#maybe this will be incentive for me to work on my neocities site

[vladdyissues]

I really want to read your fanfics but AO3 is blocked in my country 😥 It's so sad!

Somehow Fanfiction.net is still available. I know it is too much to ask but if you ever decide to create an account on Fanfiction.net, please, let us know 👉🏻👈🏻

I actually have a Fanfiction.net account since 2002*, but I haven't used it in quite some time. AO3 is where I post all my fanfiction these days**, mainly because they would not be allowed on FFN for their ratings and explicit content. Both of the Danny Phantom fanfics I currently have on AO3 would not be allowed on FFN.

* I was around for both of the Fanfiction.net NC-17 purges and was able to avoid having some of my explicit stories deleted by simply changing the rating. Not the best practice; I now try to avoid doing stuff like that out of deference for my readers. I don't want anyone to get shocked by something that isn't properly tagged, rated or warned.

** Until last summer, I maintained a personal fanfiction archive using eFiction software on my own server, which would be accessible to everyone. However, the software expired and is no longer compatible with my latest version of PHP, so I had to shut it down. I'd been running it since 2004.

There is some good news, though! I downloaded my DP fanfics from AO3 and posted them on my Neocities account:

It's not the same as browsing AO3, but it's the best solution I can offer for now. Maybe I'll start downloading and posting all my fiction there. Let me know if you have any difficulty accessing Neocities, anon.

Additional:

I'm not sure if it's lawful in your country, but it might be possible for you to use a VPN to access AO3. I don't know if this is an option for you in your situation, or what devices you're using, but Mozilla Firefox is the best browser for privacy, and you can download an extension for a free VPN. I use a different type of service for my VPN, so I can't offer personal recommendations, but I invite anyone reading this to chime in with any tips or recs they may have.

[zarla-s]

I just read your TF2 bot post and I’m fascinated. It has left me with a few questions though. Why/how were bots a problem for so long? What was the main incentive for botting (is it botting or boting??) Was it just to be an asshole? What’s your favorite baked good? Have a lovely day and don’t worry about answering my questions if you’re not in the mood :]

The bots were a problem for so long because Valve just didn't care, sorry to say. They just let it happen. I'm not sure when they started coming in in force, maybe after the Jungle Inferno update like six years ago? But they just kept pouring in and Valve just ignored it. It's really shameful how bad they let it get, honestly. They just kept putting out community updates like nothing was wrong.

Eventually after a lot of community pressure a year ago (#savetf2) they tweeted saying they were aware of the problem and then nothing happened. Then there was ANOTHER community movement this June (#fixtf2), and THEN at the end of June they ACTUALLY did something, which is why everyone was so shocked and skeptical at the time. Like the bots got so bad, it's hard to get across just how bad it got if you weren't playing at the time. It was bad. To suddenly go from that to totally bot-free was unbelievable. Frankly I'm still shocked they're gone! No one knows why Valve's acting now or how they're doing it (personally, I think they must have been working on these anti-bot measures for a while... maybe even since their initial tweet, but no one knows), but I hope they keep it up. I can finally teach people how to play in peace!

As for why they'd do this, yeah, it's just to be jerks. They just want to make people miserable. They have websites on Neocities you can find under the tf2 tag (I was looking through it for sites to link to my tf2 site) and they state themselves that they just like making people mad. I don't think they actually hate TF2 so much as they love the power rush from destroying something so famous that so many people love. Kind of a power-trip/control thing, with a dose of being desperate for attention. A lot of the more notorious bot hosters had twitters or youtube accounts where they invited people to rage at them uselessly, they loved it. They've also formed communities around botting and trolling people, so they have kind of a social investment in it (although they were quick to turn on each other when they suspected someone was a mole). Some of them sell their bot software or "bot immunity" for money but I think that was just pocket change, I don't think that was a real motivator.

After having free reign for so long, they reacted violently to the community movement in June. They were positive that nothing would happen to them, so they kept doing more and more outrageous things to prove it. They DDoS'd and DMCA'd the site for the petition multiple times, they doxxed and swatted one of the main bot fighters, they impersonated figureheads and posted illegal links to things, like they were really stepping over the line and gloating about it. They were extremely confident and to be fair, who could blame them? Valve's negligence let them get away with it for years. To suddenly have that power taken away from them without warning made them absolutely furious. They're still seething about it right now and plotting ways to get back in, but they haven't found one yet. It's a matter of pride for them at this point I think, that and a childish tantrum about not being able to ruin other people's fun anymore. Them targeting a baby game version of TF2 (TC2) also points to it being a power trip. If they can't ruin TF2 anymore then by god they've got to ruin SOMEthing!

Even now I'm not sure Valve can hold the line and I keep checking TF2 Casual every now and then to look for bots, haha. It's just hard to believe! I greatly enjoy hearing about bot hosters raging about it and suffering though, they deserve nothing less. Die mad about it!!!

In terms of baked goods though I like all kinds, although right now I'm thinking about brownies so I'll say that. |D