#being an artist online in this era is really hard….

[8pxl]

it’s rly bumming me out that i have to delete all my art from facebook and instagram because of meta’s fuck ass decision to train AI on all information posted… i worked hard to get followings on both platforms and it really is for nothing :(

[budgebuttons]

There's a lot of reasonably frustrated but ultimately misdirected psa-style posting about how viewers NEED to start reblogging things rather than just liking them because that is the primary mode of post circulation on this site. The modern manifestation of this sentiment seems to miss the fact that, if you've been here for ~15 years, were here prior to, during, and after the exodus to the bird app, you already know that likes have always been more common than reblogs, that many people simply don't want to put your art on their blog, and that guilting end-users into using a microblogging site A Specific Way absolutely does not work. If it did, the trend would have shifted a decade ago. Because this conversation really is that old. Regardless, the modern discourse of how difficult it is to be Seen specifically on Tumblr isn't productive because I think it ultimately misses the reason being an artist online feels so Bad, now.

The social media era has funneled Looking At Stuff on the Internet into an economy of engagement that encourages end-users to treat everything we/they see as quick, cheap, and disposable. This is just another fun and flirty way that capitalism devalues art. It's nothing new. Trying to force masses of users to behave in a way that is healthier for the circulation of art isn't going to do anything to solve the discontent we all feel when we hurl something into the void and it is ultimately ignored. I swear up and down: A higher notes number won't feel better, either. Popularity is just as demoralizing as radio silence, but it manifests differently. Instead of 4 likes and maybe 1 reblog from Old Faithful Mutual, you get a horde of people who treat you like a content machine. You keep hoping for an impossibly Bigger Number. The notifs on the first Big Number Post haven't even settled, and people are already asking when the follow-up is coming. You get anons, but most of them are trying to passively convince you to give them More Content.

It's really, really hard to make people care about art. If there was a silver bullet for making the average person appreciate the enormity of human effort behind every beautiful thing they encounter, we would have found it centuries ago.

The best thing creatives can do for their lives online is to be friendly, or at least kind, with other creators. "Big" artists don't form in-groups because they're snobs. They find each other because they casually showed each other support, and their mutual appreciation for that Thing that wound them up in the same tag becomes a foundation for connection, and in many cases, the ever-illusive Bigger Audience as they introduce themselves to each others' circles. We get more eyes on our work by building community with each other.

Where does that leave people who are just here to look at things, not post them? I think the answer is almost identical: COMMENT!! Please, comment! The first step to engaging with art on a more meaningful level is to point out something you particularly enjoy about a given work. It can go in the replies, it can go in the tags, doesn't matter!! If you notice some symbolism or make some connection, there is all likelihood that OP put it there because they desperately wanted somebody to notice it. Let them know why you like it!

Reaching for the nebulous, impossible goal of better post circulation isn't going to make being a creator online in 2023 suck less. Meaningfully connecting with each other can, will, and does. You can make someone's day just by passingly letting them know that their effort is worth more than a number.

[auckie]

I think the things that offend me most nowadays in like, smaller interpersonal interactions rather than grand, sweeping trends in culture, are when people chose to not partake in a wide set of things. Like musical close mindedness, or refusal to try different foods from different cultures. Not watching an entire subset of films bc they’re ‘french’. Avoiding reading bc you say you have adhd and it’s too hard. Like dude I get it, I’m busy. I can be picky. Everyone can. But the willful ignorance of closing yourself off to those VAST portions of the human experience, and not having curiosity and a lust to learn and explore art that was made by someone worlds apart from you either in terms of their culture, era, whatever. I dunno man it just pisses me off so bad. I think it’s arrogant. Like oh you’re comfortable in your safe little bubble huh? And you’re enforcing its barriers with the excuse that you’re autistic and have sensory issues. With music made by black people?? lol okay. It is pretty presumptuous for me to assume malicious intent but I think those prejudices are borne from either the comfort of being someone who’s wealthy and probably white not feeling the need to learn past what they think is enough, or it’s a reflection of a society that’s taught you to prioritize what it shills— popular, current (white, depending where you live ig) artists who are making streamlined, easy to digest content. Often when I meet people with these issues they’ll have one particular ‘niche’, and it tends to be like. 70s music. Victorian literature. Anime and Japanese games. But they’re still not really investing beyond the media presented. Like there’s so much more to Japanese culture than liking some cartoons put out between 2010-2020. You don’t gotta become some sorta Einstein who learns the background of every little freak in FGO yeah. But don’t you wanna aim higher? Aren’t you interested in any of the historical figures? And nothings wrong with hopping onto a trend. You read Dracula bc of that Dracula daily thing. Cool! Read more. Some people will say they’re chronically ill or disabled and can’t get outside. That’s okay. The internet is full of things you can read other than fanfiction, YouTube has a shit ton of free music. There’s Wikipedia and free articles online if you have questions about things. Yeah nobody is spending four hours a day looking at the national archives website and studying art history but it’s imbued in the things around you, and youll absorb it ambiently as you go along. you dont have to be a jack of all trades and cover every major genre of every major medium, but it never hurts to try! I really love seeing ppl ask too. Bc it can be kind of humiliating to admit to what seems like some jackass hipster that you’ve never delved into, idk, Serbian films (lol not that one). And hopefully if whoever you’re asking will give you honest good recommendations and not berate you. I’m kind of berate a straw man rn I guess. The hostile tone def doesn’t lend to an atmosphere of sharing but I cannot tell you how many times I’ve rbed anything involving specifically jazz only to see someone rb and add the stupidest comment on the post, or in the tags, or go into my inbox to be like waaah I don’t like jazz bc it’s boring and old and for pretentious hypocrites who hate neurodivergent people! Like what are you TALKING about. Fine if you don’t like it but don’t try and rationalize that as a moral standing you shit lark. And just as they’re allowed to dislike jazz I’m allowed to not really enjoy people who don’t like jazz. Or country. Nautical knots. Knit wear. Watching urbex YouTubers get their shit rocked by squatters. Korean food. Pachuco fashion and stupid ugly low riders. Bollywood films. and they don’t want to try any of those things either yknow? The next thing I’m getting into is circuit bending.

[bcacstuff]

Don't you think Sam should defend her

Well, I can imagine people would think as a first reaction he should, or should say something about it. But then again, if he does, I'm sure the fans who do these stupid things, would immediately see it as him confirming some sort of relationship or something. You know how this fandom, or better said the deranged ones in it are.

He can't do right in this case, he's between a rock and a hard place. We're talking about 2 women, should he address the entire fandom for this? And with that give it perhaps unwanted and more attention then it deserves? What will be the result of that, you might ask yourself. Of course we know there's much more going on in this fandom, but it isn't reserved solely for this fandom:

I've received a link a while back, and still have this article open on one of my tabs in the browser. I had the intention to answer the Anon that sent it to me a few weeks ago, but as there were so many things going on, I didn't want it to get buried by the many other posts.

It's this article:

There are some really good parts in it that can be translated one on one for this fandom, even though the artists in this article are musicians. Already in the first paragraphs you can read:

This summer, norms of pop flipped when musicians started telling off their fans. Leading the pack was Chappell Roan, the 26-year-old breakout star of 2024. In a statement on Instagram, she outlined the “too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions” she had had with fans, including people hassling her family and friends.

An expert view on it:

“The relationship between fans and artists is a power balance,” says Dr Lucy Bennett, a lecturer in journalism, media and culture at Cardiff University. “Sometimes the power can tip back and forth.” Fandom, she explains, is a deeply emotional thing where people can feel a sense of home and belonging. It can lead to an intense connection to the music, something only heightened by the access to artists provided by social media. “But the problem that we have is how fans can forge a direct connection when they’re one among potentially millions that follow the artist. Those artists can’t reach out to every fan online. But to those who aren’t noticed, how does this make them feel? And what lengths may some fans go to get noticed?”

A former deranged fan's experience

Someone who has grappled with this themselves is Emily, a 26-year-old Taylor Swift fan from Idaho. Emily, who asked to be referred to under a pseudonym for fear of being doxed, was once a dedicated Swiftie, spending thousands of dollars on merchandise and concert tickets. During the Lover era of 2019, however, she began to see contradictions in Swift’s image and found her sudden embrace of politics inauthentic and calculated. “I was upset because it seemed the person I thought she was wasn’t real,” she says. She was also put off by the growing toxicity among a fandom that no longer felt like a community. Prior to Swift’s hit album 1989, “Taylor had said that she wasn’t going to interact with fans on social media because one fan might feel more important than the other,” she says. But Swift began doing secret live sessions for fans, found via fan accounts online. “It did exactly what she thought that might,” Emily says. “Fans were suddenly fighting with each other saying, ‘You’re not good enough because you don’t obsess with her on the level I do, or ‘You don’t have as much merch as I do and you don’t know every song like I do.’ It was kind of gross.” Emily became so distraught that she would vent to her friends about her disappointment. “When I look back it now,” she says, “it’s like, wow. I was really deranged. Taylor Swift doesn’t know who the hell I am. She doesn’t care what I think. This is actually a me problem. I needed to step back and realise that.” She cites social media and the 24/7 access to information about Swift as one reason why she became so obsessed with the singer’s life. “I had to get some hobbies outside of discussing Taylor Alison Swift.”

And again the expert's view as an end conclusion

To realign the relationship between fans and artists, Bennett believes that musicians may need to step away from sharing so much of their lives on social media. “But it’s really important that they speak up if they feel that they’re experiencing unacceptable behaviour from the fans,” she adds.

It's a really good read, so if you're interested and have a bit of time, I'd recommend reading the whole article. There is no easy answer to this phenomena or to your question Anon.

PS. To Anon sending me the link a few weeks ago, thank you 🧡. You were right, I found this interesting. I'm sorry it took so long to post it, but it deserves all the attention.

[midnightsslut]

So was taylor really cancelled in 2016 or was it more that she wasn't as popular as she was/would like to be?

oh she was absolutely canceled. buckle up because I have a lot of thoughts on this djsjsj.

if you were around in the fandom at all, you knew. things were BAD. that level of hate towards a celebrity is honestly rare these days. i would say the only thing that comes close in recent memory is like… idk, it’s actually hard to think of any because it was a combination of a few factors. it’s not that the general public decided to quietly boycott her and stop consuming her music. it’s that there were viral tweets hating on her pretty much every week. if she did anything in 2016-18, it was met with an absolutely asinine amount of criticism. twitter had a field day with things as innocent as her september cover and her post about having a good year in 2017. a lot of celebrities decided to distance themselves and take kanye’s side. there were numerous articles written about how she was finally going down and should apologize for being problematic. people were famously convinced the tour would flop and absolutely celebrated it. people literally told her she was dead. it’s genuinely difficult to explain the scope of this hate train to people who weren’t around at the time, especially because the news cycle is very different now. people get over news stories a lot quicker than they used to.

now, the main argument people use to prove that she wasn’t canceled is the first-week sales of reputation, which is sort of funny to me because all the coverage in 2017 focused on how its performance was lackluster compared to 1989. of course it still sold well compared to other artists’ albums in the first week, because there was still hype around her comeback, and most importantly, she has a huge fan base. none of the singles had longevity except delicate, which fans genuinely worked their asses off to campaign for. the radio did not play her singles like it used to, though this is due to other factors as well. sure, rep was not actually a flop, but it was nowhere near how TS6, the follow-up to one of the biggest pop eras of the decade, could’ve performed without the cancellation. it also got the worst reviews of her career, most of which generally didn’t focus on the music or the lyricism and were just mad at her as a person. yes, this sounds dramatic, considering the fact that it still got a lot of glowing reviews. the media made sure to focus on a lot of the negative stuff, although they were surprised that critics generally seemed to like it.

what’s funny is that, when she spoke about the kanye controversy in interviews in 2019, no one told her she wasn’t ‘really’ canceled, because a lot of people still hated her. they just told her to get over it. the level of hate was nowhere near pre-rep tour levels anymore, but she was still one of the most criticized celebrities, and it was widely believed that her peak had passed (people love to write revisionist history about the lover album and its performance that does not actually reflect the numbers, but that’s another story). now that more time has passed, and she’s even higher than she was pre-2016, people want to convince her that she’s actually wrong.

it’s almost insane to me to chalk up that level of hate to anything other than a cancellation. seeing articles like ‘was taylor swift REALLY canceled?’ and essays on why that’s just in her head will infuriate ANYONE who was online and didn’t hate her. none of the articles I linked here really convey the scope of that hate. taylor really played the long game and came out the other side of it, but she WAS canceled.

[seakicker]

I’ve been writing for about ten years privately and publicly and across multiple different websites, fandoms, and eras of favorite characters. I first started writing fanfiction physically in notebooks I stashed under my bed since I didn’t own my own laptop until I was 18, lol. I had originally started writing as a means to cope with feeling like The Ugly Kid because I never had a serious relationship in my pre-teen and teenage years. I was always on the chubby side and, given fanfiction’s tendency to depict readers as extremely thin and physically much smaller than the character in question, I sought to make my own stuff that would, hopefully, alleviate some insecurities and give a place to people who felt similarly to me as a kid. Well, I also started writing because I was horny and hormonal and just wanted to fuck pixels, but that much goes without saying. 

I don’t think writing has much of a place in my current life for a variety of reasons and, despite what I said the other day, I don’t see it being a part of my future and I’m okay with that! It’s a hobby that has served me very, very well for nearly ten years (roughly half of my life now since I’m 22)— I’ve learned to like myself so much more than I ever thought I would have as a teenager, I’ve opened myself up to different ways to express myself and my sexuality, I’ve met a lot of really cool people, and I think I’ve been able to help other people out quite a bit, too. I always worry about coming off as overly pretentious or self-righteous when I talk about helping people through the power of porn fanfiction, but when I’ve received so many messages over the years about how I’ve helped other plus size people learn to feel a little more secure or how I’ve helped people feel less guilty about masturbating and enjoying sex, I think it’s a fair statement to make. I’ve had tons and tons and tons of good times as a writer, but I think reading these messages about helping other people are absolutely my favorite times to look back on. It makes me feel really good. 

I’m in a completely different stage of my life now compared to when I first started writing and I don’t think the hobby appeals to me much anymore. I do think the tumblr game of notes and numbers and interactions has stressed me out some, but it’s by no means my main motivation to hang up my hat and move on to a new era of my life. I don’t care about getting a bazillion notes or a million followers, I just like to be a slut online and help other people feel good about themselves in the process, but any person who makes content will be the first to tell you that it does hurt at least a little when you make something you’re insanely proud of and it gets an amount of likes/reblogs/kudos/comments/etc you find disproportionate to your follower count or subscriber count. Nevertheless, I try not to focus on numbers too much and, while I’m somewhat successful at that, I and many other writers and artists do feel that tumblr has a major problem with interaction, reblogs vs likes, and engagement and tumblr staff’s own decisions to introduce things like community labels certainly don’t help. 

As I said, numbers are not my main inspiration to quit. I’ve experienced near endless burnout since about January of this year where none of my ideas feel unique and original, none of them excite me, and nearly all of them make me worry that other people won’t enjoy them. It’s hard to want to write when you don’t feel like you’re making anything good, and, as I’m sure you all have noticed, I’ve taken a lot of breaks this year to hopefully get myself back in the swing of things, but I never return feeling refreshed and excited by new ideas, so that was the biggest indication to me that I’ve simply grown out of another hobby and I’m a changing person with changing interests and desires, and that’s okay! I’m emerging into a new stage of adulthood after graduating college and beginning to move out of my parents’ house, and so a shift in my hobbies and likes is to be expected. I had a conversation with another writing friend of mine who gave up writing publicly about six months ago, and my feelings sounded a lot like his, so that also suggested to me that I’m just ready to be done. 

I’m infinitely thankful to everyone who’s ever been a part of my writing journey, whether you reblogged a fic once or were a regular emoji anon who stopped in frequently. I really cherish the memories I’ve made and I was always insanely excited to see people claim new emojis, see regulars in my inbox talking to me, and read nice comments and messages. When I say that writing has been a pivotal part of my life for a decade now, I mean that in so many ways, especially in the way that it has brought so many cool and nice people to me. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve said and done things that hurt other people, and I’m grateful for the forgiveness and reconciliation others have given me just as I am thankful for all the people who have supported me throughout my online presence. 

I do feel guilty about leaving, but you guys deserve a proper goodbye instead of me putting my blog on hiatus again and just leaving it there to sit. I’d like to formally leave instead of just going dormant or disappearing, and this is that formal departure. I’ve had thoughts of quitting in the past, but those were when I was already feeling upset with other things in my life so I knew they weren’t real, but I’ve been thinking about this consistently for about four months now in clear mindsets and headspaces so I know it’s a little more real. I put myself on hiatus this last month to really think about it and, while it’s natural to go back and forth on such a decision and try to talk myself out of it, I really am ready and I don’t feel like I need to convince myself to stay when I’m not happy with my content. I owe you guys regularity and consistency, and I’ve failed to be a consistent writer or poster these past few months or so, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve talked about it a lot with my boyfriend and my close friends, and I feel it’s best for me to move on now and try some new things! I’m excited for this next stage of my life as I seek out a new career, look to move in with my boyfriend and get out of my parents’ place, and maybe get engaged too ☺️ 

My tumblr and AO3 will remain up with the same usernames and whatnot. I can’t even thank you guys enough for everything you’ve given me in the past years. I’m happy to call you guys friends and the “parasocial BAD!!!!!” debate that pops up in fandom circles needs to stfu because building a friendship with your audience and allowing yourself to be human with human feelings instead of some blank figure behind a screen is literally normal, lol. When people say nice things to you, it’s normal for it to feel good. When people say rude things to you, it’s normal for it to feel bad. 

Thank you for 10 years of love and thank you for reading! 

💛💛 Juju

ps think of me whenever you see pregnancy

[yonpote]

as someone who wasnt here at the time (was a fan from about 2011-2013) what exactly defines the "softlaunch era" pre-coming out that i hear you and others refer to?

you've come to the right place cuz this is the era when i truly became a Phannie... "gay softlaunch" is generally considered 2017-18, but to be more specific it was october 31, 2016-june 13, 2019!

before they came out this was also referred to as "post-baking universe" referencing the halloween 2016 monster pops video that had an (at the time) abnormal amount of raunchy humor and just general derangedness. nothing like it is today, but that point felt very significant and dan even brought it up in liveshows like yeah idk what happened there and when phil called a peach an ass in a gaming video dan said "we live in a post-baking universe" (i believe fans coined the term tho).

people have also called it the "glass closet era" which is a divisive name for a lot of people cuz "glass closet" can be seen as kind of a mean term and it implies like, stereotyping or speculating or the "we been knew" behavior dan had talked about in BIG. which i understand that feeling, but i don't think that's what was happening, because the way i see it was queer flagging. ways they could show a little bit who they really were without saying it just yet. they weren't Out out, but they were just like. openly talking about attraction to men and finding men hot and not calling it a Man Crush or anything. dan would bring up queerness more often in liveshows, which hes mentioned queer artists and stuff before but now it was also making jokes about like.. being in a gas leak man porn fantasy in his first livestream of 2017 LMAO. phil would make a lot more innuendos, which hes always done, but now he wasnt pretending like he didnt know what he was saying. dan started wearing a single hoop earring on his right ear. this is an old school form of queer flagging, in The Olden Days (im too lazy to look up when but like my 70-something year old history teacher knew about this) if a man had an earring on his left ear, he's straight, and if he had one on his right, he's gay. that one's pretty subtle if you don't know much about queer history and there were Great Debates over whether or not we should take it to mean he is gay, but personally i saw it as like. he was letting us know without needing to say the G word out loud just yet!

i think a really important part of this era was even outside of directly discussing queerness, they were both trying to become more authentic online and figuring out how to do that without compromising their own privacy. dan stopped straightening his hair and rebranded and opened up about his mental health. phil's authenticity journey seemed a bit slower and wasn't as overt or seemingly drastic as dan's was, but it was happening! he changed up his hair!!! which yes its kinda silly to talk abt dnp's hair but the emo fringe was Their Brand. phil in particular said that, the emo fringe was a comfort place but he was feeling like he was trapped in having it forever because it was Who He Was, so it was a huge deal for him! he opened up a little bit about his physical health, both of them were a bit more honest about all the stress and anxiety they were dealing with (the mukbang is a pretty good video where they talk about that and an interesting one to watch in retrospect) and their whole 2018 tour was themed around whether they should Give The People What They Want or do what they wanted to do.

god i talk too much ANYWAY then dan disappeared in 2019 and phil was manning the helm for a good five and a half months and then the Big Gay hit! the Hard Launch Era if you will :) and now i would say 2023-present is the Unhinged Era so i have no clue what the hell their next move is gonna be...

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I want to be ot7 but the company makes it so hard. Are we only going to get pushed Jungkook’s work until they leaves? We’ve been in his era for so long and even on the precipice of leaving it’s just about him. It just makes me sad for the other members. Even my non online army friends joked bts is just jungkook-and-the-six now.

***

You sent me this ask after the other Anon’s confessional, so even though I’d normally not answer this sort of ask anymore, (I think I’ve said everything I can possibly say about this), because of the context in which you sent it I’ll try to explain what I think as briefly as possible.

As much as you say you want to be OT7, I think you really should just accept what you are. Because, if in the middle of all this - Jin’s birthday, BTS Monuments release, Jimin’s documentary behind released, Indigo anni, as well as chatter that Minimoni will be releasing music in the near-term, and finally, news that Jungkook chose to enlist with Jimin - if in the middle of all this, all you can see is remixes for Jungkook, you’re taking offence on Jimin’s behalf and choosing to not support the group as a result, then there’s nothing to be done here. This conversation is dead in the water. I honestly think you should accept that you’re a solo stan and self-sort.

Also, you know you don’t have to be an ARMY, right? Like, there’s other things you can be while still keeping up with BTS without being an ARMY. An ARMY is someone who is a fan of BTS, meaning, they actually like and support BTS. This has nothing to do with Korea, with the company, with solos, with feminism, Zionism, minority rights, or anything at all. It’s very simple. If you find you do not in fact like and support BTS for whatever reason, then you’re not an ARMY. Keep in mind you can disagree with BTS while still liking and supporting them aka being a fan. Obviously. But I think the very simple definition of what a fan is gets lost in these conversations. So Anon, if you learn you don’t actually like BTS - the seven of them come as a package deal - then it’s very okay to be honest about that and leave the fandom.

All that said, I understand if people find the number of remixes Jungkook has gotten annoying. Lol. Pretty sure he’s gotten over 50 remixes already, which sounds like an obscene amount even when you know artists like Taylor Swift have roughly a hundred remixes released and Selena Gomez is chilling with 78 remixes on Spotify. But it also kinda baffles me why people are surprised (or at least not expecting) that the first main project under HYBE America is being treated like an American release. I understand that for a lot of solos, the issue is that they want other members’ projects to get more remixes too, and more of the same tools as HA’s… It’s fine to want it, just don’t be surprised if BTS doesn’t meet that expectation. It’s a bit bonkers if you start hating them for it too.

Personally, I think the simplest, most basic cause of this identity crisis epidemic causing the fandom to implode, is that many people started calling themselves fans of BTS before they understood the kind of group BTS is. If you’re fretting because your non-online armys or a k-pop stan told you BTS is now ‘Jungkook-and-the-six’, because he’s gotten a fuck ton of remixes and an English album and the fandom supports him regardless, then I don’t think you understand what kind of group BTS is. Not to be rude.

Also, your non-online ARMY friends are saying something that k-pop stans have been saying for a while. I’ve seen k-pop stans call BTS ‘xyz and the rest’ since like 2016, where xyz is all three maknae line members rotated depending on the era. I was okay with it then because it didn’t reflect reality, and I’m okay with it now because it again doesn’t reflect what I think of the group. And even if it did I’d be okay with it because I trust all seven adult men in BTS to handle their business.

*

So, honestly and with no malice or anger in my heart, Anon I think you should do what you were going to do anyway. If the support Jungkook is getting at this time bothers you so much you can’t see anything else, or that what you see does nothing to qualify any of this for you, then I really do think you’re not an ARMY and it’s fine to accept it. There’s no point forcing being OT7 lol, that’s how we end up with the clusterfuck that’s been chapter 2.

Good luck with whatever you do though.

*Edited for length and clarity.

[sk-lumen]

New Moon in Scorpio

Much like the moon, I have seasons of coming and going, waxing and waning. Of being bright and radiant, and then going completely and utterly dark.

Sometimes it’s necessary — this surrendering into your own depths. It’s necessary to let go of control and let yourself sink as deep as you can, so that you can at least gather your strength enough to continue fighting to swim back to the top.

Because you can’t keep up that control forever. You can’t control the waves any more than you can control your own destiny. You can choose your direction, certainly. But your destiny is the magical crossroad between the gravity of your desires, and the gravity of the sky and the ocean and all its beautiful, brilliant little microcosmoses.

When I go dark, I don’t apologize anymore. I used to, but I’ve since learned no grace comes from a tree shaming its own leaves for wilting when the sun turns away from them. No grace comes from a flower shaming its petals for falling when its time has passed. Grace comes from accepting that there’s a season for everything, and you cannot grow into your next season until you accept that the previous one has passed.

There is an art to letting go, in this dark phase of the moon. This new moon.

There is a release. A certain peace and stillness. Because yes, while you’re fighting to swim back to the surface, the violent adrenaline of hope still drives you forward, but plummets you equally fast when you realize the surface is so, so far out of reach…

That constant struggle drains your soul. Drains you entirely, really.

That’s why…sometimes you just want to lie still. Lie so very still, and let yourself float. In this dark, quiet stillness, this great, scary unknown of your life, of being inbetween seasons, inbetween phases, inbetween beginnings and ends, somehow, and yet nowhere at the same time.

You feel lost and found at the same time. You feel everything and nothing.

In this quiet, the deepest truths come to the surface —

What is it that you want?

And why is it that, before you even fully voice that desire, you have already silenced it inside yourself as being out of reach? As being too much, not enough, unattainable?

Why have you denied yourself your greatest dream before even granting yourself the grace of believing? Hoping is just half the fight. You have to believe you deserve it, too.

No wonder you keep sinking no matter how hard you fight, love. It’s the weight of your own doubts and limited beliefs anchoring you….

To rock bottom.

A/N: “Lumen’s Diary” is a relatively new column I started, which acts as an online diary that combines random thoughts, artistic photography, poetry, stream-of-consciousness style prose, etc. In today’s era of 10-second insta-reels, it might be unconvential. But it’s a way to express my soul, and hopefully it might resonate with others and remind them they’re not alone. <3

🌸 More glow up articles on sklumen.com 🌸

[dansevilpianotea]

ramble ahead about time, tatinof, 2015 and changing one's life

tatinof is very special and im so happy they did this video to acknowledge that its not cringe at all and that theyre proud of their past selves !! there's sth genuinely healing about that !! ive had a hard time in 2015 and even tho i was 12/13 and just discovered that online fan communities of things i was into were a thing and was nowhere close to the phandom (i joined after BIG), this is the fandom internet that i joined back then. thats why its so poetic that they sing 'the internet is here', because to me this is the time it started to be there for me. it wasnt always kind to me and instagram was not a great platform to start on if your bullies and other ppl from school were also on it, but it was also when for the first time ever i realised that there were not only people who liked what i liked but that those ppl also have created their own culture and community online !! i was not totally alone !! there is a life outside of school !! i would never chose to go back to that time ever like it was horrible (that applies to any time in the past tho, i hate the idea of 'going back in time' with a passion) but im glad that the internet was there for me because no one else really was if im being real with you.

more below the cut because im an insufferable yapper (dan is a terrible influence haha tit joke)

this all is maybe why i find it hard to go back to watch dnps older content and also the stuff from the tatinof era. dan's sarcastic self-hating persona and phils innocent nerd persona are both hitting a bit too close to home and i want to both cry for them and for myself. we knew nothing back then. we were lost and yet did sth we were proud of. yet here we are almost 10 years later and how the fuck did we end up here but oh my god im so proud of us. all it took for me was to watch dan's coming out video. all it took for them was to be embraced and loved by their audience (us). dan also needed a break which is something that at the time it happend was really hard for me but then i found my wonderful lovely phannie discord friends here. we really all got here together and if i ever see any single person say that dnp hate us or dan hates it or that dnp are cringe or that we are cringe etc etc i will block you so hard because what are you even doing bringing up drama when in reality dan and phil and the phandom have developed the most remarkable symbiotic relationship between artist adn fans ever. they are our dads and i honestly just want to say how fucking proud i am of them for how far theyve come and what theyve done since 2015. dan really did the whole mental health and gay thing but then he did the mental health again!! and i think ywgttn and wad need to be given more credit here because idk if you remember pre-wad dan but he wasnt anything like post wad dan. every since wad he seems so happy and genuinely authetic and in peace. (im ignoring dystopia daily here because that was filmed before wad and his dd persona also reminds me too much of 2015 depressed dan than whatever high concept he was going for lol, im just not a dd fan). like wad changed his relationship with us and its warming my entire heart when i see dan smile so much now. he deserves to be happy and proud. and if dan deserved it after going through so much and coming out on top (literally), then i deserve it too. and phil? i love how he's just so confident now. fuck. (literally). he is not the innocent nerd anymore like he actually is fully really himself now and feels comfortable in his body (crop top, phlonde, etc) and openly expressing his sexuality ! even compare this phil to phil from the beginning of the hiatus!! he got so much more confident and relaxed since then!! like fully, really, if he can do it, if he can strip himself of the persona that ppl have attributed to him because of his anxiety, then i can do that too. im so proud of phil. he is an inspiration and the more he's being himself publically with no shame, the more an autistic phannie will feel hopeful for their future. im so proud of both of them.

like its crazy you go through your life thinking you're going nowhere and never making any progress and will never reach your goals but then you stop and look back what you were like 6 months ago and realise how many lives you have lived since then. it always goes back to BIG when dan said this:

[...] I thought I was trapped in a situation forever when in reality, the entire world I lived in and my life changed completely. I thought it was hopeless when in reality there was so much to hope for and that's it. Time changes everything. With the lives that we have, we can try anything we've dreamed of. I want anyone that's ever felt like this to realize you are never trapped. There is always hope. You just need to believe in yourself and get to the other side.

this everyone, changed my life. and i will never be able to thank dan enough for it, no matter how much i pay for tour tickets, how often i watch their videos or share my love for them on here. i just want to mention this because its never just 'light entertainment', it means the world to many of us and we have build a wonderful and loving community despite the hardships of the past and pointless discourses of the present. like, we can change shit for ourselves because we see these gay idiots do it who have done soooo fucking much in the last 15 years like they were on radio 1 and on a hollywood billboard and hosted various big big events. and yet, they decided they want to use their time to do things for themselves and their community. they have said many times that they havent made a profit from (parts of) their tours but they do it regardless. they do really love us and i dont think ive ever really felt loved by people who i was in a fandom for like that. its really not as parasocial as it might seem anymore. we got here together and we should be proud of that. i love dnp and i love you phannies so much !! 💕💕💕💕💕

[jariten]

My Favorite Manga in 2023: Part 2

Like in part 1 I will skip the titles I already covered in previous roundups.

女の園の星 (Onna no Sono no Hoshi), Yama Wayama

初恋、ざらり (Hatsukoi, Zarari), Zaku Zakuro

うちのクラスの女子がヤバい (Uchi no Class no Joshi ga Yabai), Seiko Erisawa [Ichi-nen Ichi-gumi omnibus edition]

インターネット・ラヴ! (Internet Love!), Kiko Urino

レイニー通りの虹 (Rainy Doori no Niji), Keiko Fukuyama

葬送のフリーレン (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End), Kanehito Yamada & Tsukasa Abe

Yama Wayama appears to be on a continuous upwards trajectory as the manga comedienne of the reiwa era which I got to confirm for myself with the hit Onna no Sono no Hoshi. The episodic comedy about a teacher daily terrorized by his students and coworker. And with the scanlation well on its way I just want to say please experience it for yourself.

Uchi no Class no Joshi ga Yabai I had eyed ever since I started learning Japanese and the new omnibus that coincided with the ongoing sequel series gave me a great reason to finally pick it up. Box of Light by the same author was on my list last year and I not only liked the premise of it but also loved the anthology format of the story. For similar reason I really liked Uchi no Class: In the world of the series high school aged girls may experience the activation of powers.... that are completely useless and troublesome. We follow the students of year one class one, a class infamous for always having the highest concentration of useless powers. Dreams projected into the sky, X-ray vision that turn everyone around you into terrifying anatomy models is only the tip of the iceberg. I can't resist a gimmick premise done successfully and the variation of characters and powers kept the premise fresh like older characters who haven't yet "grown out" of their powers or a trans girl storyline.

Hatsukoi, Zarari follows the young woman Arisa diagnosed with a light intellectual disability and autism. Living between jobs and having a hard time turning down men who only want to have sex she has always struggled with her own self worth. This is until she falls in love with an older coworker who is charmed by her personality and quirks. But will things change if she opens up about her diagnoses? Zaku Zakuro has made manga and shared online about living with ADHD and asperger syndrome, giving this story a very personal and different perspective focusing especially on how stigma around developmental disabilities can be what causes the most friction and pain.

Internet Love! is a love story for the social media age with a budding romance that goes across borders. Bisexual nail artist Tenma has for years been a fan of a completely ordinary man from Korea named Uno who appears to be addicted to posting his life on instagram, daily filling up his story until the posts are lined up like dots. Thinking he held nothing but a healthy distance of "standom" for Uno, but he instead hits rock bottom when his insta favorite posts a girlfriend reveal. Tenma no longer able to bring himself to open the daily insta stories sinks into a depression, but Uno takes note that a certain someone stopped checking up on him... I was instantly charmed by this and was especially taken by how their clumsy attempts at communication without being able to speak each others language or no lingua franca was portrayed and the personal styles and fashions of the characters I just adored the whole thing.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Hi. How do you do? I'm here to vent🪑:

So I'm a Jikooker (yes I know, foolish. But once I get into something, it's hard to let go. That's just who I am, unfortunately). I'm a Jimin-biased Jikooker and one of the well-known Jikooker blogs I follow (I won't mention their name because I don't want to bring them hate) made a shady post about PJMs about two days ago. They said Jimin is the member who attracts the weirdest solos. When PJMs came for them, they switched up on some "all solos are bad/it's dumb being a solo".

But they explained why they don't like PJMs specifically, said that group have been the one who've always attacked them the most, so they say these things based on their own personal experiences. Which is understandable, right? I know all the members' solos hate Jimin specifically and spend their days saying the ugliest things about him, but I personally hate JJKs the most because they are the worst of them all, they make Jimin biased people's experience very unpleasant online, they say the most horribly awful things about Jimin..

This blogger said it's funny how PJMs who accuse her of being a JM anti also accuse her of being a JK stan in the same breath and that she didn't understand why it's PJMs always flocking to their blog and not other members' solos. I sent them an ask about this, saying the reason why only that specific group of people keep coming for them and why they accuse them of such things is probably because they've always had high praises for JK while being dismissive of Jimin/anything about him and only praising him the context of the ship.

For example, around May last year, they'd say things like "JK is going to be the member to really blow it out of the park" in terms of success about 'Seven' and his upcoming solo album. They once answered a shady ask that said JK doesn't look like he baths these days and they said "you know you're talented as hell as an artist when antis drag you about bathing. It's because they know they can't drag him about his singing, dancing and performing because he does all those exceedingly well. Man is goated AF". There's nothing wrong with what they said, people have different tastes and JK is clearly the best thing since sliced bread for them.

But then in another ask/post, they'd talk about how they don't like Jimin's voice at all because it sounds too nasal. Which is also fine, because like I said, different tastes. But the contrast between how they talk about JK vs how they talk about JM makes sense as the reason why people would flock to their blog and call them a JM anti/JK solo, isn't it?

This person has made posts that have so obviously been heavily biased towards JK. They say they're OT7 and they don't bias JK at all but their many posts about JK vs about the other members seriously contradict that. They try to come across as "I love all seven equally" (although they did admit that their affection for Tae has waned) but just going through their entire blog or following them for the past three years as I have will show you that's a complete lie and that they obviously love Jungkook a lot more than the others.

I told them about the times they'd speak so well about JK from an artist point of view - they praise his dance, praise his singing, praise him as a person, as Jungkook the individual outside of Jikook. But every time it comes to Jimin, it's "gosh that man is so sexy. I bet you JK tires that ąss out", every time Jimin posts a dance video, it's "but JK is truly such a lucky man". It's never praises about Jimin as an individual and an artist. No, those praises have to involve JK, and they have to be about sex. And it's understandable why Jimin biased people/PJMs would get triggered because we've had to deal with the fandom erasing Jimin's talent as achievements and reducing him to being "cute, sexy, fckable".

I also mentioned the FACE to Seven to GOLDEN era when people sent them asks about how Jimin seems to be getting sabotaged by the company for JK and how the fandom attacked Jimin for getting not even 1% of what JK got but kept quite when JK got it all, and how they (the blogger) dismissed the anons who said the company is sabotaging JM but had all the time in the world to talk about how terrible Jimin's solo stans are for attacking JK for his career choices.

I told them that most Jikook accounts who seem so biased towards JK and defend what HYBE has been doing to Jimin in favour of JK, eventually became JK solo focused accounts after 'Seven'. I don't think they'd ever become a solo, though, because they seem to really care about some other members (I just don't think Jimin is one of them lol)

I told them that for all these reasons, I don't blame people for accusing them of being a JK solo/Jimin anti. I thought they'd respond to my ask because I genuinely wanted to understand their perspective but they made a bullsht post saying they've blocked all anons because people just want them to explain themselves over and over again and that they don't like PJMs and we'll just have to deal with it.

I laughed. Because it's so obvious they didn't know how to respond to my ask so they took the easy way out and at the end of the day, they win, because they get to twist things and make their followers see things as they want them to see them and Jimin stans are forever the bad guy.

Someone called them out on always having the time to write posts about how Jimin stans are "being weird" and attacking "other members" again (the "other members" is always JK lol because this bloggers posts always come out when PJMs attack JK. They never complain when PJMs are all up on Yoongi or Tae or the others) but never calling out JJK for attacking others, especially Jimin. Their response was "I actually talked about this on my personal account and vented to a friend but everything always has to be said publicly for y'all". Sure, Jan. It's very convenient how they can always complain about PJMs publicly for all to see but when it's about Jungkook's stans it has to be done privately. They talked about "solo stans" (it was PJMs who said those disgusting things and we all know) accusing JK of being groomed by BangPD and sleeping his way to the top, but there has never been a single post about how "solo stans" have been saying the exact same things about Jimin for years and especially during FACE era, and how they've said even worse things.

Anyway I just wanted to say I'm so done with Jikookers. They don't care about Jimin at all, never did. I should have seen it with the "Jimin would be ashamed to see you guys saying JK doesn't seem to care that Jimin's career is being hurt because of him", when that's literally what it looks like. I should have seen it with the "why do people hate Jikook so much?" comments, when it's actually only Jimin getting hate and Jungkook being portrayed as the trapped victim. Even Taehyung gets more defended by them: every time other Jikookers hate Taehyung for "deliberately feeding Taekookers" (as they say) these Jikook bloggers write lengthy posts about Taehyung alone, highlighting his "innocent" personality and the times he's shown how much he adores his members and would never hurt anyone of them. But when Jimin gets accused of being an attention seeker, a fanservice king who enjoys "feeding Jokers", they write lengthy posts about JIKOOK and their bond/moments.

They really do not care about Jimin at all. I wonder what they see when they look at him. I really wish I could literally see through their eyes and find out how they really see Jimin because it's all so bizarre.

I remember saying once that Jungkook biased jikookers were the most delusional jikookers. Most Jimin biased people jumped ship a few years ago, and now all there's left is Jungkook biased jikookers. They're the majority, by a landslide. Literally 4/5 jikook blogs you come across on Tumblr, are Jungkook biased. And they're all delusional, they all talk the same way, share the same theories, etc. In general, Jungkook has always had the most shipper fans out of all the members because he's shipped with everyone. Anyways, I said they were the most delusional and my point gets proven everyday.

I genuinely believe you have to be able to will yourself into ignoring a lot of things about Jungkook to be his fan, and I say that from first-hand experience because at some point in history I used to like him a lot, too. But there was always a "wish he hadn't done that wish he hadn't said that". In almost every piece of content, there was without fail a moment where I felt like I had to settle for Jungkook; "oh well he's too young; oh well he's awkward at expressing himself; oh well he didn't think that through; oh well he's impulsive". Eventually, I just got tired and bored of the same shit year after year. Speaking only about attitude though, his attitude is better than it was a couple of years ago, at least on the surface, and I have no qualms about admitting that. But I'm not really a second chance type of person so it's been over.

If she's a jikookers she's obviously gonna have readers who are interested in Jimin and Jungkook both together and separately. Why is she wondering about Jimin "solos" going to her blog? Is she stupid? She must be. Because if she didn't want pjms or Jimin biased people to reach out to her, then maybe she could just dissociate Jimin from her blog and that's it. It's not that hard. But if she keeps calling herself a joker...

This isn't about pjms. I have no business defending them and myself I've made fun of them and all before. But what's fair is fair, and the truth is that they're not the worst. Please, a lot of them even felt bad for Taehyung when Jungkook was having his 2739483rd listening party during layover's release.

Sexually charged insults, edits, racism, nepotism accusations, blowing up fake info in hopes it'll turn into a scandal. All done against Jimin by Jungkook's fans, both solos and taekookers. Who were the first ones to call Jimin a sexual predator? Who were the first people to accuse Jimin of sleeping with CEOs? Exactly. And it's been YEARS. This isn't something that started in July 2023; it's been going on for fucking years, since 2017 if not before. I talk about it because I saw it all while it was happening, and I saw pjms walking away from the fandom and becoming solos. They didn't even hate on the members until it got really bad -die a hero or live long enough to become the villain or whatever.

You'd take a look at pjm twitter in 2018, 2019, 2020 and it was all Jimin content, "hybe mistreating Jimin" threads (that had NOTHING to do with other members), and even some ship content enjoying yoonmin, vmin, jikook, because pjms actually liked them. Those were pjms. Meanwhile, taekook lives already existed. Meanwhile, DC gallery was already filling up with the most disgusting stuff about Jimin that wasn't even true.

Every time anyone mentioned the hate against Jimin, it was "move silently, block and report, do not engage". Okay, cool. Now, there's hate against Jungkook and it's rant after rant about pjms. What happened to just block and report silently? Now they're enraged enough to talk about it? Now they want to bring attention to it and call it out for the sick behavior it is? Now, when it's against Jungkook but not when it was against Jimin?

The other thing is that jikookers don't want to admit that they're in bed with taekookers. Taekookers are ALSO Jungkook stans. Jungkook solos, taekookers, they're all Jungkook stans but jikookers don't want to hold accountable for what they say and instead they charge against pjms because they don't want to be grouped with people as deranged as taekookers for being a Jungkook fan. They try their hardest to not associate Jungkook to his solos because in their mind, the fans actually do represent the idol. So Jungkookie can't have deranged fans under any circumstance; it's all and only pjms. Deep down, that's exactly what they're doing; in their minds, pjms are a representation of Jimin, but Jungkook solos, taekookers and deranged jikookers are not a representation of Jungkook. How does that work?

My personal favorite is when they say 'how can Jimin have such evil fans when he's the kindest?". What do they mean? That Jungkook deserves to have jjks and taekookers as fans? Mmmmm!!! If solo stans are a representation of the members, what does it say of Jungkook that he has fans like muri?

I don't know if you're talking about who I think you're talking about, but I've seen a blog that sounds a lot like what you're describing. Someone sent me a link once, and I replied to their ask. I can't look for it right now, but I'll try to search for it during the weekend. So, I saw that blog and it was essay after essay about seven and the tools from the company and scooter, etc. Defending all of it. Which, okay if they think it's cool. But anyone who dared to say that Jimin was neglected and Jungkook was pushed by favoritism or something along those words, while not even being mean about it, mind you, a lot of people just wondering why; they were like "just say you're a Jimin solo and go". That's how they'd reply. Everyone, anyone who dared to have a different opinion or a less than favoring one about Jungkook or his career, was immediately called an anti and a solo. A Jimin solo, mind you.

Then, I also saw this ask:

So, someone saying "I hate so many things about jimin" is "not a rare breed", but saying "Jungkook payola" is an anti, and stupid and a Jimin solo.

It seems criticism -whatever the type- about one of them is okay, but if it's about the other it's bad? If that isn't the literal definition of bias...

Imagine I went to her and said this exact thing or something similar but about Jungkook, pointing out a thing I don't like about him; do you think I would get a "sameee you're so valid" or would I get lectured on all the good things about him?

If they're so bright, so quick on their feet, so much better than solos, how come they didn't think this could be a Jimin anti pretending to be a fan? How come they didn't get labeled as an akgae of other member immediately?

I don't know how they don't get tired or bored of pretending. Is life really that dull for them that they have to create a whole personality on the internet? Pretending they like someone they don't really like?

At the very least, people should begin to question themselves why it's okay to talk freely about Jimin's voice, or any other thing they see as flaws in him, and they're okay with those conversations; but they cry and throw up if someone says the dumbest, smallest shit about Jungkook? Just accepting that you don't care about both of them in the same way, and that you believe one is more talented and more deserving than the other, could be a good start.

[amageish]

So, James Somerton's brought his Wiccan and Hulkling video back online and I feel a need to just yell into the void for a moment about it.

In that video, Somerton says a lot of really dumb things and exaggerations to make the Young Avengers MLM power couple of Wiccan/Hulkling and the gay X-Men Iceman seem more important to comic history then they are. They are incredibly important, of course - Iceman especially is, to my knowledge, the only Lee/Kirby character to be textually out - but their writers were not fighting tooth and nail as Somerton claims they were - and they certainly weren't acting on spite against a homophobic Marvel who would never let queers into their flagship franchise. They were stories, pitched and approved like any other...

Hell, Bendis had already written a queer woman in the form of Ultimate Spider-Woman a fair amount of time before Iceman came out... Somerton's commentary makes no sense - it's well-delivered and no shade to anyone who was fooled by it, but (like a lot of comic book discourse online TBH) it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

That said, I think it's important to remember that Marvel Corporate does still need to approve queer coming-outs. There are actual times where characters were intended to have come out as queer, but ended up as subtext in the final draft or had their arcs abandoned entirely. Hell, in the Marvel Pride special last year, Marvel writer Tini Howard alluded to the challenges that can come from writing queer stories while not knowing if they can be officially queer - mentioning how she's been "writing Rachel and Betsy falling in love before [she] knew [she] could."

So like. If you see something queer happening in a Marvel comic and it remains confined to subtext, then please do not immediately jump to "Well, Somerton lied about corporate resistance to Wiccan/Hulkling, so therefore this writer totally had a choice to do a queer story and just chose not to"... Not everyone has the sway of Bendis! Not every queer coming-out is approved. They often take time.

Queercoding is also, for better and for worse, often the route to queer canon in a collaborative medium like comics. There's a lot of queercoding and queer implications from the Jim Shooter era (where queer stuff was actually firmly prohibited at Marvel) that are only now becoming canon. Northstar, Marvel's first openly-gay superhero, was coded for years before it was hard canon. Chris Claremont, one of the main architects of the X-Men as we know them today, wrote plenty of stuff that was subtextually gay that Marvel is still playing catch-up with to this day - ex/ Mystique and Destiny only became Nightcrawler's biological parents, as was his original vision, last year and we still haven't had Kate Pryde do anything more textually Sapphic then kiss a tattoo artist one time...

Being frustrated is cool - I am also often frustrated with Disney and Marvel, as my blog can attest - but please do direct your frustration at the corporation and don't jump to being mean to authors/artists... as I'm pretty sure they're often just as disappointed as we are!

[destinationtoast]

"Entertainment" and modern AI-fandom interactions

There's a 1985* sci-fi short story I once read by M.A. Foster called “Entertainment” that predicts what will happen in an increasingly AI-generated art world.  I can't find any excerpts or summaries of it online, but what I recall is:

In the future, humans can prompt machines to create any art -- e.g., "What would a collaboration between early-era Peter Gabriel and late-era Beethoven look like, with a music video directed by Werner Herzog?"  (That's a made up example, but someone originally gave me the story because Peter Gabriel and early Genesis are actually referred to in the text, and I was at the height of my fandom. XD )  An AI then comes up with a bunch of different examples, and the human who gave the prompt chooses the one(s) they like best.  They then release the creation to the broader world, and people make micropayments to stream it.  Everyone competes for attention, hoping to go viral or at least make a decent living.

(There's a dystopian aspect, where if you don't make enough money and your balance drops below zero, you disappear back into the human factory to get remade.  Also, people don't have sex in person -- they pay each other for the rights to their likeness, and they have sex with simulated versions of one another.  All of which is rather interesting, but not as directly relevant to the point I'm making here.)

M.A. Foster did an impressive job foreseeing a bunch of aspects of modern AI and online culture (especially keeping in mind that there was no Web or social media or digital streaming or online micropayments at the time this was written).   And it’s becoming easy to imagine that we may reach a point where many of the story’s predictions about art come true, as well.  

Currently, you can give increasingly complex prompts and get AIs to respond with something that makes sense and seems like a valid reply. Newer AIs often create text and images that are both exciting and terrifying due to what feels like a sudden potential to blend in with or replace human output.  Fandom, along with everyone else, is unnerved.  After all, will we still need fan creators in a world where we can prompt AIs to do this?

(source)

Or this?

(source)

Or when AI can even take the prompt “Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr kissing next to a conflagration” and output this?

(source)

Okay, there’s definitely still some funkiness going on there with some body parts; cherik fanartists can still obviously do better, for the moment.  And more generally, AI output is still frequently goofy, full of embellishments and fabrications, literally tasteless, and/or flat-out wrong – but we can see so many promises of how good it will get.  And we can imagine how AI output will increasingly be incorporated into transformative fandom and shipping culture.  

But all of the above examples illustrate another thing that M.A. Foster got right: If you want AI to produce something really interesting and compelling, it's important to have a human come up with a good prompt and then select the best output. 

This isn’t new; for years, we have been living in an increasingly curatorial world.  For instance, with stock photos of nearly everything, and digitized versions available of much of the world's art and photography, and endless hours of new YouTube & TikTok videos uploaded to the web every passing minute, it's much easier these days to create new images or videos or other visual works without being an artist.  But building a compelling visual work based on others' images -- a mood board, edit, collage, fanvid, etc. -- still benefits enormously from being driven by a human with a particular sense of style and particular goals in mind.  And the more that any human wants to see something that is different from the most common or most popular images that already exist, the more likely they are either going to have to create it themselves – or at least push the AI really hard in that direction via increasingly specific prompts and feedback.  (None of these roles are unique to online culture, either – art commissioners have historically prompted things, and art collectors and museums have curated them -- but these days we all have access to a much wider world of online works, and we all curate our own tumblrs and pinterest boards and so forth, even if we don't explicitly create curatorial works for fandom.)

The thing I found most unrealistic about "Entertainment" was that people weren’t tempted to try their own hand at creating art; it was a purely remix + curation culture.  In reality, even if AIs get really excellent at creation, so good that their fic and art are as good as your favorite fan creators’ work, I don't think they're ever going to suppress our own creative urges.  We live in a world where there are already 313 Dean/Castiel high school AU hurt/comfort fics – and yet people were still inspired to write/update two more this week.  People are not going to stop creating new fanworks just because the AIs are increasingly able to join in and create more.  And, for some time yet, humans are still going to lead the way in creating new canons with compelling stories and characters, which machines will then learn from and remix.  (That is another thing that human artists have also always done -- drawing inspiration from and remixing one another's art -- and something that fandom in particular is pretty great at.)

TL;DR human contributions to fandom will still be very important for fandom for the foreseeable future.  Even if the internet -- and now AI -- have helped us shift from spending more time as solo creators to also having increasingly active roles as prompters and curators.  

---

This post was partly inspired by @fansplaining 's latest discussion of AI & recent fandom panic, "Artificial Fandom Intelligence", as well as @cfiesler 's post, "Elon Musk did not create an AI trained on your fanfiction." They also addressed other issues that fans are worried about, like the idea of AIs and their creators getting credit and/or monetary reward for new fanworks trained on existing human-generated fanworks. If you've read other good meta about any aspect of fandom & AI, I'd love pointers -- please feel free to share in the notes!

*At least, it was collected in a 1985 anthology called Owl Time; I’m not sure when/where it was originally published.

[casablancarossa]

Taemin leaving SM; a retrospective rant from a severely uneducated and overly caffeinated fan.

I have thoughts about Taemin leaving SM and by extention Onew too. Might as well drag Minho and Key into this.

Since this is majorly about Taemin, let's talk about him first.

Taemin & SM (pre-NGDA era)

Taemin has been with the company for 16 years, closer to 19 if you count his trainee days. As an older shawol (LLO-era, got me whipped BAD), it was seriously out of the blue that Taemin would be the first to debut solo. SM at the time (i.e in their prime) was a vocal powerhouse and I genuinely thought Jonghyun would be the first one to go solo. SM made the right decision dedicating time and resources in letting him shine and 'Ace' was a phenomenal debut album for Taemin and really stamped that 'Taemin vibe/sound' we all know and love' Generally speaking SM not the best for promotions/scheduling, but the company still had their shit together when 'Move' came out, it felt like it was everywhere and surpassed the noteriety Guilty had achieved. I feel like when Taemin does variety shows, up to now, Move was always the most referenced and remembered act, even amongst the junior idols, that he did and thats because SM did go hard on promoting that song and picked a quiet month to do that comback in.

Taemin vs SM (during/post-NGDA era)

Somewhere along the lines, SM really dropped the ball with promoting Act 1 especially during Taemin's 'Criminal' comeback. They heavily prioritized their newer groups and suddenly their legendary acts were getting shafted with poor promotions and what felt like less dedicated management and resources. I recall, SM postponed the release for Criminal, squashed Taemin in Super-M activties and focused on their new acts while simultaneously over working them (honestly Mark has had such a hectic few years). My internal speculation/assumtion is that, SM figured that acts like SuJu, EXO, SHINee, GG and RV and solo/ duo units, wouldn't need as much dedicated promotions because they are iconic acts and they are fully dependant on fanbases to generate the buzz. Which leads me to my main hypothesis that after a few years of being active, SM really does not care about an artist anymore. Mind you artists that put them on the fucking map to begin with. SM won't double down on these artists because they believe they can't appeal to a younger audience. With the shitshow that was the Criminal promotions. SM really didn't do any better with 'Advice'. Pinning aespa's comeback a day before was a low blow instead of focusing on the talent that's about to go into the military, if they are aware enough to give Taemin a mini comeback so his relevancy sticks throughout his service, why damage it with an aespa release (that felt like it was to tactically avoid facing off the BTS release later than month) and basically doing NOTHING bar announcing pre-orders. Then we enter the 'Guilty' era. Which as we saw was a hit, but mainly because SM capitalized on the power of social media trends, placing Taemin in VARIOUS online contents and slowly dropped related media during winter. I mean we are still not over his 'Guilty' era, the Metamorph concert still has us at a chokehold. I 'd like to think that Taemin became more vocal in what he wanted and expected out of SM when he came back. Obviously the priority to them is/was SHINee and that's fair. DCM did really well with promos (althoughlike most shawols would say, LSM did have a major part to play with that). HOWEVER it was their 15th anniversary comeback last year and I feel like SM treated it like it was just another comeback instead of a major milestone. There were no interviews or press releases for Hard, when events were happening, it felt like it was gate kept to just local fans, like it made me feel like I was living under a rock because it was so last minute and I was not aware of anything. I want to believe that just because SM did an okay job now, excuses them for the last 3 years. What's worse is it's undeniable, Taemin lives to perform and it's no secret he sets some high goals and standard for himself and probably the toll 1) not getting to preform Guilty in GDA, despite wanting to and 2) probably not getting a solid backing for touring globally, despite very vocal fan support. I am not sure if anyone saw that SM forecast for the first two quarters of 2024, but it genuinely feels like Taemin knows that him and SHINee will not be a priority after promotions are finished. I hope I am not dense enough to assume that obviously SHINee has spoken about this privately and internally for a while now. It's really something you can't avoid talking about. Taemin has spoken to his hyungs, people in his circle inside and outside of the industry. Hopefully he is well informed and supported and it seems definite that SHINee is still active as a group.

Key vs SM.

Someone has already mentioned it but if anyone was leaving SM for creative freedom, I genuinely thought it would be Key. 'Bad Love' was an amazing release and Key fought with SM to release with his own brand/aesthetic. Because Taemin's imminent departure is so publicized, SM might be keeping the talks with Minho and Key super under wraps and trying to offer a btter deal. Although recently, bar Good and Great, SM has been using Key as a 'Variety' idol than an actual singer, which sucks because Key is super talented and if SM doesn't recognize that star power now, good luck to them. Also apparently, Kany is signed with BPM? I know she is close with SHInee in general, but I would assume it'd be Key joining her ya'know?

Minho vs SM.

Imma put it out there, the promotions for 'Stay for a Night' was lackluster? I feel like they treat solo Minho and SHINee Minho as two separate entities. Like yes there is a dualism of being a group preformer vs solo preformer. But on the rare occasion SHINee does get promoted Minho seems to get more attention, but as a solo artist, I don't feel the same love for his solo promotions. I hope Minho gets to write and contribute more, which I believe he does in the background. If he does stick to SM, I pray they open other avenues of artistry, primarily, he does really well with his acting roles and yes it really helps that he does fit the 'K-drama ML' look.

Onew vs SM

I feel like Onew gets the short-end of the stick out of the rest of SHINee, never mind that the man has the voice of an angel, but again, he is another one that SM never bothered to market right. It kind of make sense that he would want to leave the company and seek ones that would expand his career inside and outside of singing and while the one good thing SM did recently is make sure Onew was healing and taking care of himself, recent SHINee promo activities feels like they are treating Onew's break as a hush hush 'taboo topic' Honestly, bring back the era where our idols would randomly disappear during promotions because they were casted to be on-stage again. I am still forever clinging onto Onew singing opera, because despite him not being trained for that, he has the talent to do so. It'd be nice to hear him produce his own music, or give acting another shot.

[olderthannetfic]

Hi! So I have a rambling explanation that’s going to lead into a genuine question about making a website somewhat like a03 or finding alternatives to a site I will mention (it’s not a03 don’t worry)

I am a non/disney editor, crossover artist, amv maker and deep faker and any other term for “make videos of characters in canon or au type scenarios to music”. I’m also a fanficcer. And I remember when being wary of Anne Rice and Archie Comics and DC was a thing. A teacher, to cover his ass for an assignment of mine, taught me how to write an apology letter to a company on the offhand my hand written basically Batman fanfiction, made it’s way online or was heard about. I was in the tail end right before A03 but I am extremely grateful that the site exists. Okay. So now I need to talk about the Owl House. In season three episode special one, Luz Noceda makes an amv coming out to her mom.

Editor friends in a private discord were both happy and worried. Luz is one of us….but also Disney knows about us, to some level. Nothings happened I’ve just been stewing and I’m just worried something might hit the fan for the community given many of us use Disney media (hard not to when 80% of things put out is by them) So I’m asking how one would make a platform like A03 but for video media. Or if there’s things you know like that. YouTube is getting more and more difficult for anyone nowadays too.

Again, nothings really happened yet, I just can’t get it out of my head

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Video is worlds harder than text, but you know that.

There are a couple of approaches here: First, more is more. The more sites you have your stuff on, the smaller the chance that Disney can nuke all of them. Second, if you're not just using youtube and getting good at playing the algorithm, you need some way for people to find you or to keep track of all your alternate hosting.

Vidders of the oldschool sort have taken to using AO3. It doesn't have native hosting, of course, but it provides a stable URL and useful fandom-based tagging without algorithm bullshit. It's also a decent way to get vids out there if you only have download links and no streaming (though, of course, that means fewer views). You can embed a bunch of different copies of the same thing in the same work.

I don't know of a ton of fannish attempts at video hosting that are open to everyone. The only person I can think of who's heavily working on that is the guy behind Vidders.net who has a few different projects going.

For other hosting options, I'd see what AO3 currently has whitelisted for embedding. Two obvious ones are Critical Commons and Archive.org.

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Broadly, yes, fanvids and AMVs have been subject to even more disastrous mass deletions than fanfic has, and far fewer of them have been saved by other fans because video files are huge.

Oldschool AMVs in the strict sense (i.e. Japanese anime and not Disney) are catalogued and sometimes hosted on animemusicvideos.org. Oldschool Media Fandom has some vidding archivists, and really old stuff was released on tape and then disc, and people still have their copies of those. But online-only fannish video stuff from the 00s and 10s has massive gaps in the historical record already.

Disney is quiescent now, but they haven't always been, and neither have other rights holders. Worse, a bunch of hosts vidders liked just up and deleted their entire sites, wiping out eras of videos and commentary.

Your stuff is in less danger than it would have been 10 years ago, as far as anyone can tell, but video is always in massive danger of disappearing.

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If you actually succeed at video!AO3, more power to you! I'm just skeptical that you'll be up to the technical and financial challenge if you don't already know more than you currently do, you know?

Hosting video has, among other problems, the issue that people trading actual abuse materials will upload their videos to your service. Hosts often play whackamole with illegal and traumatizing content. I've known people whose jobs exposed them to this shit, and they were... not okay.

I guess you could make things slightly easier on yourself if you restricted video to cartoons only, but then you'd have the same issues amvs.org does where people who start as one kind of editor start working with other footage and keep trying to upload the wrong thing.

It's often not really viable to host unless you make everyone pay and/or you're authorizing a few dozen accounts of people you've vetted, not running a service just anyone can sign up for. Hosting a hundred videos for friends that you have reviewed and know to be fanvids/amvs is a lot easier than hosting enough stuff that you can't personally review it all.

If you or anyone else is interested in trying to start a site, I'd go check out the various writings by Denise (who runs Dreamwidth). She has some twitter threads and posts on enforcement and running a platform. I remember she talked about the tech people use to detect CSAM from known law enforcement databases.

I don't want to be a downer here, but there are serious legal implications to being the actual host as opposed to just running a discord or something on someone else's platform and reporting some fucker if they try to post illegal shit.

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If I were you, I'd get my buddies together, embed all our works on AO3, and then maybe make a collection or tagging standards so we could find each other's stuff.

For hosting, I'd add the Internet Archive, Vimeo, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. to Youtube and do a periodic audit of AO3 works to make sure links were still working.

AO3 already has a lot of tags that have been made filterable, like Fanvids, AMV, Video Format: Streaming, etc.