#i had to set it up as an entirely new blog because tumblr doesn't allow javascript on custom pages anymore

[subliminalbo]

The stories link on my blog does something now!

It's still a work in progress and will only work in desktop mode, but it's the easiest way to find all of my stories in one place, if anyone is interested in reading them.

Right now I only have three series on the page, but hope to add more as I find the motivation for it.

[thatdisasterauthor]

The new dashboard layout

I wanted to wait to play with it for a bit to see what sort of feelings I had that weren't just my immediate reaction, and now I have so let's talk.

My general feelings: I get what they're going for, and I think it has potential, but right now it is too busy. There are some great things about it, like being able to post while in your feed, and some bad things, like the amount of different sections.

But let's get into it a little more.

I know everyone is screaming about how they copied Twitter, but they didn't. Side menus aren't even close to a new thing on the internet. They aren't AS popular as top menus these days, but they still see plenty of use. Really, the only issue I have with the side menus at this point as that the "Account" tab doesn't seem to stay closed for good once you close it. Also, on smaller screens it becomes its own scrolling section, which feels even more crowded.

No, my main issue here is that--especially at the top of the dashboard--there is SO MUCH going on. You've got Tumblr live, you've got the new left side menu, you've got the little content suggestion block with "changes on Tumblr" and all that, you've got "Check out these blogs," you've got Tumblr Radar, and you've got your actual dash. It's a lot of info to be hit with all at once.

I think we've all beaten the dead horse that is Tumblr Live enough that I don't have to do it again here, so I won't. But in general, having that at the top of the site just doesn't WORK. The little thumbnails don't tell you anything about what is going on in the stream, they're hard to read, they take up a ton of space, and they just don't mesh well with the overall culture of the site. If Tumblr wants to have that there, they should at least use the same algorithm for "blogs in your orbit" so that they're related to content the viewer is already interested in.

Tumblr likely isn't going to roll this back, at least not entirely, because it DOES have a lot of potential. It brings a lot of settings and options to the forefront, which is a good thing. Even veteran users likely don't know everything about this website, especially those who may have taken an extended break at some point. The fact is Tumblr does need new users, and it needs those users to be able to understand how to use the website.

So here's my suggestion:

Tumblr has been experimenting with a subscription model, so make dashboard layout customization into a subscription feature. Allow people add and remove, or even reorganize, the different sections to their liking. Leave it as it is for unsubscribed users, and allow subscribed users the ability to customize.

Will this be a popular answer? Nope, probably not. But it will help bridge the gap between making new users and old users comfortable, while also raising money to help keep the site we all love so much going.

[alarajrogers]

#tumblr#yahoo#they had no idea what to do with tumblr#much like automattic#they misunderstood what it was

Really? So far I feel like Automattic has done a pretty good job understanding how Tumblr works and how to monetize it.

Tumblr users value anonymity to an extreme. You can't segment them by demographic because if you tried to force them to tell you who they are, they will leave, or make shit up. So Tumblr can never be monetized effectively by selling ads.

Tumblr users are broke. They will not pay hefty amounts to have their own URL as their Tumblr blog like Wordpress users might.

Tumblr is where brands go to die. Tumblr's userbase is so hostile to capitalism and corporations, you cannot use it for business purposes unless you're a very small business, or creator of media.

But, Tumblr has a ton of in-jokes, and a great collective sense of humor.

So, Automattic sells us:

the ability to block ads, which doesn't hurt them much because no company is willing to pay Tumblr a lot in ad revenue

the ability to buy goofy virtual shit that's funny, such as rainbow checkmarks that parody Elon Musk's terrible decisions at Twitter, or dashboard crabs

the ability to pay to broadcast your post to a lot of people, which is still useless for advertising because it's still not segmented, it's totally random.

fun merchansise that relates to Tumblr culture, such as the travel mug with the color of the sky post printed on it, or shoelaces

and now, the ability to pay to broadcast someone else's post, as long as they haven't declared it non-Blazeable

They haven't yet brought back female presenting nipples, but they've put some of the infrastructure in place that may allow them to do so if FOSTA/SESTA gets repealed, by giving users the ability to specifically tag their content.

I don't know if these methods will make Tumblr profitable. I hope so, because there's a saying: if you are not the customer, then you're the product. Or: if you're not paying for something, the something is paying for you. I much prefer to pay for the product than be the product.

If Automattic succeeds in making money off Tumblr, it opens the door for an entirely new type of social media: social media that doesn't sell ads and monetize your eyeballs, but social media that makes money off being fun. Having engaged users who feel like a community and genuinely like to be there, not users who are engaged in constant anger and anxiety. Not requiring membership fees, but making money directly off users who can pay, because they enjoy it and appreciate the ability to pay for fun stupid shit to support a place they've come to love.

(With dashboard crabs and the ability to Blaze other people's posts, Tumblr is setting up a gift economy that lets people who can pay support people who can't in having fun, too.)

I remember when Livejournal made money off letting people have more icons. That's the kind of energy I like to see in social media.

And why did the value plummet, Marissa? Why did it plummet?

[thusaliar]

[ src. ] 🍪/ 🎾/⭐️/🐠

(got kind of long-ish so putting it under the cut)

🍪 my favorite roleplay memory - There are a few of them! One would be probably in my very, very early steps in rp back in 2011, when I did not understand what roleplay is at all, but random strangers on the internet were patient enough to show me around. It later turned into a massive group roleplay with a whole blog to moderate it (not a tumblr blog either!!), it was 2011 so of course it was a wolf oc roleplay, with a blog serving as a pack site. Another one would be returning to tumblr roleplay a little over a year ago. I've met a bunch of wonderful people since then and it practically revived my love towards roleplay in general.

🎾 what type of genre of roleplay i prefer to write -I really don't have a preference! I'm happy to roleplay anything from slice of life to horror and fantasy, and anything in between. It really depends on the muse, but if there's enough plotting or simply good vibes with the other mun, the genre doesn't matter! I'll love it anyway :) This being said I would love to explore some more general fantasy settings, you know, elves, witches, creatures alike, and magic.

⭐️my roleplay pet peeves - I can think of a few, but the biggest one would be first-person pov. It doesn't happen as often in roleplays anymore and is more of a fanfic thing, but when it used to happen it used to throw me off a lot. I could not focus or immerse myself in writing. Another one is writing with self inserts; and by that I don't mean ocs! Ocs are welcome and loved here! I'm talking about straight-up writing oneself in rp setting, which simply makes me uncomfortable due to past experiences. I had a person use me for a roleplay where they played a canon character but so divergent that it soon became obvious that they were simply writing themselves in that character's clothes. I'm also not big on bringing personal stuff into roleplay, especially when it's a thing between muns (for example one muse being randomly hostile towards the other because of something that happened outside of roleplay).

🐠why i love (or hate) this hobby - Ohoh, there are a lot of reasons! First of all, it allows me to explore my favourite characters in different scenarios, and play out things that didn't happen in canon. I love giving more life and story to characters that are just background or not well-developed in canon and developing already established characters even further, following my own, and general interpretation of them. I love writing because it's just another creative way to let a muse out other than art. I do both, and when one doesn't work I can simply switch to another. AND! I love, LOVE!! meeting people through roleplay. There's no better way to find people interested in the same fandoms and characters, often with similar opinions. I won't be able to be friends with everyone of course, but talking and getting to know people outside of it is a lot of fun and an important experience for me. The final thing to mention would be ships, but that's not really news! Love shipping, especially ones that didn't happen in canon or were impossible in canon (whether it's death or even a different world entirely). I can't say I hate the hobby, there are just days when I don't have as much energy for it; but it doesn't mean I love it any less :)

[satans-tiddies]

reclaiming a slur means using it for yourself. you can't just say calling other people queer without their permission (incl. using it as a blanket term) is ok just because it "has a history of being reclaimed", that doesn't change that it's a slur. it's no different from the f slur. how is some people being fine with it more important than the people who are Not fine with it? if you forcefully call OTHERS the word, thats not reclaiming it, it's just calling others a slur

I assume you’re talking about this post. Well done on missing the entire point, I guess?

Let’s see how your ask holds up when we replace queer with another reclaimed homophobic slur: gay.

reclaiming a slur means using it for yourself. you can’t just say calling other people gay without their permission (incl. using it as a blanket term) is ok just because it “has a history of being reclaimed”, that doesn’t change that it’s a slur. it’s no different from the f slur. how is some people being fine with it more important than the people who are Not fine with it? if you forcefully call OTHERS gay, thats not reclaiming it, it’s just calling others a slur

Oh no, no one is allowed to say “they gay community” anymore because you might accidentally include men attracted exclusively to men who don’t identify as gay! /sarcasm

If you want the long-form, researched and sourced answer to your frankly insulting, asinine ask, it’s under the readmore, but tl;dr:

When I say “queer people”, I am (shockingly enough) referring to people who identify as queer.

If you don’t identify as queer, I am not talking about you.

If you’re going to police queer people about their identity because it’s a slur, but not any of the other IDs that are also reclaimed slurs (gay, bisexual, fag, etc.) or that have a pathological history (homosexual, lesbian, trans, etc.), all you’re telling me is that you’re being hypocritical and perpetuating exclusionist/REG/radfem rhetoric.

I have never directly called specific people “queer” if they hadn’t let me know that they aren’t uncomfortable being called that, so I must conclude that:

You’re telling me that I cannot use “queer” as an umbrella term for my community.

Even though it is the most widely preferred umbrella term among LGBTQ+ individuals.

Even though there IS a community that calls itself “the queer community”, which has ideological, political and historical distinctions from the “gay rights movement” and “LGBT”, and includes people who are openly uncomfortable with being called “gay” or “LGBT”.

Fine. Dandy. But what do you propose I use as a blanket term instead?

“LGBT” is a popular acronym, but it’s highly limiting. Only four letters. But that’s not the only issue here. Do you see the G in LGBT? G as in “gay”? If you sent me this incredibly ignorant ask, you’re probably not aware that it is also a reclaimed slur.

The biggest irony is that the “queer is a slur, use gay instead” sentiment has already happened in the past, but in reverse. “Queer” was adopted by American MLM in the early 20th century because they considered “fairy”, “invert” and “gay” too derogatory. Like the other two, “gay” had connotations of prostitution, promiscuity and “deviant” gender expression.

What inevitably happened is that mainstream American culture picked up on this and started using “queer” as an insult instead.

When people started to mobilize under the word “gay” in the 1930′s-60’s, older queer men expressed their disapproval at a younger generation, who hadn’t been targeted by the word “gay” as an insult, using it as an identity. They disapproved of the names “gay rights movement” and “gay community”. BUT, they recognized that it was important for the new gay generation, and didn’t throw hissy fits when it became the new popular term. 

The term gay began to catch on in the 1930s, and itsprimacy was consolidated during the war. By the late 1940s, younger gay men were chastising oldermen who still used queer, which the younger men now regarded as demeaning. As Will Finch, whocame out into the gay world of Times Square in the 1930s, noted in his diary in 1951, “The word‘queer’ is becoming [or coming to be regarded as] more and more derogatory and [is] less and lessused by hustlers and trade and the homosexual, especially the younger ones, and the term ‘gay’ [is]taking its place. I loathe the word, and stick to ‘queer,’ but am constantly being reproved, especiallyin so denominating myself.”

Younger men rejected queer as a pejorative name that others had given them, which highlightedtheir difference from other men. Even though many “queers” had also rejected the effeminacy of thefairies, younger men were well aware that in the eyes of straight men their “queerness” hinged ontheir supposed gender deviance. In the 1930s and 1940s, a series of press campaigns claiming thatmurderous “sex deviates” threatened the nation’s women and children gave “queerness” an even moresinister and undesirable set of connotations. In calling themselves gay, a new generation of meninsisted on the right to name themselves, to claim their status as men, and to reject the “effeminate”styles of the older generation. Some men, especially older ones like Finch, continued to prefer queerto gay, in part because of gay’s initial association with the fairies. Younger men found it easier toforget the origins of gay in the campy banter of the very queens whom they wished to reject.

—George Chauncey, 1994. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, p.19 (emphasis mine).

Some older gay people who were hurt by “queer” are uncomfortable with being called “queer”. But older queer people—as well as younger ones like me—were hurt by “gay”, and some of us are also uncomfortable with being called “gay”. (I’m not, but I personally know some guys who are.)

Oh, did you forget the entirety of the 2000’s, when the use of “gay” as a slur by homophobes was so frequent and widespread that there were entire awareness campaigns to try to cut that shit out? I remember. I remember very vividly, because in all the traumatic incidents of homophobic violence I faced, the word that was shouted at me was “gay”.

Not to mention that the word “bisexual” used to not even refer to sexuality, but to intersex people. It was used in a similarly deriding way as “hermaphrodite”. And yet, it was adopted for an entirely different purpose.

Your assertion that queer “is no different from the f slur” is also funny to me as someone who hangs around cis gay men a lot. It seems that you’re completely oblivious to the enormous number of guys who call themselves and their peers “fags”. It’s commonplace. If you wander around cis gay male Tumblr, you can see dozens of blogs doing this.

“Fag” and “faggot” are considered by most to be much more inflammatory than “queer” (you yourself used it as an example of a bad word you shouldn’t use at other people!), but…where are all the people going to “fag” blogs and saying “don’t you know that f*g is a slur?”.

Oh, right. You only bother to attack “queer” because it specifically benefits people who aren’t white, conformist, perisex cis gays and lesbians.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s run down a list of alternative umbrella terms, since you find a reclaimed slur so offensive.

Oops, “LGBT” features a reclaimed slur. Same for variations of it.

“Gay community” ah damn, again.

“QUILTBAG” hell, it has at least two.

“MOGAI” checks out, no reclaimed slurs! But if I use this, internet exclusionists and anti-queers such as yourself will rip me to shreds.

It seems that I cannot find a single umbrella term that won’t offend anyone.

I have a proposal for you: when I call myself queer, and say “queer people” or “queer community, whoever doesn’t identify as queer can quietly exclude themselves. I am not talking about you. Queer people who don’t want to be called “gay” or “LGBT” already do this all the time, when people say “gay community” or “LGBT community”.

Stop listening to radical feminists and LG separatists for Christ’s sake.

And if you’re going to continue going to queer people’s inboxes to tell them that their identity is so dirty that they have to keep it as a dirty secret all to themselves, stop being a raging hypocrite and never fucking call a single other person the word “gay” ever again. 

[sidmjkgc]

Cyberstalking anon here- Thank you so much for your response, it's helped a lot. Things both have and in some ways haven't gotten better; they deactivated on here, they're tanking in terms of popularity and reception for the one other thing that essentially makes them popular and gave them/maintained their platform, but they're also very active on a bunch of other sites and still have people they like to use to collect evidence. They're still in charge or in high positions of power in all these huge events and spaces in the social circles I'm in, despite their history of harassment and a lot of other very problematic things. It's been this whole thing of them and their little troupe or whatever harassing me as well as others and admitting to things like plagiarism, cyberstalking, and much worse (not saying for the sake of privacy) but still getting away with it.

However, I've got a friend that I can talk to about all this, someone that I've been friends with online for a while before all this shit with them went down as well as a friend irl. I'm slowly moving to a new site with new circles/different people and a system in place that doesn't allow for block evading (unlike Tumblr, where you can still send anon asks and see the posts of people who blocked you, including their whole blog if you can view their blog outside of the dash- ie on [url].tumblr.com) and set my account so that only registered viewers can see it.

It sucks to have to block all these people that I thought were my friends and just generally not feel like I can have my own safe space, but I'm slowly pulling away from that and having the chance to step back and examine some relationships as well as ditch toxic people in my own online space.

As I said, this isn't my first time being stalked in any capacity. I had an abusive ex that did it to me. However, because of how things went with trying to report my ex and the justice system in my area, I prefer not to go to the police with it and potentially make things worse and cause more triggering situations for myself. Either way, it's always just been said that you go to the block them, but other than that you're supposed to make yourself smaller, take up less space in that situation and be some "bigger person" while this shit goes on. Or that if it gets bad and you don't go to the police, you're lying or being dramatic, so thank you for the advice and just generally your advocacy on helping victims of it, I really appreciate the support. <3

I'm glad to hear back from you, anon. I was thinking about you the other day.

I'm also glad to hear that everything is slowly turning out for the better, even though it's not immediate and it's going to take some time. Maybe you can also talk to the other people in the same situation as you, stick together and support each other. And again, you don't have to do it if it's triggering or you don't want to expose yourself.

Sorry to hear that the justice system in your area didn't help you. While stalking is a crime, most people (and the police) don't always believe the victims. There's too much victim blaming, and an entire mentality of "ignore it and it will go away" that doesn't help. Blocking someone or avoiding some spaces or trying to make yourself as invisible as possible, are all useful things if you want to distance yourself from the situation and recharge for some time. But none of those are the solution. And people who have not gone throught this, have an hard time to understand how "look the other way and be the bigger person" are actually harmful to victims, of any violence, and how it doesn't stop there. This entire mentality is tiring and maddening at times, I know.

You did the right thing by creating a new account somewhere else and making it accessible only to some. It's a start, take your time, curate your experience. Maybe, over time, you'll be able to open it to everyone and live your online life more relaxed, or maybe you'll decide to keep it more private because you like it that way. It's up to you, there's no wrong decision.

Take care, anon.

[seenashwrite]

Again! Sorry for another question, and I hope this doesn't bother you... But I was wondering what a one-shot word count average is? I usually end up doing about 1000 - 1500 words as I get caught up in my writing hehe, but is that too long? Should I stick to around 500 or so? Hope this doesn't bother you too much!

Oh Spookster, you are not a bother in the least. I am glad you ask. Because I - and please, everyone sit down to hear this - did not know the complete deets on these by-word-count categorizations off the top of my head. I have a ballpark idea, of course, but still I tasked the interns with doing a lil�� digging.

Ah - while I’ve got ya - the interns [we’ll call them “Sham” and “Green”, the former who professed proficiency at research & the latter who appears to not know how to collate it at all] clarified some word vomit & added a point on Beta Readers which was left out in the answer to your first query. Moving on.

Let us take this moment to ask the fanfic writers of Tumblr their thoughts/what they were taught/what they’ve seen because TL;DR: there isn’t a formal, organized, academic-type fanfic-based collective with enough of a population of experts [and there would need to be criteria for what that means] for peer review and the like, ergo there cannot be any substantive consensus.   

WHEN authors label/categorize their work on word count around here, these are the ones *I* have personally seen + what the “sources” below have claimed -  

Drabble = 100 [some say “Exactly 100!” & to that Nash says “Suck it!”] 

One-Shot = N/A [it’s one-and-done, length is irrelevant]

Multi-Part = N/A [length of each chapter irrelevant; know your audience’s attention span, cater to that]

Series = N/A [reasoning same as above]

Poem/Poetry = N/A [reasoning same as above]

Big Bang = a minimum is given by organizers; may be 20K, may be 50K, point is it’s the… um…. biggest

Prose = ya got me, because “prose” is just “story”, it’s not some special sub-type [”the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse”. And, PS? A secondary take can also be “dull, ordinary, commonplace, plain”, even “tedious”. I’d hesitate to call something of mine “prose” unless it had a qualifier like “melodic prose” or “poetic prose” or something] 

This was a nutters hunt, right up there with crazed insects & sperm-donor poor-excuse-for-amazon daughters & the like. And you’re talking to a deep-diving, source ‘em if you got ‘em, just-the-facts-ma’am research hound. If it’s to be found, I can more often than not sniff it out. 

My nose might have gotten bent on this one. 

First things first: in the field of academia to which I am accustomed, anything at the five-year mark is pushing it, anything beyond that should likely stick to referring to it in a study/article/etc. as a “here’s what we knew then” sort of thing, in order to set the scene for the current hypotheses/results/etc. That’s why I include the dates when able, just FYI.

⦁ Trickster.org - “symposium article” from 2006 - “When Size Matters: Story Terminology as Determined by Word Count” 

Opener: “Drabbles are a bit of a hot topic, and I’ve run across a few debates started by people who don’t like them. Now, this is nothing unusual in fandom, there seems to be at least one person who doesn’t like any given thing, and I usually just shrug my shoulders and move on. The problem with the drabble debates, however, lies in how people are defining drabbles.” 

[Nash Note: Seems to be a transcript of a speech, but it was a horrific, rambling eyesore, I’d never recommend anyone go through it, and the fact that this person was considered expert enough to give commentary on the topic of writing is bone-chilling disturbing. I am not exaggerating this, it is one of the most poorly-conveyed run-downs of what current standings/thoughts are in a given field that I’ve ever come upon. I hope there were some kickin’ visual aids.]

C&Ping the main points that were stated with some sort of conviction:

A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words 

“It’s debatable as to whether or not the title is included but the limit itself is not debatable” 

“the common definition I’ve seen allows for one to fifteen extra words for the title ”

[Nash note: in various spots, they then proceed to tell about how these things *are* debatable in the fanfic community - much as they noted right off in the intro. Which is the topic. Fanfiction. Not “pro-lit”. Which should’ve been there just for touch-and-move-on comparative purposes. Not the bulk of the talk. Which it was.]

A drabble and a half is exactly 150 words

A double drabble is 200 words, and anything over that really stops being a drabble, but in fandom, any story in increments of 50 words is often still referred to as some permutation of drabble, i.e. double drabble and a half, triple drabble, triple drabble and a half, quad-drabble, etc. 

Even in fandom, however, the key is that your word count is exactly on that 50 word increment mark, otherwise you are not writing a drabble of any kind

“In the pro-lit[erary] world…”:  [just knock me out now]

any story under 500 words is flash fiction. 

fic under 500 words that is not exactly 100 words, the term you want is flash fiction. Or even flashfic, or minute fic, or sudden fic, postcard fic, fast fic, quick fic, and a few others. 

none of those alternatives are drabble.

over 500 words, but under 1000, is generally known as a short short. 

Some magazines and anthologies actually use short short and flash fiction interchangeably, because of space constraints

1000 and over, up to 17500, is a short story

“So, just to review….”  [sigh]

100 words = drabble

500 words and under = flash fiction

500-1000 words = short short

1000-15000 words = short story

17500 = novella/novelette

40000 = novel

vignette = nothing to do with word count; typically under 1000 words; the significant thing is theme - meant to give illumination - one character or the relationship between two or more characters; typically don’t involve a lot of action; some have limited dialogue

[Nash co-signs “vignette” definition]

⦁ Save the Drabble - 2005/6

This one has 2 sources and one of them is the person above - the other is another LJ community. This is a circle-jerk. No new info given. We move on.

⦁ Fanlore

This is a hodge-podge that made my eye twitch a bit, but at least they have more info and background on the terms.

They re-hash the “drabble debate” of it having to be precisely 100 words.

They are the first that brought up another term I see around T-Town which is Big Bang 

“A Big Bang is a specific type of challenge usually involving long fics and accompanying artwork.This type of challenge is a reprise of the old zine tradition of collaboration between artists and writers for internet fandoms.” 

They note that back in ‘zine land it was a minimum of 50K, then in another place they say “the consensus” went to a minimum of 20K

[Nash Note: I gotta eschew my formatting, I’ve met my allotted time for this answer, as more peeps lie in wait for their Dear Nash to be addressed! I linked the blogbelow the other day because It. Is. Fantastic. This is what I was able to find for fanfic related terminology on lengths, threw in a couple other goodies, too - go over there and see if you have better luck pulling up with other search terms, entirely possible I wasn’t hitting the nail on the head with mine]

Writing Questions Answered - Tumblr

One result for “drabble”:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/search/drabble

Doesn’t talk about length

One result for “one-shot”:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/45179836171/fan-fiction-how-to-write-a-one-shot-fanfic

“A one-shot fanfic is a standalone story that is one chapter long and focuses on a single situation or event, usually from just one character’s point-of-view. There is no official length for a one-shot, but typically they are between 1,000 and 8,000 words long.” 

Length in general in the published world:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/108997534333/advice-short-chapters-not-sure-about-word-count

Target length depends on what you’re writing:

Short Story - 1k - 7500 k

Novella - 20k - 50k

Novel-

Middle Grade 25k - 40k

Young Adult 45k - 80k

New Adult: 60k - 85k

Adult 65k - 120k

….and reinforces that nobody should or really does [in the pro world] care about chapter lengths - depends on what’s going on in the chapter. Nash side note on this? Know your audience. The younger they get, the less attention span - not that they can’t or won’t knock out a big book in the long-run, but you don’t want them to grow frustrated along the way, possibly checking out or worse, stopping altogether.  

Talks more about standards for professional lengths:

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/62254683880/advice-story-feels-rushed

Really good piece on “nevers” and “always” when it comes to “dos” and “don'ts”.

http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/147225002823/a-quick-psa-about-writing-rules

I agree. And for me, there’s certainly lots of good advice out there, you’ll find some of it is objectively true, but on the other hand, it may be worth trying your hand at various things to see what (a) sticks with your target audience, and (b) speaks to your personal style. 

Plus - in my experience - there’s some “nevers” that I suspect got popular due to propagation by people who just don’t do whatever it is terribly well. [shrugs]

Chuckspeed, my friend. So sayeth the Nash, so say we all.