#is absolutely correct. you're not a content creator. you are an artist

[superconductivebean]

Just my thoughts—as a fandom hermit of sorts.

Creating for nobody but yourself is actually discouraging when it's done repulsively. You'll feel its hard slap later down the line—unless your inner reader began to enjoy you as an author. They will gradually subside your inner critic and might teach them few lessons in how to appreciate maybe not the work itself—who of us doesn't have an one we dislike in some way?—but the craftwork went behind its creation.

How to do that?

Surprisingly easy.

Watch your creative decisions. Introspect. See yourself in your work.

You are inseparable in some way or another, your reflection is present within it, and by that I imply how you felt writing it and why did you think something would or wouldn't work. The only one who usually know is you, so, if you feel something is wrong, it probably is. The best is the enemy of the good, yes, but I'm not talking about perfectionism. I'm talking about the need to listen to that tingle and being able to assess it before editing.

Perfectionism is, in a sense, artistic pessimism. It tells you everything is wrong but it can't be an objective truth. Then some scenes must be wrong, and alright, good, the field is narrowed down. Which ones? Where? Why? At that point, put the work away for a day or two, then re-open, re-see, realise, that yes, that could be improved, except it isn't a scene. It's a sloppy word choice. It changed the sentence, that avalanched into a little rearrangement, and voila, everything works.

You fight the pessimistic outlook with a little bit of rest.

The more you learn how to treat your work, the more you might grow excited to try new things and not because you want to show them to the world but first to yourself.

That little part of you is who actually matter. Learn to love these little emotion abstractions. Care for the little guy, nurse them, feed them different ideas, styles, work them up to your master and see yourself forming in directions you'd never thought you would be able to simply because them—you—wanted to try something new. It would not matter if those were successful or not; when the entire process is a journey, the output's performance begins to matter very little.

Besides, the little guy would want company—and that's when other people come in. The reader doesn't like negative responses or no responses at all, true. Know who does? Your inner critic.

They're all too eager to overthink things and they're the perpetrator of your pessimism. So make them analyse why something clicks for many people and why something goes under their radar, make them a little analytics-building machine (which is also a skill), and just keep its outputs close in case you're curious how different fandoms or communities work. It's mostly a useless information. But you will be certain about things, and certainty brings comfort.

It will help to find readers in case you'd need more, too. Or if you'd like to meet someone new. But is it a guaranteed method? No, it isn't. Sometimes you'll write the most influential fandom monsterfic and all these people will pass by. Othertimes you'd write the smallest fic in the fandom but all its people will get around it because they liked your take on things or became curious with your ideas—and they can actually stuck around. You may never know. Fandom isn't business, it is rather a wild fair with barely predictable events in its main mystery.

Besides.

You can't make yourself a miracle to everyone; but be the miracle to yourself, and people will notice it and will try to comprehend you. Be Original, they say. They lie. They want the same jacket but red. Or the same jacket but sewn from kelps. Be Familiar But Be Outland-ish. Do your thing, that everybody else does, in your own fascinating way. Be the artist after all, be that bitch and leave people with the art-shaped holes in their thoughts.

I used to play an instrument once. I was bad at it, well, I was taught poorly and was only ever learning how to play from the sheets. It never go outwith or far and the instrument is long-sold, but I'm still able to recall the emotions I had while playing it. Heartbeat was the metronome, the hands were going in perfect synch, the entire body was able to feel the timings, and at some point, it wasn't simply the flow and going along with it. It was being the flow. The architect behind its creation—well, yes, the music wasn't mine, but being able to recreate it and make it sound as it supposed to sound was utterly captivating, enamouring, absolutely wondrous experience.

Years later I became enamoured with the writing—the process of it. If I manage to build the flow correctly and sail down my own rivers with little to no bump, unless planned, I'm overjoyed and amazed.

But will it go far? How well will it perform? Sometimes I do care if I know people might be interested, but beyond that, it's just doing its thing and bringing me joy because it's a puzzle, because it's a never-ending fascination—and because it's even more than that when done in the completely different tongue. And people take to it. Because it looks fun, perhaps, or it's something they had rarely seen before done in the language, or maybe it's just the way I tend to pick words and arrange them. I always get different answers. But what I know for certain: that something I found within me works both for me and people liking my things.

That what matters.

It all might sound a tad bit mental but it's so important to be in harmony with yourself as an author, as a reader, and as your own critic—who else knows you as much as you? Don't forget the people you have—the crowds will come and go, but the friends will stay.

Maybe this is a hot take, but as creative people, our #1 priority in our work should be ourselves.

It is not, AND SHOULD NEVER BE, what would get us the most engagement. Dispel "content creation," popularity, and monetization from your brain. Write, paint, draw what you want to! HOLY SHIT!!!!!!

The people who resonate with it will eventually show up. But the people who don't? Who cares???? The art you personally create is meant to help you heal, to help you express, to bring you joy and pain!!!!

You need to learn how to work on something because you deeply care for it and can revel in that self-satisfaction. Of course recognition feels fucking great! We all want it. We are humans, but you need to stop creating with the idea of other people consuming your work!!!

Give into the art movement. Create a renaissance for yourself. Fuck other people. Be that bitch! People are not going to be in your lives forever, and when you're left to your own devices, you should be able to look at what you've created and fucking love it.

[stinglesswasp]

Hi! First of all, I think your art is gorgeous and honestly whatever words I put here, they will never be able to do your art justice. I love your visual storytelling! Now for the actual ask part. How could one start learning how to draw? I have a STEM background and I have wrestled many times before with the idea of trying to pick up drawing and every time I see content creators, such as you, posting their works, it makes me even more motivated to get some scenarios out of my head and place them on paper. Right now I do it in writing but I would love to do something graphic about it too. Problem is, it can feel overwhelming to start as there are so many resources and stuff and it can feel like a daunting task. So, how did you start drawing?

Thank you so much and I hope you will always keep your passion for this craft alive and well. Be it CoD or anything else.

Hi, thank you for your kind words! I've been drawing since I was a wee baby wasp, but anyone can start at anytime. You're absolutely right that it can feel overwhelming, but I love that you're motivated! That's honestly half the battle. I can give some general advice:

Start small, like really small… I know it's tempting to immediately jump into drawing your favourite blorbos smooching (yes, this is the entire point of being an artist) but it's like exercise, you need to build muscle bit by bit before you can attempt any ambitious goals. Draw very basic shapes like circles, squares, triangles, followed by spheres, cylinders, prisms. Try to rotate/stretch/skew/slice them in your mind's eye and draw the result. Draw some simple objects around you. You'll find that all objects, including complex organic forms, can be broken down into basic shapes. Here's an example of the types of exercises you can try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6F5q_5HC3o

There are beginner's tutorials on every aspect of drawing, I'd recommend spending a chunk of time in each area, learning fundamentals like perspective, proportions, and lighting. There are easy rules that you can follow that will make your art look 'correct' and not 'wonky' which might happen if you try to wing it without really understanding what you're doing. This video (though more advanced) has tons of useful advice and a fantastic guideline to follow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T_-DiAzYBc (in fact I think this is one of the best art 'tutorials' ever 🤯)

Be patient with yourself!! Your brain literally needs time to grow new neurons because you're learning a new skill. It can be frustrating to be unable to draw what you're imagining, but go easy and build up a strong foundation first. The more solid this is, the more satisfied you'll be when you finally tackle the stuff you actually want to make.

I hope this was helpful! Just practice a lot, have fun, and be proud of your progress 🧡 (also, sit with good posture, stay hydrated and take regular breaks <3)

[iiposblog]

liking things that have flaws is such a freeing experience that I honestly feel bad some negative nancies (cough cough nudge nudge certain blog refrence) will never experience. if you only restrict yourself to enjoying content of the absolute highest quality, what's the point? you're not really enjoying things anymore. II has flaws, the first season was literally created by a 13 yr old, but damn is it charming and funny. it can pull off emotional moments no matter how absurd the setting is because you care about the characters. not everything you consume needs to be the peak of artistic integrity, it just needs to be enjoyable. and damn, ii is really fucking enjoyable. and the fact there's at least one fan for every tiny side character, ships between characters who never even met, just proves the fans love and care, and you can feel that love in the show itself. the show is obviously made with love and care by the creators, it has soul.

I think its important to remember you can still be 'media literate' and enjoy the flawed thing at the same time! just because you recognise issues dosent mean you're not allowed to enjoy it anymore.

correct :)

[rat-rosemary]

if you're done talking about it that's absolutely fine, I was asleep so I'm only seeing things now lol

I also don't click on people's profiles unless I either want to see more art from them or I'm curious about people posting things like c!K*rlnap*ty in 2024 (seeing the date on posts) and then go to their blog to see their pinned post has a massive aggressive dni on it for dteam stans

it did put me off, but I never thought it was you doing it on purpose, it was more me realizing there is more crossover between dreblr and d*mpblr than I thought these days, since people I know *aren't* drantis are in circles where they will see and reblog that

so I think the anons are right when they say interaction with drantis, but also importantly, you're operating on the assumption that interest in the smp can be separate from content creators (which is correct) vs I think a lot of seasoned fans tend to assume that unless you're actively posting about the c!dteam or c!rivals, you're statistically likely to be a dranti. Absolutely everyone on here is blocked more than you think so don't feel like you're being singled out 💚

in solidarity with your experience being blocked liberally, there's someone who blocked me literally a week after I made this account and I had no idea who they were at the time (and can only guess at it now since I've never seen them directly), but it seems like all my friends are also their friends so it's a little funny

Oh yeah....

I always loved C!Karlnapity but most of the artists who used to draw it have moved on (and I hope they're having a wonderful time on the hermitcraft fandom, because they were truly kind and wonderful people) but the people who still doodle it now and then.... eh...

I'll admit I havent look at some of those profiles on purpose. I'll also admit I've reblogged art out of spite

Also, sadly I don't think there's much crossover between dsmpblr and dreblr. Well, there's one or two blogs I know who will reblog a lot on art focused on other characters, but in reality we dont interact with those people much and they dont interact with us either outside of one or another person who sends an ask because they're curious about our analysis of C!Dream, specifically

(I personally feel like it's a shame that we dont interact much, because we lose a lot of connection and strength. I also fully understand why we dont interact much because as much as I'm always talking about rebuilding bridges in the dsmp fandom, a lot of people are just h7ge dickheads)

(I am still not over how a lot of people do not seem to understand that calling someone a slur is bad. You're homophobic. You're not reclaiming or making a joke you're just homophobic and using the slur as a slur)

Idk, its hard to split Dream from a lot of people's arcs, and there's nothing wrong with being interested in those relationships. Maybe I am just more used to being around Dreblr much more then Dtblr

I would say I know that people aren't blocking me because I did something, but the truth is that I'm a pussy and the horse is very powerful so the anxiety of it gets to me, even if logically I know it's nothing personal

[gumdropmodels]

This isn't really a question, but I just wanna gush a bit. Gummy, not only are you my favorite tum model around, but you're just one of my all-time favorite creators period. You're adorable, you're sweet, you're encouraging, and you're bottomlessly talented! If I had more money, I would donate even more consistently just because it makes you excited and makes me smile. You're always an absolute blast to chat with, and it's amazing whenever I get to see you overly excited! Plus you're an absolutely fantastic artist, with some of the cutest ocs around! And the tum! AHH, THE TUM! It's something sent from the gods! An absolute sheer miracle of beauty perfectly circumferenced in that perfect midsection! Everything about you is peak, and always will be peak! You have my absolute undying support, and all of my platonic love! You're just the best in every way shape and form☺🧡

aaaaaaAAaAAAAaAAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THIS IS SO CYUTE AND SWEET WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUGGGGGG~?!?!?!?!?1 T////////T) <3333333333333333333333

That is so very sweet of you to say!! Thank you SO much for the loving, kind words, hun! That put a huge smile on my face~ I-I'm really, really glad you've been enjoying my content and my journey so much so far. I'm really excited for what the future holds~

Th-Tho I do want to make one small correction to this: receiving money does NOT make me happy. I absolutely HATE money, and hate asking for it. The fact I have a CashApp in the first place disgusts me to my core.

I ONLY accept donations right now because I don't have a job and food costs money. If either of those things were resolved, I'd close my CashApp for good. It is merely a necessary evil for now. I really hope I didn't give y'all the impression I'm in love with money!! "T ~T)

Regardless, I thank each and every one of you for your continued love and support for what I do. THAT is what genuinely means the world to me..~ <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[phoenixproo]

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[lazybakerart]

Hi! I just wanted to spread some love today.

You're my favorite content creator. Period. Across any fandom, app, or community, there's just something about the work you do that feels so genuine and waterlogged with JOY. You're an artist and I love being here to see and support the things you create, you're just such a light not only in the harringrove community but the world at large. Seriously, I would place you at the top of my Christmas tree, stringing each branch with the feeling your work evokes within my heart.

(and I know you're probably sick of hearing how much we LOVE the Cherry fic but, not to be dramatic--it's flawless. It's absolutely perfect. The feeling I get when I read and re-read that thing is what I'm chasing not only in every piece of LGBTQIA+ literature I consume but the level of heart and detail you put into Cherry is just. Incredible. It's the kind of art I want to make and you're so inspiring, aaaah!)

Also; thank you for being the one to create and oversee the holiday exchange as well as all the other primary content weeks we have throughout the year. It can't be easy to corral all of us, assign projects, and place everything in an orderly collection.

You're incredible. I'm not sure people tell you that enough, if at all, and I just wanted you to know that so many of us are grateful for you, not just this holiday season, but all year 'round.

All my love,

Jaz

well!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH asldkjdghsdf!!

you're extremely kind to send me all these nice words!! it makes me the happiest person ever to know you enjoy my art and my stories adlkhsdf T___T!! (i'm a little to very much a whole lot flailing right now, i wasn't expecting such a lovely message oh gosh)))))

a quick correction tho! i am not involved with the holiday exchange. (whoever is, is doing an amazing job~)

[thefanficmonster]

Okok Look

I Am Friends With Like 5 Of Those "Fucking Fans" The Anon Was Mentioning From That Long Ass Ask

What Is Wrong With Correcting Them? They See Spelling Mistakes And They Point It Out Maybe They Said It A Little Harsh But IRL Writing Critics Are Harsher Than Them If They Can't Handle It From A Group Of Girls Online Then Like My Friend Said To Them They Deserve To Drop Out Of Their Course And Maybe Work Retail Or Something

It's Not Our Fault That She's So Soft And She Has "Depression" If She Really Has That She Should Be 6 Feet Underground Then Right?

We're Big Fans Of You Vy And We Just Don't Like It When People Keep Trying To Say They Have Their Own Interpretation Of The Streamers' Personalities When It's Obvious That They Way You Write Them Is Superior

We Were Just Being Honest It's Not Our Fault That She Can't Handle A Couple Of Criticism

But If You Hate That You Have Fans That'll Defend You No Matter What Then You Lost My Respect And I'm Unfollowing You

It Was Amazing Reading Your Stories But I Can't Follow A Creator That Hates Their Fans For Defending Their Honor

Alright so...

First off, I cannot determine what went on between you and your group of friends and the Anon because I haven't witnessed the interactions personally, but from the ask I was sent, I would assume the 'corrections' you're referring to were super harsh and mean. That is not constructive criticism - it's DESTRUCTIVE criticism.

Secondly, your comparison to the harshness of actual critics makes no sense - they are licensed professionals and, although they are strict with their criteria, they'd never be outright mean to a writer, especially not because they don't write like some other writer. They respect personal style and appreciate it for what it is instead of attacking the person for not following the same style or technique of another artist in the same field.

Third: That comment you've made on Anon's struggle with depression is nothing short of disgusting and disturbing. I saw your other ask saying that they were part of your friend group prior to this and I can't imagine how they must be feeling. How can you make such a cruel, tasteless and insensitive remark about someone who you used to consider a friend?

I appreciate the fact you've been loyal fans to me for so long but this behavior is unacceptable. There's no reason to defend my honor here. Anon is a content creator with their own style and just because it isn't mine doesn't make it any lesser. Have you considered that some people prefer their writing over mine? What would you think if someone was attacking me for not writing the CC's like Anon or some other writer does? You wouldn't think so highly of those people, would you?

I don't hate a single fan of mine, I can certainly tell you that I don't hate you or your friends either - but I absolutely hate what you've done to Anon. I cannot excuse this behavior and if you think me sticking up for what I think (and know) is right and defending Anon who didn't deserve any of the hate they got is enough to diminish your respect for me and unfollow me, then so be it. I can't force you to behave a certain way nor am I gonna attempt to keep you as a part of the group of fans I consider family.

It's all your own personal call and from what I've read in your ask, I believe this is a Goodbye.

~ Vy

[ombreecha]

Seems like you're cyber bullying this person. They create these month things for the fandom to enjoy and they don't condone reposting or whatever. Then you proceed to stalk/harass her page daily all because she doesn't delete her page when she already said she'd correct her mistake, you're just bullying her. You're not out for justice, you just want to turn everyone against her when she was totally civil about the matter. If you were just looking out for other artists, message them privately-

-instead of plastering her Insta on your blog. Sorry, it just seems so extensive when she was pretty civil about the whole thing. She didn’t lash out or laugh in your face. No I don’t agree with reposting without permission but I dont think you had to go this far when she agreed to make changes to her page.

—I’m on mobile so response below—

Then I’m cyber bullying them. I’ll own that completely. While I’m not a fan of call out culture by any means I do see where its use is needed when people like @shadebaeism say one thing to my face and then do another it speaks volumes of their character more so than my own.

Do you realize it takes me literally less than a minute to cop a look, and screenshot something? You’re over playing stalk/harass by a margin here, my dude.

Last I checked before she resulted to lying to me and trying to play the “I’m doing it for the artist” card I was quite civil. Far more than some people will be with even the slightest disagreement on reposting. She claimed she’d do better and then turned around and reposted 6+ artworks not even 24 hours later. Today she posted even more. She lied. She wasn’t honest. She literally spoke just to make herself feel better and in hopes I would just walk off and let her do her bidding.

She never corrected the mistake and it shows with each screenshot brah. Again. Actions speak louder than words. I got lied too, and I’m making it known. If that makes a bully then I am. You say you don’t agree with reposting and yet you’re defending them and going “they said they’d change”. I was willing to give benefit of the doubt too—until she reposted again, and again, and again some more. You wanna call me out for bullying but you know what bro at least I can slap my name down. You couldn’t even have the gumption to write me with your own name attached because you know when I respond to this everyone is going to see that your defending someone who’s not even trying to stand by their own words. That says a whole lot about your character just the same.

If you actually looked at my post I HAD written them privately. You obviously have zero clue wtf you’re even harping on me about and that’s even cuter. 9 screenshots and you wanna complain about me bullying someone when you don’t even know the context in which your coming at me for? You’re gonna complain that I have her plastered on my blog but you couldn’t take the time to see I had spoken to them privately (Yet some how you know they said they’d change not repost without permission), and was quite polite when this started.

Absolutely adorable—but hey maybe you’re Shade looking for someone to defend your ass since no one has or will.

You’re right she didn’t lash out—which would of been absolutely hilarious—and she didn’t laugh in my face.

She just liiiiiiied anon, and if you again had read what I had posted you would know I absolutely detest liars. Actually correct that—she is laughing in my face because she lied and then continued to do it.

No content creator enjoys creating content they can’t keep safe, my dude. They didn’t create the events for anyone but themselves and it becomes truer every day after my post.

Get good brah.

[texasthegreatdestroyer]

I'd like to give my own perspective of the whole "You aren't EA, this isn't your problem." Yeah. Fuck EA, they're assholes. Doesn't justify theft. The people making decisions at the top are the people you have your beef with, not the various developers, 3D modelers, artists, writers, and people with the ideas that fuel a lot of EA's games, and guess who's directly being stolen from? Not the people at the top. No, the hard workers behind EA who aren't the ones responsible for a lot of EA's stupid decisions, and with the constant exposing of how terribly treated employees in the field are, not even just EA, but through out the game industry in general, yall seriously think you're justified in punishing the hard workers simply because "Fuck EA"? Lol, no. Sounds to me like people are looking for excuses to be morally correct in their practices, and that's not going to fly when you consider the nuances behind it.

Further more "You aren't EA, it's not your business." Ah. Sound advice. Ignore a crime when it's actively happening. Make sure to remember that when some person watches as your shit gets jacked from your house. Actually, no. That's not a fair comparison. That's disrespectful to the people who by stand when a crime takes place in real time. Yall hide behind accounts that aren't in the slightest connected to your real life, so it's much harder for that sort of thing to have IRL consequences. At least regular bystanders have the excuse of not wanting to face real life backlash and retaliation for reporting a crime as an excuse. Yall literally don't have an excuse. So seriously, fuck off with this "You aren't EA, this isn't your problem." BS, because you're essentially saying it's okay to watch theft happening, and just ignore it.

And then of course there's the very obvious situation of how this mentality impacts all artists and Indie creators a like. Yall are essentially making the statement that its okay to profit off of someone else's work so long as they're big enough to not miss the profit. That they still aren't someone who put love and sweat into their work and that they deserve every cent that comes out of their labor. That's a terrible precedent to set for all creators of various trades.

Oh, but then there’s the people who say that it doesn't affect the community other than they have to pay for cc. News flash. It does impact us. How? EA's ToS says that upon paying for the game, we are allowed to use user generated content for free and in any way we like so long as we aren't selling it. Meaning we've technically speaking have already paid for the right to use that content, meaning it is rightfully ours to play with. By requiring money for cc, you are essentially stealing from every Sims 4 player. So for everyone trying to say that this is just entitled consumers vs. Small creators, it's not. It's customers trying to get the services we paid for vs. Greedy creators committing Copyright infringement, and denying customers the services of which they paid for.

This whole "Eat the rich, give to the poor" mentality is so stupid because no one ever stops to think who it really hurts and shows that people only really spout mentalities like this because some idiot out there somewhere said it and people decided that sounded cool. Like there are times where yeah, it's fine to say "fuck the rich." But this ain't one of those times because the rich aren't the only ones impacted.

So yeah. This whole talking point provided is so dumb and such a cop out that people will shake their head yes too without really thinking about the nuance. Anyone with this mentality is part of the problem with today's absolute disrespect towards artists of all trades.

"Stop Defending EA! They need to defend their own stuff!"

I see some people accuse me or others on the anti-paywall side of things of this, and I want to talk a bit about this argument and why I think it's a bit of a misunderstanding. So I'm 25, (about to be 26 later this week, woo!) and even though I'm a grown woman, when I leave after visiting my parents my Dad still reminds me to drive safe and wear my seatbelt and not speed and stuff. Now, when that happens, my mom never chimes in and says "Now honey, you need to not do that. That's the police's job to make sure our daughter knows to be safe on the road." That's absurd, right? Because while it is the police's job to remind drivers to be safe, at the end of the day, my dad's just reminding me to be safe because he doesn't want me to be hurt, or end up suffering the consequences of my bad choices. When he reminds me, he's not defending or really attacking the police and their effectiveness at their jobs. He just wants to keep his daughter safe. Here's the deal. I don't really give much thought to EA as a company. They honestly could do a lot better on a lot of things, such as communication with their community, accurate representation for simmers of color, etc. But when I am here reminding people that Sims is an EA owned property and that folks need to not trample on that company's intellectual property rights, it's not because I care about the company. It's because I care about the person who could get HURT by that company deciding to defend its property. Because IF you are lucky, and EA decides to defend it's IP, you'll get a cease and desist letter. But if it's super obvious you've made BANK off of their I.P...well, we know how money-hungry EA is. What are the chances they'll try some legal action to get a cut or hell, a majority of what you've made? And they'd have a legal precident to. There's already been court cases that have allowed companies to sue modders and proven that courts consider EULA's to be LEGAL CONTRACTS that players enter into. So breaking the EULA means you are breaking the law. I don't think saying something along the lines of "Hey, you realize you're basically poking the sleeping bear that is this big company that has a TON of money by breaking their EULA. Perhaps you should NOT do that and instead make money in the legally allowed way they have given you instead that also doesn't screw over the community? Because it'd suck to see you get stuck in some legal consequences you aren't prepared for." Another reason I bring up this point a lot is because it's important to realize that breaking a EULA is a small beginning step in what can be a nasty pattern of behavior. “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” - Lao Tzu What this quote means is that your actions become habits, and your habits become the character of who you are. Those small choices, those little things you let slide, can ultimately lead to you making more and more choices that are worse until it becomes the core of who you are. We've had a lot of examples recently of custom content creators who started out doing things the RIGHT way and then ended up making small choices that ended up with them paywalling their content and giving the community a big middle finger. Sixam CC has been one that has often come up. He started off as an early access creator, and did things right for a long while, and has since started to paywall his creations. Since then, his attitude when questioned about it and towards his patrons has gotten worse and worse. Including this wonderful exchange:

SimsCommunity even called him on his B.S on twitter only to get no response. I wanna share some tweets [I think I've shared these before] from Ghastly Simmer A on Twitter, which really drives home my point. I'll share the screenshots, but you can find the thread HERE. Just as a trigger warning, there are some su*cide attenmpt mentions in these:

I love the part where she says "they were literally stealing from the entire community" because that really is the crux of the issue. Because it starts with "stealing" from EA but it's not really just stealing from them. It's also stealing from us. The community. The people who actually make this game amazing. Then they'll expand further into stealing textures, models, and other things they didn't make. Some may start stealing other people's creations to throw into builds. Then it can go further with tracking and sharing of information between patreon creators. And then it can get so bad that it devolves into doxxing, bullying, harrassment, fake allegations, and job contacting. And the truth is, I'm not spreading the word as much for the people who have already gone off the deep end as I'm hoping to reach the people who are just starting on this path. To you, the person who has just started paywalling. The person who maybe has only just begun doing little "exclusive gifts" for your patrons. Maybe you're young, just 16 and you think it's okay because everyone does it and you just want some spending money. Maybe you're older and you're in a really rough financial situation and you're tempted by the idea you could make just a little bit more by paywalling. Maybe you're a 20-something who is needing direction in your life and you think you could make a living at this but you feel you can't call yourself a "brand" if you don't make ~*exclusives*~ like other brand creators do.... You have a choice. The path you have started on is one that looks good at first, but it gets progressively darker. Is the money worth the potential pain? The potential legal consequences? The potential pain you'll cause to the community by stealing from them? The potential people you hurt if you end up getting in with the wrong group and start harrassing people because you get it in your head you are protecting "your creations"? Only you can decide what choice you are going to make. But I will tell you, the money's not worth it. Because actions have consequences, and although Karma may take a long time coming, she's nasty when she arrives. You reap what you sow.

You have a way to make money and still be part of this community that is viable. There's lots of well known creators who do very well with early access. There's lots of people (myself included) who would love to help plug your early access creations and support you if we have the margin. You have a way off of this path if you wish for it. Because at the end of the day, I don't want to see you and the community hurt. I'm here to help if you'll let me.

[anneapocalypse]

[tone of genuine curiosity, as clarified in an elcor-esque fashion because the internet renders all emotion an uncertain factor] You're welcome to skip this ask if you ain't up for it, but re: the perpetual debate over Problematic Subjects In Media, I've seen you in the past write many a critique on how fandom writes/treats women / BDSM / etc. Does this not fall under the idea that the writer has a responsibility in how they handle / frame certain issues in their writing?

Hi Silt! I’m up for it, but buckle in, because this is gonna get long. :)

Okay so the thing is, this is a broad topic and these days I try to resist treating it as a zero-sum game with “No Critique Allowed” on one side and “Relentlessly Harass People Who Make Bad Content According to Our Arbitrary But Obviously Correct Standard” on the other. 

Let me state clearly for the record: both of those options are terrible. Fortunately, it’s not all or nothing, and those aren’t the only horses in the race.

The way that female characters, characters of color, disabled characters, and other representations of marginalized groups are treated in media remains very much of interest to me. That hasn’t changed. My approach has changed somewhat over the years (as I’d hope it would, if I’m continuing to grow as a person), largely due to understanding that some rhetorical styles are more effective than others when you actually want to reach people or change something.

If I gave the impression that I want to absolve creators of all responsibility, that was never my intent. In fact, I mentioned critique and growth as part of the process in one of my recent posts. I do critique the media I regularly consume, and in fact the more heavily I am immersed in something, the more in-depth my criticism, because we’re best able to examine the things we know best.

What I do feel is that creators need room to grow, and fandom can be a great test bed for exploration, where creators work with elements of established media to explore different ideas and techniques. I’m not saying fandom is only a test bed, or like, a trial run for original work, because I don’t think that; I think fanworks are worthwhile in their own right, written for enjoyment and personal indulgence. But the fact is that many of us do or will create original work, and for many of us, creating fanworks helps us build a skillset we’ll use for original work too. 

That said, the cultural impact of fandom is more limited than that of popular media. I’m not saying it has no impact–and indeed, in a time when we have multiple known works of popular published fiction that are retooled from fanfics, when TV writers are on twitter regularly interacting with their fanbases, it’s probably safe to say fandom has more impact on popular media than it ever has before, but neverthelesss, its impact is still limited. The average piece of fanfiction does not reach an audience on the scale of a piece of popular media, that’s just a fact.

Does that mean we shouldn’t bother looking at patterns in fandom and fanworks? Hell no! Fandom is a microcosm–the patterns we see in fandom do absolutely reflect wider social patterns and in fact for very immersed fans it can make those patterns more apparent. And I think it’s good for us to discuss them, address them, become more aware of how we play into them–especially if we’re creating or planning to create original work.

Because these kind of discussions, when they are actually discussions, do work. I talk about the season 10 climate in the RvB fandom a lot, but even back then, I saw people change their minds about Carolina, not because they were accused of internalized misogyny or told to feel guilty for not liking her (shockingly, shaming people for their taste doesn’t have a high success rate in changing their minds), but because someone presented them with a compelling case for a more nuanced reading of her character. My experiences in past years led to me almost checking my watch to see fans turn on RvB’s newest female character this season, and you know what? It hasn’t happened. Things do change, and I don’t think fandom turnover is the sole reason. I would love to see some shifts in other patterns as well. For example, I would love to see trauma in female characters given as much weight as it is given in male characters. I would love to see more artists willing to draw Tucker with brown eyes. Those will be discussions, and we’ll continue to have them.

What I’ve seen happening in recent years, though, is a turn toward a certain ideal of purity in fanworks. It’s not an ideal of working toward more complex and thoughtful portrayals of characters; rather, it’s an all or nothing attitude that says some characters and ships and topics are Good and worthy to be explored in fanworks, while other characters, ships, and topics are Bad and anyone who touches them or likes them is Bad, and also fair game for targeted harassment.

I keep drawing comparisons between fanworks and original work for a reason–the attitudes that I find most unsupportable in fandom are the same ones I find untenable when it comes to original work, and when you apply them to the latter, their limitations are far more obvious. 

One example: the idea that it’s wrong to find any reasons to sympathize with an antagonist, or to look for an interesting and complex backstory, one that might make sense of (not even to say justify) their actions. That’s all well and good when you’re engaging purely from a fan perspective I guess, but what happens when you want to write a novel? If it’s morally wrong to find complexity and interest in villains, are you morally obligated to make your antagonist as bland and cartoonish as possible, to be sure no one could possibly relate to them? Is that good writing? Is that what we want?

Or take the idea that it’s morally wrong to ship unhealthy ships–and this attitude in fandom goes that shipping certain ships is wrong regardless of how or why, to the point that people will proudly identify themselves as “anti-[ship],” thus building a kind of identity around not shipping a Bad Ship (and giving rise to the umbrella term “antis” to refer to this attitude). Carry this into original work and… you’re not allowed to write unhealthy relationships? You’re not allowed to write any conflict into a relationship between two “good” characters lest it be perceived as “abusive” or “toxic?” 

Then there’s the idea that it’s morally wrong to write fic with dark subject matter, which is what my most recent posts were about. I’m never going to argue these things can’t be done badly but I’m absolutely going to push back against the idea that they can’t be done at all. And I could write paragraphs more about how incredibly reductive I find the whole idea that certain topics are just off-limits for fiction, that art isn’t allowed to be catharsis (especially in a tiny niche setting like fandom, for corn’s sake) but this post is long enough, so I think I’ll put a lid on it here. ;) But frankly, if someone’s going to write dark fiction insensitively, in bad taste, or just plain poorly, there are worse places for it to exist than on AO3 tagged with content warnings, where nobody’s paid a hot cent for it and the way out is just clicking the back button.

[the-ghost-king]

In short, both statements are true... It's not a black and white matter fiction affecting reality is a grey area and always will be because fiction is a social construct, and social constructs are ever changing therefore the effects fiction has on society are also always changing...

The idea is that people have to recognize for themselves because of what they've been taught via social constructs/science what is "morally correct or morally corrupt", bad thoughts =/= bad person because thoughts are not reflective of the individual but their actions are.

Mass media can affect reality via ignoring hidden levers of oppression, actively avoiding writing/creating marginalized characters, excluding certain narratives, or writing these things racistly/homophobically/etc. Writing one well written fanfiction will never hold as much power as say Grey's Anatomy or The Office, fiction can effect reality but it won't inherently do so in every situation...

If I read a book about a murder I'm not going to go an murder people because I know murder is wrong/bad/any other negative word you could add/etc. If I read a book in which an Asian character is described as "almond eyed" I might overlook exactly what is being said and think it is acceptable to other POC. Those two things are not comparabile hence you can't argue "media always effects and alters reality" or "reality is never effected or altered by media" instead the truth is "media can effect reality if people don't educate themselves or lack knowledge in certain aspects, and although this can be dangerous it is not the artists job to never create morally questionable content but instead to warn about that content in order to protect individuals who might have a hard time being a filter not a sponge, so that the consumer may bypass media which is hard for them to consume for some reason"

Media can effect reality to a varying degree but it is not always going to in every situation, this doesn't mean it won't ever effect reality either. Going back to the murder book example, I know enough about moral correctness to read a book about murder and understand murder is bad/etc. Someone else who has thought about murder may not think about murder as morally bad for some reason (murder is not not morally bad because this person doesn't think it is, murder is still bad they just can't see/ignore that perception), if that individual reads the same book and then murders someone- it wasn't the books fault, that person was either never informed murder was bad or didn't care/have the capacity to recognize murder as bad- this is dangerous but it is not the book or creator's fault, it is the fault of the reader who murdered someone and it is the fault of the people who failed to educate/protect/help them.

On top of that moral "correctness" is often worked into a piece of media- in The Great Gatsby the whole point of Gatsby is that he is everything wrong with the world, in Persepolis the whole point of Marji's growth is that things are more complicated than they seem and the government causes wars not the people, in Fahrenheit 451 the point of the novel is that book banning/burning is wrong and that without creative freedom society becomes stunted- you cannot have any of these pieces of media without bad things or morally incorrect things, and authors of these things are often aware of commonly discussed morally correct and morally corrupt things and acknowledge this as the point of the story.

So yeah op, both your statements are correct but it does absolutely depend on what is being discussed; multiple contradictions can be true all at once, it's called nuance and it's important... This isn't Twitter you've got more than 280 characters to fully explain your thoughts, ask questions, or read someone else's post to learn, if you're going to argue your point/thoughts/beliefs, use them so it can be a full and proper conversation or else you're just decontextualizing words in which case anything could mean nothing and nothing can mean everything

do people not realize how stupid you have to be to say “representation matters” and then five seconds later be like “fiction doesnt affect reality” you are literally saying two different viewpoints

[tonguetiedraven]

I have mixed feelings on this. You don't owe anything to a writer or content creator and shouldn’t be made to feel like you’re cruel for not giving them something in return for the thing they made... but that also doesn't acknowledge the fact that content creators do get energy from interactions. The top post is correct that someone who puts a lot of time and energy into something they create and gets absolutely nothing from it will probably feel down regardless of if they have another community to cheer them on. That will typically lead them to stop putting in as much effort to that fandom or creative outlet. It's not always easy to get that posse of friends, especially for shyer people or ones who are limited on what social media they use. There's nothing wrong with wanting comments. There's nothing wrong with getting sad if you don't get that reaction. You shouldn't rage at your readers for not commenting/kudosing but I see nothing wrong with asking for some interaction. No one complains when an artist post a picture and asks for likes/reblogs if it's enjoyed. I think the stigma of asking for feedback/interaction on writing needs to be knocked down as well. Again, you as a reader/fan/viewer, aren't required to do anything. You can read a fic and do nothing and you're not mean or evil for doing that. You don't owe the creator anything. Nor do they owe you anything. This isn't some sort of business transaction. The creator most likely made the thing for themself first and foremost and they got the joy of that at the very least. But why not let the author/artist know you enjoyed something? What is it that stops people from doing that? Is it lack of motivation? Is it anxiety? What barrier needs to be brought down to help the situation? I think if we work on bridging the gap between the reader and the writer instead of pointing fingers and yelling/judging/condeming the other side that everyone will have a better time and a better fandom relationship.

Obviously people don't have to comment on a fic if they don't want to, but I'm curious to know if there are certain things an author does (in the story itself or the notes) that make readers feel more eager or comfortable about commenting? E.g. Is posting a question asking what readers thought of something a useful prompt for potential commenters?

Great question! I’m curious to hear the answer as well. 

Readers: what can an author do (if anything) to make you feel more comfortable or welcome to comment? Do you tend to comment more because of the story itself? Or do you find author’s notes more encouraging?

And just to get the flip side, is there anything you’ve seen authors do in their stories or in their author’s notes that makes you feel less comfortable commenting?