#as i understand it

[cherryblossomshadow]

Love that Roblox oof memes are coming up again 😂

Not reposts. Literally the old posts from a year ago, resurrected

I love tumblr

[robins-egg-bindery]

Renegade Publishing & The Realities of Anti-Censorship

DISCLAIMER: I can only speak for myself and my own thoughts and opinions; I do not speak for Renegade, ASH, or anyone else. I am attempting to come at this from an objective viewpoint, insofar as any human is able to manage. No part of this is meant as an attack, but rather an open dialogue about community values.

We are a not-for-profit guild of fanbinders — publishing in extremely limited edition fannish works, including fanfiction, meta, original fic, zines, and other works. We are a transformative community connected by shared values, shared goals, shared work, and shared stories. We value fanfiction and fanwork in all its forms, and our fannish culture’s infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

-Excerpt from “Renegade Publishing Manifesto”

Renegade was founded by ArmoredSuperHeavy in 2020, following a viral post titled “I am a Guerrilla Publisher.” This post, along with his document “How To Make A Book”, found its way to like minded folks, spawned a community, and incited the modern fanbinding movement as it is seen today.

This community has since grown exponentially. It can be difficult to see Renegade as a whole, and by extension how vast it is, but here are some statistics to put it into perspective:

SNAPSHOT OF A YEAR (2022)

Typesetting/Binding Exchange: 33 typesetting participants, 41 bound fic participants, more than doubled from the previous year.

FFWAD (Fan Fiction Writer Appreciation Day): 34 books sent to 9 countries

Binderary: 156 books created in 2022. This year, 2023, we had 729 books created from 117 different fandoms.

Additionally, we have Renegade members on every continent (barring Antarctica). The Discord has risen to over 2,000 people, with the Renegade Publishing membership nearing 200. We are a guild of artists shaped by shared community values surrounding the ethos of fanbinding as a craft. Renegade as an organization is run by a volunteer group 40+ strong, with a code of conduct and rules written collectively; no one member or person holds any superior power over the group as a whole. Generalizations on a community this wide and this deep are misplaced and misrepresented.

I myself have been heavily involved in many of these volunteer efforts and events, in a mission to make Renegade’s resources visible and accessible to all, because I believe fanbinding on the whole will be richer and more fulfilling, the more people who are empowered to bind for themselves.

We bind for the following reasons:

To stand against censorship in any of its forms. Most of the books contain subject matter some people may find objectionable on various grounds. Some binders deliberately seek out works that authors and artists were persecuted online for creating.

-Excerpt from “Renegade Publishing Manifesto”

Renegade was founded on an anti-censorship tenet; it has been in our manifesto, our code of conduct, and the server rules since the community’s inception. What content any member chooses to bind is separate from Renegade, and solely their personal choice. Renegade does not content police, or pass any kind of official judgment on the content that anyone chooses to bind. If this sounds familiar, (and it should):

You understand that using the Archive may expose you to material that is offensive, triggering, erroneous, sexually explicit, indecent, blasphemous, objectionable, grammatically incorrect, or badly spelled.

You recognize that the OTW does not endorse Content on the Archive in any way, except when material appears as an official statement of the OTW. No committee members, officers, or directors of the OTW are acting in an official capacity when they post fanworks, commentary, or other Content of the type generally provided by site users.

This is a direct quote from the Terms of Service page for AO3. The Archive does not screen content; there is no content policing on AO3 and there never has been, never will be. The Archive was created specifically so there wouldn’t be any content policing, and was founded on the principle of protecting all fan works - and yes, this does include the content you may think shouldn’t exist, why would somebody write that, etc. If you find any content on AO3 unacceptable, for any reason (you find it offensive, triggering, disgusting, morally reprehensible, etc)...I’m sorry to tell you that it is indeed permitted on the Archive. Renegade is exactly, 100% the same in regards to this issue.

AO3 and Renegade take fandom as a whole - the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly. At the end of the day, it’s important to recognize that the Archive and Renegade both deliberately chose to keep their content open to all, even while knowing that doing so would essentially be opening Pandora’s Box.

If you disagree with this ethos, that is absolutely fine, as everyone should cultivate and curate their own experiences and spaces. The reality for me is that, whether or not I personally do/do not engage with or condemn/endorse certain content, I believe in the tenet of anti-censorship. I do not feel like it is my place to tell anyone what they can and cannot write, read, or bind, and the Renegade community, like AO3, upholds that belief impartially and unequivocally.

Regardless, just like AO3, it is up to you to curate your own experience. I, personally, do not look into binds of content that I do not wish to engage with; your feed is your own to curate. I have intentionally withheld any kind of personal judgment in this discussion, as it has no bearing on analyzing Renegade’s position and tenet of anti-censorship.

To quote Evelyn Hall:

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

-The Friends of Voltaire, Evelyn Hall

I want to reiterate that I can only speak for myself and my personal analysis and understanding of Renegade’s rules; any official response from Renegade will need to come from an official Renegade page, and any response from ASH will come from his personal pages. We are an organization, just like AO3, and I encourage everyone to explore our informational pages for full context on the above excerpts, if you feel compelled.

[probablygayattorneys]

The only thing I really know about Emmy is that she exists, because I'm still on Diabolical Box, but my brother sent me this picture to make a joke about something else and... she's gotta be a real special lady if Layton lets her drive his precious Laytonmobile.

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

feel like I kinda speedran the first part of xcom though

I sort’ve lucked into an outsider capture

was chasing a weakened floater down and rounded a corner and found it and an outsider

was forced to kill the floater because my capture-ee was wedged and it turns out outsiders only have 3 HP so they can just get captured

[robyn-i-guess]

liking someone platonically is so embarrassing like. yeah i admire you. yeah i think about you all the time. yeah i look forward to every time i see you even if it's only for a minute. yeah it's all platonic and yeah i couldn't explain this because it'd sound romantic. fucking hell

[arynneva]

wait do people read first person stories and think they're the ones in the story???

Saw people talking about not liking first person, which is fair, but their reasoning was like "I would not do that" and I don't understand that mindset.

First person stories are still about a character. A character making their own decisions. First person isn't about you???? At least I thought it wasn't. What am I missing? I've always seen first person as just a more in-depth look into a character's mind and stricter POV. Not as a reader stand-in.

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[great-and-small]

My grandfather and my godfather (a beloved neighbor and dear family friend) had a long standing bet- for one dollar- about who would die first. Both of them being slightly pessimistic (in the funny way), they both insisted that they themselves would be the first to die. Any time my grandfather had a health scare, he’d gleefully call up my godfather to boast that he’d be passing “any day now” and he was sure to win the bet. It was a big family joke and they were always amiably sparring and comparing notes about who was in worse shape, medically speaking.

When my grandfather was in hospice care dying of liver cancer, my godfather was quite ill also. It took him great effort to make the journey to see his dying friend. As he came into the room, supported by a family member, he shuffled to my grandpa’s bedside and silently handed him a dollar bill. He was ceding his loss of the bet, as they both knew who was going first. My grandpa had been in quite bad shape for a while and was no longer able to speak but let me tell you he snatched that dollar with unexpected strength and literally laughed aloud. He knew exactly what the gesture meant and he couldn’t help but find the humor within the grief. It was the last time any of us heard my grandpa laugh, as he passed shortly after.

When I talk about my appreciation for “dark humor” I’m not so much thinking about edgy jokes, but rather the human instinct to somehow, impossibly, both find and appreciate the absurdity that is so often folded into the profound grief of life and death. When I tell this story I think it kind of perturbs people sometimes, but it’s honestly one of my favorite memories about two men I really deeply admired. I could never hope for anything more than for my loved ones to remember me laughing until the very end, and taking joy in a little joke as one of my final acts.

[theboxfort]

Peace and love

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Expertise can't help you here.

[rafeandonlyrafe]

well 🧍‍♀️ as a reminder this blog is NOT a safe space for trump supporters but it IS a safe place for women, queers, trans ppl, people of color, undocumented people, and any marginalized group.

[petshopbutch]

submissive in the way a livestock guardian dog is submissive to the sheep it kills wolves for

[titleofpersonage-p01]

[a-drama-addict]

not caring too much about a fandom’s favourite guy is the worst. you’ll think “oh i’ll look into the tag see if anything new and cool’s there” and it’s just that fucking guy again