#just reminded of a few fans i've seen online who might not say nice things but then change their tune when they see more ppl liking the sho

[drawnaghht]

usagi chronicles fandom (fandom salt)

just a small thought i had today but - I notice there's always either a lot of misinfo surrounding this show or a lot of negativity - either the characters or the ship, either from new or old fans of Usagi or TMNT... can I just ask yall older fans to be NICER to the younger fans? like some of them might actually like the show but are too scared to say it out loud because of how wide the gamut runs for fan opinions. wish other fans were nicer in general about this show just for the sake of normalcy inside these online spaces :'D

like yea you're allowed 2 have your opinions and all but idk. be nice about it? there are way worse things to be mad about than a cartoon non-adaptation lol

i just feel bad for the younger fans bc i've been in their shoes. you like a show or character bc it really gives you something different or uplifts you during a difficult time.... only to see that a majority of "fans" actually hate it or only like it for the "idea" and like to change it more bc they think it's actually bad... lol i've been there and all I can say is. in that case it's good I guess, to just post on your own blog about it, or just post your art/fic online about it and live in your own bubble. maybe find friends who might like it or post things online and hope to find fans who like it just as much as you

(thank goodness I have friends and siblings to talk about this show to or I would go as insane as I did 15 years ago)

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

I remember fics booming during long Sherlock hiatuses back in the day.

True, but tumblr was still extremely popular at this point. Not saying it's dead now, but the porn ban definitely had an impact. I also think the outrage at the writers (insane and idiotic as it was) kept it in the mainstream. Back in the 2010s my mom knew about the drama surrounding Moffatt/Gatiss and the queerbaiting allegations. She didn't even watch the show, she heard about it on Pinterest of all things. Hell, the only reason I watched the show was bc I saw a thread here in like 2013.

We have a few people who are mad at the ending of go2, but it's nothing compared to the hubbub around things like Sherlock or SPN. The internet thrives on discourse, so it's not as interesting to others outside the fandom.

There's also the matter of internet etiquette and how, over the years, fans have come to expect consistent content and pay authors little to no mind. But that is a whole 'nother can of worms. I expect the go2 fics will become more popular over time, and I hope the lack of engagement isn't too discouraging bc I do really enjoy what I've read so far.

Hmmm. Yeah, this reminds me of what I talked about like last week or so with all of the tumblr polls I've seen asking how long people have been on here saying that the vast majority of users have been here for at least a decade. Sherlock's prime definitely lined up with tumblr's prime (I only watched it because an irl friend was blogging about it on here lol). I didn't come here until 2013 and was pretty blissfully unaware of the discourse for about a year, but I have heard from other fans that the online fan situation around that show started to get nuts right after s2 in 2012. Outrage does drive engagement, whatever that may look like. I think the ending of Sherlock s2 was perfect material for fanfiction with everyone wanting to know how Sherlock survived the Fall and how John would react upon his return, too. There were soooo many Post-Reichenbach fics, it was an entire genre. And then with s3, there was a flood of fix-it fics with people's anger over Mary, and exploration of her villainy.

You're right, gomens s2 doesn't have that same effect because it's pretty obvious that this is being written like a classic love story and everything is going to be resolved in the third act. There's no mainstream backlash. The only people who are angry about it, from what I've seen, are people who apparently don't know how basic storytelling works and are really pissed at Aziraphale (that's another reason why people might not be reading fics tbh), and those big mad over the kiss because, "it's ruins ace rep" and blah blah blah. But those people are in the clear minority. Some people may not feel the need to read fic because they trust all will be well in the next season and they just have to wait. Basically, the source material satisfies them enough that they're not seeking out fic in the same way they were after s1's homoerotic ambiguity.

You're totally right that fans have gotten worse to content creators in recent years. They want a constant stream of free fic and art without having to, god forbid, hit a heart button or kudos button. I've been in fandom spaces for a long time and that's definitely worsened over time, although I'm lucky that some fans have been nice enough about my gomens fics to make art/translations/etc. But that's for my s1 stuff and I know that's certainly not the case for everyone's fics. I hope the lack of engagement isn't too discouraging, too, but I completely understand if it is for some people.

[hjellacott]

Unable to participate in AO3 any more

Hi.

Some of you might know me from publishing fanfics in AO3, mostly Cormoran Strike ones. But for the past year or more, I've been mostly unable to put anything up in AO3. In fact, I've removed work from it and I'm seriously considering removing all of my work.

Don't get me wrong, I love AO3 as a platform and a community, there's nothing wrong with them.

Mostly, I think, English is not my native language but I live in London and I do life in English and am completely fluent. I love writing, it's been a passion for over a decade, I've been posting fanfics online for ages. But then you have to put up with people.

The first off putting experience came a few years back when some big fans of my work proudly told me they'd illegally gotten PDFs of my work. They said there were websites that illegally and without permission kept copies of fanfiction as if they wrote it and then you can download it from them, and said it as if I, who have never made a penny for my writing and who uses writing as a means not to kill myself, should be proud of having my work stolen. Back then I wrote in fanfiction net, so I deleted everything there and left the site.

I went to AO3 next and although I've got lovely readers in general who say very nice things, then I've got some readers that take my will to publish away. They take the love for publishing away. I've always said I write daily, just for myself, simply as a mechanism for survival. I don't care who reads or doesn't and my loved ones don't know I write. I have no ego need to have my work seen, complimented and applauded. Not fanfiction anyway. I don't do it for the comments and the kudos (although positive feedback of course feels wonderfully). Notice I say I haven't published in over a year - but I've written every day of my life for well over a decade. I've got hard drives full of completed stories many of which are not published or only a few chapters. If I don't publish is not for lack of material to share.

The thing is, first I began deleting some old material that I no longer wanted to share, because I considered that both my English and my writing skills had improved a lot and that old work no longer represented me. I didn't want the work given away, orphaned, I wanted to keep it mine as one of my children, simply not share it and not have it stolen. Then I got some truly hateful comments from people who considered I was some kind of fanfic thief taking their stories away without permission - I had to remind them the stories are mine and I only share them to help people, but I can take them away as I please.

Then my mental health got a bit fragile by life bullshit as it happens and I wrote what I considered some of my darkest (and best work) only for it to pretty much be ignored. And that made me feel so alone, like nobody could relate to my darkness. Of course it's an unreasonable thought rooted in my own mental health struggles, but I began to feel less keen to share dark things.

I began to notice that people's response to my darker themes sometimes was horrible. I got blamed for others' problems and bad mental health, accused of fucking with them, I got told I made them miserable... of course it all had a deep effect on me, even if I tried not to let it get to me. I said to them, look at the summary, the tags, the category, the fanfic being +18... you're reading under your own responsibility. I won't put in the summary detailed descriptions of every dark thing because it's just a summary and also I don't want to spoil the whole thing, but I use tags and categories like a proper Ravenclaw, so they should be enough guidance to protect yourself if you don't feel you can handle it. Don't blame me.

After that, I wanted to delete more work. Start over. Delete unappreciated work because it makes me feel lonely, heavily criticised work because people don't understand it anyway... each is like a child I'm trying to love and protect, each containing parts of me and my story and past that I want to keep safe and appreciated. Even the comments begging for new chapters felt unnecessary nagging. I felt like a filmmaker who can only sell its most commercial, empty films, while the deep, profound, heavily complex work gets ignored or hated. The fans of the popular, commercial things feel owners of my work, steal it or bs me for not giving more, and when I write truly meaningful things, they're misunderstood and disliked and with them, parts of my soul. It's not about not understanding or appreciating constructive criticism: it's that my work isn't for you, it's for me and about me, it's free, and you should feel privileged to get to see into my very soul like y loved ones don't.

And then one day I didn't want to publish anything any more. Is this happening to anyone else?