#no matter if i block the tags or the users or even report them if its bad enough

[mx-paint]

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[kyra45]

Mural commission scams/Commission scams

(Mural commission scams/Commission scams)

If you are an artist who regularly posts art to tumblr, you may have received DMs/replies from accounts who are either asking to use your art in a mural because a client wants it or a message asking you if you take commissions (even if you have a post that would answer that question) before requesting you to draw their pet/family member.

These are actually known as scam messages/asks and were originally mainly spotted on deviantART/Twitter (X), Instagram, etc. You get these if you use certain tags as these mainly blank blogs are usually watching them for new artists to target and con money (or time) out of. These are never real people wanting art from you and are always scammers who have no interest in paying you for your hard work.

One of the most common things is that they will never look at your commission sheet or read your TOS, and will avoid answering any specific questions you may have since they’re not here to talk. Their talking is just trying to flatter you (claiming they love your art) and to make you think you’ll be getting a lot of money for little work. Unfortunately, these blogs do not want to pay you and they will not give you the funds no matter how much it is.

These kind of scammers will ask for your email and then send you a fake PayPal email claiming they sent you money but there was a problem and you need to ‘upgrade’ your account to receive the funds. This email is not officially sent by PayPal and is made to scare you into thinking something has went wrong. Do not worry. It is not a real PayPal email. It is a fake one.

Keep in mind these scam blogs will not use the payment methods you already offer. Their task is getting your email then trying to get your personal information.

If someone’s offering to pay you $300+ for a simple drawing of a generic dog took off Google images, be wary of the account and ask them questions first. If you feel like something is off, cut contact and report them immediately before blocking them.

If you drew the art anyway, just edit the drawing to have a block of text saying the commissioner was a scammer and then advertise your commissions!

Always have a clear Terms of Service around payment options and do not let high payments trick you into drawing for scammers.

I am post this with the art tag as it relates to art and the current situation of artists over here now getting the same scam messages that deviantART users get. Please share this post to your art friends.

[i-ate-a-purse]

Hi!!! Just dropping by to warn you guys not to buy this user’s adopts!!! (Please reblog so others can see!!)

I’ve been seeing them a lot in the cookierun tags. Their username is “milkycreampiggy” and it’s honestly really shitty what they’re doing

They’ve been stealing other people’s ocs (original owner is “marshii_marshii” on Twitter)

Stealing other people’s adopts (original owner is “didy414” on Instagram)

They even sold an Ai generated cookie made BY SOMEONE ELSE?? (Not sure who made it but I literally found it in a Pinterest board with other ai cookies 😭)

In short, don’t buy any of the adopts made my “milkycreampiggy” on tumblr, because they are all stolen from other artists (which you should go support instead)

I heavily suggest blocking/reporting them!

*Update: Seems like they deleted all their cookierun posts, but the others are most likely stolen too. Please don’t harass them btw! Simply block/report and educate others on the matter so nobody else gets fooled*

**Second Update: @vnillatree posted more detailed links to every oc! Pls go take a look!

**

[matan4il]

Most of the time, I don't bother talking about the hate and harassment I get, because I don't think haters deserve the attention. The person I'm gonna write about definitely doesn't deserve any, but they've started harassing others that I know of, not just me.

So this is basically a warning post for Jewish bloggers and bloggers who are allies to Jews, and a request for anyone who can, to report and block this person (if you want to warn other bloggers, then please consider a reblog, too). @staff, This is also for you, proof of a pattern of harassment and abuse. Please do something and protect your Jewish users and their allies.

They first commented here, denying the antisemitism of Hamas, with the url @grizzlyismyspiritanimal and they seem to change their url quite frequently. For now it's @fancowboy but expect that to change again. Since IDK if Tumblr will let the mention (@'ing their url) hyperlink to their blog, here's how you can check out what their current url is, so you can report and block them. Go to this post where they're tagged as @grizzlyismyspiritanimal and hover your mouse over their url, you'll see their blog pop up no matter what new url they changed to. Here's a screenshot of what that looks like:

Here's their first comment on my post, along with my reply. Tumblr arranges these comments with the oldest at the bottom, click to see the image better:

Of course they never provided a link sourcing their claim, instead they provided a link to an op ed, which was not written by anyone affiliated with Hamas. This link did not support their claim that "Hamas specifically stated," but that didn't stop them from ignoring the fact that they couldn't prove their claim. Next, they repeated an already refuted antisemitic conspiracy theory (and I linked them to a refuting source, which they just ignored), while using strawmen arguments (attacking statements I didn't make). Obviously, none of this addresses the point actually made in the post they were commenting on.

When I called them out on the antisemitism of their whole narrative, they pulled the "I can't be antisemitic, because I'm Jewish" line of defense, while also bragging in the same comment about not going the easy route by doing that:

I no longer believe people who say antisemitic things, and then use this defense, after several have been proven to have lied about being Jewish, but more importantly, and this is the point I made to @fancowboy, Jews are not immune to internalizing antisemitism, and repeating antisemitic narratives. But I was curious whether there was any sign of this person having any sense of a significant Jewish identity on their blog. When I went on there, one of the first posts I came acorss was an antisemitic one, claiming that Jews have stolen the Star of David from the Muslims... I know there are a lot of anti-Zionist Jews out there, and that many of them are very capable of saying antisemitic things, but I don't think even they would endorse this false claim.

What's ironic is that the post shares a screenshot from Wikipedia, which explicitly mentions that this Muslim kingdom that existed in the 13th century AD (roughly 700 years ago), adopted the six-pointed star, due to the Muslim belief that it was a symbol on the ring ("seal") of King Solomon, a Jewish king who lived about 3,000 years ago. In other words, this post literally points out that Muslims borrowed this symbol from Jews, not the other way around. And just for historical interest, the first archeological find of Jews using the Star of David is dated to the 6th century BC (around 2,600 years ago).

I pointed out to @grizzlyismyspiritanimal / @fancowboy that I no longer believe they're Jewish, because I don't believe any Jew would reblog this antisemitic lie. In response, not long after, this "I'm not a coward" and "you would've blocked me (aka fanatic)" person blocked me. Instead of addressing what I said, or taking responsibility for their wrongdoing, and deleting this antisemitic post. Our exchange started on Jan 5 IIRC, this post was reblogged by them on Jan 4, and as of Jan 25 it is still on their blog, as you can see here (post and current date highlighted in this screenshot):

A minute after they blocked me from the above blog, they commented on my pinned post with links to my fandom content from another blog, @verygardenerland and this comment made it clear that it was the same person. I made a mistake, I wanted my fandom space free from antisemitic harassment, so I deleted that comment, which means I don't have that piece of evidence that it's the same person, but I do have another bit of proof. Remember how this person claimed to be Jewish? This is how they presented it:

(again, using a strawmen, I never said all Muslims are terrorists, and never would, because it's simply not true, and if anyone made that claim to me, I would be correcting them)

Well, this is the VERY similar way @verygardenerland talked about their supposed Jewish identity, in a post they made solely to harass and DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) me:

Jews were almost completely ethnically cleansed from Muslim majority countries, so the likelihood of a random online stranger being a Jew from a Muslim country is generally incredibly low to almost non-existent, and two who just so happen to both harass me on my blog one minute apart is probably less statistically likely than winning the lottery.

It's poetic irony that the one comment the above post got from another blogger, is someone else also calling this person out on the antisemitism of what they're saying:

Gotta love the bonus misogyny with "bitch."

I'm also going to offer you this following antisemitic comment (which distorts the Holocaust, and refers to Jews insultingly as "the chosen ones"), which I also don't believe any person with an actual Jewish identity would make:

And here's also one of the last comments this person made from @fancowboy before blocking me on that blog and continuing from @verygardenerland. Just notice how we have the same antisemitic abuse themes from both of these blogs:

Once more, extra touch of misogyny with "that much of a pussy."

(I have to address the white phosphorus claim. There are 2 ways of using it in battle, one legal, the other's not. Israel stated that when using it, that's only in the legal way. There is no record to show the contrary. People just exploit the fact it's used, to pretend it's automatically illegal. But I accept this is an antisemitic libel against the Jewish state, that sadly some Jews might repeat. The rest is what makes me think this person isn't Jewish)

@verygardenerland noticed I write fandom meta, and harassed me on these posts. Here's one example:

Then they searched related tag/s, and proceeded to harass me by calling me names in comments they left on random posts from other fandom members. These are posts that had nothing to do with me. One of the people on whose post they were calling me a Nazi is someone I have never even spoken to. The OP deleted the harassing comment, but this time I did get a screenshot before that, so here it is, as an example:

Now, on top of all of the above, @verygardenerland also started stalking my main blog at the same time they made their first comment from this url, as well as my two back up blogs. One's last post was on Mar 2022, the other's on Apr 2021, so it's completely pointless to follow them, other than as an intimidation tactic:

And they sent me anon hate. The thing is, they made it explicitly clear through what they said and the language they used, that it's them. They sent more than one message, but the one I'll attach here was obviously meant to freak me out the most, because it falsely starts out as a fandom ask, and then transitions into abusive language, as well as telling me there's more blogs they're stalking me from, basically making it clear that even if I block this url, I'll still not be safe from their stalking and abuse:

From a certain point on, I told them that whenever they make a comment to me, all I'll do is just remind them repeatedly that they're an antisemite, which is exactly what I've kept to. That's when I even bothered to respond. I postponed blocking their second blog, 'coz I wanted to put this post together first. Now I'm done with them.

To wrap this up, here are some final screenshots of their antisemitic abuse, how they obsessively comment on my posts, or posts that in their mind are related to me, and how they have started directly addressing random people who are commenting on my posts, telling them not to talk to "it," meaning they're also using de-humanizing language when referring to me, and of course once more employing the DARVO tactic by accusing me of that which they're guilty of:

My activity feed yesterday:

And not just yesterday. Love the bonus hateful language towards those who are disabled...

And this is just one of their comments on a post simply mourning the death of Israeli soldiers, and putting it in the context of multi-generational Jewish trauma:

To summarize again, please:

report and block this person

reblog this post if you feel comfortable to, in order to warn others

@staff please do something to stop the abuse. Thank you in advance!

[cardnompfs]

I'm just gonna make this post just to condemn something, Read tags before you click read more.

Content Warning: Drama, Threat of Violence/Murder

Whoever is that anonymous user who just sent me an message encouraging me to kill someone, Fuck off. I don't want to be part of the drama of whatever you think you're having, But telling me to kill a minor? What a fucking psychopath you are. Not to mention you been harassing them nonstop for the past week, How could you think you are more justified to hide behind anonymous status just to sent this?

Everyone please report and block the anonymous if you ever receive such ask. Because no matter what side of the coin of the situation it is, No one should be encouraging or even telling someone should be dead, Regardless of circumstances.

End of story.

[dervampireprince]

Mine and other ASMR creators work is being stolen and put on Spotify as 'podcasts' without our consent!

There is a 'podcast' (actually, 'podcasts' plural but we'll get there) on Spotify called "Boyfriend audios and more!! by a user called Imagine. They admit the content they are posting is not made by them, but that does not matter. Reposting is not okay, even if you credit the creator, unless you have creator's consent. It's still stealing even though they gave credit to the creators, we did not give permission for our work to be put on Spotify. But this person did not ask anyone for permission before doing this. And as it's on Spotify it's likely it is monetized (I'm not sure if it's possible to have un-monetized content on Spotify) meaning this person is possibly making money off reposting our work. Even if they are not making money this is still not okay and it's still stealing our work. There are so many creators who's work has been stolen from larger accounts with hundreds of thousands of subscribers to accounts that have a couple hundred subscribers. The 'podcast' started posting on April 7th 2023 and updated as recently as yesterday (October 24th 2023). Plenty of creators offer downloads of their work on Patreon, or you could get Youtube Premium if you want to listen to them offline, you don't need to go to unauthorised Spotify reposts. And plenty of audio creators upload their work to Spotify themselves anyway! I've seen people's work reposted on Spotify that already uploaded the work to Spotify themselves anyway. The 'podcast' currently has 378 ratings (people who have decided to rate it out of 5 stars) so people know it's there and are listening to it.

[ID: My uploads of my 'visiting king' royalty roleplay series of audios on Youtube that I created, improvised, voice acted, recorded, and posted to my own Youtube channel dervampireprince.]

[ID: Reposts of my audios on Spotify that I did not give permission to be put on Spotify.]

I want to credit and thank Vincent VNNZ Vogel for finding this playlist and making me aware of it. Please go and share his tweet, and any other creator's quote-retweets of this situation. Please tag or make other creators you know or follow aware of this situation so we can hopefully either all report this or at least make people aware that this isn't okay. I found a report form on Spotify but I'm scared to fill it out as it talks about consulting with an attorney.

This is a list (as of today's date) of all the creators who's work has been stolen and put on this 'podcast'. Please go and support them on their own Youtube channels and do not listen to them on Spotify (or any other platform) unless they have uploaded the work there themselves: Sundew Audios, Joemama ASMR, sleepingzzz, A Warm Coffee Mug, cubby wubby, SunnyAudios, untitled whispers, Ubel Loss Ch, Redacted Audio, Girl in Dungarees, Mystric Mommy, Styxasmr, Eggsmr, Yuurivoice, Moonlight Haven, Nora ASMR, Ice cold audios, Goodboyaudios, Prince Kairo, Seth VA, LineChu ASMR, Icey ASMR, Wolf Audios, ShayBay, TeaDrop_Writes, Isagani VA, CardlinAudio, Phasmid ASMR, AzeruOfficial, JustBLASMR, SuruASMR, Asmodeus Audios, Man of Culture ASMR, TheSHyOne VA, Dream Boyfriend, OLIV3R ASMR, Akolmfi, YourgirlfriendASMR, ZSakuVA, DÆva Celestial, Moonlight Audio, Mallum Audio, Afterglow ASMR, Miss Cherri VA, izumi audio, Lilac ASMR, Mykie's voice, Vincent VNNZ Vogel, Jae ASMR, Poptart, HyperHedgehog, Sooshy VA, Ramble King ASMR, WhispurrAudio, Lamian Audio, Garr's Enclave, Dark and Twisted Whisper, GigixHunter, Cloudy Girl ASMR, Nept Audios, dervampireprince, adingGENESIS, Pie Crust Audios, Reality Dreams Audio, Green Leaf Audios ASMR. I haven't tagged them all here because I don't want to come across as spamming them, especially if they've already been tagged on Twitter, and it probably sounds stupid but most of them are bigger creators than me and I don't want to bother them. I also think Youtube might not like it if I tag a block of loads of different accounts all at once, I think that'll make Youtube think I'm a spam bot. But please do go and check out their channels by searching for them!

I feel sick. I'm shaking. I've had my art, as in artwork I draw and sell on Etsy, stolen any times and this year has been the worst. For those not following me elsewhere my Baldur's Gate 3 fanart got stolen and is being resold on t-shirts on Etsy, AliExpress, RedBubble and maybe more platforms. I taken one down and four more pop up. And that's far from the first time my drawings have been stolen. But I never expected my audios to get stolen like this. I have notices everywhere that I do not allow reposting, reuploading, or editing of my content. Though someone shouldn't need to have those things written down, it's common sense and basic human decency to not steal and repost other people's creations without their consent, whether you are monetising it or not.

I don't know what steps to take here. I hope Spotify takes this stuff down if enough of us report it. But the only people who can report it are the creators themselves. I don't have many connections or reach within the ASMR/VA community, but I hope other creators see this post, or other's posts about this situation, and are able to report and take down this content off Spotify.

As I'm writing this I decided to open the playlist up on the mobile app for Spotify where there is a 'more like this' tab. And sure enough. This is not the only person doing this. There are multiple 'podcasts' that are just full of stolen content. I'm sure this isn't all of them but these are the ones I have found. I have no idea how to tackle this. None of this is okay. There's more than just the ones in the screenshots here. There's one's that give no credit and just say 'I didn't make any of this' 'credit to creator' without naming the creator, straight up N-SFW content which is against Spotify's rules. And some of them in their about sections are complaining about getting copyright reports against them, thinking it's funny, saying their last podcast got taken down but they're just made this new one. All the content they are reposting is already online for people to listen too, some of it already on Spotify.

There's no excuse for reposting and not crediting someone (unless maybe they're doing it so the creator can't find and report them), and even with credit it's not okay. Message the creator first, ask them if they are okay with reposting. "But what if they say no?" then you don't do it. The same applies to any content whether it's ASMR or whether it's someone's fanart drawing. It hurts, it feels uncomfortable, it's crossing boundaries to take people's content that doesn't belong to you and repost, especially if you are monetizing and making money off it. I don't know how anyone can call themself a fan of a creator, how anyone can be a fan of a creator's work, and then do this. I'm scared to report for copyright. Multiple owners of these 'podcasts' have made it clear when they're reposts can taken down, they just reupload them again, that when their accounts get taken down they just make new ones and go straight back to reposting content. So reporting might not do anything. Even if anything is taken down, it will probably get reuploaded again and I don't want to be checking and reporting every day of my life. So then all I can do is raise awareness, tell people not to listen to these podcasts, make the creators of these podcasts know we are not comfortable with this and maybe that will make some of them stop doing this, maybe even make Spotify aware.

If you really like us or the content we make then be respectful of us and our boundaries.

This is Vincent's initial tweet about the situation, please help spread it and make other creators and viewers aware.

Please do not send any hate towards anyone who is making these playlist. I will not link to them on purpose. I do not want them being harassed or sent messages, and I do not want people going and listening to them.

I haven't proof read this so sorry if there are any mistakes. I am not well physical health wise at the moment and have been very stressed out this week due to a number of things that have happened and this is really the last thing I needed. I don't have the mental capacity to read back through this before I post it. I hope it's understandable.

[boy-gender]

something i wanna mention re: your post about the bots stealing photos, it’s important to note that many of these come from transphobic, exorsexist, and intersexist targeted data breaches and are sourced/scraped from malicious sites/boards like the k-farms.

i’m ace and sex-oscillating (sometimes i’m fine with seeing sexual things sometimes i’m not) and even when i’m at my most sex-repulsed i want everyone to know that the sex workers in the tag are some of our most vulnerable population members (no matter their gender(s) or exact identity/terms) because they’re being targeted by these sites.

idk sorry if this is reiterating your post but you’re the first person i’ve seen mention the importance of “these photos are stolen btw” instead of “oh yucky porn” like. y’all some of these are photos which were only intended for one or two people to see. these workers can now no longer regulate that OR how people interact with them.

they get so much harassment because of stolen photos when it’s been ripped out of their private accounts…. it’s awful

Thank you so much for adding that. I sometimes forget that not everyone is aware of how dangerous sex work, even purely online not in person sex work, is. I should have emphasized more that sex workers are not the danger; they're largely *in* danger.

And not just of being harassed, having their material stolen, or being targetted, but also by the death of internet privacy and net neutrality. Bills like fosta-sesta, and it's successor kosa- which is moving forward as we speak- are steadily erasing protections for anyone who creates nsfw content anywhere on the internet. It removes software and data tracking that allow sex workers to vet their johns before they interact with them, especially if they're going to meet up in person, and that data was one of the CHIEF ways human traffickers are found and arrested, and their victims tracked down.

KOSA isn't just a danger to fandom- though it is *also* a danger to fandom- but to very real people doing a job as old as time. Outlawing the expression of sexual materials is never going to stop sexual activity, it just forces it to be done in the dark, where sex workers, a large chunk of whom are queer, are at increased risk of being harmed, killed, or losing their ability to make a living.

One of the things I said in my post was that sexual materials belong on tumblr like they belong anywhere. Some people may point to the fact that that's no longer allowed under the terms of service- regardless of what tumblr "clarifies," they still ban it, especially from trans people. I was here before then. I was here when net neutrality still existed. And I am going to continue to operate under those attitudes until the end of days. I don't post sexually explicit materials myself, but I am never going to tattle on people who do, and people who do report those real users (not the bots) to staff disgust me.

If you're sex repulsed, I get it. I'm personally repulsed by the smell of pomegranate perfume. It's a trigger for me. But I am responsible for my feelings- it wouldn't be right to demand everyone everywhere stop wearing pomegranate perfume, and by going in public, I run the risk that I will bump into someone wearing it. I will have to remove myself from that situation.

And the same is true for if you don't like sexual content. You are responsible for what you do with those feelings. It's okay to have them; you can feel however you want about sex! But it's not okay to demand that other people cease harmlessly expressing themselves to conform to your feelings, and it's not okay to act like a fucking cop and purposely try to interfere with their job because you have the ick and don't approve.

Sex work is labor. Sex workers having ways to protect themselves and others is as close to "unionizing" as sex work gets. Stop interfering with what are basically their labor regulations. Block and move the fuck on!!

Do report the bots though. For SPAM. For STEALING MATERIALS. Not for the sex.

[theroundbartable]

I've seen it again today. Hate on tumblr:

(I'm venting a bit, sorry:)

"don't tag this ship here!!!!" (Context: a ship not referring to the art was mentioned in the tags, as a commentary. It was not one of my posts though)

"now WE (shippers of that ship) have to see it!"

"The ship that's actually in this post is bullshit, they have no chemistry etc."

Hater? Fuck you.

I went there specifically looking for the ship tag that you hate and I now have to see YOUR bullshit, so get a grip. Anyone can ship what they want, regardless if it has chemistry or not. No matter if it's "only popular because it's a stereotypical ship" Ever heard of crack ships? It's a thing. I don't need to justify my shipping choices, thank you.

Commentary in tags is tumblr culture. Just look away. I can't believe it, but I'm actually quoting Jesus on you: "if your eyes are what tempts you, gauge out your eyes. If you can't control your hands, cut them off." Ship shaming is so fucking lame, I'm so done with this.

You can block tags you don't like!

And yeah, okay, it doesn't always work. I personally don't tag everything I reblog either, but for the love of - someone. Just scroll past!

If it bothers you THAT much, You can make posts gathering awareness of the importance of tagging correctly or if the ship is problematic for some reason (e.g. incest/pedophilia/etc.) report the user. You can ask the poster to correct their tags but you don't have to be a dick to people online. Especially not in this case because it was clearly just about preference.

Do you know how many times I read fanfics with Leon ships in them even when they're not tagged? Do you have any idea how often I see Alastor ship art on tumblr? The ship the person mentioned above prefers is another one of my NoTPs that happen to include on of the few ace characters I adore and want to remain outside of ships. I like the art anyway and keep scrolling. And I do not judge them for preferring that ship. Of course they are allowed to ship whatever they want. You can appreciate things you don't like for different reasons. For the humor, for the art style, for the fic it's from... Yeah, you'll cringe, but that's the worst of it. But this?!

Don't attack people for liking your NoTP!!!

This isn't how tumblr should be! We can be better than that!

[shartingan]

apologies if this is kinda out of left field but what is your current opinion on ao3? me personally i do like to read and write fic on it due to the tagging system and other aspects but the amount of whack shit makes me uncomfortable and I do wish you could report harmful content easily (I think you can now but it's a bit of a process)

sorry this took so long to answer! i had to finish graduating college 😔 i tend not to think about ao3 too much or too in depth, and i don't really get involved in the discourse on this site about it. please take everything i say with a grain of salt because im uninformed and not really looking to involve myself more in this discourse! but i will gladly answer this ask with the information i do have because i think youre starting an interesting conversation and i like to talk ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧! feel free to hmu i dms, anon.

under read more because i started to ramble a bit. tldr please stop donating to ao3 and donate to one of these vetted palestinian fundraisers instead, especially for eid

personally i agree with all that youve said about ao3 in your ask already. i wont get on a soapbox and moralize about fanfiction and stuff like that because, again, i really dont care, but also i think it is really neat to have these spaces where people can safely interact with IPs in a transformative way and share their works with others without the threat of legal action. that's not ao3s doing, but it does provide a hub for people to publish without ever running into the treat of legal action. and, like you said, the tagging system makes it really easy to sort through fics and find what you like vs. dislike.

my main problems with ao3 come from its mismanagement, and the fact that it really has no competitors. ive been on ao3 since 2015, and i think the only significant change i can remember in the 9 years ive used it was the fact that they added the ability to filter out tags along with filtering in some. that's literally it. there could definitely have been some significant behind the scenes additions im unaware of, but from a users point of view, there has only been 1 update in 9 years that has majorly impacted the way i use the site. that seems like extreme mismanagement to me, especially since ao3 manages to meet and then significantly past all of their donation goals that they run pretty frequently. it seems like ao3 is making a lot of money which isn't being put into improving the site in any significant way. ao3 has been a site since 2008, its making a lot of money, and has a huge base of donors and volunteers, but it's still in beta? that seems like major mismanagement to me. again, this is just me speaking as a layperson not involved in the site itself.

also, it's pretty much become the only site that you can read fanfic on. there are sparse communities on tumblr, ff.net, and wattpad, but they're definitely a lot smaller and spread out. ao3 is the biggest and most centralized place for posting and reading fanfiction on the internet, meaning it virtually has no competition, and there's no alternatives that offer the same scale or quality. despite all that, it has almost no internal user moderation, and ao3 has actively been resistant to implementing those kinds of changes. that has resulted primarily in users of color getting targeted and attacked by racists. harassment is easy on ao3, and people can easily abuse the tagging system to do whatever they like. there's not even a perma-block tag feature, which is the first thing i would've implemented with the filter out feature. like you said, anon, if they're even implementing these changes, they're implementing them slowly, and behind a convoluted multi-step process. there's still little to no internal moderation or blocking system, which is just incredibly irresponsible.

ao3 almost has a monopoly on fanfiction on the internet, which means that it can kind of just do whatever, and no matter the gripes it knows people will keep coming back if they want fanfic because there's no alternative. and people keep chucking money at it because, again, its a hub for people to post and read fanfic without ever running into the threat of legal action because the website provides a safe, transformative works shield for authors. it's just insane how mismanaged the site is, but people keep giving it money despite that, so there's no real incentive for OTW to change anything or put in any effort. HOW IS IT STILL IN BETA. ITS BEEN 16 YEARS AND THEY'VE MADE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. MINECRAFT CLASSIC WAS LAUNCHED IN 2009 AND THEY MOVED THROUGH BETA TO ALPHA TO A FULL LAUNCH AND THEN HUNDREDS OF UPDATES IN THE SAME TIME FRAME AND WITH A SMALLER TEAM AND FUNDS, INITIALLY😭😭😭 that's just insane to me, there's definitely something weird behind the scenes, how can they be this bad at site management, it's gotta be deliberate or something.

anyway, please stop donating to ao3 and donate to one of these vetted palestinian fundraisers instead, especially for eid

[forgotten-daydreamer]

dear new accounts, here's a few tips to live happily here!

1. to avoid getting blocked on sight, set a profile picture! it can be your favourite character (if it's a fanart, credit the artist in your bio), a picture of your pet, of the sky, of some pretty flowers, of yourself even- but select something!

2. add a bio with age and pronouns at least; to be even less suspicious, add what you're into, like the name of some anime, singer, tv show or something. many users block accs whose age isn't stated. yes, you may put a false age, but that's your own responsibility.

3. reblog posts that reflect your interests. i personally block blogs with only 2-3 rbs because i still think they could be bots.

4. block bots and report them as spam! even pornbots have to be reported as spam, not as sexual content. followers don't matter here, so block and report bots immediately.

5. put tags diligently and accordingly. don't add random tags hoping to get more followers, you'll just get reported and blocked. e.g. if you write something about a specific singer, don't tag every other singer on earth unless they are mentioned in your post. also, commas aren't allowed in tags, tumblr will automatically split your tag into two. and if you want to report direct speech, hit two apostrophes instead, or the thing between quotes will become the first visible tag in your post.

5. use the filter function to avoid bad experiences. tagging is important here so if you filter the right tags, you should be ok (mostly).

6. don't use the "i'm a minor!!" excuse if you are being a bitch, because you will get dragged nonetheless. we all assume that users here are mature enough to behave decently.

7. all words are allowed here, you don't need to write "unalive" instead of "kill", "st4b" instead of "stab", etc.

8. if you receive a nasty anon message, click on the three dots you see in the little message square- you will be able to block that person from sending you anons ever again. you can also entirely disable the anon option, if you want to.

9. back on the tags issue, if you have a slow phone and/or slow internet, you should filter the #gifs tag. i don't think this is still a problem, but when i first joined tumblr in 2016 or something, the app used to crash every time i encountered a heavy gifset.

have fun on this hellsite!

[gorogues]

it-is-i-zim said: Hi, I have autism and I need people to leave tone indicators so that I understand how this are. From my perspective they were misunderstanding the situation and I only simply explained how the Suicide Squad works. Cuz that’s how the Suicide Squad works. If they try to go home, they’re head blows off. I literally do not see the problem with this. It’s literally explained in canon like this on multiple occasions.

it-is-i-zim said: This might just be my opinion, but it’s kinda ableist to assume that everyone is capable of understanding a joke you leave on a public post and don’t leave a tone indicator and then get bent all out of shape because someone simply just… Didn’t understand that it was meant as a joke.

it-is-i-zim said: And on top of that, come to me directly if you have a problem. Like… I’m not going to learn anything if someone I don’t follow vague posts about me and then blocks me when I don’t respond. Hey, maybe, I don’t know, fucking talk to me about it. I don’t follow anyone here. I just check the Captain Boomerang tag, man.

it-is-i-zim said: Not that it even matters cuz they’re not going to see this since I’m blocked

it-is-i-zim said: If someone had just come to me and said hey I felt those comments were rude I literally would have just deleted them. Plain and simple. No one told me anything. I don’t follow anyone here. I literally had my friend go through their blog to find a vague post about the situation while I went through the comment log to even have a goddamn clue what’s going on. If you have a problem with me come to me directly. It solves things much faster and I’ll actually know to begin with

Okay, I understand -- as it happens, both Katze and I are autistic too. I suspected you might be as well, that's why I didn't get angry at you. She and I have known each other a long time and we both have a long history of being bullied and publicly humiliated in our youth so I figured she'd be upset about your comments even though I was pretty sure you didn't mean any harm -- and obviously you didn't. You are welcome here.

I'm sorry that other user left shitty bigoted comments about you, which were completely unacceptable and that person is now blocked. You didn't deserve any of that, and I hope you're okay.

purplecyborgnewt said: Hey, random homophobic visitor who wishes death on people - your behavior isn’t welcome here.

No it isn't. That person is blocked now, and I'll be reporting them to Tumblr. Thank you for speaking up!

[llycaons]

blazed posts don't show up in the Blog Subs tab of your dashboard, so if you hit "get notifications" on every blog you follow, you can use that to have the experience of your dashboard without the blazed posts. (this will also by default turn push notifications on for any time any of those blogs post, but that part can be turned off). Being mean to people for their harmless blazed posts is unlikely to be at all effective for improving your tumblr experience, though.

hi, anon. I appreciate that you sent this. this workaround is genuinely going to be incredibly helpful, not just for me but for my followers and mutuals who also can't stand this feature. it's a shame we have to jump through so many loopholes to escape the ever-encroaching capitalization of the site, but I suppose we adapt

to anyone reading this - if you enable tumblr labs, you can activate 'blog subs', which is the second option listed. it appears to the right of the 'your tags' tab. it looks like it's working for me so far!

to address the other part of your ask, this isn't just about improving my personal experience. I dislike the feature itself and everyone who engages in it by 1. giving money to this godawful website and 2. using a new format to create advertisements. even if I like a blazed post (rare, they are 99% of the time godawful), I don't consider it harmless at all. it's contributing to the problem no matter the content of the post itself. you can blaze almost anything, and if it’s profitable, people will continue to do it. the moderation on this site is already terrible, and supporting blaze will absolutely make it worse. a big appeal of this site is being able to choose exactly what you see. blaze ruins that. and to bring it back to a personal experience, any intrusion onto my space I do consider harmful. I will block and unfollow for many things other people might consider petty

I do get the instant gratification of telling these people off. they're being annoying to me, they paid to directly disrupt my experience in a carefully curated space, and unlike most advertisers I now have direct access to them personally to tell them what I feel about it. so yeah, I'm going to use it. they paid for access to my and my opinions, so they'll face me and my opinions. play stupid games win stupid prizes, I guess

but you're right in that being mean to users blazing posts will not, in the long run, improve my experience. I do not have the time or energy to get into slap fights on the internet. and usually I don't like being rude to people directly, and I like to think I don't do it unless they're doing something that bothers me first. after this I'll go back to simply blocking and sometimes reporting blazes, like I have been. but I still have the right to complain to people who put unwanted content on my dash, and I will support that for anyone else as well. it's about the principle of the thing, I guess

again, thank you for your ask and the information. I'll definitely use it and try to make sure others do as well

[hadilsblog]

Hi, I happened across your post and thought it would be good to discuss. I don't write or interact with sexual content because it makes me uncomfortable, but I don't think that makes me better than other people, or the people that do create or interact with it. There's also no scientific consensus on the effects of pornography on the brain, at least as far as I was able to find from recent articles, so I'd be quite interested to see what evidence has convinced you of that. I get that you don't like it, and that is completely fine, but the internet exists and does not exist solely for you, so it will inevitably have things you don't like on it. Beyond that, people write and create that kind of content for all kinds of reasons, for example, if they've had traumatic experiences, as a way to imagine that things could be better with the fictional characters they like and that make them feel safe. If you dislike it, block the tags and the creators. I think you would benefit from a bit more humility and empathy, rather than just screaming about your disgust into the void. Again, I personally have blocked loads of things I don't like, including sexual content. It really is not that difficult, and it feels like you're being deliberately inflammatory for some reason. Good luck and happy tumblr-ing from here on out!

Basically, pornographic content gives the brain unnatural amounts of dopamine, which makes other behaviors more boring in comparison, so it’s very addictive because of the dopamine kicks. It gives unbelievable statisfactisfacton. And every time you watch you gradually need “more”. In this case more means rougher content, more inappropriate content: for example BDSM or incest. The logic behind pornographic content is the same as the logic behind taking drugs. And what makes this even worse is that pornographic content is far more accessible than any other drug.

It literally shrinks your brain. Studies actually show that even moderate amounts of porn can shrink grey matter in areas associated with cognitive function related to our ability to focus. Porn users report pervasive brain fog

https://fightthenewdrug.org/10-reasons-why-porn-is-unhealthy-for-consumers-and-society/

[xenith-eats-stars]

Hey I saw the whole harassment campaign against you brought on by somethingscarlet. I used to be a friend of hers and I had to break up fights between her and other users. She was not a good friend to have and I couldn't handle the relationship. I'm not a pure person by any means and I know that I haven't been a good friend to her either. But still.

Maybe this ain't news to you that she's pretty awful to people and needs some time to just... Well, idk, but find something better to do than hurt others like that. Reading comprehension or something.

Like I've seen shit people here online but in my experience, 1. Context and tone is a thing that is difficult to find here in online spaces. And 2. Reporting is best if you're trying to keep others safe, not teach someone a lesson. If you want them to change, well, good luck with that. But you're not their therapist. People don't change that easily. Hell, not even therapists can change people that easily, though they do a better job than the average Joe can.

And well, I don't know, but I saw the meme and I got the joke. Maybe it's not everyone's cup of tea and maybe some folks got triggered by it (as someone with bad PTSD, I get that wholeheartedly. I block tags but still, it doesn't always work). That doesn't make you a bad person who doesn't deserve to live. Or a thing, for that matter. I'm honestly pretty pissed at her for denouncing your humanity like that. Of all the awful things she's done, this really takes the cake.

TL;DR As her ex-friend, I'm sorry you had to go through that. You were not the first person hurt by her and with the way things are going, you more than likely won't be the last. I might even be recognized through this post and be the next one, but whatever. It'll prove my point and I'll find a way to manage.

Hope you're doing alright! Stay safe and have a good new year!

awww, thank you! i genuinely had no clue that she was doing that, but it doesn’t really come as a shock to me. people have different senses of humor and what’s funny to someone can be horrible and irredeemable to someone else. even though i agree that it’s my mistake to have posted those images without leaving some kind of warning, i do not condone and never have condoned such acts.

sorry for getting to this ask super late, but again, thank you so much! :)

[actualaster]

No, I'm talking about both.

Neither of them would show up in the searches or tracked tags for me, on mobile app or desktop. They actually did originally show up with the "contains filtered content" message but then that stopped, I reported it and was told that was a bug, and now they've fixed it so that they show again.

The fact that I could not see posts tagged with various things because I had them on my filtered tags list was causing me major issues because it meant I was missing out on posts in tags--and since I follow mostly niche tags I couldn't simply hope that I'd come across the post being reblogged by somebody else. To say nothing of my filtered content list which hits the scunthrope problem constantly.

I have tags like "long post" on my filtered, which means I was being unable to see things like meta posts or gifsets or fanart I wanted to see because it was being hidden entirely from me without giving me the option to click through and view the post. When I temporarily hide spoiler tags I was blocked from even having the option to check myself because the post was just gone as far as my ability to view things was concerned.

This was a bug that was significantly deteriorating the quality of the user experience for me and the fact that they've now fixed it means I am finally able to see posts in the tags I follow properly again.

I've had the issue of "tracked tag is a wall of white" before and it still was preferable, to me, to scroll past posts I had the option to click into or not than have that choice made for me against my will (either by hiding them entirely or forcing me to remove things from my filtered list entirely).

You're definitely welcome to be displeased that fixing broken functionality introduces different problems for you, but your original post seemed to indicate you thought this might be an arbitrary change for no good reason (which, to be fair, does happen plenty across many sites) and this was in fact a bug fix, if what I was told when the issue first began was true. Which is a different matter entirely.

I'd much rather they simply give users a toggle in settings to pick if they see the filtered warning or not and have that able to be different across dashboard and searches/tracked tags than have them go back to ensuring I never see a bunch of posts I would have loved because they were being hidden from my view and due to their niche nature they'd never cross my dash organically.

Tumblr staff please stop touching things. I LIKED when filtered tags didn't show up at all in my search results as opposed to the "this post contains a filtered tag" box. I have absolutely no desire to see how much of a tag is full of a ship I hate (or anything else I blocked). I don't want to see it at all. It's blocked for a reason. There will never be a moment where I see that filtered post box and think "yes, I want to expand and see this thing I hate, that's precisely why I blocked it"

[olderthannetfic]

About the fandom racism thing

Didn't ao3 just implemented a usar block feature? Like, that's gotta help, right?

Also, I do think some overtly and explicitly racist fics could be tagged by the system itself with the Racism tag, since the writer itself would never do it otherwise (I feel like it's very easy to spot when a fic is dealing critically with racism or depicting it as the horrible thing it is and one in which is glorified and in-your-face)

Then the content could be more easily ignored but wouldn't have to be banned

--

That other anon was blatantly talking about content policy, not block and mute features, but yes.

It kills me how many different people have come up to me with the bright idea to open the floodgates to bullying. Before you propose a feature where we tag other people's fics for racism, take two seconds to think about how this will play out in practice.

Scenario 1: It's user tagging based, so someone with 100k followers on twitter sics their minions on fics of their NOTP.

Scenario 2: AO3 enforces this itself, so 3 white Americans who happen to have volunteered to be on the Abuse committee scratch their heads over a reported fic.

Admittedly, IDK who's on committees currently or what their backgrounds are, but with the absolutely tiny staff AO3 has always had relative to the size and popularity of the archive, scenario 2 is not only possible but likely. 2 will go less poorly than 1, but it's still a recipe for disaster.

But okay, I'll bite: which fics specifically should be tagged? Can you point to some that aren't strawmen and that also aren't widely known to suck within ten seconds of them being posted (like sad plantation owner Castiel)?

I'm sure microaggressions are legion, but those won't be solved with this warning. Muting their authors is the answer to that, and it's only a matter of time before AO3 implements the rest of the blocking and muting features.

(I feel like it's very easy to spot when a fic is dealing critically with racism or depicting it as the horrible thing it is and one in which is glorified and in-your-face)

Then you're a fool.

The level of reading comprehension displayed in the typical internet comments section should tell you all you need to know about this assumption.

People are incompetent writers. People are incompetent readers. AO3 is full of EFL fans. Fandom is full of people from all over the world who understand identity and bigotry differently.

Go look at Captive Prince Discourse and then tell me that bullshit with a straight face.

Your average internet denizen can't even understand the concept of a pan-Mediterranean identity that contrasts with an Anglo or Northwestern European identity and how that might matter to the Australian author of Captive Prince. There is no hope that people will be able to pass any kind of consistent judgment on incomprehensible first drafts on AO3.