online drama? Like, I'm being genuine, I truly do want to know why. Are these people misusing/misunderstanding what the word delusional means? Are they armchair diagnosing? Do they think these people are actually experiencing psychosis, and if so, why are they using said diagnosis as an insult or as part of their moral flaws? Why are they so bothered and obsessed with someone else's "delusion", especially when the delusion in question isn't hurting them and is just a stupid thing like thinking that some random celeb is about to hard launch their coming out or that they can teleport to a fictional world?

(also, PLEASE, I know it sounds like I have specific beef with shifters or gay rpf truthers, I DON'T, nor am i necessarily 'defending' these communities, 'cuz i know they do have actual issues outside of just being cringe or whatever. I don't want gaylor shift malfoy snapewives discourse, i want "why are you using a psychotic disorder to describe these fringe fandom communities" discourse, and in the circles i run in that's just the type of people who are described as delusional the most - I know that the overall issue runs much deeper, I just figured Id ask a fandom blog why the word is so prevelant in fandoms, especially in specific "types" of fandoms)

Like, I'm not looking for an argument of "it's ok to use delusional so casually" or "yeah i agree it's so fucked up that people throw that word around :/" all i want is an honest and concise answer of WHY delusional has become the Hot New Armchair Diagnosis For Weird People On TikTok or whatever.

--

Lots of words get used with a colloquial definition and people aren't really thinking about their technical meaning.

K-pop fandom. Blame them.

[tokillamockingbird427]

first of all happy pri(de mon)th

second of all I posted this on my blog but no one saw it so alas here I am

chronically online logan and kick who are close enough in age but occupy completely different spaces on the Internet. kick is into top 20 most DANGEROUS PLACES, looking for ghosts at 3 AM and he does know the skibidi toilet lore. he's not gonna use it for anything but it's up there. and logan is participating in fandom discourse on forums and telling people to kys over it (hesh finds out and logan is in tears begging him to not tell elias) (little does logan know hesh is an anime fan and can't blow his cover) he likes dbz and the typical shounen stuff but likes slice of life animes more than he cares too admit bcs they usually have an animal side characters. he also had a "concerning shojo" phase I will not elaborate and he likes horror as an adult but doesn't watch it often bcs he doesn't wanna scare logan (logans fine hesh is just babying him)

-angel :] decided to go non anon

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Kick 100% used Randonautica at some point. (That one "Random locations" app that blew up a while back.) Also 100% watched those "Exploring abandoned mall at 3AM! (WE GOT CHASED OUT!!)" vids that were popular before then. (Shout out to anyone who watched Sam and Colby.) Kick knows the lore but doesn't use it for good or evil; Simply possesses it.

FANDOM DISCOURSE..... real. "Don't tell dad!!!" "You swatted someone because they said your otp wasn't canon." "IT'S FANDOM, THE POINT IS TO MAKE SHIT UP.... Also you're way too familiar with saying "otp" David." "Uh..." *nervous sweating* (Hesh should have never showed his brother how to find someone's address.)

Hesh "Anime Lover" headcanoners RISE!!! "shounen" Oh I know this mf watched Nauruto. (QUICK IMAGINE HESH NAURUTO RUNNING!!!) Young David was just covering all his bases dw dw. I think even alongside everything else he'd really enjoy the big ones like The Vinland Saga and Beserk. He is Guts fr fr. (Fun fact: I aspire write Logan like Thorfinn is written. Not that I've read a lot; But what I've seen seems very promising.)

(At some point Logan and Hesh got into an anonymous back and forth on a fandom they intersected on and neither of them know it was each other to this day.)

Off anon pog

[chengfagshi]

antis unironically describe proshippers as “pshits” “proshitters” “pisscourse” and also have a racism problem that goes unchecked in their communities, AND they seem to care a lot more about this discourse than proshippers.  I’ve even seen one person making a poll about video essay topics and the most voted option was “proshippers and taboo topics”. But they’re not chronically online eh?

I honestly feel like antis are *only* in fandom spaces to get on proshipper's nerves. Like why are these 15 year olds bitching at us for what we like in fiction? I'm not gonna be lectured by a minor that unironically uses the term "proshitter". They're just miserable all the time. All they do is bitch and complain and don't bring a damn thing to fandom, other than giving us all a massive headache. Not to mention some of their DNIs. They get so ridiculous and loooooong. Like if your DNI is longer than the god damn bible, you maaaaaay want to get offline. Like I understand not wanting to interact with someone that ships something you don't like...but that's kind of YOUR job to block them. I'm not gonna look at everyone's seizure inducing carrd (and believe me, there's a lot of them) to find the magic words of "proship dni". I've seen ppl that even have "m/f shippers dni" on their carrd, as in, if you like any m/f ship, to not interact, despite a lot of us being queer ourselves and hcing characters as trans, bi, etc. etc. It honestly feels like they don't allow anyone to think differently from them. They just want everyone in fandom to be the exact same. Where tf is the fun in that? Like I'm moots with a lot of MHA fans. I personally don't care for MHA (like I only really like the ship dkbk and I like Dabi and that's pretty much it), but I'm not gonna be like "ewww, you like MHA. Get the fuck away from me." People are allowed to like stuff you don't like. Like yes, it's a little different when it comes to incest, lolisho and stuff like that. I understand someone not wanting to interact with that type of stuff. But once again, it is your responsibility to curate your own online space. It's not an artist's job, it's not a writer's job. It's your job. I have also seen ship art of Vi/Jinx before and someone commenting shit like "This traumatized me". Stfuuuuu. You did not get traumatized because an artist drew pixels kissing. Stop misusing words omfg.

[lynxindisguise]

lynx!! today i made my friends who are very-not-into-fandoms take your ao3 tag test and it was one of the most entertaining experiences of my life

while they were taking the test the following happened:

having to explain what omegaverse was. a truly wonderful experience i highly reccomend. i don't think they'll see me the same way after today

defending age gap as an ok trope to read and not the weirdest thing you could find only / i ever read (they were flabbergasted by this statement)

having to explain what "wip" means. also having to explain what "fic" means. they may not be fandom people but they are chronically online, so that was surprising to me, i thought they'd at least know these ones

having my friends scream "what the hell does AU mean you either tell me now or i'll never finish this test on principle" while i laughed histerically. they did end up finishing the test

explain what a spotify daylist is. they all have spotify. none of them had a clue of what it was supposed to be.

explain what "afraid to be percieved" means. i mostly blame it on english not being anyone's first language, but they're all people living in english speaking countries so they don't really have an excuse

also this whole conversation happend while videochatting, except i was on a walk and my headphones weren't working so i had them on speaker. so i just walked around my town for a solid hour talking about all this stuff, to the entertainment of whoever passed me by

this all to say - thank you so much for creating that test, i think it's one of my favourite things on the internet, i had so much fun forcing tham to do it and now i'm putting up a little rec list based on their preferences (they will 100% never read anything but that's ok)

lots of love xx

hi!!! oh my god this is amazing I’m screaming!! the number of ways one quiz has traumatized them in one night… sometimes I forget what the average person does and doesn’t know. (also surprised about the age gap thing!! I thought the “problematic age gap” discourse came from fics and that the general public was fine with this being a thing in romance/porn)

anon I simply must know what their results were and if you had to explain those to them too!!

[eliounora]

anti/pro ship discourse is extremely annoying and I would honestly recommend trying not to get involved on either side, but I just wanted to say that I think the prev ask was pretty disingenuous. There are many problems with chronically online ppl who identify strongly with "anti-shipping", (the main one being that, as you say, these are nuanced issues and intent/context need to be taken account), but to describe them as being "anti ship just for the sake of it" is pretty.... suspicious, let's just say.

that's just my two cents and all I'm going to say on the matter, I don't want to use your inbox as a battling ground with that other anon. And obviously you should be free to draw your own conclusions on all of this. But frankly I would just recommend keeping out of it altogether. People who use the labels "anti" or "Pro shipper" as unironic and uncritical character traits need to go outside, touch grass etc.

YEAH to be fair the previous ask did sound like ao3 paid them write it (sorry to that anon) but I decided to give the benefit of the doubt and use the response to give my own opinion, haha!

I agree with you 100%, I think "anti-shippers" definitely talk about genuine issues that occur in fandom spaces. the way of going about those issues through the divide of "anti-" and "pro-shipping" seems to be quite misleading though. as said, I think shipping in general doesn't have moral value to it, but how you engage with other people and surroundings does. issues like racism, grooming etc. in fandom should be discussed, but sort of centralising them around shipping and fanfic and being strongly for or against either one doesn't seem to me the most constructive way of going about it, which is why I'm also not too interested in becoming tangled in this discourse. I hope you get what I mean!

[utterentropy]

Have you ever wanted to join a Discord server where the entire premise is just that you pretend you're a chronically online adolescent version of your favourite characters?

A server where there is no you, no anyone, no actual people talking about real sad people things in our sad people world, but rather just fictional characters during the prime angst age just chatting and posting about their lives in their respective worlds?

Where there is virtually no limit on what character you can play, so long as the media isn't like saying something bad is okay or one extremely niche fandom or one almost as niche character, where you can just act like you've always been that character (or well, as many as you'd like) in a Discord server, conversing about their life in a dystopia, or a world of anthropomorphic animals, or a magical school, or the apocalypse, or the empyrean ranges of a world of Gods, or a medieval wasteland, or something that makes absolutely no sense to have Discord and be obsessively on the internet but you don't care and we don't care and you make it work anyway?

Where all sensitive real life subjects are not to be discussed, and all server members remain mysterious and pretty much all of what you know of them is their silly little blorbos…

Oh yeah, also like everyone in the server so far are MASSIVE Rain World fans so Rain World characters are hugely encouraged.

But I should probably say what's not allowed first.

-Racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, homophobia, religiophobia, ableism, sanism, all of this regardless of your reasoning.

-Com-shipping, people just generally aren't comfortable with it and I request you leave us be.

-TERFs, "MAP"/"NOMAP"s, Xenosatanism, right-wing

-Real life-venting (projecting through your character is allowed!) and discussion of serious real world topics (politics, mental illness, discourse, real world events, etc.)

-Cringe culture, we're all just havin' fun and there's no need to get onto us for being strange

What is allowed:

-Angst, fluff, comfort RPs, in-character arguments, and just casual, Discord-style chatting

-Sensitive topics for roleplay purposes (we'll tell you what needs to be spoiled) in a non-romanticised manner

-Any and all characters with very few exceptions (this means generally controversial fandoms, such as Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, Dream SMP, Countryhumans, Eddsworld etc. are allowed, so if you're uncomfy interacting with those people I advise you steer clear)

-Those who identify as/with a fictional character roleplaying as the character they identify as (I find it might be very therapeutic for you)

-Self-inserts

-Self-shipping

-AUs of canon characters (I love AUs sm pls pls pls pls pls)

-Canon-divergence

-Characters that are absolutely horrible people (which the exception of sexually violent characters)

-Characters that don't really make sense to be on Discord but they are anyway, regardless on if there's a good reason or not

-Beginners of character-making/roleplaying

-Neurodivergent, queer, trans, alterhuman, etc. folks

Just remember, this is NOT a place to chit-chat and get to know people. This is a place to pretend you're a character on Discord and be very firm on that being who you are. It is EXTREMELY encouraged to only use the OOC channels if you wanna ask a question or for permission, or to DM someone in-character.

If you do decide to come, we'll be happy to have you!

We intend to have a very casual atmosphere so if like…… you argue a lot, or are a very blunt/mean/serious person then pls don't stop by

Please reblog this and spread this as much as you can!!! I wanna have a good time and have an escape for people through this little server :)

https://discord.gg/EeDEk3sz

[jakeperalta]

On my third listen to ttpd and I am for the first time changing opinions on the mh affair. When the news of the rebound came out, I was extremely shocked and disgusted, because he truly is a piece of trash. I think listening to her music, I can put myself in her place more easily, because I too once fell in love with a guy who was a complete idiot (at the time I was truly blind and just too young). Then I thought about some family members who have awful political opinions and with whom I'm always annoyed, but whom I still love dearly simply because we have a history together, a bond and they did generous loving things for me as well and helped me when I most needed. I think in the end human relations are complicated and complex. Flawed people who are objectively idiots sometimes find their way into our hearts because of a series of (mis)fortunes. Everyone is nuaced and our relationships especially. All of this to say that in the end we are sometimes so chronically online that we forget that they are real people and that we don't know them at all, their stories and motivations, yet feel like we know how they should act. I am coming to the conclusion that I will probably step away from the fandom for a while to be able to enjoy things without completely putting so much my opinion and energy on them. Idk I'm having an existential crisis bestie and wanted to know your opinion since you also took a step away. Do you maybe understand what I'm trying to say?

I totally understand this! I do agree I think it was clearly a bad time of bad decisions and whilst it's never going to not give me the ick (particularly that quote that was like "she doesn't care what people think because she's on top of the world!" 😬) I can appreciate that sometimes people do just date shitty people that don't necessarily reflect who they are (the description of it in the prologue poem as a mutual manic episode and self harm says a lot about the decision making or lack of). similarly some of the lyrics of but daddy I love him are offputting but I know that her radar of what is valid criticism and what's just miserable haters is totally skewed (not that it's an excuse and I do think it's something she could do with being better on, but it does help understand it). like you say, people and their relationships are complex and flawed sometimes.

I think it's always a good thing to take a step back from fandom spaces at times — I know the past few days I've been a lot more in it but overall I've found that being a bit less immersed in every bit of discourse and debate makes it easier to just put that time and energy into simply enjoying the music!

[hauntingsofhouses]

i think fandoms can be soooo ridiculous a lot of the time (see: all the nonsensical fan wars, discourse, etc) but i cannot understate how much i actually love fandoms.

like yeah it may be super nerdy and even cringe and outsiders look at it like "why tf do you care about these fictional characters so much?"

but 1) my field is literally..... literary studies..... in which all i do is study fiction and analyse it like an insane person, and 2) even if that WASN'T my field, thinking about the stories we consume is important even for any person to do, because thinking about stories exercises our brain to think critically!! why do you think our ancestors used stories as a medium to share knowledge, to propagate moral values and lessons? stories—telling them, thinking about what they're saying, and caring about the characters within them—are all inherent to the human experience!!!

so that brings me to fandom. because we are literally just making these little communities with each other based on our shared love for a particular story, and for a particular character or theme within them that resonated with us, or whatever. we're all here because we loved a thing so much that we built connections from it!!!

like yeah my irl friends laugh at me when i tell them i write fanfic, cuz ha ha what a nerd what a loser etc, but dude. i made genuine real friendships from fandom alone. from just obsessing over two characters we thought were cute together, we've gone to sending each other gifts and postcards and having voice calls and confiding in each other and sharing parts of us and our personal lives and our cultures (cuz we're all from different countries) with each other! like now i don't even share a fandom with most of my old fandom friends anymore but we still stick by each other and that's amazing???

also like, i cannot emphasise enough how amazing and encouraging it is to share your craft (art/writing/etc) with others in fandom. because for example if i make my own personal art or write my own original work, i'd have no one to share it to, no one interested to see it, and thus no one will be there to provide feedback or encouragement.

but if i post a piece of fan art or fanfic, people actually do see the work i post and care about the craft and the content it's depicting and even share their thoughts on it and that ??? is so motivating and lovely ??? because even though i make art for myself, art is still meant to be shared and seen at the end of the day—even if only with one person. so to be given the means of sharing our art in such a way, to have such a community that fosters so much creativity, it's amazing. i don't really get that anywhere else.

and especially to have this in like, a casual setting, you know, where you can just be yourself and do things according to your own time and energy without the pretenses of professionalism and a perfectly curated resume or portfolio, and all the confines of a rigid work schedule, which would all make the process of creation less fun and less genuine, and instead just more taxing and chore-like.

because fandom is essentially meant to be about doing what's fun for you! it's about sharing your creations and enjoying what others share with you. you make friends and you go ham with it.

and also it's why it's more frustrating when people take things too seriously and legitimately get upset over assumptions of other people's beliefs and hold the most minor grievances that could only be felt if you're like, chronically online.

but on that note, there are definitely still honest-to-god bad people in fandom spaces too (see: racists, TERFS, homophobes, groomers, harassers, etc). but that's the case with all communities, because bad people are always going to exist, and thus statistically speaking, the bigger a group or community is, higher chances are there's gonna be some awful people in there. but honestly that is its own can of worms and also that's not what this post is about, but i felt it necessary to address because i don't want to paint fandom as like, the best thing ever in the world, because fandom spaces are incredibly flawed, as everything is.

but i've always been one to appreciate things despite its flaws. and though this may be very personal to me, when i love things so much, i am still willing to stick around and try to change the culture around it in the ways that i can (like promoting internet safety measures, creating safe spaces for thoughtful and polite discussion, raising awareness on harmful stereotypes and fandom depictions or opinions, etc).

so regardless of the bullshit that online fandom spaces tend to perpetuate, i do very much still love the way that fandom allows me to connect with folks over something as silly as our little blorbos, and from there end up making life-long friends, or at the very least new acquaintances. insert reinforcement of my thesis statement about stories fostering human connection here. the end. send post.

[lillywhitefield]

Hey!

First, I just want to say that I am right there with you!! I watched season 3 with an equally obsessed Bridgerton friend (she’s a big Kanthony fan and I was honestly a general audience fan until like Tudum of July 2023, after which I became a huge Polin fan… they’d always been my fav in the show because I tend to gravitate toward that “side” couple if you will but I just hadn’t entered FULL Bridgerton obsession mode yet 💀). Anyways, we watched it together when it came out, did not check the onlines. And when I tell you we both cried multiple times throughout the season, I mean that we CRIED. There were soo many beautiful moments and while ofc it wasn’t perfect, it spoke to both of us in a way the other seasons didn’t. (My friend remains a Kanthony fan, happy for her bc they’re a lovely couple that I too enjoyed, but she turned to me at the end and just said “They (Polin) are so good together.”After we both had finished crying over the “How lucky I am to stand by your side and soak up even a little bit of your light” line.) idk. It just made us both feel seen in different ways and for different reasons, and we found so many lines/scenes about love and family beyond beautiful. So ofc we were both blindsided when we finally opened up the socials and hell was breaking loose lol. But to be completely honest with you, I think a lot of the hate is coming from the Francesca storyline (homophobia is a disease and some people need to touch grass 🤷‍♀️), the group think mindset that chronically online individuals tend to get into, and the fact that they wanted a little more Polin at the end (which, don’t we all? But as you said, this is Shonda. And I watched the other two seasons, no main couple got more than those 5 min of bliss at the very end which we gotta good amount of sweet scenes during their engagement period lol.) I’m at peace with it because I know they’re back next season and will likely get to be a fluff-fest, similar to Kanthony this time around. I thought it was more interesting for them to explore the JOURNEY to happiness.

All this to say, do what you need to do until the timeline calms down and people finally touch grass. But know there are some of us who also liked s3 ❤️

I think touching grass was VITAL to my enjoyment of season 3! I do feel for people who did not enjoy it, but I'm in fandom spaces to have fun, and I need to protect my own mental health so I just had to check out of a lot of the critical discourse. People are allowed to feel however they want, it's just for me that I am choosing to ignore a lot of it and focus on what I loved and what we *did* get from S3 😊

I'm glad to see that 10 days out from the part 2 premiere, more people seem to be doing the same! And I am SO EXCITED for married and happy Polin in season 4! If we get anything like what Kanthony got, I will be thrilled

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

https://www.tumblr.com/lokisasylum/728596853469413376/all-jokes-and-memes-aside-lemme-address

I’m a pjm myself but this post is literally so ridiculous 😭 This is some peak stage of twitter’s mind corruption and being out of touch with reality 😂 I can’t speak about the others but I was following you for more than a year and you wrote some of the most interesting posts about jimin’s art I’ve seen here. I may not share all of your views about jimin but to call you a jimin anti is just kinda insane

What should I do? Is it time to call my mom and tell her that I am finally infamous on tumblr.com? Should I pop the champagne?

I will not comment about this blogger's page and its discourse in general, nor about the other people mentioned in the post.

But I will say something first about one person. Peppertaemint is my friend, not my moot. I know, hard concept to understand. Our friendship does not rely on us being kpop moots because we're a lot cooler than that. We're also music fans, not multi stans, but I see that for someone chronically online, this is impossible to understand.

As to me being accused of being a Jimin "anti", I'm genuinely shocked. Because if there's one person that I'm singing praises too as if I'm getting paid (I'm not), it would be Jimin because I'm a weak bitch for the man. But I am not his stan, not his akgae, not his anti, I'm not Army, I'm not multi-stan, I'm not a jikooker, I'm not any other fandom-related label that it's being attached to me. I have my identity which is not related to kpop and I have other purposes in life that do not require for me to look for satisfaction within a fandom. I am merely a person with various interests, as I have been revealing more and more since I changed my blog's direction, who also happens to have one in kpop and some BTS members, with a particular emphasis on Jimin.

I have never "downplayed" his talent or made "shady" posts about him. On the contrary, I've always had to try and see things from a more objective perspective and sometimes I found that it was difficult because my bias towards him took over.

I am a supposed Jimin anti, but he's the only artist in kpop that I've written extensively about and trying to bring my own contribution by writing about his art. I am such a Jimin anti that I have spent weeks doing hours of research after finishing my work in order to be able to write something worth reading about his photofolio. I am such a Jimin anti that I almost cried out of anger when I couldn't access articles that I needed in order to understand some of his concepts. I had put myself voluntarily in a situation similar to my usual academic research at a point in which that type of work was detrimental to my mental health. But I pushed it because I loved that photofolio and it was one of those rare occasions in which I got reminded that there's still joy in doing that when the person I'm writing about is worth it and there's no outside pressure.

I always write about the projects he's involved with. During the time he was announced as Dior ambassador and went to Fashion Week, I have opened up the floor to those with more expertise so that we can take the discussion further and turn it into an interesting weekend debate.

Until I closed my blog on the day of Face's release for personal reasons, I wrote about his concept every single time when something was released. When idiots all over the internet were talking shit about SMFpt2, I had written extensively about the song and the music video. But I am a Jimin anti.

Fan engagement (not stan part of a fandom) can take many forms and we are allowed to do it in whatever way possible. I do not care what others are doing, if they think that their best way of having a contribution is by posting about streaming or reporting accounts. That is not me, it will never be me. The best I can do, and not based on some supposed stan duty, is to write about the artists I like in a way that makes sense for me.

I do not make posts for engagement, this tumblr blog is but one tiny bit in my life and I do not need that. I do not spend my time "dragging pjms" as if they're my personal target. Even when I voiced my complains, I then had talks with anons that brought their own perspective which I understood and made me see things differently. That happens because I am not completely out of touch with reality and I can behave as a normal person who can have talks with a variety of fans.

I'm not writing all this to justify myself for this blogger, but because I do not accept such a gross characterization and because I've put a lot of effort in so many posts I have written about Jimin and I find it completely unfair to be slapped with such ridiculous labels.

Anon, I understand why you brought this issue to me. But honestly, I'd rather not know what is out there. I have my own corner here, a sort of personal public diary. I like to share my thoughts about plenty of other stuff as well, make some jokes, hoping that some of the readers have a sense of humor as well and mind my business. I do not situate myself within any fandom and I refuse to be dragged into situations like these by people who cannot escape a toxic stan/kpop mentality.

[chronically-enthusiastic]

Hello there, thanks for stumbling across my blog!

(Here's a lil comic I made for a school assignment)

Artblog: @chronicallyartistic

Audio drama blog: @chronically-listeningtopodcasts

I'm going to start putting my social energy levels in my bio... There's a lot of stuff I want to respond to but i currently dont have the energy to do so, and so if I don't respond within like a day, check my bio and see that...

Who am I / Where else can you find me?

First of all, feel free to call me Eli!! I'm on the waiting list for an autism diagnosis. I am agender and aroace-spec.

I am verrryyy enthusiastic about the things I am interested in (hence the URL hehehe). And currently, those are: podcasts (theres a list at the bottom of the post), good omens, ofmd, bbc merlin, star trek!!!!, lotr, and probably more things that I am too tired to think of right now!

I use the queue! Im not awake at the ungodly hours i sometimes am seen posting at, I just dont want to utterly flood peoples dashes! I do reblog fandom stuff and things ive added anything to immediately, so if you see a few posts in short succession, im online!

I am a very big fan of the oxford comma and double brackets. Semicolons are pretty cool too. And ellipses are incredible.

i love all of my mutuals dearly!! Making cookies and hot chocolate for you all <33

I try to use tone tags as much as possible!

Boundaries:

Things I am okay with sharing/doing:

My age, gender/sexuality, things about my guinea pigs!!, and most other things

Things I am not okay with sharing/doing:

The city I live in, pictures of me/anyone I know, my full name, my birthdate, my phone number/email address, meeting up with people irl, sending/receiving money/gifts, dms (<- though if we're mutuals and interacted a lot dms are fine!!)

^ this applies to everyone im not in the discord with

I will let someone know if they cross boundaries, and *really* would like other people to let me know if I cross theirs!!

DNI: people who are here to spread hate and anger. Just, stay away. I dont engage in discourse. I know DNIs dont deterr these people, but this is a demonstration of my core values :)

Tags:

(At the top cause otherwise it will get lost) ALSO #tw body horror

I block quite a few tags but most notably #tw war and other ones to do with the war in israel/palestine. This is not because I don't care. I care so so so much about what is happening and I cry every time I see a post about it. It breaks my heart that such horrible things are happening. However, I really struggle with high empathy, and seeing a post about it can really affect me for a while, and I need tumblr to be a safe space away from the real world problems. If I follow you - please could you tag things to do with war. Thank you <3

Updated to clarify - I do block the generic tags such as Israel and Gaza, which most of the posts are tagged with by the op, so if you forget its no big deal!!

A list of all the podcasts I listen to because y'know, its fun:

Fiction:

The Amelia Project

Wooden Overcoats

The Adventure Zone

Sherlock & Co

Alba Salix

Unseen

And a whole lot more that i no longer listen to either because they havent updated or they are a little too creepy (Welcome to Night Vale falls into the latter category)

Science:

The Sci Guys

Lets Learn Everything

Lingthusiasm

A podcast of unnecessary detail.

Comedy/other:

Dear Hank and John

The Unmade Podcast

Books Unbound

Lateral

A book list of recommendations from mutuals for my own use:

abigail by Magda Szasbo (@mack-anthology-mp3)

The Alphabet of Candice Phee (@jamie-dinow)

A list of music reccomendations from mutuals:

in the lap of the gods revisited by queen, why can't i be you by the cure, pyramid song, and lucky & the tourist by radiohead, when the sun hits by slowdive, dancing barefoot by patti smith, tangerine by led zeppelin, autumn sweater by yo la tengo, rubber ring by the smiths, water by pj harvey (from @/mack-anthology-mp3)

imi hendrix’s all along the watchtower (from @/catholickedd)

[pileofpawns]

Hello, my name is Turtle Johnson. I make posts so good, that I bring back the dead.

This is my introduction post! The bit above is just a reference to the Super Ghostbusters album by Vargskelethor - You can actually call me Plum! I’m your local turtle girl who likes to talk about silly stuff on the internet. This post is really fuckin long and you DON’T have to read it /gen

userbox credit

Side blogs:

@tortuga-stims －Stim blog

@usagi-yojimbo-fanworks-archive －Inactive. What it says on the tin

@super-ghostbusters-lyrics － stupid ass gimmick blog

About me:

she/her pronouns please, though I don’t mind they/them or any turtle-themed neopronouns

You can default to feminine language when referring to me but I honestly don’t care what gendered language you use! I might not be a guy but you can call me one if it’s funny.

I am a cisgender woman

I am white

I am multiply disabled. I have physical, neurodevelopmental, mental, and sensory disabilities. I won’t bother listing everything here but notably I have ADHD and chronic pain from a mix of sources, and also might be autistic but I’m not confident enough to self-DX and I’ve yet to get professionally evaluated. So.

I’m aroace! (More specifically, sapphic-oriented bold stripe aroace. No romantic or sexual attraction whatsoever but women sure are pretty.)

I’m 18 years old

I’m a college student! Between classes and everyday life, I’m often super busy so the time I’m online varies wildly. Don’t worry if I disappear for long periods, and feel free to remind me if I forget about something.

I am alterhuman and a furry/scalie! My scalesona and main kintype is a three-toed box turtle. You can still call me a human, though. (I’m both!) The vast majority of my art is of anthro animals.

I do not have a DNI, but I do block freely. I don’t participate in internet discourse. Just don’t intentionally be a jerk and we should be fine. I am supportive of endogenic systems, multi-spec lesbians and gays, sex positivity and kinks, and human rights for all. Free Palestine, free Congo, free Ukraine, free Sudan, free Haiti!

I don’t have any kind of formal commission sheet or whatever out there but if you wanna pay me to draw something for you please reach out and we can figure things out!

About the blog:

I primarily post about my many interests and fandoms (see the list below). I also post the occasional art piece I make, talk about silly things in my life, queerness, disability, and alterhumanity, and make nonsensical shitposts.

I try to keep this blog accessible as possible but it is by no means perfect. Please let me know if you need anything to be changed, like adding image descriptions or tagging specific content warnings. I typically won’t add image descriptions to things I’m reblogging (I’m currently trying to get into the habit of tagging these as “undescribed” or “no ID” but the vast majority aren’t), but I do usually add IDs to my original posts. I tag common triggers such as blood, violence, death, unreality, and food.

Everything will be tagged for organization and so y’all can filter stuff. “plums art”, “plum rambles”, and “plum shitposts” are the tags i use for stuff I make.

This blog is generally SFW (there will never be anything explicit) but there might be the occasional mention of sexual topics, bit of crude humor, or slightly suggestive post, which will be tagged as such (“sexual topics”, “genital mention”, “genitals”, crude humor”, and “suggestive” are the tags to filter) so you don’t have to see it. Minors can interact with the blog as a whole as this is all extremely rare and I trust y’all to use your best judgement.

One of my old blog headers as well as the title of this post are references to the Super GhostBusters album by Vargskelethor. It’s very funny and I highly recommend you check it out. My URL is referencing a collection of OCs I have called pawns.

For reference, the character in my icon is my turtlesona, Tir! You can find more art of her and info about her under the tag #tir the tortle. She exists as both a direct representation of myself, and a D&D/fantasy character whose life is very different to my own.

I don’t do chainmail (i.e. “send this to 5 other blogs”, tag games) or posts asking you to reblog to show your support for something and the like (i.e. “reblog if aro people are valid”) even if the intent is to spread positivity.

Feel free to send in requests for drawings, fic, stimboards, or anything else through the ask box. Of course, you can also ask me questions there! If a question is more personal than I’m comfortable with, I’ll let you know privately, so don’t worry about being nosy.

Some things I like:

⭐️Turtles!! (and zoology in general to be honest)

⭐️Makin and appreciating art. I draw (digitally and traditionally), write, and dabble in other craftsy things.

⭐️Sonic the Hedgehog (mostly the games universe)

⭐️Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (particularly 2003, Mutant Mayhem, and Rise)

Video game history and trivia

Dungeons & Dragons

Magic the Gathering (very casually!)

Usagi Yojimbo

Tales from the Stinky Dragon

SpongeBob SquarePants

Rhythm games (Incl. Samba de Amigo, PaRappa, Rhythm Doctor, Rhythm Heaven…)

YouTube Poops (YTPs)

My Little Pony (G4 + G3)

Game Changer + Make Some Noise (Dropout shows)

Smiling Friends

Note: To be clear, there was period in 2023 where I was very hyperfixated on South Park. I don’t watch the show or really interact with the fandom anymore outside of a few friends nowadays. I’m well aware of all the problems SP has, so don’t bash me over my brain briefly latching onto a “problematic” show against my will over a year ago.

Other sites:

I post my writing to ao3 under PileOfPawns

You can talk to me on discord @ pickledplums (if you send a friend request please tell me who you are if I wouldn’t already know)

Sometimes I put things on YouTube @ pickledplums

What you can do with my art:

You can do pretty much anything with my art (visual, writings, or otherwise, including ideas that haven’t been made into “real” works) as long as you aren’t making money off of it or claiming it as entirely your own. If you use my art for something, please provide credit if at all possible. If and when I start selling my work, these rules still apply (meaning you can make your own merch instead of buying directly from me)

You can:

Make physical goods that include or are inspired by my art, like prints, stickers, buttons, and shirts, as long as they aren’t mass-produced and/or sold for a profit.

Modify my art by drawing over it, adding effects, cropping it, etc. as long as the intent is not to remove the watermark or signature. If you want something like this for a specific purpose, I’m happy to make said edits myself! I love messing with that kind of stuff.

Crosspost my art to other sites, with credit.

Use my art as your profile picture, social media banner, or digital wallpaper; as emojis or messaging stickers; as AAC symbols; in “edit” videos or similar content

Redraw/rewrite, be heavily inspired by, copy, or trace my art. (Seriously, go wild). You can seriously steal any of my ideas /genuine

🐢🐢🐢 That’s all!

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your stay!

[Image ID: An animated gif of a yellow smiley face with a floating hand happily waving at the viewer. End ID.]

Blinkies below by @/radiotrophicfungi

[custom-emojis]

how does it feel to have a large chronically online following

Painful. Deeply painful, as someone who was chronically online as a kid and am now a chronically online adult (that now has more than enough life experience under my belt to understand how being chronically online is just the worst and was deeply traumatizing). I’m in a bit to deep at almost 23 and using Tumblr since 2011 (and now am able to make my own mistakes and face my own repercussions for dumb shit I do online) but my god I hope some kids that follow me get outta this shithole. Here’s some life advice for chronically online kids coming from a chronically online adult;

Don’t list out your triggers. Anonymous assholes will use it against you for fun

Internet safety isn’t a joke. Don’t post sensitive info or your school or any of that shit.

Delete your trauma blog. Delete it.

Nobody cares about your online discourse irl please for the love of god stop getting involved in discourse that shit will leave you traumatized and an empty husk of a person I would know

Having interests and being involved in fandom doesn’t mean you’re chronically online, never let anyone tell you you’re too old for that or shame you. Let yourself enjoy things I know damn well I will be in my 30s still enjoying fandom. Old ppl are the ones who made it after all

This one is a bit complex to explain but you don’t have to Never Be Online to stop being Chronically Online and at least when I say it, I am not intending to be insulting. It just means your priorities are a little skewed due to lack of direct personal experience outside of online communities but that doesn’t mean you have to cut those online communities out. Or that you’re bad. Just use them to extend offline, find support groups, find friends you can hang out with IRL (safely and while communicating to your guardians) the internet is a powerful and great place by all means use it just also keep grounded in your local communities and don’t let the internet culture start clouding how you treat people and you’re good

I feel like it’s possible this anon was trying to be rude but I’ve decided to use this as a soapbox

[skaruresonic]

Not trying to choose sides but blocking isn't a bad thing and nothing really anyone should lose sleep over, I block idw sonic fans and I block nsfw Sonic artist, sorry, makes me uncomfortable. I also block Prime sonic fans because those fans get triggered as soon as you point out how bad it is too. XD

I'm in the fandom on my free time, I don't want to deal with negativity or annoyance and I don't want to argue hours on hours about why I like or don't like this one Sonic thing. It's a waste of all of our time. Gotte focus on the games we love right?

I'm lucky so far I have not once been bothered by Satam fans whenever I call the show a pos. :P

Again, I don't mind blocking for curation's sake. I mind when people make a big moral issue out of it, especially when A.) blocking anyone even tangentially associated with us suggests someone out there may be keeping tabs on us, and B.) they still complain that we owe them a "conversation" even after being blocked. I know they're not being good faith, they just want an excuse to lecture and stonewall you forever.

No offense, as I know you didn't mean this, but even chronic discoursers have hobbies and concerns other than discourse; just because all you see is what a person posts online doesn't mean that's the only thing they do.

Personally, I've been straying more into VN work. Spent all day yesterday creating a few ambient sounds with SoundTrap.

---

I'm lucky so far I have not once been bothered by Satam fans whenever I call the show a pos. :P

Yeah idk what it is, but some SatAM fans (note I'm not saying all of them) are the most insecure fans I've ever seen. The show's been off the air for decades, and yet if you speak about it in an even mildly negative manner, someone will roll up to your post like "SatAM gave us GREAT TELEVISION and they did their best with the crumbs the games gave them." It's weird too because Omens devs the occasional outlier notwithstanding, you don't see Sonic X fans behaving as though X was still relevant to the series. Not only is "poor SatAM creators had nothing to work with" laughably untrue given the evidence we have at this point, (evidence which includes Ben Hurst's own words btw, but somehow they're just as allergic to his words as they are toward Ian's whenever he says something that doesn't fit their narrative), I like their assumption that the game purists ought to appreciate, or at least overlook, the implication that the games are less deep and fleshed-out than the TV show.

And then they pull surprised Pikachu faces when you're like "hey could you not shittalk the core series in order to elevate your dead, obsolete, and largely niche continuity? pls and thank"