#i got blocked by a mutual over this. it was like on some reddit forums being cringe and saying shit like 'baby batter'

[atopvisenyashill]

absolutely not relevant but know yall will understand someone got outed in my rtv fandom for having some kinda weird kinks and now everyone is discoursing about how incest kinks are immoral and i'm out here like

[mistprints]

Over on Reddit, there is this massive “bookmarks are for the readers” movement defending readers and claiming “well the author shouldn’t have looked if they didn’t want their little feelings hurt, grow a spine” type of attitudes and like. That does not mean you get to put all your rude comments in public bookmark. People are writing this stuff for FREE this isn’t a book you bought. By all means you’re allowed to have your opinions and complain among your private group of friends about it all you like, but why do you need to let the author know that? This is how we lose authors in fandoms as they take their works with them.

You don’t have to have only gushing positive feelings about the fic. But don’t go out of your way to be rude to a probably hobbyist writer who just makes this stuff for fun and didn’t ask for your opinion on their project. AO3 even had a blocking/muting feature now, you can literally mute an author whose works you don’t like and they won’t ever show up in your results again!

I don’t know how we got to this point in fandom where it writers and readers are these separate clubs that rarely interact? It’s like this:

You don’t owe the author a comment anymore than you owe someone a “bless you” when they sneeze but it’s a nice thing to do, is all. And that’s what so many authors are hoping for when they share, curious about what people liked or thought. And especially on fics more than 2 years old, I think people believe they shouldn’t comment??

Fanfiction websites are archives lost to time, I believe it’s always okay to comment no matter how old the fic is, if you so choose. I guarantee it’ll make the author’s day! It’s not like on Instagram or TikTok or other social media where there’s some stigma about commenting on old posts. This is different. Like Tumblr.

(One of my fics from 2019 is in a popular fandom and has 1,100+ kudos and it got 18 comment threads. Half of which were from my personal friends in the fandom supporting me ^^’ I’m not particularly pressed about comments but that was just disheartening).

Fandom used to be more about community and starting conversations! Ask blogs had dozens of interactions, events even in small fandoms had a nice amount showing up. We seem more divided and to ourselves these days. I miss being able to go on forums and RP and talk about an author’s latest fic and casually talk TO the author in whatever mutual group we had— that’s for authors, fanartists, editors, all creators in fandom spaces— they aren’t on some pedestal like influencers, they’re fellow fans who just wanted to create something for us. And being a reader, someone gushing or sharing that fanart or fic or video they liked to much for others to find the creator— you guys are so important and loved too. You give creators the fuel to want to make more, or at least have the power to. Trust me, that’s all it would take to stop fandoms from dying out— a few comments and having that community. It’s not impossible to get back.

Been hearing this is a problem again. Don't be a dick in bookmarks, folks. And yes while I made this image, I'm giving free reign. Take it. Spread it far and wide. Because I'm hearing that some readers don't know that their bookmarks are visible.

[levyfiles]

I want to start a shyan blog but I’m so scared because I don’t know how Shane and Ryan actually feel about it which makes me nervoussssssss help

Ohhh boy, brace yourself, nonnyhunny. I’ve got some word vomit for ya

To start off with, I just want anyone and everyone who is currently new to navigating this terrain we call the internet to know one thing and that is this one very important concept. Embrace your own insignificance! The internet is a big place. I once read a post on here that encouraged new users to think of Tumblr itself like you’re walking into a Walmart. You’re not here to make friends and you’re not here to shop for everyone else; you’re filling your own cart with the things you need and like and if someone comes along and takes a long good look at the things in your cart and says, “WOAH there, eating trans fats is unhealthy for you! I never eat trans fats because of a big list of reasons! Stop buying trans fats!!” you’re gonna be both puzzled and annoyed because it’s your cart, your Walmart experience; why the hell do they care what you’re gonna get?

However! I get it, the internet is now comprised of six different websites/apps and if you’re on there, there is no way to avoid or curate a completely ideal sense that you’ve made a space that’s all your own. There are going to be people who disagree with you, people who decide they don’t like what you do, but ultimately, in the midst of all that, you’re going to find people who feel the same in whatever regard you express yourself and that’s why it’s important to just express yourself because otherwise you’re going to develop a lot of disingenuous connections with people who would likely try to ruin your life if you disagree with them on some subject or other.

Now with that whole disclaimer in mind, I also understand where you’re coming from. Putting myself in the shoes of someone just trying to participate in a new fandom where there is a lot of contention among the masses about the rights and wrongs of RPF and whether the concept fits in with a philosophical debate about human nature and the way we interact with each other, witness each other’s journeys. That’s simply it, however; it’s an ongoing debate and where philosophy and debate are concerned, I always hold the belief that an individual’s right to ground themselves and say “These are the principles I wish to abide by” is sacred and ultimately, no amount of anonymous hatred or shrieking messages of outrage is gonna change that until you yourself decide that the principle isn’t working for you personally. My principle is that it’s fiction; an AU to explore as valid and sweet to me as demon!Shane headcanons are, but moreso because I identify with queer love stories and friendships forged by strangely deep similarities and complementing souls. I also love personalities like theirs, love the idea of said friendship and what it would bring to a story about two human beings who meet by happenstance and end up building something world-changing together. Still, because I am just a writer and a consumer of media, that’s the nicest thing I can give myself, a fictional account of these things while witnessing the real version happen in parallel. I get to celebrate in the overlap of similarities the real world and my fictional account take and watch it inspire my friends and mutuals to build their own universes and it’s beautiful. 

With that point being made, I also understand the reason a lot of people are nervous about being open about shipping. The backlash from a bunch of strangers seems to take on a note that would make even the nicest person sound like a puritan about to hold some extravagant witch trials. Nothing more interesting than a person claiming to do good in the world using words like “exterminate” “cleanse” or my personal favourite “purge”. I’ve read rumours being spread about shippers that take on their own life especially because it’s human nature to let other people handle the research; it’s human nature to just take a believable narrative at face value. One rumour being that shippers of this fandom write stories where we kill off Shane and Ryan’s significant others. Myself and my friends who are avid readers of the ao3 tag know that that hasn’t been the case since 2016/17 and by all accounts, I have yet to find the fic where this happens (barring a tinsworth fic I’ve only heard about). Mind you, not many of us check out Wattpad but even there it’s more self-insert friendly with themes I can’t even stomach. 

Which leads me to the last point and the main reason you sent this ask, I’m assuming. Ryan and Shane’s personal thoughts on the issue. Now, it behooves me to supply screenshots and proof when I make a claim but let’s consider if instead from the perspective of two adult men who have operated online far longer than a lot of their audience. Given that I am the same age as Shane, I know what the internet used to look like and how far it’s come and RPF is not a brand new thing neither did it pop up out of nowhere when One Direction debuted. And just like fanfiction in and of itself had its pushback from media because of its demographic and absolutely because of its queer-leanings, RPF appears to get a lot of that same energy, but it’s not an inherently toxic past time. Much like any fandom activity, it can get bad because fandom is not a monolith; it’s a bunch of individuals enjoying a medium in the ways they have learned to. You’re gonna get some individuals who “do it wrong” and some who do it differently, but ultimately, just like the forums and the reddit threads Shane and Ryan trawl in their past time, there are circles you learn not to veer into and terms you learn to blacklist/block/mute. With that being an indication of where they’re coming from as internet creators, I am confident when I say that, as long as it’s not being mailed to them, linked or quoted at them, they don’t care. They would know something that gets popular on the internet summons a brand of transformative art and fiction but much like they tend to ignore thirst tweets in their mentions or the repetitive requests for the same things over and over. They’d see it and gloss right over it. Shane is the type who writes long essays on reddit addressing the things that bother him, Ryan is weird and vocal and an oversharer sometimes when it comes to things Shaniacs say to him (i.e. that Voice he did for the occasional Shaniac who approaches him). It’s just one of the incarnations of fandom that they choose not to engage with, which, good? Because it’s a fan-specific activity. Once in a while you get a creator who wants to interact with fanfiction and it goes sideways because not all stories are written for them, much like not all fanart is made with the mindset to share with them. 

It’s just a regular old fan interaction and community habit that builds bigger followings. 

All in all, I’m not gonna tell you what to do. Unless you mean to be in their @’s all the time or link them on discord, or put any of your content in their hands, they are not going to see it. They don’t care. What they do care about is that you’re watching, that you support them and send them encouragement because they’re creating their own medium of content and a bigger following means more people get to see it and extract something positive from it.