#did you know that tumblr has issues with keeping your place on the page when you move through text in large documents?

[fantasyfantasygames]

SPULTURATORAH!! 2ND EXTERMINATION

SPULTURATORAH!! 2ND EXTERMINATION, Keetoms, 2024

Hot. Off. The. Presses. Directly into my hands before the edges were even trimmed or the cover placed on it. Seven hundred pages of raw ancient retro-future. The author gave this to me on January 2nd and it took me until now to actually read the whole thing.

SPULTURATORAH!! 2ND EXTERMINATION (S2E from here on out to avoid overwhelming us all with Teh Capslock) is a gonzo mashup of different game styles, settings, and genres. The original game (S1E, I guess) is a classic of maximalist game design in a tiny package. In fact, it's so small that there are more pages in S2E than words in S1E. That's ultra-maximalist game design for you.

So what did they do with the 698ish new pages? A lot, thankfully.

30 pages total of ToC, index, thanks, and license. It has its own bespoke license that I am not good enough at lawyer to understand.

10 pages of extra explanation for the original ruleset, which honestly it needed.

20 pages of gonzo backstory for King Gilgamesh. I appreciate that they did not in fact explain where he got the Levitating Darkness Throne. They did a great job folding in the new chapter of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was discovered only recently.

A 40-page adventure set in the Ziggurat of Ur, complete with a Narrative Dungeon linking this place to the Eternal Realm of Narrative Awesome.

9 pages of random-roll tables you can use for Trait One, Trait Two, and Trait Prime.

2 pages to explain the difference between what you can use for the numbered traits and what you can use for the prime trait.

30 pages of alternate uses for TRAIT ZIGGURAT BARLEY.

18 pages of equipment.

31 pages of vehicles and riding animals.

2 pages on currency.

14 pages of hacking rules.

7 pages of rules clarifications from the unofficial 1.4th edition. Nice to see them supporting fan works.

114 pages of monsters, each of which is a mutated version of King Gilgamesh from another universe or a shattered piece of our own, come to drag you back to his den and devour you. There are big ones, scaly ones, porcupine-like ones, multiple fragmented body parts moving together, one rolled into a beholder-like shape, one fused forever into a throne of pure orange light, all kinds of stuff. I like this.

A 6-page writeup of the God Shamash, which is sort of unnecessary but interesting anyway.

A 4-page running edge-to-edge map of Babylon and its rivers

8 pages of word jumble. I think it's a code. I am not entirely certain.

115 pages of adaptations from S2E to other rule systems: Deadlands, Torg, Fate, Altaplana, Numenera, Dungeon War, MSR, and Fantasy Wargaming: THLOA.

Good lord 700 pages is a lot of pages.

1 page accidentally taken up by a single dangling word ("it") at the end of a sentence. I have been there. Doing layout sucks sometimes.

96 pages of color art plates. Right in the middle of the book. The rest of the book has no art. The center has almost 100 solid pages of pinup Babylonian future barbarian blade hunter psychics. It's all the work of one mad genius who is credited as a bunch of black rectangles with diacriticals above and below them

A 3-page essay on why Nobilis is the greatest game ever, which has an acrostic that disclaims the entire section.

4 pages of detailed wargame rules.

22 pages of domain management guidelines.

12 pages of "spoilers". I still do not know what most of these mean.

A 2-page spread of Gilgamesh's family tree.

15 pages of writeups for miscellaneous folks on said tree.

28 pages on the language used in ancient Babylon, complete with cuneiform how-to.

A 16-page "node map" of the retro-future Babylonian cybernet that leads to outer space, where the planets are manifestations of deities.

21 more pages of detail covering the strange planets of our solar system as the Babylonians knew them: their cities, their rulers, little adventure seeds, advice for GMs for running stories in them. I do kind of wonder if someone else wrote this section.

1 page of probability notes, which is all you need for a 1d6-roll-under system really.

An 8-page character sheet, which is a bit excessive for characters with 4 traits.

2 pages that just contain the original game.

I will admit - there is actually too much in this game. I'm not sure it would have worked to make it a string of 50ish short supplements, but it's still an awful lot to absorb. The "maximal game, minimal package" has turned into "ultra-max game in a doorstop package". If S3E ever arrives (presumably with three exclamation points) I hope they do some judicious trimming.

I have no idea if this behemoth will make it to stores, or whether the shipment will collapse under its own gravitational pull and become a black hole. Either way, heck of a collector's item.

[if-whats-new]

What's New In IF? Halloween edition! Issue 26 (2024)

By Brij, Dion, Bex and Jen

Now Available!

Itch.io - Keep Reading below

If you read the zine, consider liking the post: it helps us see how many people see it! And sharing is caring! <3

~ EDITORIAL ~

Boo! Did you get scared?

Well we hope we didn’t scare you away! Our favourite time of the year is here and with it a Halloween themed Issue! Next to the regular WNIF stuff we included a recommendation section full of the best games to play in this time of the year, so be sure to check it out!

We want some feedback!

As we’re starting to get a hand of things, we would love some feedback from you guys! What you enjoy, want more or less off, how we could improve... Anything goes! We even have a nifty form!

Still looking for members!

Due to the severe changes in the Zine team, we are once again looking for free hands with a couple of hours to kill, and minds, looking to make a little difference in the community!

If you too would like to help us out in a more official capacity, please shoot us a message! You can check out the available positions here, but if you’d like to help in any other way, feel free to contact us as well!

No Small Talk for some time!

We hope you have a terror-ific time reading this issue!

BRIJ, DION, BEX AND JEN

~ BE A PART OF THE ZINE ~

THIS ZINE ONLY HAPPENS WITH YOU!

Want to write 1-2 pages about a neat topic, or deep-dive into a game and review it in details? Share personal experiences or get all academic?

WRITE FOR THE COLUMN!

Prefer to be more low-key but still have something to share? Send us a Zine Letter or share a game title for Highlight on…!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Came across something interesting? Know a release or an update announced? Saw an event happening? Whether it's a game, an article, a podcast… Add any IF-related content to our mini-database!

EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS!

Contact us through Tumblr asks, Forum DMs, or even by email! And thank you for your help!!

~ EVENT SPOTLIGHT : ECTOCOMP 2024 ~

La Petite Mort or Le Grand Guignol? Either way, it’s going to get spooky!

Ever since October 2007 spooky-game enthusiasts all over the world have a chance to participate in ECTOCOMP, an annual competition for interactive fiction celebrating the SPOOKY MONTH OF HALLOWEENTOBER. Whether you celebrate Halloween, Day of the Dead, All Saint's Eve, or just love ghost stories and creeping people out, this is your time to shine!

Previously organized by Jason Guest for ADRIFT games, the jam is now open to all development platforms. Since the beginning of this initiative, there has been a motivation to unite and strengthen ties between international communities in the IF world. Creators can submit games either in one of the four main languages - English, Spanish, French and German or any other!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Ghostbusters. Named after the Ghostbusters’ car license plate number ECTO 1, this year the jam pays tribute to the film that inspired the title! Some other subthemes and inspiration prompts are: Spooky adventure, Sweet supernatural, Halloween fest, Día de Los Muertos, All Saints', All Souls' Eve and any other festivity or mythology around the world.

As per tradition, Ectocomp has two categories:

La Petite Mort, for those who want to speed-write their game in 4 hours or less.

Le Grand Guignol, for games that, for whatever reason, took longer than 4 hours to write.

When the jam is over, all of the submitted games will be uploaded to the IF Archive.

~ ENDED ~

The voting for IFComp ended and the winners have been announced! Congratulations to the first-place winner, The Bat by Chandler Groover! Check out the complete results for this year's competition.

Another edition of the Bad Art Visual Novel Jam is upon us! Check out the two entries!

~ ONGOING (VOTING) ~

Entries have been submitted for the 6th Spooktober Annual Visual Novel Jam! You can vote for your favourites until October 27th! Every October Friday you can also watch Chizu's sponsored Spooktober Stream where she plays through all submissions!

Find inspiration in dusty old decrepit corners, revivify the forgotten - the Revival Jam 2024 is here! You can now vote for your favourite entries!

~ ONGOING (SUBMITTING) ~

Strip IF to it’s bare bones and all it become beautiful text. That’s what The Bare-Bones Jam is about.

It’s spooky month and with it comes the annual ECTOCOMP 2024. If it’s spooky or supernatural why not submit it?

Running until Halloween, the Phantasia Jam is a three months game jam to create a fantasy narrative game, with the theme of “Hidden Magic”. It accepts both VN and IF.

On the CoG Forum, Halloween is already there! Until Oct 31st, you can submit your projects to the Halloween Jam - but don't forget the theme! VAMPIRE, Murder, 70’s Disco!

Disabled Rep VN Jam has a very simple premise but a very important message.

Once upon a time, a game jam was held to create stories around the theme of fairy tales… and that game jam is the Once Upon A Time VN Jam. It’s running from October 1st to January 31st.

Concours de Fiction Interactive Francophone 2025 is for all French-speaking enthusiasts. Submissions are accepted until March 3rd 2025.

Are you perhaps a fan of more somber, melancholic themes? Then check out the Dying Year - Visual Novel Jam! You have until the end of the year to participate.

The Black Visual Novel Jam is all about working with creative professional developers who work in visual novels to bring more Black stories to life. The goal is to create a space where Black creators can show their unique storytelling through visual novels.

Bare your teeth and sharpen your claws because the Monstrous Desires 2024 Visual Novel Jam is here! Dedicated to the love of entities, horrors, and monstrosities, this jam will be full of romantic Visual Novels (VN) that heavily focus on a monster may it be original or from classics, folklore, modern media, etc.

~ OTHER ~

Jams are a great way to find new games! Don’t be afraid to check out submissions from previous years as well. There might be some gems hiding between them!

~ NEW RELEASE ~

Heavens’ Revolution: A Lion Among the Cypress (CScript) is a flintlock space fantasy inspired by eighteenth-century Iran.

Love and Death in the Shadow of the Demiurge (Twine) is an interactive tale of self-love and self-hate, beauty and the lack of it. @infimace-blog

As the Eye Can See (Twine) is a short story about the day before Halloween. @skyshard13

Larut (Ren’Py) is a fictional work retelling of the Indonesian folklore and mythological figure, Nyi Roro Kidul.

As always, don't forget to check out the submitted entries to the events mentioned in the previous pages. They deserve some love too!

~ NEW RELEASE (WIP) ~

You're only 20 when suddenly your life goes bam! Throwing you into a whole new city, a different country even. Can you find your place in the world and restart or lose yourself in temptation? Time to find out in Paved in Ashes (CScript)! @pavedinashes-if

Spotlight (CScript), navigate the red carpet, bloodthirsty paparazzi, cut-throat tabloids and complicated relationship dynamics with A-list celebrities (who may or may not be completely unhinged.)

Exit Through The Gift Shop (CScript) is about the arc of your life, from beginning to end, as experienced through the lens of trips to the museum, with each chapter moving forward one decade.

Blood of the Living (CScript), the first public demo for Blood of the Living, sequel to Fields of Asphodel is here! @chrysanthemumgames

Bridge Ices Before Road (CScript) Finding your place again in your old hometown might sound tough, but nothing is tougher than being an Olympic athlete. You have to juggle training along with all that, but you try not to let it get you down. After all, skating is your passion! @bridgeicesbeforeroadif

Fortuna Favours the Bold (CScript) is a low fantasy, high stakes, romance forward tale about self-discovery and hidden secrets. @fortunafavours

Being the only homicide detective around for miles, it’s up to you now to find out what exactly happened to your brother, why it happened, and who did it in A Bouquet of Chrysantemums (Twine). @abouquetofchrysanthemums

it's been a long, long time (CScript), a group of three find themselves reunited through their shared past, grappling with the haunting memories of a tragedy that shattered their bond. @haynahkho

In Spices of the Heart (CScript) you step into the shoes of an ambitious chef who has landed a job at a prestigious restaurant known for its innovation and artistry. @when-life-gives-you-lemons-if

Love to be Forgotten (RPG Maker MV) is a visual novel inspired by historical figures like Lucrezia Borgia and eerie vampire folklore, such as the tale of Jure Grando.

~ UPDATES ~

Keyframes (Ren’Py) released a patch update. @blankhouse

Shepherds of Haven (CScript) alpha preview has been updated. @shepherds-of-haven

One Knight Stand (CScript) released Chapter 2 Part 3. @oneknightstand-if

Weeping Gods (CScript) added new content to Chapter 2. @jcollinswrites

The In-Between (CScript) released Chapter 10. @dalekowrites

Space Captain (CScript) released updated their demo.

Hunter's Requiem (CScript) added new content to their demo. @huntersrequiem-if

The Inn Between (Ren’Py) released an extended demo. @catslilypad

When Stars Collide (Ren’Py) released Episode 1. @steamberrystudio

Made Marion released Will’s route. @velvet-cupcake-games

Wasteland Pony Express updated their Patreon demo. @katieaki

~ OTHER ~

The Halloween Sale 2024 on Itch.io is here!

Are you a Girls! Girls! Girls!? fan? You can now pre-order an artbook!

The Retro Adventurers podcast released Episode 9, where they have a conversation with Robin Raymond about the project Kingdom of the Seven Stones, a sprawling text/graphic adventure.

Studio Mansoon Games is hiring! Are you a Programmer or a Game artist? This is your chance! @allieebobo

~

As always, we apologize in advance for missing any update or release from the past week. We are only volunteers using their limited free time to find as much as we can - but sometimes things pass through the cracks.

If you think something should have been included in this week's zine but did not appear, please shoot us a message! We'll do our best to add it next week! And if you know oncoming news, add it here!

~ MAYBE YOU NEXT? ~

We did not get a submission this week. But if you have an idea for a short essay, or would like a special space to share your thoughts about IF and the community...

Shoot us an email!

~ HIGHLIGHT ON ~

A couple of games that we thought were cool.

Viatica by @fir-fireweed (Twine)

Wonderful prose, interesting worldbuilding, lovable characters! Chapter 10 was recently updated and it tore my heart out 10/10.

//submitted by Silly//

Do you have SALT? by BRXKEVN (Steam)

I wanted to tell you about the salt.

//submitted by Oreolek//

Your favourite game here?

Do you have a favourite game that deserves some highlighting?

An old or recent game that wowed you so much you spam it to everyone?

Tell us about it! And it might appear here!

H/T = Horror/Thriller H = Halloween themes S = Supernatural C = Creepy

~ RECOMMENDATIONS (COMPLETE) ~

It gets so lonely here (H/T) by ebi-hime (Ren’Py)

Yuri yandere visual novel, what else needs to be said? //submitted by Remm//

Deepest Grievances (H/T) by 17 confused villains (Ren’Py)

Equal parts murder mystery, eldritch horror, and office satire. This is a great adventure-style VN with a puzzle that made me gasp when I figured out the solution. //submitted by Natasha//

Hanna, We're Going to School (S) by Kastel (Twine)

You and your ghost friend go to school and everything goes sideways. My favorite piece on queerness and rage. //submitted by Emerson//

Last seen online (H/T + S) by qwook/sochinstudio (Three.js)

It is a very great and short game. It includes puzzles that are both satisfying and sad to solve. //submitted by anon//

Escape from Hell (S) by Nils Fagerburg (???)

Switch between monsters and use their abilities to help you escape! Elegant design with fun puzzles. //submitted by Sera//

Neighbourhood Necromancer (H/T) by Gavin Inglis (CScript)

Command the undead to take revenge on the suburbs! Perhaps you’ll start by taking over a convenience store.

Yûrei Station (H/T) by Atelier Sentô (Unity)

A girl takes a night train heading to an unknown destination��

Everyday Horrors (H) by Jacob Aberdevine (Bitsy)

A short Halloween game about fear and uncertainty.

Ghosterington Night (H/T) by Wade Clarke (Inform 7)

Danger-filled Ghosterington Manor appears atop the same cliff each year on Samhain night. It’s hidding four poems that are worth a fortune, and you, famous adventurer Jubilee Grief, are determined to find them.

Forever and Ever (H/T + H) by @PetricakeGames-IF (Ink)

Halloween night comes to a close and you're just settling in to get a good night's sleep when your son Lucas lets you know there are monsters in his room.

First Bite (S) by firstbitegames (???)

One night. Three (very hot) vampires. Make a deal with Death or die trying… (Alejandro Saab is in it so you know it’s good. Also very 18+.) //recommended by Dion [team]//

Well Tended (C) by danielle taphanel (Bitsy)

A short storybook simulator about wandering through death's shade-filled garden, following the spiraling path of poisonous plants to the center.

Witches x Warlocks (H + S) by Nifty Visuals (Unreal Engine)

Seven days until Halloween! Seven days until Fay Nightshade gets booted out of school for being the only witch unable to cast a single spell.

Eat me (C) by Chandler Grooverr (Inform 7)

In this castle, you'll eat or be eaten. May contain dairy, carnage, puzzles, nuts.

~ RECOMMENDATIONS (WIP) ~

We Wretched Creatures (H/T) by @darkfictionjude (Twine)

Who can you trust? What’s the truth behind your family? What are things that you see in the dark?

Sentience (H/T + S) by @sentience-if (Twine)

After a near-death experience at the hands of a crazed angel, you're suddenly thrust into a conspiracy surrounding a corpse-worshiping cult, divinely mad saints, and something buried far, far beneath the earth.

Fervency (H/T) by @fervency-if (CScript)

After getting cured from a vicious plague, you begin to feel some strange and unfamiliar cravings - namely a fervent desire for flesh or blood.

The Story of Sin (H/T + S) by @devilishmango (Twine)

You are the spawn of Satan and The Devil. You decide to defy them once again, and just like always… they aren’t exactly too happy about that. This leads them to decide to punish you one last time- only, this time, the punishment is deadly.

Reanimated Heart (H/T + S) by @doubledeadstudio (???)

Figure out how to build a life from scratch in a strange dimension where the sun never rises and supernatural creatures live freely.

Van Helsing (S) by @vanhelsing-if (Twine)

You are the last of a family of elite slayers. When you get tasked with slaying an ancient Entity in four months, will you remain the indomitable Van Helsing of legends or will this finally be your breaking point?

SLAUGHTER☆SQUAD (H/T) by @harlequinoccult (Twine)

For the most part, you’re a pretty normal mid-20-something year old who lives in a shitty apartment in the city. Well, except for one thing. Your ”Associate” Carter “Dollface” Abernathy. Who is a murderer.

Did we miss your favourite game? Don’t worry, there’s still a chance! Fill out this form and we will include it in our next Halloween issue.

WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU ALL! WHETHER IT'S GOOD OR BAD, OR EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN...

Have something to say? Send us a message titled: Zine Letter!

As we end this issue, we would like to thank: Silly, Oreolek, Remm, Natasha, Emerson, Sera and the awesome anon!

For sending us their game recommendations and highlights!

And as always, huge thanks to all you readers who liked, shared, and commented on last week's issue! What might be tiny actions are huge support and motivators to us!

Thank you for cheering us on this journey!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We now have a Linktree! Accessing all of our links has never been easier.

And see you again next week, even more spooky!

BRIJ, DION, BEX, JEN

WHAT'S NEW IN IF? 2024-ISSUE 26

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Indefinite hiatus

I was toying with writing up a long post about what running this blog has meant to me over the years and why I'm stepping away for the foreseeable future, but that feels too dramatic for what's really just me saying "I'm not going to be on tumblr for at least the rest of the year". So, I'll just say I'm not going to be on tumblr for at least the rest of the year.

Okay, actually I have a bunch more to say, but it'll be under the cut.

Politics sucks. And paying attention to it, even in the reduced way I've been paying attention to it over the last few years, is hard. You end up spending so much of your supposedly free time thinking about things you can't change, getting mad about things you can't change, and getting depressed when the people who can change things just keep going in the wrong direction. Even when good things happen, it's just a matter of a few days before something bad happens once again. And vice versa. It's an endless cycle of hope, despair, resignation. Rinse and repeat, and triple speed that cycle during an election year. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of spending every other year worried about what's going to happen on one day in November. I'm tired of hearing a piece of news and automatically composing a post about it or running through 20 different responses I might give to asks I might get about it in my head.

Everyone I know who doesn't pay attention to politics (or at least doesn't run a social media page dedicated to it) seems to enjoy their live a lot more than I currently do. Which sounds way more dramatic than what's actually going on, which is mainly that I want to get to a place where I just don't care. I want the world and its problems to flow off my back instead of weighing it down. I want to stop thinking about what people on the internet might say about something I haven't even posted yet. And that can't happen while I'm tied to this blog. So I'll be staying away from it for at least the rest of the year.

I did have a good time with this blog. I've met a bunch of really awesome people, some who are sadly no longer with us (RIP Blue), and some who I think will carry on the "fight" way better than I ever did. This isn't an admission of defeat, or pessimism about the election. Even if Trump wins, and I truly think he will if we have a fair election, I still won't be back this year. But I'll still vote and I'll still be proud that my silly little tumblr blog had an impact on some people's lives. I may not have the reach of a Tucker Carlson or a Glenn Beck, but I've gotten a lot of messages from people who said they changed their minds about an issue, or even politics in general, because of things I said, and that counts for something. If you guys take anything away from me, I want it to be this: Even the smallest impact matters. It doesn't matter if you only ever reach one person and then stop, reaching that one person is enough. Changing one vote is enough. Changing one mind is enough.

To all my mutuals, you guys are the best. I truly hope you have wonderful lives and I'm sad I won't get to see your names on my dash everyday anymore. To anyone I've ever followed or reblogged from, I couldn't have had a blog without you, so thank you. Yes, even the leftiod psychos, XD. To everyone else, find your own balance and never give into despair and never listen to people who tell you not to try. Even a failed effort is still more meaningful than sitting back and mocking people for trying to improve even the smallest thing about themselves or the world around them.

I won't be logging back in after I post this, so any messages or asks you send, I won't see. I'll still be active (or as active as I ever am) in my discord, so feel free to join there if you want to. It should still be my pinned post, but if it isn't, I'll edit this with a new invite link.

And that's all I've got to say for now.

[imanbenerrabeh]

what is motivated you to go analog and how did you start? how long has it been since u began your analog lifestyle?

trembling and terrified by this question, because ten thousand words and counting would not suffice to answer.

long story short. I have always been very active on instagram, first in Italy when I was in high school and then here in Ottawa throughout the start of university. my account was a true time lapse between 2017 and 2022, and by active I don't mean influencer-active but as in actually active. I had more than 500 posts of pictures and videos of memories of my cities, my friends, my studies, my family, my outfits - everything on display for an ever increasing amount of followers. I was never known by any means, and god forbid never famous. but in my uni lectures people would often come up to me just to tell me they followed me, they loved my page, and minor sweet comments like that. I was posting to document my days and archive my memories, but also because photography itself is a dear passion of mine. and that way, I met many friends online and got to know wonderful people in real life. so many pigeons, one small stone! until one day, I could not log back in my hefty and precious instagram due to a system error. I am embarrassed to write about this but it's relevant. being logged out from my instagram threw me in a true spiral. I cried and sobbed as if someone died. I mourned it like a loved one. I did the impossible too! I crafted a plan that involved getting in contact with someone in California from Facebook's headquarters and paying real dollar bills just to resolve the issue. After two sleepless weeks without it, I finally could log back in. The very day I had my Instagram back I realized that someday down the line I would have to delete it myself. I knew something about it all was deeply wrong. I could feel it in my gut that there was a problem I would have to face head on sooner or later. And later, I did. Gradually, I realized that it made me uneasy to have so many people know so much about me. I realized that many online friendships were an illusion of closeness, somewhat parasocial. I realized my screen time was absurd, a number in double digits too high to even make sense. And yet, I kept posting and scrolling and texting compulsively even when I started to see that there was no logic behind the thick smoke. So, one day in the fall of last year I deleted it as my only form of social media, telling myself that it would be a trial run of one week. It's now a year and a half later and I have never logged back in. As soon as I archived my instagram, a fog lifted from my brain, a brown noise vanished and everything around and inside me became clear and vivid as if I has just put on my prescription glasses. Ever since that fall, that week in mid-October that turned into years in plural - I have been on a journey of digital minimalism and analog living.

So, what motivated me to do this was a gut feeling telling me that it was unnatural to spend three quarters of my waking day online staring at my phone or texting strangers when I could have been reading or present with my friends in person. I started by deleting social media, then I read "digital minimalism" by Cal Newport. Little by little, I learned that I wanted to keep more of a blog like this one on Tumblr but in a way that is closer to what blogging was in the early days of the internet - to fulfill the sincere photography pull that brought me to use Instagram in the first place. I lost some friends that I only kept up with because of my online presence and that I realized I was not even genuinely close with to begin with, and made new ones in organic ways with which I now have deeper and stronger bonds. I bought an iPod, and a digital camera. I joined a chess club. I started journaling and sketching and reading and writing again, which I not so coincidentally stopped when my obsession with social media took over. Now I sparingly like to make videos on YouTube and I have this blog for me to live out my passions in a slow paced and level headed way, and I don't have everyone in my town liking my stories and creating the delusion of a closeness that is not real - the paradox of a closeness that is nothing but isolating. When I wait for my bus I don't scroll. I just absorb my thoughts and my surroundings. I even start conversations with people in long elevator rides. I feel reconnected with myself and with others. It's been a year and a half since I started this chapter of my life, and in all honesty it was difficult in the beginning to readjust. Now, I cannot think of a better decision I have ever made.

[musicalmoritz]

Uhh kinda stupid question from someone who's technically new to the fandom despite following the manga for a while, where do ya'll find the official au's and their art? Like the Monster nursery one, I've seen them a lot but where does one find the originals?

There are many places to find the AUs!! Fair warning, some of them like Monster Nursery and Ghost Hotel have multiple parts but they’re still easy to find

The easiest place to find them is through the wiki page. Just google the name of the au + “wiki” like I did in the image above, and the first link should take you to a page with the full au.

There’s dialogue and images that will take you through a Choose Your Own Adventure type story, only the options have already been chosen for you. This is probably my favorite place to read them just because it’s all very easy to follow

The next place to check is the @dbs-scans account here on Tumblr! They post all the official art and aus, and I think they might even post the chapters. To find the au you want you could simply Google the name of it and their account should pop up, or you could search their account directly through Tumblr by clicking on their archive or using the search bar feature on their blog

They include all the images from the au with the text that correlates with them translated below. I believe they usually do the aus in full, which is very helpful if you’re trying to find an au like Ghost Hotel with multiple parts. If they don’t have all the parts tho, you can always refer back to the wiki or go to the next source I’m about to show you

Our next resource is the hanakokun.officialarts account on TikTok. Beware, I don’t think they have all the aus, but I know they’ve posted some of them. They get their translations from the aforementioned dbs-scans account which kind of brings this response full circle lol, it’s a small fandom. They’ll post the images with the dialogue in the captions, and you should be able to find them in order all grouped together. You might have to scroll a bit to find some of the older aus. This is one of my favorite resources for keeping up with official TBHK content tho bcuz they post the new chapters in full and it’s an easy way to find official art

You might also be able to read the aus on Twitter if they’re still up but I don’t have Twitter so I couldn’t tell you for sure. At one point I was trying to find the last part of Ghost Hotel and I deadass had to refer to Google Images, sometimes you gotta scrounge around for yourself. But that shouldn’t happen too often because the resources I gave are very reliable!!

Thank you for this ask, and it’s not stupid at all!! I had to ask my TikTok followers where to find the HKOTO au a few months ago when I got a fic request for it. It took me a minute to figure out where to find all the content, which is standard for joining any fandom that has as wide a range for content as TBHK does. I’ve seen BSD fans have similar issues. And by asking that you probably saved a lot of people’s asses who were too embarrassed to ask the same question

[mayor-david-prentiss]

Hello. I love your posts about corto maltese. I was interested in asking: when did you first found out about Hugo Pratt and his works? does the place you live in have easy access to less known comics? Where I live it's basically impossible to find any corto maltese, and shipping is very expensive, so I just wanted to know if it's as hard as anywhere else. I imagine it would be easier for, say, italian readers. Anyway keep doing whatever you do, It's a ton of fun whenever you post something slightly unhinged but very relatable.

Hi!!!!! Thank you for the kind words! To answer the question:

I found out about Corto very Very randomly one night while I was browsing Wikipedia (for an unrelated topic). I'd never been into anything but manga as far as comics go, but his design intrigued me, I read the TV tropes page, and set off to skim the series on readcomicsonline lol that was decently interesting, so I decided to see if there's anything for it on Tumblr, and well, no there wasn't... But I got talking to someone who'd later become a great friend and would sorts guide me through the series, and with the encouragement I bought some issues, and kept going. My area of the world (the Balkans) has a thriving comic collecting culture and decent publishers so, back in 2020, it was easy for me to buy up all the issues from two different publishers (it was a mixed bag bc one was lagging behind).

I've seeing that it's not quite so easy for others, though, which makes me sad... A friend in Russia could only get a few volumes BC they simply didn't publish most of the stories, while another person I talked to that's from Korea got around 5 issues in total... And I've heard that the American publisher is not fond of reprints or maybe uninterested, so they're basically impossible to get. When I went to Italy there were indeed a lot of different Corto editions, I did buy some...

If you don't mind reading online I could provide links to most of the issues in English, or even in Italian if you're not averse to using a screen translator like Google lens! I think it's too sad to pass up the chance to read this series bc of its general (un)availability, so pls do message me if you're interested!!!! I also love talking abt this series!!!!

[radfem-101]

radfem 101 is coming back

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the unannounced break and the nearly three year long silence. In that time, a lot of things happened (obviously) and I was extremely burnt out from radical feminist activism, from seeing the terrible things happening to women day after day and trying to bring attention to them, from the abuse on social media, from everything. I have been suffering with some health issues for a long time, and in the last few years they've got a lot worse. With all this combined, this tumblr was the last thing I had on my mind.

However, I did still write some stuff for it. It never reached what I wanted it to be when I started - I wanted a one-stop-shop for radical feminism beginners, and that included in depth explanations of radical feminist beliefs, which I never got around to. I would really like to finish that at the very least.

I truly believe that this little blog could be something useful and important to people, and I hope that it can reach its potential.

I have plans on adding in more pages that go further in depth about radical feminism, writing essays about pop culture etc. from a radical feminist point of view, and of course, reblogging as much stuff as possible that I believe needs to be seen. I still want to keep this place welcoming to newcomers and people who just want to find out what radical feminism is without joining. I still plan on making sure that this blog shows the truth about radical feminism without getting too complex and nitty-gritty. I still want to make this blog a great resource that radical feminists can use to find sources, citations, and community. I hope this can be something you can introduce your friends to, your sisters to, your mothers to - and show them that radical feminism is not how it's portrayed in the media and society at large.

I hope some of you are still willing to bare with me while I deal with all of this, and while I am inevitably going to need to take breaks again. I'm barely more healthy than I was before, and I still get deeply affected by seeing the things women are put through daily.

Thank you ever so much, everyone who has followed and reblogged and liked and replied to all the posts so far. It means so much to me. I had a lot of things I was going to add to this, but I really struggled to find the words to write. Just know that I'm proud of what we have made here so far, and I fully intend on making it better. There's two posts left in the queue that never got posted, so I'm going to post them now and then there'll be a bit more of a break until I can get new content and hear your suggestions.

If you have any suggestions of things you would like to see on this blog, any particular things you'd like explained or talked about, any content you'd like posted, any new features or additions, please let me know! I am actively seeking out what you want. Literally anything (within the bounds of this blog being a radical feminism explainer blog)

-- @resister-sister

[docfuture]

Partners

     [A new vignette from not long before Princess, as I try to get back into writing.  My Stories page is still up but needs to be updated.  Since there is no table of contents it is no longer easy to find the most recent chapters of Maker's Ark (currently here) or either the start or latest chapter of Princess (here and here), for which I apologize.      There are also severe issues with the new post editor (it is not fit for purpose for posting fiction chapters formatted elsewhere), so I am using the ‘legacy’ editor, after accidentally discovering it wasn’t already on, as it appeared to be. If and when that stops working I will likely no longer be able to post stories here, so if you like my stuff and communicate with anyone at tumblr, let them know that.]

       Journeyman remembers.       A sunny day on an arid plain, smiling at the small group looking past him to the distant building, and the fire.       "...no brighter than the sun," he says, "but--"       Light blooms bright behind him, throwing new shadows as the watchers flinch and squint against the new blaze.       "There we go.  You don't want to look directly at the Sun, either."       "Whoa," says one of the onlookers.  "This is supposed to help?"       "Already has.  That's my partner.  Any biological and chemical problems at the former installation are now gone."       He waves a hand theatrically.       "As is the building, so they won't return.  Nor will the sloppy safety practices and ignored regulations that allowed it to fester.  And no radioactivity has been added, before you ask.  I'm sure there will be arguments about what just happened for years--but they won't be here anymore."       "We've been complaining about that place for years," says a woman.  "No one listened."       "Doc's Database did.  Those complaints are on record.  This will be handy when the owners of a former reasonably foreseeable public hazard try to make a fuss.  You helped."       Another smile.  "And you can help again, any of you on social media.  You can post the no doubt quite spectacular photos from your handcomps and camera phones, and inform everyone that what you witnessed was not, in fact, a nuclear explosion, but a problem departing for good."       A chuckle, and several of them lift phones to join the ones already recording.       There is no warning.  One moment there is nothing. The next...       Flicker is beside him.       A don't-call-her-goddess in indigo blue with silver tracery and a green visor, floating inches above the ground from treading lightly at speed before she lowers her feet to stand as humans do.  Sparks fly from the tracery as the ghosts of plasma wreathing her hands dissipate, leaving the scent of lightning and hot lava, mixed with the tang of vaporized metal.       Her face is calm but not quite impassive.       Journeyman faces her and opens his hand, and they touch fingertips.       "Done," she says.  "Shock soon.  Nothing much."       The warning keeps the group from excessive startlement as the rumbling boom from the shockwave arrives, sound catching up after far faster things have paused.  The glow has already faded, and he doesn't need to look to know the shape of the cloud.       He turns back to the group with another smile.  "Well, I'm afraid the show is over except for some 'after' pictures, so our work here is done.  Take care, folks."       He sweeps off his hat and bows.  Flicker nods slightly, and there is a chorus of thanks.       "Home?" he asks.  The tension was clear when she first appeared.       His magic has been almost superfluous today, his help little enough. Designated human--smiling, talking, making reassuring noises, spreading much needed calm, crafting a comprehensible mental framework for witnesses of the aftermath of marvels performed too fast to see.       "Home," she replies.       A twitch of his hand and he is between places, space twisting as he visualizes a pattern, then untwisting elsewhere.       His ears pop.  Doc's HQ.  The duty room.       He stretches his arm back and opens his hand again.  He feels the partner touch repeated, then she moves, and rests her hands lightly on his shoulders, as she leans her cheek against the back of his head.  He feels an unsteady breath.       Her hands could brush aside steel like tissue, compress coal to diamond, hurl stones to tear the sky asunder, and extend to nearby objects the beyond-normal physics that enabled her body to survive her speed.  It was a profound gesture of trust, and slow-developed comfort, that let her touch with anything but fingertips, for reasons both physical and psychological.       "Bastards," she whispers, not meaning the crowd.  A longer breath.  It is not just onlookers that needed calm, once she slowed down and emotions made themselves known at human speeds.       "Management?" he asks.       "Board of directors.  They knew.  But not provably, unless they try to sue, so they won't."       "Ah.  Want me to adjust the patrol parameters?"       "Already did.  Thanks."       "I hear New Zealand is pretty this time of year, but the way things are going, we'd get mobbed by keas. And they're protected."       A breath of a laugh.  "Heh.  Yeah."       "Anything else I can do?"       "You're doing it already.  Partner..."  A pause. "Database says we should be done for the day, and I should eat.  Food sounds very abstract to me right now, though.  Any suggestions?"       She was both very human and very far from human, and the parts co-existed not always smoothly.  He thought for a moment.       "Chifa?  Peru?  That stir fry over rice you liked last--"       "Yes!  Where?"       He sent a set of GPS coordinates from his phone.       Ten minutes, and they were looking down a Peruvian mountainside from under a portable canopy, the sun low in the western sky.  Eating lomo saltado, as he told her about the takeout server who joked that the 'hungry magician' brought good luck (as well as a generous tip.)       Flicker laughed, her good humor restored.       There were so many things they needed to talk about, eventually.  Boundaries, plans, the dangerously overloaded and ambiguous word 'partner'.       He smiled as Flicker shifted suddenly to talking about something she had 'meant to tell him', technical details of physics behind a new wrinkle in her constant quest to reduce the impact of shockwaves when she needed to move something in a hurry. He could follow along, barely--she knew which areas he understood already and elaborated as needed, her eyes alight.       Partners.       The rest could be dealt with... later.

[adorastarot]

Jungkook & Summer

Hi everyone <3 I am fully back after a crazy week! Thank you so everyone who has been sending in asks, I am hoping to have a really good Tumblr week this week! I wanted to share the latest BTS & You Reading that I did yesterday! If you would like to support me and get a reading please pop over to:

🌹 My Ko-fi

I am currently trying got figure out ways to build a little communication over there too! Maybe doing some more in-depth readings of the members?

Anywaaaaay..

Jungkook & Summer

What kind of relationship would the two of you have?

The world, The emperor, Ace of pentacles, 2 of swords, Ace of swords & Strength

This relationship would feel like an awakening for both of you but especially Jungkook. He has never really shown up in my readings as the Emperor before...but because of this relationship, it seems like he would mature and grow a lot?! He would learn how to be emotionally mature and a lot more reliable too?! I also somehow believe that you would tame his jealous side really well which is probably what would allow him to grow as an individual. I don’t see this relationship being very toxic or even codependent, instead, you would happily put him in his place when he was out of order ahahh the overall feel of the connection is slow and steady but very long-lasting too. Homely!

In the beginning, I see that both of you would be likely to avoid issues or avoid talking about issues because you would both be scared of what the other person would think or feel, but with time you would both truly learn to speak up and face the struggles head-on. There would be a lot of potential for you both to be a power couple. Mentally you would both build each other up and question each other on your differences too. Jungkook would really like to be challenged by you. In terms of the day-to-day relationship…he would really enjoy touching your hair and playing with your hair. He would be the type of person to sit with you on the sofa watching movies and get hold of a piece of your hair and curl it in his fingers for hours on end. Even if you were to lay on him, or lean on him he would try to touch your hair. 

What would they think/feel about you?

Queen of Cups, Death, The hermit in reverse

Jungkook would think of you as someone who wears their heart on their sleeve. Someone who is very in tune with her emotions and who can be a bit psychic at times?! You would probably warn him about people and/or situations but I am not sure he would listen…at times he would make you quite frustrated but at the same time, he would trust you and rely on you a lot because he would think of you as that person that he can go to about anything. You would be the one to get him out of his shell too, I see that at times he can be quite shy however, with you by his side it would really give him the strength that he needed to come out of this shell and enjoy being around people more. He would think of you as the person that turned his world upside down but for the better?! 

The Emperor, 3 of swords, page of wands, 7 of wands & 3 of cups

Jungkook’s feelings towards you would be very secure to start with, but he would also have this tendency to keep all of his feelings in and feel insecure after?! It’s interesting but I feel like his insecurity would come from not knowing what to do with his feelings and even passion towards you. You coming into his life would feel like the beginning of a new era where everything just falls into place. I don’t know, I just see him being, you know how he is like a puppy sometimes? Exactly like that around you at times, just super excited about sharing his life with you and wanting to protect you and defend you from everything. I feel like you two would truly be best friends and look out for each other in that sense. He would also really enjoy taking you out!

Will you ever meet?

Summer!!!!! I actually feel like you may meet Jungkook within the next 6 months?! There will be some sort of opportunity and I feel like luck will be on your side with this one. I almost feel like it’s part of your karma, you’ve been good and done well so you’re being rewarded 

Thank you so much Summer for your lovely words and support! I am super grateful to you <3

[universitypenguin]

Hiya, beautiful ❤️ thank you for dropping chapter 11 so quickly after the tenth 😅 they were very very interesting to read as it is everything you create, you wonderful amazing writer you!! So i have a question if that's okay, i'm probably wrong here cause i'm not so good with the technical terms but would i be right to think that these two chapters were kinda like fillers?! Like they dont further the plot or the story as much as they help reveal certain aspects of the characters' personalities like this new side of Lloyd, the remorseful hunted-by-his-ugly-past side. I only ask cause you are THE smartest writer on here, dear Alice, and everything you write has a structure cause you've mentioned being the Architect kind of writer so i'm just wondering where to place these two chapters on the blueprint?! 

Also, i honestly doubt the stalker is actually Aiden, this is you so there's no way in hell its that easy 😅and the second body is just throwing me off like i know there is a big ass plot twist just waiting to happen but we still have yet to earn it as readers 🤫 

In all earnestness, you are truly gifted when it comes to storytelling, babe ❤️ and we're genuinely blessed that you chose to share your gift with us 💛

When you get a question like this, it’s usually a sign that you’ve done something wrong. There’s a plot error that went awry along the way and snowballed into a larger issue. After a lot of thought I’ve realized what I’ve done. I kept too many B-Stories and the overarching story has suffered for it. 

Firstly, the hardest part of a story is Act II. This is where I'm the weakest as a writer. But what I hear, it's where everyone is the weakest. Keeping too many plot elements is why the story is suddenly looking a bit frazzled. I did my best to smooth over it, but there are definitely too many threads being braided together.

You might be right about some of the last few chapters being filler. My definition of a filler chapter is a scene that if you remove it from the story, doesn’t affect the rest of the plot. Some of the character building scenes in Chapter 10 technically meet that definition. In Chapter 11 there was a lot of information released and two new characters were introduced. 

The root of the problem is that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and now I’m just still chewing, trying to wrangle the plot in a manageable direction. My problem is that I decided to craft three different plots into one story. Plot #1 (the primary storyline) is the romance - Lloyd and Princess’ relationship. Plot #2 is the thriller - Princess’ stalker, and Plot #3 is the mystery - the murder case. 

Blending these three ideas into one chapter isn't easy. It makes the story hard to follow. I think a lot of my readers experienced whiplash from the content on Lloyd’s character development, to the insertion of new information about the case, and then I introduced two new characters to each subplot - one of which I didn’t even show on page. The confounding variables just kept piling on. 

My justification for it not being filler is that we created necessary development on the murder case. Also, Princess is beginning a character arc by choosing how to handle Aiden’s stalking. The piece of Act II that I liked most was Lloyd’s emotional exploration. But since that’s not the pace I started out the story with, dropping back into a slower, more character focused beat, created even more whiplash. 

I wanted to write that chapter to give him context. Lloyd does get a lot of love on Tumblr (particularly among my readers), but he’s rather unsympathetic in the books. I have such a good time writing his dialogue and keeping the side of him that’s a jerk alive, but I also want to show off the soft underbelly he’s hiding. Though, after analyzing my work, I spent far too long on this beat. Here’s the other news: I’m planning on doing more of it, because I’m already this far in and I don't want to change direction mid-stream.

Not to give away too much, but we have probably five more chapters of character backstory, growth, and unexpected twists and turns. I want to take a deep dive into Lloyd and really find out more about who the character is. Even though it doesn’t match what I’ve set up, I consider this version I’m sharing with you to be the first draft of the story. Some of those scenes probably could be cut without affecting the main plot. But at the moment, that’s just not what I want to do. I want to take the long way around and look at the scenery, rather than stick to the high speed, plot focused pace I began with. 

And you’re absolutely right about the turn into what might be considered “filler” territory. My explanation is that I’m going to be spending the first half of Act II explicitly on Lloyd’s character development. Chapters 12 - 15 are all going to be at about this pace.

As for me being an architect, I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am. I’m more of a hybrid between gardener and architect. Do I have a plan? Yes. Can that plan change at any given moment? Absolutely. My method is chaotic. It’s more like deciding that I’d like to travel from Seattle to Miami, but leaving my options for how to get there pretty open. My ideas form more in this way: 

“Well, for sure I want to travel through Salt Lake City, and I’m probably going to hit Pensacola on the way. But should I stop by Panama City, or go directly to Tallahassee? You know, that’s a long way off. Let’s see how I feel when it’s closer.” 

I have a definitive midpoint that I’m writing towards, and until I get that written, I’m not going to apply too much thought to the later chapters. Until I see the midpoint I can’t be sure how they’re going to look. We have to see what the characters react to the trials I’m going to put them through first and how much they develop. 

I hope this is clear, because you’ve asked an excellent question that really made me think over my plot choices. I really appreciate your candor. Taking the time to carefully consider these elements of story, plot, and character is how I grow as a writer. 

Please feel free to message me if you have any other questions! I love talking about this stuff.

[ignus-moth]

I got curious because I know my mother doesn’t have any ID with her maiden name, and wanted to send her something.

This is the article the Twitter OP links, which has no references or citations in regards to the SAVE Act and name changes (beyond literally linking the entire bill you'd have to comb through yourself). It also has a donation link on the page, encouraging people scared about Trump to donate so they can continue reporting. Kinda sleezy.

It does have a quote from the National Organization for Women (NOW) that mentions voter ID laws disproportionately affect women due to their names not matching exactly, and some are turned away. When was this written?

2014. This was a problem before SAVE. So NOW makes no mention of it. This isn't a source for information (at least on SAVE) it's a source agreeing with the article about the general idea.

It was posted 3 days ago, and so far, is the first mention of this in regards to the SAVE act. Everything else is within the past 48 hours.

The only other article I could find was a day ago, and was suspicious it was going to say everything the first one did but angrier, which it was. It used the exact same quote from NOW, even.

It's a derivative of the first article and I wouldn't be surprised if they got "help" from ChatGPT.

Then, I found this, listed as 3 days ago. Perhaps it has additional information. Alright, let’s see-

Ah. It links back to the first article. The one that has no sources. The one that makes claims with nothing to back it up.

So, why don’t I trust this article? Well, first of all, it has profanity in it, and has an overall unprofessional tone. This isn’t meant to inform, but get people angry.

But that wasn’t enough to write it off, so I went to the actual SAVE Act itself. And this is the only thing I could find:

“(5) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government other than an identification described in paragraphs (1) through (4), but only if presented together with one or more of the following:

“(A) A certified birth certificate issued by a State, a unit of local government in a State, or a Tribal government which— “(i) was issued by the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born; “(ii) was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State; “(iii) includes the full name, date of birth, and place of birth of the applicant; “(iv) lists the full names of one or both of the parents of the applicant; “(v) has the signature of an individual who is authorized to sign birth certificates on behalf of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born; “(vi) includes the date that the certificate was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State; and “(vii) has the seal of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government that issued the birth certificate.

Here's a link to that section. There's other options of things you can present instead of a birth certificate.

There is nothing that indicates the name on the birth certificate and presented ID have to match. I bolded the only really relevant part of the quote.

The article used voting and women's suffrage for an eye-catching and scary title. It doesn't mention the problem Twitter OP is talking about until halfway through.

As of right now, not taking into account the SAVE Act, you can register your married name into the voting database and present an ID with your married name at the polls. Here's a USA.gov site that tells you how.

THIS IS NOT TO BLAME THE TUMBLR OP! I don't blame you for trusting an article. I just wanted to clear this up.

ALSO! If I missed anything please let me know :D

Basically republicans want to make it so your ID has to match your birth certificate which affects everyone from trans people to married women to immigrants.

Meanwhile, in GA, they're going to force all ballots to be hand counted, which could make it difficult to meet the deadline to certify the vote, and thus potentially allow them to give the state to Trump regardless of the outcome.

In many states, such as Ohio, Florida, Texas and North Carolina, they've been purging voters from the rolls by the millions.

If voting didn't matter, why are they trying so damn hard to stop us?

[copperbadge]

Hey, Sam, I just received the omnibus from Lulu and, uh, got something a little different than I expected--not the Shivadh books! Harry Potter fic, in fact, but also not yours! I am the unexpected recipient of the entire All the Young Dudes series by MsKingBean89, whoever that is! All dressed up in your dust jacket/binding. I'm letting Lulu know, but I wanted to warn you just in case this wasn't a one-off problem. The fact that it was Sirius/Remus fic but *not yours* made it extra weird.

This is amazing. It took me like an hour to even get my thoughts in order about this.

Before I do anything else, just gonna tag @lobsterbang in this; that's MsKingBean89's tumblr and while I understand she's not on here very often if she does see this hopefully it will amuse her as much as it does me. :D

So, one, if anyone else has encountered this or similar issues, PLEASE report it to Lulu and get your book replaced, these hardbacks are too expensive for this kind of nonsense. On that note, @joycesully I hope they send you a new copy and let you keep the book you've got, because that's hilarious. If they give you flak, please let me know.

Two, did the dust jacket like...fit the book? Because the number of coincidences that would have to happen for you to receive All The Young Dudes in place of the Shivadh Omnibus are numerous. But they BEGIN with "Are they roughly the same size because the omnibus is a giant doorstop." If it's formatted with page numbering, how many pages is the print copy of ATYD, around 600 or so? Is it printed to the size of the Omnibus but with a bunch of blank pages or anything like that? (More on why I ask this in a moment.) Is the dust jacket offset weirdly in any way, like is the spine title not centered on the spine?

Three, I have had this issue with Lulu before. Most notably, the time I ordered a bunch of copies of Charitable Getting and instead got 25 copies of Chicks Dig Guys That Cook, a cookbook by a guy who cooks (and presumably either gets laid a lot or lies about getting laid a lot). But also I once custom-made a hardback copy of Nameless by request, and the book came with a) the Nameless dust jacket, b) the text of Nameless inside it, c) AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT TITLE printed on the spine. How? Who knows.

Four: So there are a couple of ways this could have happened. I'm not sure of the legality of uploading a fanfic to Lulu for printing, but I do know that Lulu doesn't give a shit and won't check, so whether it's legal it is possible to upload a fanfic to Lulu and have them send you a nice hardbound copy of it. Almost certainly nothing will happen as long as you're not selling copies publicly. This is clearly how Lulu got the presumably typeset and formatted file for ATYD. Now, the easiest way this could have happened, since they're not alphabetically close, is if I had uploaded a copy of ATYD and the files got crossed when they printed your copy of The Shivadh Omnibus. I didn't do this; I don't keep paper copies of fanfics and while I've heard ATYD is great, I haven't read it.

The funniest part of all of this, sidebar, is that ATYD is not just a Remus/Sirius fanfic, it's one of the top R/S fanfics ever, possibly one of the most famous fanfics in recent history. It's frequently recommended alongside Stealing Harry as a must-read classic (it's undoubtedly recommended more than Stealing Harry, but they often pop up together). So you didn't just get a random HP fanfic that isn't mine, you got the direct spiritual successor to Stealing Harry.

Anyway, I didn't upload it, but it's possible that someone else was like "Well, as long as I'm going to buy the ominbus, why don't I print myself my favorite fanfic as a book?" The most likely explanation is that someone did this and their order went in around the time yours did, and somehow you got their copy shoved into your dust jacket, while they presumably got two copies of the Omnibus instead of one Omnibus and one ATYD. That's why I'm curious about the dust jacket, because they would have to be similar in size for this mistake to take place. (If one of you out there ordered ATYD and got two Omnibi instead, I'd love to hear from you, feel free to get in touch, I promise not to narc to anyone.)

If that's not the case, it's a series of truly baffling coincidences; someone must have uploaded ATYD, and either the manuscript file got crossed with the Shivadh Omnibus file randomly and that fic got printed inside the covers of my book, or a copy of ATYD was printed around the same time a copy of the Shivadh Omnibus was by coincidence, and their jackets randomly got swapped. The odds of an extremely famous fanfic getting digitally swapped with a non-fanfic by the author of a similarly situated but entirely unaffiliated fanfic are pretty low if there wasn't a third person in the mix somewhere, ordering both at the same time.

I just. For you to order a non-fanfic book by a well-known HP fanfic author, and receive someone else's extremely well-known HP fanfic instead, is fucking bananas. I don't know what to do with that. I feel like I should apply for a job at whatever press Lulu uses to print their books because some of the nonsense they pull behind the scenes is fascinating.

[many-but-one]

TW suicide and self harm mention

Hi! Could you as someone with DID help me better undestand my situation?

I am a singlet but I hear constantly voices in my head that are not my own and I have had hard time trying to understand them. I've been doing so much research of DID to figure out if I could have it but I don't have one childhood trauma but C PTSD from childhood neglect.

I have been able to recognise that one of the voices belong to a young girl who sits alone in a dark room. She only ever says "I want to die. Let me die. Go away. Leave me alone".

Two other voices are just voices without any looks. One of them is a strict and mean caretaker-like person who tells me to mask in public (I have autism) and shouts and screams if I do something wrong / mess up.

The last voice tells me to self harm, cut my limbs off and kill myself.

I don't have an inner world but I can sometimes imagine very vividly the little girl in the dark room and when I was younger I had this place I used to imagine where I am stuck inside a huge cardboard box filled with dust. It was just something that used to reoccur inside my head.

Other than that, I have amnesia only if I'm very tired or stressed out and even then I miss only like 1 hour or less at a time.

Sometimes I dissociate, it used to be regular when I studied (derealization and depersonalization). Now it's like once a week or when I see something triggering from my childhood.

And I only have had the little girl speaking through my mouth. It's like having tics where I can't control myself and she always says "Let me die" or something like that.

Does this sound like a DID to you? Because I don't know how to explain this. I have no idea why I keep hearing those voices. I am seeing a psychiatrist but atm we are trying to get me autism diagnosis.

Heavy sigh.

Okay, anon. I’m sorry it has to be this post that makes me snap, but I’m gonna have to do it to ya. This goes to every anon that does this to OSDDID accounts. I see this absolutely everywhere on a lot of OSDDID folks’ pages, especially the folks who are more “well known” in the tumblr community. (Not saying I’m one of them but I do get these messages very VERY often, and I see them everywhere.)

Anons who are having a mental health issue, please fucking STOP sending anon messages to OSDDID accounts asking “does me doing x, y, z mean that I have DID?” Or “I show all these signs of DID do I have it?” Like. I understand that you’re confused. I understand you need help. But if you are hearing voices telling you to fucking kill yourself, you NEED to see a mental health professional, not ask a rando on tumblr if you have an EXTREMELY COMPLEX DISORDER that can literally takes YEARS to diagnose in someone. Like…I am fully okay with self dx with adequate research. If you think that’s what you have, fucking great. Work on coping skills. If you find out later you don’t have it? Great. Now you can move on and try and figure out what’s going on. I am fully aware not everyone has access to good mental health care. I am aware that mental health specialists are often absolutely fucking shitty.

HOWEVER!

STOP. MESSAGING. RANDOM. TUMBLR. CREATORS. ASKING. IF. YOU. HAVE. A. COMPLEX. DISSOCIATIVE. DISORDER.

Do I make myself clear, anons? This goes to every single one of you. I generally don’t answer and delete a solid 3/4ths of you because half the time your rambling makes absolutely no sense and I’m very sorry but I really don’t care. I don’t know who the hell you are. My brain is split into shards and I’m working on trying to survive the fucking day here. I’m working on how to live without numbing myself to the world. I do not have time to try and join the circle-jerk of validation that y’all want from me.

If you wanna DM me and let me get to know you more, we can discuss things further. With more nuance. We can have an actual discussion. I would absolutely LOVE that. Because maybe I can point you into a direction of good coping skills, good resources, and places to find a sense of community that isn’t tumblr dot com. I’d love to get to know you and help you. But if you come at me in my inbox with anon as your name asking me to validate your experiences with barely a paragraph worth of information, that’s not gonna fucking happen.

What answer are you looking for, anon? Do you want me to say “Yep! Sounds like DID to me!” Because I am not a professional and if I were to be so quick to hand out validation cards because you would feel better if a random tumblr account agreed with you, I doubt that would actually help you in ANY way. Yes, validation feels good and it feels good to be seen and heard but I don’t fucking know you and you’ve given me what sounds like suicidal voices in your head and some possibly inner world activity. I hate to break it to you, but CDDs are a LOT more than just alters and voices and an inner world. It’s basically C-PTSD on steroids and if you don’t show any signs of C-PTSD then you might be looking in the wrong direction. But of course how am I to know that because I don’t know you and you can’t possibly explain your entire life story in a fucking tumblr ask. It sounds like you already know what you’re experiencing, you just explained it very plainly to me. If you have done adequate research and you think you have a CDD, then for the love of god find a professional to work with you and start learning coping skills related to trauma and dissociation.

I am not your therapist. I am not going to give you the validation you seek. If you want a dx, find a therapist that works in trauma and dissociation.

I know this is coming off very aggressive but MAN this is so common and it really needs to fucking stop. ESPECIALLY sending triggering info to a random tumblr user. The “TW suicide and self harm” ain’t gonna do shit. (re: the part where you are talking about voices telling you to cut off your limbs and kill yourself.) I can handle those conversations just fine but not all creators can and it’s fucked that you and all the gazillion anons trauma dumping to random OSDDID tumblr users think that this is just okay?? The AUDACITY my dudes. I understand you’re probably having a rough ass time right now but you have absolutely no idea how my day has been, how my week has been, how my life has been. You get a tiny snapshot of what I choose to share here. Which trust me, is a tiny TINY little snapshot of the reality of my condition. How would you feel if your trauma dump triggered out one of my suicidal parts and killed me? Or severely harmed me? Y’all (all anons, not just you) desperately need to fucking understand that OSDDID systems are traumatized as FUCK and things like that can literally get us killed. It’s not a game. I know some plural folks online make it seem fun, but anon as you seem to understand, it’s very scary having parts inside that want you dead. These parts can take control of my body and do just that. They’ve tried before.

All anons out there, please have some fucking decency and respect for OSDDID creators out there. We are not your therapist, we’re just trying to live our fucking lives and sometimes make content on the side.

Rant over. I hate doing shit like this but I am so over it and y’all need to fucking know.

-Blurry

[ryssbelle]

Branching Timeline 2

I am once again experiencing brainrot, also before I say anything else, I should mention the quality goes down a bit as the pages go on, that’s because I occasionally have issues with my wrist and it started to flare up near the end so the art quality said good bye and left with the kids. 

again this brain rot is the result of these two @attllhak and @tortilla-of-courage​

A small guide in no particular order:

Part 1_ Part 2_ Part 3 (You are here!)_ Part 4

Oops

I shouldn’t have promised (Occurs before parts 1-3)

There are spoilers for skyward sword here, also a little warning there is a major (technically minor cuz I don’t put much detail into it) injury in this.

To help avoid spoilers and stuff Im gonna keep hiding the images under the read more, also this part does include some of my terrible writing, as like I said before my wrist failed and I had 4 more panels planned that I couldn’t do, so supplemented with writing and got a bit more in than what would’ve been in the panels. 

Hope you enjoy!

Edit: I organized this post and double checked it 100 times, but tumblr likes to mess things up, if you see anything that may be out of order please lmk, I've found 4 already that werent there before I posted sjdjd

Injury is seen here in a close up! Transcript if you don’t want to see it:

Impa: Your Grace

Zelda: Please, Don’t call me that. How is he?

Impa: Ah- The Old woman did what she could but his injury is deeper than we first thought... Whatever Ghirahim did is preventing it from healing properly. The waters from the skyview temple spring could help, but he’s in no condition to make the trip. I can’t leave him unguarded either...

Now for my terrible writing lol: 

____________________

“This shaking… I fear the seal has been broken,” The Ancient One spoke as soon as Zelda reappeared into the main room, “I suspected it may react to your lingering presence Your Grace, but I never imagined the seal would break so quickly,” Zelda had to stop herself from grimacing, that title has brought nothing but misfortune. “Zelda, there will be time to explain later. Right now, you must hurry to the bottom of the pit outside.” Zelda gave a quick nod in response, shuffling down the set of stairs planning to break into a sprint out the doors when she was stopped by Groose, who’d gone from the quivering mess he was before to what could only be described as a more composed version of a quivering mess. 

He gripped her arm tighter than she assumed he meant to, she could feel his hand shaking as it clung to her.

“You can’t go out there, the old grannie said it’s after you! It’ll,” Groose thought for a moment, he didn’t really know what was out there, other than it was most likely, definitely terrifying, “Well I don’t know!” He spat, “But whatever it is it can’t be good!” He said pulling her back gently, only for her to violently wrench her arm from his hands.

“Who’s going to do it then?!” She practically screamed, anger bubbling inside her spilling over from the encounter with Ghirahim, from her failure to protect Link. From starting this whole mess in the first place. “The only other person who could is in the other room dying!” She cried, taking the sword from her back and flashing it to the knight in training, he backed away from her, raising his arms a bit as if preparing to defend himself from her wrath. 

“So unless you plan to go out there and stop it I suggest you stand aside and let me take care of it,” She spat, Groose surrendered, there was no way he could win this, she was right. He couldn’t go out there to stop whatever was about to be unleashed, he crumbled the second he set foot on the surface. 

Zelda wasted no time charging out of the Temple and down the pit, using her sail cloth to soften her falls. The second she landed at the center of the pit the seal within it began to glow, shifting with shades of red as a black smoke tore its way from the ground. 

A large dark scaled beast formed from the smoke, it’s scales feathered down its entire body, shining red when struck by the light. It was a lot taller than Zelda expected then again she really didn’t know what to expect, the beast was larger than the temple by a lot she estimated. The beast had no arms, but did have short legs which sported strange jiggly white toes, Zelda would have had the mind to be weirded out by that if the beast hadn’t reared it’s head down to roar in her face, showing off 3 rows of terrifyingly sharp teeth. She was almost certain it was going to devour her when it straightened up, taking a few steps forward.

“I knew it. The seal has given way!” The Ancient one called down, “I’ll explain later, but now is the time for action. We must keep that beast from escaping that pit! It must not reach the temple!”

All Zelda could think about the moment she mentioned the temple was Link, if this thing got up there… She readied herself for battle, only nodding in response to the woman’s words, though it was more for herself as she was sure the woman couldn’t see her.

Even if she could she didn’t care, all she cared about was stopping this thing from getting to the temple, getting to her friends. 

Getting to Link..

She wouldn’t fail him again.

|

Defeating the beast was easier than she thought it would be, as was sealing it away again, despite all that it was still an overall terrifying experience she knew would haunt her for years to come. Pushing those thoughts aside, however, she took a few deep breaths, readying herself to head straight for the skyview temple when she was met by the Ancient One.

“Though the Imprisoned had only just begun to awaken and break it’s bonds, I’m impressed you were able to restore the seal keeping it captive, of course it was not originally your duty to do so,” The Ancient one tacked the last part on most likely unintentionally, the pit of guilt already settled in Zelda’s stomach grew a bit at the comment, “Unfortunately,” The Ancient One continued, “You have only succeeded in buying us a little more time in which to act, the behemoth you beat back into confinement is a horror of unspeakable power,”

‘Could’ve fooled me,’ Zelda thought to herself, glancing back at the sealing spike behind her, the old woman's voice bringing her attention back to the conversation at hand. 

“Judging by what I saw, I would not be surprised if the seal gave way again soon,” Zelda mentally kicked herself, they didn’t have the time to waste on this thing, especially given the condition of her best friend. She ran a hand across her face turning towards the slope leading back up the temple.

“Then I need to start moving,” She spoke interrupting the Ancient One who herself had begun to speak again, she raised a hand in a motion of apology, “If we’re going to make and enact a new plan we need Link, whatever you need me to do can be done when I return, but for now I need you to seal up the temple, every inch of it, I don’t want anything getting in there until I get back.” Zelda ordered not waiting for a response before rushing off letting the vents take her back up the spiral. She realized her tone and actions were a bit rude, but judging by not only the Ancient One’s words, but the condition Link was currently in, she didn’t have time for social niceties, and she definitely didn’t have time to feel bad for being rude.

She could do that later, once Link was back on his feet..

[rurpleplayssims]

Check In Tag

I was tagged by @curiousb! 🥰

Thank you for the tag, I was intrigued by this one when I spotted it doing the rounds. I’m going to put my answers under a the Keep Reading belt as I’ve decided to write a novel again! 🤣📝

Why did you choose your URL?

A couple of schoolfriends called me Rurple when I was in my teenage years because I used to dye my hair a reddy purple colour (hence Rurple, but it’s better than Pred! 🤣) I saw other Simmers using the ‘playsSims’ tagline and I didn’t have any other ideas. I’m glad I used it as I can now use the addition for my CC Finds blog which is RurpleFindsCC.

How long have you been on Tumblr?

RurplePlaysSims has been on Tumblr since February 2021. 

My RurpleFindsCC blog has been on here since I decided to separate my CC from my main blog which I'm a lot happier about, which I’ve done since September 2021. 

I’ve got another blog on here which I’ve had for a few years but hardly ever use (not sure I know the username and password..) but that was mostly to reblog BBC Sherlock memes and funny things. 

Do you have a queue tag?

See now, I’m not quite sure what this means. I am guilty of having quite a long queue (it’s 76 posts long atm!) but is this to do with the mass post editor to move them to the queue? If so, I don’t use it. 

Anything thing that is an actual CQ post and therefore part of the story, gets written up and then moved to the queue chronologically. That’s why I got so annoyed when Tumblr lost three of my posts a few months ago because when they were retrieved, I had to post them out of sync. 

I made the tags so because then it’s easier for someone to read the entire story (if they wanted to, that is some undertaking with over 1500 posts!) by just clicking the ‘Next Page’ button.

Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I’m not quite sure. I think I was bored one day and stumbled across some TS2 stories and I fell in love with them. I think it was @holleyberry’s Dossanina story which first introduced Sim stories taken with screenshots to me. 

I was already very familiar with TS2 machinima and series on YouTube as I once tried a go at making some (They are so embarrassing to watch back now as my spelling was AWFUL and I clearly had no access to a spellchecker!) I think those videos are still live and you’re welcome to laugh at my attempts of a riveting story.🤣 Just PLEASE do not judge my ability on them! 🙈 I was 13/14 years old when I was making these. I had to borrow my parent’s computer, which was a very old Windows XP and I was restricted in when I could play Sims. So the videos were very...cringe for me to watch them back. Seriously, they were awful. You can find them for yourself, no way am I tagging them here! 🙈🙈🙈

My game was so poorly organised back then, from my custom content hoarding and my Downloads folder was a DISGRACE. Nothing like the strict regime I have nowadays. 

Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

Well it was originally a picture of myself but  some people made comments on how nice I look. I am AWFUL with appearance-related compliments. 🙈 It could’ve been worse I know but that’s just how I am.

So I changed it to one of the pictures I’d done with Althea Campbell, the founder from my BaCC in this challenge. 

I like how people only know me on here as a creator and who likes to issue praise where it is well deserved. I know how much people’s love of your craft/story will motivate you to do more. I know that I’d have stopped CQ ages ago if people didn’t care about it. 

As you’d see (if you’re ruthless in tracking them down!) with my TS2 attempts, nobody watched them so I gave up with no motivation to carry on, hone my craft and build a skill. 

I love to write (as the length of this post clearly says!) and I love how most of you only know me via my story and the comments I leave. 

I love that, whilst my family know I have a blog and a story on it, they won’t read it or leave comments. I’m cool with that. It gives me more freedom to write because I’m then not worried that if I write that a character does something, the people who know me might wonder if I’ve done that thing in the series. Hopefully that makes sense.

Why did you choose your header?

I chose the header after I decided to make my main blog strictly for the story and behind the scenes content for Campbell Quay BaCC. So I took a (then) current picture of the neighbourhood. 

I am never changing it as it shows how empty my neighbourhood was back then compared to now. 

What’s your post with the most notes?

Apparently, according to Tumblr Top, it is this post which was a reblog of the original post for me completing Campbell University (154 notes). 

In second place, which still gets likes and reblogs to this day, is this one where I recommend people to read the Dossanina  story I mentioned above (114 notes). 

How many mutuals do you have?

Is that when you follow a blog that follows you back? How the hell do you check this?! 🤣 

I know it’s quite a lot as whoever follows me, if they post Sims content (preferably TS2) I will nearly always follow them back in thanks. 

How many followers do you have?

I have 376 followers.

How many people do you follow?

I follow 797 blogs.

Have you ever made a shitpost?

Yes! 🤣 Just follow ‘random Jess note’ tag on my blog and you’ll see some. Beware of the ones that have ‘RANT��� as well. 

How often do you use Tumblr each day?

I’d use it in my sleep if I could. 🤣 

I have had an active queue for months now so even if I’m not looking at the site on my app or computer, I still get notifications of blogs I follow and if people leave likes or replies in my posts. 

If I’m home for the day and have nothing planned, I’m on Tumblr, either editing some new posts or backing up my story on another site.

More information soon when I get most of the story inputted. It’s taking FORVER as I have to manually copy and paste the text and pictures individually but I’m scared that my blog might be accidently(?) deleted like some Simmers have of late. 

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

Not that I am aware of, I don’t like fights of any kind. 

I like to keep the peace. If I’ve pissed any of you off, for goodness sake tell me so I can explain or apologise! 

How do you feel about ‘You need to reblog this’ posts?

It’s a combination of tempting fate and “With all due respect, don’t tell me what to do.” 

But, in special circumstances I will reblog without question. But as a rule, I like to keep my blog for just my story content. 

Do you like tag games?

Do you really think I wrote all this out because I didn’t want to? 🤣 

I think I’ve completed all games and challenges that people have tagged me in thus far. 

Do you like ask games?

Did you not read the previous answer? Ask away. 

I try my best with WCIFs but I’m not perfect.

Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous?

Well I mostly see Simblr-Tumblr and in my eyes they are the following:

@deedee-sims

@plumbtales

@lesyasun

@linacheries

@veranka-downloads

@pixeldolly

@fanseelamb

@mdpthatsme and so many more!

Do you have a crush on a mutual?

No, but every Simmer I meet on Tumblr are always very kind and supportive which means the world to me.

I’m going to tag anyone who wants to have a go! 🥰📝

[synesindri]

Survey Writing Guide: Fandom Edition

Sooo! People are collecting survey data on fandom! Makes sense — fandom is an interesting population to study, and getting data on attitudes/behaviors/etc is a great way to try to find out the truth about popular points of contention about media. To get unbiased, meaningful data, though, you’ll want to make sure your survey is in good shape. This is a guide to try to help you do that.

I am assuming, if you are reading this, that you want your survey to be unbiased and interpretable, sampling from as many viewpoints as possible and getting data on opinions you might agree and disagree with. In other words, I am assuming that you want to do your fandom research in good faith. If that is not why you are making a fandom survey, then you can ignore this whole post. I would ask you to reconsider running a bad-faith fandom survey, but I can’t stop you. But just know that my assumption is that you’re out here in the honest pursuit of truth.

I’m not accusing a survey of being done in bad faith if it doesn’t follow my suggestions. I also realize most people are conducting these surveys in their spare time because they’re passionate & curious, not for the purpose of serious publication or whatever. I’m not telling you that you have to follow all or even any of the advice here. Do what you feel good about doing. Fandom should be fun! 

This guide is only about surveys themselves, and will not help you get a good sample of your fandom. In other words, none of this advice will make sure your survey reaches obscure corners of your fandom, insular communities you aren’t in, or casual fans. A good survey is important, but it’s only one part of getting accurate data, and participation recruitment is a whole other thing. 

This is also only intended to help with survey setup, not analysis or results reporting. You can write a great, unbiased, easy to understand survey, and still present your results in a way that is biased/doesn’t include good information/is hard to understand. Furthermore, once your results are public, they’re out of your hands: you might be well-meaning, but please keep in mind that some people might use your data to make unfair or incorrect assumptions about others, support biased arguments, or generally behave unpleasantly. That’s just part of survey work; don’t let it stop you, but don’t be surprised if/when it happens.

Now, onto the survey tips ~

Think about how to structure your questions

Use multiple choice answers/avoid free response answers as much as possible. This is going to be really helpful for you when it’s time to analyze your data: it’s so much easier to analyze responses that are just clicks of a box than responses that require you to read someone’s long explanation of an opinion and try to figure out what they mean. It also makes answering easier on your participants: clicking a box is a lot easier for them than writing out what they think. Giving an option for them to expand on their answer in a free response text box is great, but try to capture as many possible responses as you can in multiple choice questions.

Consider: should participants be able to give more than one response per question? A good rule of thumb for this is if different responses to a question are mutually exclusive or not: if they are mutually exclusive, only give people the option of clicking one box; if they’re not, let them choose as many as they want. For example, if you want to know somebody’s ONE favorite season of a show, only let them choose one season. If you want to know ALL the seasons they like, give them the option to choose multiple.

Only include one question per question 

A LOT of surveys ask questions that are actually several questions in one, and that makes answering them difficult! For example, you might THINK you’re only asking one thing if you say “Are you introverted or shy?” as a yes/no question, but that is actually two questions: some people are introverted but not shy; some people are shy but not introverted; some people are both introverted and shy, and some people are neither. People who respond “yes” might mean they are one or the other or both, and people who respond “no” might mean they are one or the other or neither — and you’ll have no way of knowing, because your question was too ambiguous.

If you’re asking a question about a nuanced topic, make sure your question and possible responses are nuanced too

People in fandom have a lot of complex views, and giving them only a black-and-white way to tell you about those views means you will miss out on nuance and get inaccurate results. If you are wondering about opinions on a controversial pairing, asking “Do you think it’s okay to ship Reylo?” (for example) and only letting people respond yes or no is not going to capture the range of opinions that exist on Reylo. If you can include multiple answer boxes for people to click, do that! 

Analyzing free response data (where people can write their own answer) is hard on you, as the survey writer, and people might not feel like explaining their opinions. Definitely include a free response box if you want, but also provide a lot of options for responses. 

The more controversial the topic you’re asking about, the more nuance you should let your participants give in their responses. People in fandom often have very strong and very complex opinions about certain issues; you’ll want to make sure not to flatten those opinions too much, while still keeping them simple enough to analyze. Asking “do you enjoy reading fluff?” is (probably) not going to be too complicated, and you’ll likely be fine giving people 2-3 response options (yes/always, sometimes, no/never). But you should give a lot more response options if you’re asking “is it ever acceptable to ship two siblings together?”: some people will be fine with “yes, always” or “no, never,” but a LOT of people are going to want to specify conditions like “only if they are not blood relatives” or “only if it is framed as being bad” or “it’s acceptable sometimes but I personally avoid it,” etc. Make sure people without clear-cut opinions have the ability to give you their opinions too.

Use simple, clear language

Use language that is as simple and precise as possible. Keep questions short when you can. Avoid using a lot of slang and regional idioms: people come from all over the place in fandom, and might not know what you mean. People also have a lot of different reading levels: you want to make sure most of your participants can understand what you’re asking them. 

There are some terms you can assume everyone in your sample will know, and some that you can’t: it’s up to you to figure out which terms are which. For example, most people in tumblr fandom space will understand what a ship is. They might not know what “IC” means though, so you might need to write it out as “in character.” Further, pretty much everyone in the MCU fandom might know what “Stucky” is, but not as many will know what “Coulwhip” is. You can make these kinds of technical terms easier for people to understand by just writing out all abbreviations and writing all pairings in the Name/Name format.

Use neutral language and keep your personal opinions out of it

Avoid inserting your own opinions into your survey, even if you expect that almost everyone participating will agree with you. Even “obvious” jokes won’t read as jokes to everyone; you might upset/offend/put off some group of participants disproportionately such that they won’t complete the survey, and you’ll miss a chunk of data you want. This is a problem, because say, for example, you really want to know if people’s favorite Supernatural ship has any correlation to fans’ personality traits — but if you poked fun at Dean somewhere else in your survey in a way that made Dean fans click off the page, then you’re going to lose a lot of Dean fan data that it would have been really useful for you to have, since Dean is a very popular character to ship with a lot of other characters. 

A good-faith survey is also not the place to moralize. Fandom can be a very polarized place; you are not going to be able to predict which things you ask about are going to be morally objectionable to your participants, and if they’re going to agree with your moral judgments. Your results might surprise you! A survey where you hope to get accurate data is not the place to defend a problematic character you like or to call some group of shippers gross. Your best bet for not causing issues is to include stuff that’s controversial and to be as neutral about it as possible — for example, if you are asking about ships people like, include every reasonably popular ship (potentially excluding rarepairs/extreme rarepairs just because it’s hard to include all of those), even the ones you hate/think are harmful/whatever, and don’t comment on the goodness or badness of any of them. 

Avoid “leading” questions to avoid bias

If you say, “Do you love this awesome TV show?” that’s going to be awkward to respond to for everyone whose answer is anything other than “yes.” Something like “What is your opinion of this TV show?” (with responses like: I love it, I like it, I have mixed feelings about it, I am neutral toward it, I dislike it, and I hate it) will give you a better sense of people’s genuine thoughts.

Select your multiple choice options thoughtfully

Be as egalitarian as possible in the options you provide to your fandom-specific questions that aren’t free response. If you leave out a major character on a list of favorite characters, for example, your participants are going to wonder why you did that — and you might not get data about that character, especially if you don’t include a free response option. 

Avoid bias in your multiple choice answer options

If you ask people for their favorite and least favorite [something], make sure the list of [something] options for both of those questions is identical. For example, if you’re asking about people’s most liked and most disliked ships, make sure the list of ships you include for both questions is the same. Including Sylvie/Loki only on the “ship you most dislike” but not the “ship you most like” list might seem like a reasonable move to you if you don’t know anybody who (openly) likes Sylvie/Loki, but doing that will bias responses and make your data inaccurate. Some people will stop filling out the survey, some people who like Sylkie just won’t want to bother filling in the blank, some people might forget that they like Sylkie unless it’s right in front of their eyes as one of the response options, some people will feel judged and so they won’t answer your survey honestly, etc. 

Follow common best practices advice for demographic information

Collecting information on respondents’ ages, genders, race/ethnicity, employment status, education history, etc is, luckily, very common, so there are a lot of standard questions about those things. I’ll just go ahead and list what I sometimes collect in my own surveys:

Age: for anonymous fandom surveys, I suggest using age groups (under 13, 13-18, 19-25, 26-35, etc) instead of asking people for their precise ages. Just make sure to include all possible age brackets. For example, don’t assume everyone in fandom is under 50.

Gender: unless you want a lot of nuance in your responses, it’s typically enough to include a list like: man/boy or male, woman/girl or female, nonbinary, genderfluid or bigender, and other. If you are interested in trans people specifically, I suggest asking that in a separate question (like: “Do you identify as transgender?”), rather than including binary trans identities in addition to binary cis identities in the same question. The exception to this is if you are including a very long list of gender options.

Race/ethnicity: (disclaimer that most of the data I collect comes from the US, so my best practices are most suited to that population. I welcome any feedback about the best way to ask about this for an international and/or non-US population.) I typically ask something like: “Which category best describes you?” and then give the options: American Indian or Native Alaskan, Asian, Black, Hispanic or Latinx, Middle Eastern or North African, Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian, White, and other. Ideally, this list should allow multiple responses, so that multiracial/multiethnic people can give accurate reports.

Employment status: “What is your employment status?” with responses: employed full time, employed part-time, unemployed and looking for work, unemployed and not looking for work, self-employed, homemaker, student, and retired. If possible, let this be multiple choice, so that, for example, people who are students AND work can select both applicable options.

Education level: “What is your highest level of education?” with responses: some high school, high school diploma or equivalent, some college, college degree, some graduate education, Master’s degree, Doctorate degree, professional degree (e.g. M.D., J.D., M.Div, etc) 

Sexual orientation: like with gender, you probably don’t need to provide a long, comprehensive list unless your survey is about sexual orientation specifically. Something like the following is probably enough to cover most of your respondents: “What is your sexual orientation?” with responses: straight/heterosexual, gay/lesbian/homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, and other. 

Other questions: just try to make sure you are providing response options that will cover the majority of your participants, and include an “other” option if you’re not sure you’ve covered everything. There are a fair number of basic best practices documents for common demographics questions that you can find through Google, so if you’re not sure how to ask something, give it a quick search. You can also ask people you know who might know more about some specific demographic quality than you do to weigh in!

That’s it for now! I hope you find this helpful, either in writing your own surveys, or in evaluating surveys you are participating in!