#notice the number of times i said they're engaged in the tags

[doyouknowthischaracter]

Do you think the polls are inherently biased, because the well-known characters will be shared more wheras the unknown characters might never even reach their bubble where they are actually known by a lot of people?

Short answer is no.

Long answer is: well, if we want to be pedantic, an argument could be made that no method of collecting data via surveys, even self-administered surveys, is completely free of bias because that's just human nature and all you can do is minimize it by wording questions neutrally, trimming outliers, etc etc. With that out of the way, one very important thing to note here is that this isn't an opinion survey. The question being asked is very straightforward and the answer is not something that can be swayed or influenced by peer pressure, propaganda, unwillingness to disclose private information, or any other factors, be they internal or external. You either know a character or you don't. I mean, people could certainly lie, in either direction, but 1) why would you do that?? it's not even like we have winners or losers here, and 2) there's nothing I can do about it anyway.

Now, when it comes to sampling bias (which, from what I understand, is what you're actually asking about) my answer is still no, I don't think that's accurate. Popular characters will reach more people and get more votes overall precisely because they're more popular. If this were a tournament style blog or if I were asking your opinion on the character in question, then yes, I could definitely see how more well-known characters would be at an unfair advantage (or how tagging the polls with the character's name is encouraging that bias, as it's been suggested before), but this is not that! Well-known characters reaching their bubbles faster/more efficiently than obscure characters is an inherent part of being more popular. Everything is working as intended.

All that being said, there are a few factors which I think could influence results somewhat unfairly, but I wouldn't necessarily call them bias. They're more like limitations of the medium.

Firstly, the time and day of the week when a poll is published. I don't have access to this kind of data right now, but off the top of my head, I'd say Sundays around 10pm is when Tumblr users are most active. That, coupled with the fact that most users are from the United States, means that polls that come out of the queue on US Sundays during that time window have a chance to reach more people than all the others. However, this potential problem is organically circumvented by people going back to see previously posted polls, finding polls through reblogs or from tag searches, etc. So it's not really a significant difference. I haven't noticed the numbers reflecting this yet either, but in theory that's how social media works, so I thought it was worth pointing out.

Secondly, polls that were posted early on when the blog had fewer followers reached less people, on average, than polls being posted at the moment or that will be posted in the future. No argument there, that's just a fact. But, again, this is a limitation of the medium. Potentially, I could repost older polls at some point in the future and reassess characters' popularity, but how do I choose which ones? All of them? Wouldn't we just get stuck in a loop of reposting the same characters over and over then? That'd be no fun. So I don't really think there's anything to be done here, unfortunately.

Thirdly, meme-able characters will be see better engagement and consequently higher numbers of votes. Point in case, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Once again, not something that can be helped, not really. I do my best to maintain uniformity in how I format the polls and which pictures I choose (as high quality as I can find, cropped adequately, consistent size, etc.). But some characters will just have better chances of being shared around by virtue of featuring in memes or having some recognizable line or something like that.

To sum it up, overall I don't think there's an inherent bias in how the polls work at the moment. I do think there are certain factors that could marginally influence voting numbers, but not the votes themselves. (Which is why I've decided to compile two separate lists, by number of votes and by percentage-- they measure slightly different things, but that's a post for another day.) As long as every follower of this blog is delivered every poll to their dash and everyone pinky promises not to lie and screw up my numbers on purpose, then I'd say we're golden.

This is probably more than you asked for lol, but hopefully it all makes sense. And as always, feel free to share your opinion. I'm always happy to hear it!

[utilitycaster]

(Long ask warning)

Hello! I'm jumping on the appreciation train to say thank you so much for all of your meta and analysis! I just found your blog today, and you've already given me so much clarity and context for things I've been noticing in the CR fandom lately.

I quite literally spent my summer living under a rock (in the woods leading spelunking for scouts!) and so was completely out of the loop from early June through September. And while I am not yet caught up (I'm about to start ep. 65), I have been going through the tags and ao3, because I primarily engage with fandom through fic and I don't care about spoilers. And I can't help but notice that everything being written for c3 lately is just... monochromatic. The Hells have such interesting characters and premises. One would think they're ripe for creative and interesting fic. And yet even what little gen fic that I have seen since returning to civilization has largely been boiled down to reiterative mush with vaguely shippy overtones. I can totally see this being indicative of the cresting and waning of the Imodna and Callowmore shipping you've been discussing.

I've gotta ask though, is it really just shipping that is causing this problem? Or is there something else in the source material that you think could be affecting fic in particular?

This is the first time I've been in a fandom with ongoing source material in over a decade. I'm used to watching people beat dead horses in their own little corner, safe in the knowledge that I can block them and it isn't going to affect my experience in the slightest. I guess I'm just having a hard time believing/remembering that shipping can be this incidious.

So a couple of things: first, I was not heavily involved in fandom until Critical Role; I have a decent amount of background knowledge from being on Tumblr and because I do tend to look into/research this kind of thing because it's very interesting to me, but you will probably have better snapshot of what fandom looked like 10 years ago than I do. Second, fanfic has always been a tiny aspect of what I've engaged with and I do find the bulk of it to be dull and samey (which is why it is a tiny aspect), so again, you probably are a better judge of the quality of fanfic elsewhere.

With that said, as part of a much larger discussion of which I only have as mentioned pieces of the puzzle, I do think there's been a shift over the past decade or so of like...people expecting the source material to reflect fanfic-y desires, and resenting it when it does not; people not seeing the point in enjoying non-canon ships; and a broader theme of self-infantilization. This has to a small extent spilled over into published fiction, though thankfully there's plenty that isn't that. It's not just shipping (though that absolutely can be insidious to the point that people have been harassed and doxxed over it); I think it's a general taste for pablum that has been growing within fandom spaces.

I'll link a few posts I've made and a source that, while I cannot vouch for it per se I did read and found enlightening at the end but I think a really indicative example as of late was the fandom response to the show Good Omens (spoilers for Good Omens S2 in the next link if you are by any chance avoiding those). Obviously do not do anything obnoxious to the person who wrote this question, but there are a worrying number of people in fandom spaces who believe this unironically and uncritically: fiction exists to "save us from hurtful reality." And I do understand that the tumultuous politics and world events of the past decade are probably a factor; but I mean, have you looked at literature from the first half of the 20th century (or like. the second half, for that matter)? It is, in my opinion, only going to help put our modern world and issues in better context and honestly make you feel better in the long run if you read, say, The Great Gatsby or The Things They Carried instead of burying your head in lower case song lyrics ... (hurt/comfort, fix-it, happy ending, 6k) and like, to be clear, I have written a small portion of lower case song lyric-titled fics myself but most of them aren't terribly happy, and even so, god I'd be horrified if that was all people were reading.

We've seen it across fandom at large with the polls; I have not watched season 2 of Our Flag Means Death in part because I've realized with horror that this mentality has swept, plague-like, through that fandom; people are acting like having a canon queer ship on a small premium cable show in 2022 is world-changing and unprecedented while also kind of ignoring everything that isn't the central ship (including valid criticisms of how this takes a real-world plantation owner and turns him into a goofy fop, how there's precious few female characters and none in the main cast, and how the actually far more groundbreaking nb character is pushed aside in favor of the core M/M ship). Spoilers for Good Omens again (sorry in advance, Good Omens 2 was a realization point for me how deeply and widely this rot has set in in some places and I have a bunch of sources of people being like "guys stories require conflict and tension to be good" in response to the overwrought moaning that the story wasn't unambiguously happy) but this is another author responding to the "the desired endpoint of all fiction is obviously to have your ship living in a small house together in bliss and anything else is torment" mentality.

In addition to shipping another factor is, I think, people overidentifying with characters and as such being reluctant to actually put them through any sort of hardship, however minor. I recently reblogged a post about the origin of the concept "Mary Sue" and it led me to read a bit about its history, because it was in fact created by women. It was a woman in the Star Trek fandom who was sick of spending money to buy fanzines (pre-common home internet, let alone pre-Ao3) only to find the vast majority of the stories to be this "here is my self-insert who is perfect and beautiful and pure and every other character thinks she is the greatest even if that's entire OOC". It was a frustration with the abandonment of the characterizations in the original work. And that's true today - I have read a popular Imogen and Laudna fluff fic to see what the deal was and it stripped out so much of their premises and characterizations it was unrecognizeable as them but for the hair colors and occasional cringeworthy attempts to replicate Southern US dialect - but what was notable is that those people were at least being honest and writing OCs (though to be fair a lot of them were also young white teen girls and the only woman in TOS was black and that was probably also a factor). Now, you get people who cannot tolerate any analysis of characters that is less than flattering because instead of having an OC, they are identifying so strongly with, for example, Imogen or Ashton, that they cannot separate out the real character or understand this is not an attack on them (or, to be blunt, as someone who sees some of my own worse traits in both those characters, a necessary critique). It's not shipping, but it is that same "fiction should only ever be a soft blanket or a flattering mirror, never a dark mirror and certainly never a door" mentality.

I do place a little blame on fanfiction itself; I think having something that is roughly made to order and tells you exactly what it is up front means people start to think that is the only way, and that's why we have people claiming Chipotle is the height of cuisine while making gagging noises at the authentic Mexican restaurant except for fiction. I think fanfiction can be great; it's fun to write and I have read some great pieces. But a lot of it is mush and formulaic and as that Mary Sue history points out, always has been.

So anyway, to Bells Hells: I think past campaigns also had a lot of dull fanfiction; I think the Nein lent themselves more to poorly written angst than poorly written fluff but yeah a lot of that was really samey and bland in its own way. Fanfiction has always been formulaic to a degree but I think we're starting to see the generation of people who really have read more of that than like, books, and sure there are shitty books, but man there's a LOT of shitty fanfiction, and increasingly, I find that shitty published books are bad because they're too much like fanfiction. [If I get the chance today I have a post I want to write about the ignorance of fantasy tropes in the current fandom which I think is also driving some of this and which I alluded to in my post about shipping; like, I feel the almost automatic but oddly thought-free resistance to gods and fate and the 'right' way to respond to a tragic backstory comes from this ignorance; this also is a case in the D20 fandom when they've dipped into sci fi.] Shipping definitely is a factor, and I think again C3 has an influx of fans primarily here to ship in that "my ship must become canon and must 'win' for some arbitrary definition thereof" which is probably why so much of the fanfic sucks, but again, this is a larger self-infantilizing and entitled mentality that goes beyond mere ships.

Further reading (mostly my own posts but not exclusively)

The fandom echo chamber (also Good Omens spoilers in a broad sense), not by me

Some discussion on queerphobia being inserted only as a tool to assist with specific shipping narratives (I think this ties in again to like. people need obstacles to justify why the characters aren't already in their cottage by the sea but once the characters are together they discard these obstacles even if they are systemic and would still exist, which makes for really bad fanfic bc it's clearly poorly plotted and thought out)

Me on why this campaign isn't good for shipping but a lot of the fandom showed up primarily to ship (might be the post that prompted this ask tbf)

Fandom monocropping (not my post)

My treatise on Imogen and Laudna specifically which honestly, even now that they are canon, still largely holds up re: the fandom and a related one about similarly fluff-centric Change is Evil and the highest order of fiction is Two Blorbos In A House With Zero Problems mentality (not by me but I've been part of that discussion)

[outrunningthedark]

Realistically, how long do you think 9-1-1 has left? It’s extremely expensive and the ratings are officially below ABC average (which is not a good number to begin with). More importantly, the writing this season has just been bad and the GA is noticing. I’d bet money that Dr Odyssey isn’t getting renewed but at this point, I gotta wonder if the network will pull the plug on the new spin off given the way things are going.

I've always thought 10 seasons was a good benchmark because it's such a "complete" number and, if we were lucky, Angela and Peter would be willing to stick around for that long. I've never been confident that OG 9-1-1 could survive without them so I'm fine with ending the show once they're ready to move on to something new. But now? I will be surprised if ABC commits to a 9th season, tbh. The writing we're ALREADY witnessing is reminiscent of s6 when Kristen & her team were facing cancellation and didn't want to leave anything unfinished, like Hen making the decision to no longer pursue her medical degree, Buck and Eddie ending the season in new relationships after being single for the first 17 episodes, Buck needing to go through another near-death experience to make peace with how his parents handled Daniel's death, and Madney going through "couples therapy" IN ONE EPISODE in 6A and then getting engaged in 6B. @sebastienlelivre said this in tags (I'm always looking, guys, so please keep talking <3), but considering that the strike prevented new series from being produced, it makes sense that ABC IMMEDIATELY picked up 9-1-1 before the strike went into effect. That's one time slot they didn't have to worry about. Angela and Peter being the stars just made the decision that much easier, lol. And as for why we've gotten an 8th season instead of just stopped at 7? Well. The spinoff wasn't confirmed last season, was it? ;)

[xerith-42]

Been noticing a trend in regards to the like vs reblog issue.

This post is a very rambly post that I don't really have a thesis or conclusion on, I've just noticed some things and would like to share with the class.

In regards to likes being worthless, this is absolutely true. Likes do fuck all on Tumblr, any sensible user has their likes turned off, and they really just inflate note numbers but then you have 25 notes and they're all likes and... Replies and reblogs actually say something.

Liking a post doesn't say anything other than "I saw this content and liked something in it." It doesn't tell a poster what you liked specifically, what about this content stood out to you. When someone reblogs one of my posts with a paragraph and a half in the tags, that means something because they aren't just telling me they like my posts, they're telling me what about my post engaged them.

Now this debate is something that's been raging on Tumblr for objectively too long. I remember lurking on Tumblr as a child in 2014 and seeing this discourse alive and well. People were yelling at artists for increasingly begging for reblogs, and artists were yelling at people for not rebloging their work. It's 2024 AND WE'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS.

I wanna say let's put this to bed, but honestly I don't even know if that's possible. It's not like this conversation has exactly evolved over the last 10 years, likes are just as useless as they were 10 years ago compared to Tumblr now. But now... Mass liking is way more of a problem. Before Tumblr did have a very active community using its tools to keep that community alive, but now it's slowed down considerably.

Many people have attributed this to younger users treating Tumblr like Instagram, where you can't really repost people's content like Tumblr, and likes are still worthless but people aren't as annoying about it. This... Is probably the case. I usually hate blaming things on young/new users, but it's something I've observed in real time.

I'm a little multi-fandom. And by that I mean I have a fandom focus and occasionally dabble my hands in posts regarding other pieces of media that have less to do with Minecraft Roleplays. It's in these other posts I've noticed this difference in how people use this site.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: As said above, this is observational and not meant to be a condemnation or judgement of any fandoms. It is just my very limited experience that I think can help shed light on the issues at play.

Now. Whenever I've posted something related to Ace Attorney, I get a really active response. There's still an imbalance of likes and reblogs, but the scales are a lot closer to even on those posts than any of my other posts. However, when I posted something related to The Amazing Digital Circus, my post did start getting a lot of notes as that fandom found it but most of them were likes.

I think the reason this happens is because Ace Attorney has had a presence and fandom on Tumblr as long as Tumblr has existed. A lot of people in the fandom have either been around for a while, or have seen what happens when the older community fosters an environment of rebloging as important. TADC is a completely new show that very suddenly gained a massive fandom, and a lot of people in that fandom might not have a lot of experience being in a fandom on Tumblr.

I never used Tumblr for fandom when I was in my peak Fandom TM days. I used Tumblr for shit posts, and went to objectively worse platforms like Amino for my fandom experience. I remember when I first got on Tumblr I had a tendency to like and scroll, like and scroll, like and scroll, and only reblog posts I had something to say about. As if it would be a crime to just reblog a thing I found funny or interesting even if I didn't have anything to say.

It was seeing posts where people talked about the importance of rebloging that kicked my brain into remembering that shit is important and while I'm not perfect, I make an active effort to do more than just like a post. It's something that might be more intuitive for people who have been on Tumblr in fandom spaces for a while, but for those of us who are still learning it's a hard habit to break.

And this is something you do have to put effort into doing, but I promise it's worth it. Because not only does it ensure that your community of passionate people doesn't die, but because everyone has something to say and should say it. We should foster an environment where there's frequent, open, honest discussions about the things we love. And when you get into this environment, it's so much fun.

It's so much fun to go back and forth with people in reblogs, to read unhinged replies, to respond to someone else's post with a take you didn't even think you were going to make when you started your reply.

Reblog don't like because likes are worthless, but more importantly than that

Reblog because it's fun to talk to people

At least that's my stance on it.

[feralkwe]

in an effort to not succumb to a potential panic attack, i will instead focus on some fandom nonsense! i've had a little influx of new follows, almost exclusively people i've seen in the ffxiv tags and watched from afar for awhile now, so maybe i should do a little intro post.

i'm feral kwe (kwe means woman in anishinaabemowin) but you may feel free to call me just b. just a tired, queer, indigenous lady who is an eldritch being in tumblr years (my original blog started in 2008 or 09) and gets a little too lost in the blorbo sauce. the fandom i'm currently most active in is ffxiv, but i dabble in good omens, mass effect, a couple of the gay vampire shows, and have been in and out of marvel fandom. i'm a dragon age old, my first online fandom and the one i went the most hard in up until now, so consider that a blanket warning for the upcoming months, since i'm not sure yet where i'll fall into it again. for the foreseeable future, i'm quite happy in my ffxiv brainrot, and will happily go on and on and on (and on and on) about my wol, kit hareington given even a breath of permission to do so.

i write fic! i'm feralkwe on ao3, and have the highlights marked in a pinned post. i write original work, too, and have even sold and published some. it's easy enough to find, so i won't link it here, but if you are curious and want to ask me about it, please do!

speaking of asks! my askholebox is always open and i welcome people to just drop in unannounced. consider this open provocation to do so! i don't have anon enabled, and likely never will. my life is better for it. 11/10 do recommend as a life choice.

i don't follow a lot of people. i keep the number artificially low for the sake of not having so much go by that i can't keep up. that said, i do try to check in on the blogs of people who follow me from time to time. i don't really make mutual/non-mutual distinctions. since i block with abandon for any multitude of reasons, if you're here at all i already love you. that said, if you follow @yamisnuffles or @icescrabblerjerky you are likely to see a lot of overlap. they're my ride or die lifelong besties and we exist in a state of mutual whimsy that can best be described as 'lol ilu'. do with that information what you will.

i try my best to use tags consistently for things i know need it. that said i do my best to stay out of active dragon age main tags, and do not use any of those in original posts. the most pertinent one, the one i was asked to tag the most, and the one i've had the longest is #and that's jenga, my personal anders tag. if you need something tagged, please ask, and i'll try my best to accommodate reasonable requests.

i probably haven't read your blog description. i probably did not notice if you have a dni. i assume if you're here that i don't fall under any umbrella you desperately do not want to engage with. i do not vet the blog of every poster i reblog. if you think i've done something harmful, please give me the benefit of the doubt that i did so unknowingly, and give me a chance to correct it. i'm human, and so are you. i just ask that we try to be excellent to each other.

i think that covers everything! if i missed anything, like i said, ask! or just come say hi and introduce yourself!

[vriendenboekjes]

I was tagged by @quimerical to answer 15 questions and tag 15 people to do this as well. thanks so much!!! <3

1) named after anyone? my second name is after my maternal grandma :) my brother's second name is my paternal grandpa's so we're even. I think his was for a hope of better family relations on that side but unforch that didnt really happen but MY grandma RULED

2) last time you cried? uuuuhm i had just gotten feedback on my thesis chapter and it was a bit too much to handle

3) do you have any kids? i do not

4) do you use sarcasm a lot? not really i think? Sometimes for humorous effect but lately i think ive gravitated more towards dry statements.

5) what’s the first thing you notice about people? walk walk fashion baby. no but i think hair? i love looking at hair and hairstyles so that's why i think i pay attention to it. Also what colours they're wearing.

6) color of your eyes? greenish. i guess in english you would call it hazel but in dutch there isnt really a word for it as far as im aware

7) scary movies or happy endings? dependsssss. on my mood. I think a lot can be said for either.

8) any special talents? not really.

9) where were you born? the hospital in a city.....

10) hobbies? i play lute and guitar :) taking care of my plants, going for walks, and i love to sing but im not good at it, im also learning mandarin online and it's really fun!!! but also slow going. And hypothetically i love to read even though i haven't really had the time for it lately. I also really want to get back into writing and other forms of art, but i need to build up my confidence/rhythm again. Also sudokus and other puzzle books and lately ive been really into i think it's called code breaker? You get 3 letters that are assigned a number and then you have to figure out the other words on the page and which letters correspond to which numbers etc. Also in the colder months i love textile/fiber stuff like knitting and needle felting but NOT when it's warm out.

11) any pets? my parents have a dog :)

12) what sports do you/have you played? nothing these days but i used to swim, do ballet, jazzdance and contemporary. I tried tennis and hockey (sooo bad at it) and kickboxing for about half a year but decided that wasn't for me. Also I had a gym card for a while and that was pretty fun!

13) how tall are you? about 1,73

14) favorite subject in school? im assuming school means high school here? i loooved english class but i'll be honest a big part of it was that i had SUCH nice teachers. Harder to say in uni. I think most of my major-specific courses were quite nice. But the best time in my life was when i just had an internship and i had soooo much time on the side to do other fun things. The country was kind of going in and out of lockdowns during that time so there wasn't THAT much to do but at least i had lots of time to read.

15) dream job? i don't dream of work but uhm maybe this isn't really the point of the question but talking semi-realistically I think programming for a festival could be really nice. I think it's such a nice puzzle of overarching theme, then how does the performance/installation fit with that, then maybe a talk on the side. A few years ago for above-mentioned internship I had to put together a fictitious program and it was so much fun to think of all the possibilities and how to engage the audience the best way.

tagging: @xiaoguiwang @pussykech @brigittefitzgerald @stardewvgf @wulfhall @farhanqureshi @pinkloving @lynchiangf @engulfes @morqwen @soulmvtes @pumpkinspicedlesbian and 3 other people i cant think of right now...... no pressure to do this of course and if i havent tagged you but you want to do this please tag me!!!!

[atla-confessions]

"Katara stans seem to be more majorly Zutara. While Zuko stans almost match in number Zutara and Zukka. Although, I will say, neither seem to be the majority of the fandom (at least not over 50%).This does make sense because according to many surveys Zutara stans are mostly women. However, your statement on Zutaras making up the majority of Zuko stans is clearly false. Zuko just has a lot of stans in general and you likely like Katara more and hence associate it with Zuko as opposed to Katara. However Zutarians make up a larger proportion of Katara's stans than Zuko's."

I appreciate the time you took into breaking down ao3 percentages and their correlational relationship to the characters that get fics written about them, however just like any other fanfiction site with the purpose of exploring stories outside of canon the data you will find there is not reflective of the general fandom's perception of the series or the characters. Looking through the katara centric tag on here or the katara defense tweets/praises on twitter will show you that majority of these people are either multishippers who like zk and ka or people partial to ka (possibly because its canon). These blogs/users were also particularly loud and vindictive when the live action came out as opposed to blogs that really just like the zk pairing. There are zk fans that are katara stans despite being multishippers so I don't see a point in lumping the whole community together. Zuko stans are the common denominator which is why my confession is about them and not zk shippers (pls mod do not tag as anti zk). I really didn't want my confession to be about zk shippers or shipping in general, I was just pointing out trends I've noticed occur in the past few months as an atla fan who frequently orbits katara fan spaces.

You're right, Zuko does has a lot of--if not the most active stans on social media which is probably why they're most likely to have not so great takes compared to other stan groups in atla.

And finally, perhaps we just have different views on what anti sentiment is because I didn't realize saying I didn't like most opinion pieces that come out of the zuko stan community was considered anti sentiment. I also don't look down on people who engage in anti discourse or creat/engage in anti fan pages. I just said it's not for me. I'm sure we all have our preferred methods of escapism and there's nothing wrong with that.

X

[marcuspierce]

Would you consider Piercifer a rarepair? Do you think there is still an audience for Piercifer fics? I'm getting back into Lucifer after two years and thinking about dusting off some of my WIPs. As the Piercifer expert I thought you might have some thoughts. <3

i will first start with the ending of your message and say thank youuuuu for falling for my branding and i hope that my answer will be satisfactory <3 i am also flattered that you decided to ask me... anything about them as i consider it recompense for the amount of time i spend think about them (24/7) <33333

now let's get to business: it's not that i consider piercifer a rarepair, the fact is that by all logical metrics it *is* a rarepair. and yes, this means that most people do not ship them, or at least not in an enough capacity to actually participate in this subset of the fandom, but that also means that the few people who do ship them love them very very much (hi! it's me! i'm the problem, it's me!).

now here comes the more complicated part, namely whether or not there is an audience for fics (or really any type of content) about them and i have some factors that i need to bring up (which are simply things i have watched happened over the past almost 6 years now) and which are a bit more spread out and refer to both their status as a rarepair and their audience (both some years back and now):

all of their interactions happened in season 3, which aired between autumn 2017 and spring 2018 aka yearsssss ago => no new canon content in years, which means that some people (even people who watched s3 years after it aired) would naturally lose interest because few people can sustain interest in a pair that just has nothing new to talk about and analyse and such

they did not... end things nicely (to put it lightly) in canon and that may also contribute to how people perceive them and their relationship (this one's more of a guess rather than an observation, but it might be worth mentioning)

the show is... finished and it has been finished for 2 years now! even pairings with generous followings saw a decrease in posts in these past two years as all the final season content got done + anything that was just sitting in people's drafts got finished and with no new content it was very easy for people to focus their energy on series that are still on-going. but posts are still made and fics are still written! (on more general things related to this fandom my one and only source is following source blogs here. i am extremely picky about my content for this fandom specifically so i only check the marcus and piercifer tags here and the piercifer tag on ao3. but i do think that source blogs are a decent way to gauge how fandoms are doing.)

they're not actually canon in any way, shape or form. everything is more implied than anything and the things that are outright said throughout the entire show actually discourage people from shipping anything other than the intended canon/endgame pairing and it has worked pretty wonderfully

the most relevant point here is no1, because there's just no new content and yes, i have noticed the number of all types of fan content dwindling. there are some bouts here and there and for the most part i try to stay consistent (even if it's through silly shit posts) but the audience, especially now, in 2023, isn't all that big.

BUT pls don't let that discourage you, anon! the fics that do get posted nowadays still get some hits and some kudos and even the occasional comment. the audience used to be bigger, sure, but that doesn't mean that your fics aren't still worth writing! and i will read them! so there, you got at least one person in your corner!

in conclusion, please don't let anything discourage you from writing and posting fic and also don't let initial low engagement discourage you. sometimes things just need to... marinate. i haven't been posting much fic lately (for piercifer specifically) but i still get the odd comment on my older fics, so really it can just be a bit of a waiting game given that it's fic for a rarepair that had no interactions in canon for over five years now.

also! if you ever want to talk about them both my askbox and dms are open! as you may have noticed, i am not always the best at answering quickly, but if that's alright with you then i will make sure to make it a social priority to answer preferably sooner rather than later! and, if you do end up dusting off your old wips and finishing them, then please do let me know, in whatever way you feel most comfortable, if they ever see the light of day as i would love to read them <3

edit: i am now also writing a piercifer fic (one that is... more than i intended it to be) and i also got some drafts i have considered posting (most likely here) of things that have been sitting for so long they might as well get read so again, look! there's someone in your corner, anon!

[kaheyama]

and the number one hero is… (1,630)

It’s time for the biannual Japanese Hero Billboard Charts.

RATING: teen and up audiences

TAGS: canon compliant; future fic; post-canon; pro hero bakugou; pro hero todoroki; hero billboard chart JP; established relationship; engaged bakugou/todoroki; ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!; fluff; banter; classic tdbk :’); flirting; EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE. ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!

for todobakumonth2020: day 30 - [free day!]

read on AO3 or under the cut

“Um, well first of all I just wanna thank the JHA, we all wouldn’t be here without them. Thanks for the support you guys provide to us heroes, and for organising events such as these.

“And thank you to all the heroes, whether you’re on this stage or not, for keeping our country safe and protecting our citizens.

“I’d also like to thank my parents, uh, for raising me and stuff. For believing in me and supporting me all this time. I don’t know if I’ve ever said this so you guys should probably record it or some shit— Shit, wait fuck am I allowed to— Whatever just bleep me.

“Anyways, Mum, Dad, I love you guys.

“And thanks to U.A. for really teaching me what it means to be a hero. To Aiza— Eraserhead for helping me grow and trusting me and my goals. And to All Might especially, who may no longer be in active duty but remains the Symbol of Hope for so many of us. You have no idea how many lives you’ve touched and how many of us you’ve inspired to become heroes and do what we do, so thank you.

“Finally, I want to thank someone who’s very special to me. My fiancé. Shouto, you might’ve heard of him. Actually he’s standing right there on my left, but um.

“He’s my number one—not that that means I’m going to let him have my position because it’s mine, you bastard I can already see you scheming.

“But he’s been there for me through all my highs and lows, he’s stayed up with me to research missions and cases, he’s celebrated my successes and provided comfort when they’re not.

“I wouldn’t be here without him, and I surely wouldn’t be standing where I am tonight if it weren’t for him—still not letting you have this rank Shouto don’t think I’m not onto you—so yeah.

“Thanks for sticking by me, all these years.

“I uh, love being a hero. It’s the only dream I’ve ever had and the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do so, please continue to let me lead you for a while longer.

“And I will also be in your care.

“Thank you very much.”

Before Katsuki can even set his gauntlets down the door to his private room opens and there’s a cold feeling on his shoulder but a warm heat wrapped around his stomach.

Shouto presses his mouth to Katsuki’s neck, and Katsuki lets out a chuckle.

He places his accessories on the table before twisting around to meet his fiancé’s lips.

Katsuki is happy. He had been so fucking happy on the stage, and he’s even happier now that Shouto is right here for him to kiss and hug.

“You did it,” Shouto murmurs into his hair, and Katsuki can hear the smile in his voice.

“I did it,” Katsuki echoes. “I—”

All of a sudden tears well up in his eyes and he can’t get out any words without his throat getting choked up so he buries his face in Shouto’s chest and holds onto him tighter because—

He’s the number one hero.

In all of Japan.

Out of the thousands if not millions of heroes, Bakugou Katsuki ranks at the very top.

There is no other— Wait that’s wrong. This is one of the best moments of his life.

Next only to the time Shouto got down on one knee and asked Katsuki to be his, as if Katsuki hadn’t already prepared to devote his life to Shouto.

“Wait,” Katsuki finally manages to say, words coming out slightly garbled, “my ring.”

He takes it off whenever wearing his gloves and tonight he had placed it—

Where had he placed it?

It’s not on the table or any of the chairs and the casual clothes he brought have no pockets so it can’t be there and—

Katsuki turns to Shouto with wide eyes, his heart beating crazy fast. He lost his ring. It’s— He feels like he’s going to cry again, from the exact opposite emotions of what he was feeling just a moment ago.

But Shouto just smiles at him, then reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the platinum band. Katsuki makes to grab it, however Shouto moves his hand back. Katsuki rolls his eyes and holds his own hand out.

And Shouto slides the ring back onto his fourth finger, with a delicateness and carefulness just like the first time. And just as he had that first time, Katsuki feels a blush rise to his cheek and finds that his heart is about to burst.

Shouto always does this, for some reason. Whenever Katsuki has to put his ring back on and Shouto is nearby, he insists on doing it himself.

Maybe he just likes torturing Katsuki. Because it really is overwhelming every single time, especially since he noticed that Shouto always wore this small smile on his lips whenever he did so, as if he still couldn’t believe it.

The ring feels unusually warm though. Not just from the flush of Katsuki’s skin as a result of all his love for Shouto.

“Hang on a moment. Did you let my ring touch your ass?”

Katsuki was too frantic to realise it earlier, but now that he’s more clear-headed and can feel it…

“I’m wearing pants,” is all Shouto replies, and Katsuki wants to deck him.

So much for the nice moment they were having.

During the silence that falls over them, Shouto keeps glancing around the room as if he’s looking for something. Katsuki gets bored and also wants to celebrate some more, so he puts his hands on Shouto’s waist and brings their hips flush, but Shouto is still looking around.

“What is it?” Katsuki asks, inching closer to his fiancé’s face.

“Oh, nothing,” Shouto says nonchalantly. “Just getting a preview of what my room will look like next year.”

Katsuki pinches the flesh below Shouto’s ribs and watches him squirm and twist with no remorse because the piece of shit deserves it.

“You’re the fucking worst. How is this any different to your room?”

“Well,” Shouto leans back and grins slyly, “my room doesn’t have you in it.”

“Hah. Your room doesn’t have anyone in it, except maybe the poor media people waiting to interview you.”

“They can interview the two of us together right here.”

“Shouto,” Katsuki grins into Shouto’s lips, “you know no one’s gonna dare come in knowing you’re here too.”

“Good,” Shouto kisses back, “I don’t want them to.”

They make out nice and slow, wet and heated, with tongues licking into the other’s mouths and teeth biting down on the other’s lips and Shouto slowly backs Katsuki into the table before hoisting him up onto it and standing between his legs.

Katsuki snakes his arms around Shouto’s shoulders and wraps his legs around his waist and brings him closer and just kisses kisses kisses him.

“Shouto,” he begins, breathless, “congrats on becoming number two.”

“Mmh.” Katsuki feels the vibrations of Shouto’s hum as tingles against his lips. “And congratulations to you, Katsuki, for making it to number one. I couldn’t think of anyone more worthy.”

The mention of his new title gets Katsuki emotional again, and he can’t stop himself from saying, “I love you. And I meant it when I said you’re my number one. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Shouto pulls back and smiles softly at Katsuki, before cupping his cheeks and gently wiping his tears away. “I love you too. And I am so honoured to be yours.”

Katsuki opens his mouth to say something more but is interrupted by the growling of his stomach. He groans and rests his forehead on Shouto’s shoulder.

Above him, Shouto laughs.

“Wanna skip the after-event and just get some bentos from the konbini to eat at home?”

“Nah,” Katsuki waves and hops off the table. “I’ll cook for us.”

“You sure? Maybe you should rest.”

“It’s not like we were fighting villains. I’m fine. Plus, I’ve already celebrated with you, my great love. Let me celebrate with my first love.”

“Food?”

“No, cooking.”

“That’s not a tangible—”

“Shhh shh shh. Anyway, how’re we gonna do this?”

“You mean sneak out?” Shouto hums and looks around them. Then he looks at himself and Katsuki. “Let’s not change.”

“What?”

“We’ll stay in our hero costumes and leave everything else behind and run out so they’ll think there’s something going on. That way they can’t stop us and won’t try to contact us.”

Katsuki thinks about it for a moment before nodding. “Alright, genius. Sounds like a plan. Just let me…” he glances at the accessories he took off earlier. “Do I really have to put all those back on?”

“Nah, I doubt they’ll notice right away. And you’ll be faster without your gauntlets.”

“Fuck off, I’m not slow.”

“Yeah, but you can be faster.”

“Easy for you to say, the only add-ons you have are those wee-wees.”

Shouto gives him a deadpan stare. “Seriously, Katsuki, it’s been years. Don’t you think we can move on from that?”

“Five pee-pee man!” Katsuki provokes, which earns him an iced wrist. “Okay, okay, just give me a moment to—”

“First one home wins!” Shouto cuts Katsuki off and immediately sprints out the door.

“You fucking—!” Katsuki blasts the ice off his hand then lunges for his and Shouto’s phones lying on a chair before dashing after him.

As soon as he steps out of the room he’s bombarded by numerous people who were just waiting at the door who call out his name, but Katsuki pays them no mind as he runs down the hallway and into the fresh cold night.

[mydaroga]

Would you mind elaborating on the type of behaviour you're talking about? I'm not tryin to cause trouble, i just hate the idea that you feel like the fandom is unwelcoming and I'd like to understand more!

Hi there. Thank you for your interest, because I think this is an important topic. I want to be really careful about how I talk about this, because there's enough uncertainty in these parts and I don't want to be part of the problem. But by the same token... there's a lot of uncertainty in these parts and I think a lot of it comes from a lack of direct communication. I'm also hesitant because I've only been here since January, and I'm hardly an expert. I welcome comments from anyone who feels comfortable adding their thoughts, or who feels I've gotten something wrong.

So let me be clear and upfront about this, to start: I really like this fandom and I'm really happy to be here. I have met some really incredible people that I hope I will be friends with a long time. I have been warmly welcomed and made to feel like my contributions were appreciated. I have been reached out to and I have had my overtures returned.

So when I said, in my tags, that there were unwelcoming elements under the surface, that is what I meant. When I first got here, I actually had more than one person warn me or express surprise that I found it friendly. That's troubling, don't you think? And in the past few months, what I've found is that there is some combination of 1) unwritten rules and 2) different rules for different people? spaces? topics? the upshot of which equals more people than myself feeling uncertain about where and whether their voices are welcome. There's a fair bit of policing, but it's not overt. You more just get the feeling from posts you see here and there that something is bad or wrong or stupid or unwanted, but to me anyway it's never entirely clear exactly what or why. And that leads to people thinking, "huh, they might be talking about me." Or, at best, “I don’t know how to engage with that because I don’t know what’s behind it even if I kinda agree with some of it.”

Whether one is "guilty" of said bad/wrong/stupid/unwanted thing, this only serves to make people feel uncomfortable, uncertain, and unable to respond. And I think that then compounds, because to bring it back to the OP that I was responding to, one thing I've noticed is posts that announce that "everyone who thinks X is wrong" are usually about things I've never seen anyone say, and then I see posts about how "everyone who thinks X is wrong is Y," and it becomes this bizarre game of telephone, based on an original annoyance or irritation that may well be true but is, at this point, untraceable and irrelevant.

And in that climate, it becomes scary to speak up, even about sometimes innocuous things, because people aren't really sure whether they're the ones being complained about, and aren't even sure whether they're "allowed" to speak. I've seen people complain that no one discusses or debates with them, and I've had people message me about being too afraid to discuss or debate. So something is keeping folks who want to from engaging, and I think that is unfortunate. Because there is no fandom without people contributing to it in their myriad forms and formats.

I hope that helps, and I hope I haven't put my foot in it, and as always I do welcome any comment or, yes, criticism. This is a very small fandom. Others I've been in are certainly not free of drama, but it can be a little easier to find "your people" and curate your experience because there are simply more of them. And my personal opinion is that there's not an insignificant number of folks in this fandom who feel this burden of uncertainty about just what is welcome.

And, though no one asked me, I think it should all be welcome barring that which is intentionally hurtful or hateful.

[eisforeidolon]

"Just look at how all his skeevy comments to Jensen are pointed implications Jensen is submissive to him, which is a fucking objectification power play." YES, well said, thank you. I'm so glad more people are finally starting to notice this and talk about it, because I've been observing this dynamic for years and been growing increasingly angry and creeped out by it.

I'm the cockles anon who sent you an ask regarding Misha's jacket a while ago and like I said I know a lot about the topic of cockles. One of my useless talents is that once something grabs my attention, I tend to remember every little detail about it.

So I have a mental catalogue spanning an entire decade now of every creepy, sexual, bdsm-related, objectifying, power-playing or otherwise inappropriate remark or "joke" Misha has ever made towards Jensen (and in general). Every con panel, every interview, every post or reply on his Twitter or Instagram where he has said something along these lines, I've seen it.

And it's... a lot.

That man is just giving me the worst vibes. Either ruthless psychopath who will do anything for money and to stay relevant vibes or just plain old predator vibes, if he really does have a sexual interest in Jensen, I can't quite tell.

And if we truly live in the dark time line where Jensen and Misha actually do have some kind of thing going on, then I feel sorry for Jensen. He could do so much better than Misha. And cockles actually being real would only add a whole other layer of creepiness to this already creepy and disturbing situation.

But most cockles stans don't see that. Quite the opposite, they get off on the idea of Jensen being in some weird bdsm-type relationship where he's submissive to Misha. If it wasn't already obvious from some of their more disgusting posts, tags, comments etc on Tumblr, you just need to take a look at some of the most popular destiel and cockles fanfics and authors on ao3, it's all "dom cas/misha", "top cas/misha" and "sub dean/jensen", "bottom dean/jensen" these days. And what feels like practically every other fic at least has a "dom/sub undertones" or "light dom/sub" tag.

And all of that can be directly blamed on Misha, for the most part. Jensen has always been one of the most heavily objectified and sexualized male actors or artists I've ever come across, but Misha has made it so, so much worse over the years. He truly makes me sick and I can only hope more and more people will open their eyes to just how much of a fucking creep and asshole this man is.

It really is creepy.

Jensen in particular does seem to have such a disproportionate number of people who just want to see him as a sex object and prop to bolster their actual fave. The actors don't care about being treated like horny sex objects in their fanfic, and their fanfic is totally based on what they "know" about the actors, so it's fine to treat real people like that! They're just "helping" the actors to feel free to publicly own up to what they already know, you see. It's one thing for the fans to do. A gross thing, creepily divorced from reality and blind to how one-sided their relationship to their idea of who the actors are is. But it's all part of having trouble divorcing fiction and reality and treating the actors, who are real people who live at least 90% of their lives out of the spotlight, like the caricatured characters in their fantasies constructed from sometimes wild "interpretations" of that other 10% we see.

It is entirely another situation to treat someone you actually personally know and have worked with like a mute sex object. They want to see Misha tweeting and talking about Jensen that way as "flirting" and intimacy, but it's not. It's not reciprocal, for one. If Jensen was responding regularly, that'd be one thing. Even negatively, it'd be a type of engagement. He doesn't, though, it's just Misha regularly making a public spectacle of himself by pointedly sexualizing Jensen for his own aggrandizement. For another, it does often specifically involve Misha implying domination or a lack of masculinity on Jensen's part; given the wider cultural context, it's pointedly demeaning and reductive of Jensen into a submissive sex toy. I.e. it's really about power, and using sex as tool to that end. Not only could Jensen do a million times better than Misha, that would be an insanely shitty way to publicly treat someone who was actually a partner. Shippers who don't want to see that are never going to see that, though. Especially since they themselves want to fantasize about making Jensen into someone more malleable that will follow their lead if they tantrum loud enough - like Misha does.

For a long time I waffled between thinking Misha was genuinely just kind of clueless and bad at thinking through the appearance and consequences of his actions, and suspecting that he was just using that kind of persona as a cover for being a calculating dickhead who cares about nothing but himself and his own ego. I've leaned more and more towards the latter over the years. I actually think Misha having genuine sexual interest in Jensen would make the whole thing a magnitude worse, because it's bad enough to sexualize someone you don't give a crap about either way as a power play, it's full on incel territory to do it because they won't let you possess them.

[touchmycoat]

mido, i would like to uhh ask for our thots on something - lemme preface this ask first by saying that this is more of a "me" problem, than it is the other party, but, here goes: if there's one thing that i've learned since consuming danmei, it's that you have two very different approaches to it re: fandom. on the one hand, you have the camp of ppl who like to go all out and wild w/ canon, do whatever, enjoy however, and on the other, ppl who try to stick closely to canon, or - 1/?

- those who don't even engage in fandom at all, and are just there to discuss the text as it is. there's nothing wrong with both approaches - we're all just here to have a good time. that being said, it kind of is giving me ??? doubt as to whether or not i'm enjoying fandom the right way. ofc there's no wrong or right way to enjoy a piece of media, and i like to think that this sin't an anne rice situation at all, but - i see ppl say fanon is shit all the time, ppl don't like certain ships.. 2/?

b/c the characters in the ships are so far removed from who they are in the text that they're pretty much just "ocs wearing the character's faces" that i have to just pause, and rlly ponder - am i doing fandom the *right* way? and it's cause for concern because i've done fandom like this ever since. i mean, my first foray into fandom was legit reading pwp/dead dove wild-ass content that was so far removed from canon, and it's been the same for every fandom i've ever been a part of 3/?

a bit of bg on me: before i came to danmei, i was knee-deep in comics. and if there's one thing you need to know abt comics - hell, even star wars - it's that anything goes re: canon because canon changes SO MUCH every few years - canon is always at the whims of the next writer who comes on board, and so it's more or less just a free-for-all pick-what-you-want buffet re: canon. doesn't mean you didn't have the occasional disk horse or meta re: canon & fanon, but. 4/?

i suppose it's just been quite.. the change of pace? anyway, fun fact: i came away from my last fandoms worrying abt and trying to be more dead dove, and now i'm worrying abt whether or not my interpretations will be canon-compliant enough. (damn @self, pick a struggle dude) anyways, one thing i've noticed is that, with mxtx, sv mains are well, i mean the book is legit sy reinventing pidw canon, and anything just goes in sv - so it's perfect. and i guess my worry is that there are - 6/?

- some mdzs-main authors whom i rlly rlly respect but am also so intimidated by because they have such amazing meta on canon events that i'm a little worried abt them seeing my works in the sv ao3 tag - even tho i know some of them don't rlly read fic - and well, getting vagued abt how my fic and interpretation of the story might be, or is, subpar. like i said, it's a me problem, because fandom is all abt writing for yourself, and the easy fix is to simply post on an altogether diff platform 7/?

but, yeah. i guess i'm just - i'm feeling kinda lost, and i get that this is borne out of my own irrational anxiety, but - what're are your thoughts on it? what do you think - is there like, not exactly *right*, but a more *aligned* way of interpreting canon that stays true to the spirit of the story, or should fandom be also all abt going crazy with your ideas? imo, u could adapt a "business in the front, party in the back" strategy on ao3 8/?

- use two complete separate profiles - one account for canon-compliant stuff and another for the id-stuff. but, yeah. i realize that the numbering of my asks may be wonky as hell, because i didn't write this ask in one go and section it off, so i'm rlly sorry if the numbering is confusing af when you view it in your inbox. anyways, that's abt it, and thank you sm for entertaining me, i rlly appreciate i. no rush, this is a super long and ?? ask, and i hope you have a nice day!

--

aah i hope you're having a good day too darling! it sounds like you're feeling anxious about the engagement aspect of fandom, that maybe there's a monolithic interpretation of canon and a "mainstream" way fans are supposed to enact fics/art/vids/etc. To deviate from that would garner negative notoriety, specifically from people whose interpretations are widely regarded as "good and true" and whose interpretations you also do personally like.

To directly answer your question, I do think that fandom should be all about going crazy with your ideas. I don't believe in any policing at all.

Let me try to impose a concrete example onto this real quick (do tell me if I'm misunderstanding). Back when I was on bird app, i followed two kinds of accounts: the Analysts and the Horny Folks. They're not mutually exclusive ofc lmfao but for the sake of ease: we have a set of tweets that are like, "SV identifies XYZ specific failings in stallion novel tropes, prescribes them to toxic masculinity, and reworks them in ABC ways" and another set of tweets that are like, "so Bingge kidnaps SQQ and LQG from canon timeline and fists them both one on each hand." Both kinds of tweets take hard (hard 💕) work to produce and both kinds feed me, god bless. But if you were to write fic based on these, only the first kind of tweets invites the question of whether or not you're going to incorporate that into your writing, which may or may not manifest as pressure bc it's 1) from a person you appreciate and 2) if you don't, you think maybe other fans who've seen those tweets will think you're doing something wrong or ignorant. Furthermore, if I want to write fic based on the second kind of tweets, do I then have to incorporate the gospel as spoken by the first kind of tweets??

Hell no!! You sure can but you don't have to. I feel like you know this is the answer already so let me just affirm that.

Look, I will say that I think there are fan interpretations out there that are more canon-aligned—but then I gotta ask myself the question, which fics are trying to be? When I read a Modern AU winter fluff 2k songxiao fic, I don't need it to have incisive commentary on the canon theme of blame and complicity, y'know? The fans who wrote that fic also aren't trying to give me that. Same thing with porn. I think the question at the heart of all reading endeavors is "what is the author trying to do?" The onus isn't all on the writer to be good, imo. Good readers will ask that question and meet the author where they're at, esp in fandom. It makes no sense to expect the same thing of a 4k coffee shop AU meet-cute and a 40k post-canon fix-it. It sounds like you're a generous reader and fan who is experienced with accepting, appreciating, and working with multiple interpretations of fandom (oh man, coming from comic fandoms?? you've got a soul of steel babe). So you know well that not everybody needs one definite and consistent reading of canon to happily engage in fandom. Many others are the same as you~! Even the BNFs, most likely. And if you follow people who post things that sour your self-confidence, here's the friendly reminder to unfollow them.

Another possible way to avoid concerns about being called out for misinterpretation is to write for smaller ships and audiences lmfao. Too many existing metas about the main character? Write about a minor character instead, wahoo! Too much ship content with a cemented dynamic? Write a completely new ship nobody's even heard of, ayooo. It's both good writing exercise and good for the soul 'cause people who find you want to be there and everyone else won't even see what you've done. I just think it's sexy lololol on both the reading and writing sides.

Okay also—there are interesting politics about "who has the more correct interpretation" when it comes to danmei bc not everyone has access to Chinese. I don't know if this plays a factor in your worries in any way? It's a whole other conversation lmfao so I'll keep it short but I definitely have had complex feelings about my own readings vs. non-Chinese speakers' readings vs. other "authorities" on interpreting the Chinese etc. etc.

At the end of the day, fandom is a sandbox and you should play how you want. Write your id fics, publish them on main, publish them on anon, don't publish them at all—whatever makes you happy! It sounds like visibility plays a large part in what you're anxious about? So yeah, maybe a side account or going anon is the way to go. I know people who do exactly what you said, one main for the character work and one side for the id food!! That's fucking valid fam. I have works on anon for the same reason.

As for people visibly chatting about the validity of certain characterizations or interpretations...that just can't be helped, y'know? It's the nature of the internet, and it's another way of fandom engagement. As long as it's not mean-spirited, I think you just have to make peace with it. Carry that dead dove spirit with you, maybe!! I fucking love dead dove fics. "I have done this and it is here and I'm not apologetic about it." That's just completely tits out and phenomenal. Alternatively, maybe try to manifest digital data in analog—this is what I do whenever I get anxious about my presence in fandom. The digital world distort the impact and importance of most things, y'know? Whenever I think someone is out of my league, it helps me to imagine a chat as a face-to-face discussion, and that reminds me this is a cool person yeah but they still have like, a real face and a real body with all of its real, normal things like itching and the possibility of tripping on stuff. A BNF might say something that makes me feel super insecure but i dunno, they still have to periodically scrub down the sink. They're still cool but they're also normal. Your methods of engagement are 100% valid with or without consideration to people you admire.

anyways those are my thoughts. It might also be worth mentioning too that people who apply strict standards of canon-compliance to their own readings and writings might not apply those same standards to others. I certainly don't. I mean, it's arguable how canon-compliant my interpretations are lmfao but I certainly try for it. But it's not so important for when I'm reading, y'feel? The central concern of reading, at least for me, is more "has this author sold me on their story" and less about whether or not it complies with "my" readings. if I'm only interested in my readings, I wouldn't be reading other people's works. And if I am in fact not interested in other people's interpretations, then maybe you shouldn't be so interested in my interpretations either hahahha.

[yukipri]

Reblogging this for new folks!

I'm sure others have said this, but to add it to my own reblog: "Engagement" here simply means that the OP is notified. In order to actually boost the post, that is, to get a post seen by more people, you must reblog.

Likes and replies do add one note count each, but unlike twitter, they do not count as "engagement" that gets the post noticed by an algorithm. ("Notes" here is the culmination of every type of engagement, likes + reblogs + replies. There are no separate numbers for likes vs reblogs, etc.)

This is why many content creators beg people to reblog! By reblogging, you put the post on your dashboard, which in turn shares it to all of your followers and truly boosts the post!

Especially if you're primarily here to consume content, please, please consider reblogging. It really means everything!

And to reiterate some excellent points above, from a creator perspective:

You are absolutely encouraged to leave your own commentary when reblogging posts. Any kind of positive commentary is incredibly appreciated but the form you do it in has different levels of visibility/implications.

Comments in the tags: These are the most private. While they certainly can be viewed by anyone who scrolls through tags, they will mostly be viewed by yourself, your followers, and the OP when they check to see if anyone's left comments on their own post. If someone reblogs it from you, these tags will not appear on their dash, and therefore they mostly remain within a limited group of users.

Comments in the replies: are also pretty private, and this time not even your followers will see them. The OP will see them, and because they show up in the "replies" section of the post, they're much more visible to other users. If tags are a scribbled little note slipped under the door, replies are pinned to the a bulletin board that anyone can see.

Comments in reblogs: are functionally like similar to replies, but for some reason show up in the same place as tags. That being said, they're much more visible than tags, because anyone who reblogs the post from you will now also reblog your comment. Comments in reblogs (like this one!) are primarily used when you have something to add that you think other people might be interested in sharing.

Seconding that people don't mind at all (in fact, are really happy to see!) people interacting with older posts. Many content creators use Tumblr as an archive of their work, and because visibility isn't slashed within a day or two of posting, it's wonderful seeing posts that are many years old still circulating!

Tumblr has an asks/inbox system, where you can communicate directly with other users, and this functions more like a CuriousCat than DM. Many users have Anonymous enabled, which means you can send asks without revealing your username! Asks are published as new posts, so this is especially useful if you have a question that you think the user's other followers may be interested in, or just want to send some positivity. While Anonymous messaging can be wonderful for people who are shy, it's a system that can of course be abused, so please remember to respect the human behind the screen!

With that in mind, if any new users are confused about how Tumblr works, many users are likely very happy to help! I know I am!

A brief summary of how user engagement is tracked on Tumblr, for the newcomer:

When you like or reblog a post, that counts as user engagement for the person you liked or reblogged from, and shows up in their notifications.  

If the person you liked or reblogged a post from wasn’t the original poster (i.e., you’re liking or reblogging a reblog), it also counts as user engagement for the original poster, and shows up in their notifications as well.  

This means that user engagement from your likes and reblogs can potential accrue to two different people, the original poster and the person you liked or reblogged from.  

Consequently, you cannot “steal” user engagement from someone by reblogging their post.  

This is one of the very few areas where Tumblr is actually functions more reasonably than other social media platforms.  

Note that this is only true if you use Tumblr’s built-in reblogging function. If you save someone else’s content to your local device and append it to a new post, you effectively become the original poster from that point on.  

This means that on Tumblr, “reblogging” and “reposting” are two different things; if you see someone complaining about “reposting”, this is not the same as reblogging.  

Commenting when reblogging does not affect any of this – unlike, say, Twitter, where quote-retweeting causes user engagement to accrue to the quote-retweet and not to the original tweet – and you can and should do so freely. ��

However, every Tumblr user can see who exactly you reblogged a post from, which functions as a soft disincentive against making inane comments; if you make a dumb comment on a reblog, people who see your reblog may “back up” one step in the reblog chain to reblog a version of the post without your comment.  

Nobody understands tags, and there’s a fair amount of evidence that how tags work changes periodically and without warning.  

Tags are a divine mystery.

[ephrom]

My Apology For My Neko Koda Post

A couple of days ago, I made a post about Neko Koda that has since gotten a large amount of backlash for reasons I will soon get into. If you want to read it in full, you can find it here.

2jun posted a twitter thread on it today criticizing many aspects of the post, from its needless assholery to getting things wrong to the fact that I'm not really the best person to declare where the moral high ground is located.

Doodletones also wrote a thread on Twitter calling me out by name while also making it clear that she did not stand by comparing Neko Koda to Vii Omega.

Koda herself even commented on this post on Twitter and declared that I was "morally bankrupt" because of it.

Most of the post is fairly generic bullshit I've already said about Neko Koda, although I should note that quite a few people got onto my case for saying I was banned from Purely Odd Grandmasters--sorry "Purely Odd Grandmaters" according to the tags--"because of things that were almost always my fault." A number of people took that as an attempt by me to deflect blame onto others--and while I see where they're coming from, I want to make it clear that was never my intent. It was my actions that fucked me over in POG, and none of them were POG's "fault."

Then I move on to her hatred of being compared to Vii Omega--and I do this thing where I also say I totally understand why she doesn't like it while also calling her hatred of it irrational. Even ignoring what Vii did to Neko--and trust me, there's a lot we can say regarding that--that doesn't make any sense on the surface. In order for something to be irrational, you have to have no understanding of the thought process behind it. If you have the ability to comprehend the rationale that leads somebody towards an emotion, that emotion is rational by definition.

That also begs the question of why you'd spend so much time defending something you don't agree with. In the post, I say that Neko should seek to understand why people call her something I dismissed as a "really mean thing" while angry with her. The answer to that question is in the premise: It's because they're angry with her, and more than likely just saying things they know would hurt her feelings. They aren't making some kind of wider personal point about her--because if they were, why the fuck would they limit their comparison to one of the least awful things done by a terrible person? That's like saying you don't like somebody because they remind you of Ronald Reagan in Bedtime for Bonzo--what the fuck does that even mean?

Regarding the situation involving Crimson Paladin and The Cloud Palace, I begin by noting that Neko Koda misused the word "weaponizing," which--okay, who gives a shit? Then, I say this,

Also, Neko does understand that people besides her were victims of Vii Omega, right?

Ah, the Ann Coulter argument.

The person she keeps going after is Doodletones, who was a close friend with Vii Omega up until he was kicked out of The Cloud Place for being a manipulative asshole. Fuck, I was friends with him for far longer than either Neko Koda or Doodletones were, even talking to the guy mere days before he left the internet for being exposed as a groomer and a sexual abuser. Mind you, I was never a victim of his–but doesn’t that give me some right to recognize Neko engaging in similar patterns of behavior that he engaged in?

Who the fuck is arguing that you don't have "some right to recognize Neko engaging in similar patterns of behavior"? Neko even said in a tweet embedded in this post that her issue is not the accusation, but the language used in them.

Doodle had it worse than me–although nobody, except maybe a few–had it worse than Koda, but again, shouldn’t Doodle have the right to notice similarities in patterns of behavior? That’s the thing that really gets to me here. It would be one thing if Koda criticized the comparison as needlessly hyperbolic (because discord servers she isn’t in is where she thinks you list out your formal complaints, I guess) but acknowledged the criticism around it and responded to it. Instead, Koda just gets irrationally angry and uses the harsh analogy and closes her ears. This, plus the fact that she thinks she has the right to tone police every mention of her on the internet is honestly just frustrating.

Serious question: Did you honestly stop and ask why that was? Yeah, most people would become irrational (but in an understandable way, of course--don't think we forgot that) if you compared them to somebody who abused and raped them. Would you listen to that analogy calmly and give a rational response to it? Because if so, that says far more about you than it ever could about Neko Koda.

The tactic being engaged in here is called "bull baiting." For those unaware, it's when you intentionally do something that makes somebody angry in order to go after them for being mad at you. It's based on this really nonsensical idea that you can never be angry and also correct, as if the mere emotion of anger cancels out your ability to say right things. Of course, anger, just like all emotions, can be expressed both justly and unjustly and can be called upon for both good and bad reasons.

To make this very simple: I crossed a line by making that argument, and made a point that was both disgusting and nonsensical in the process. What I said basically came down to "why can't you act rationally in response to being reminded of a trigger of yours," which is such an equal parts bizarre, stupid, ignorant, and disgusting question to ask somebody.

I want to apologize to anybody who I offended with that honestly thoughtless remark. If you don't want to accept that apology--either because you would rather I show improvement first or because you just don't want to--that's perfectly fine, I have no right to your forgiveness. I'm near certain Neko Koda is not going to forgive me for this, and she doesn't have to. I don't have the right to determine how you respond to my actions, that is something for you and you alone and I will not sit here and pretend otherwise.

However, I do at least want to make it known that I understand my mistake when it comes to this situation. In general, I've just been needlessly mean when it comes to both my personal and online conduct. I was originally going to include more apologies than just this one for this post, but honestly, I feel like this situation was such a big fuck up on my part it deserves a post to itself

Goodnight and good luck.

[zebknowledge]

How many views do you need to make money of Instagram?

This article will tell you how to make money on Instagram thousands of dollars on Instagram, so be sure to read this article so that can you make money on Instagram.

Instagram is the most popular image-sharing app out there today. It's free to use but charges for certain features like live streaming video. Instagram has become extremely popular over the years, even becoming the second largest social media platform behind Facebook.

That being said, make money of Instagram if done correctly. You'll need an account to start make money of Instagram, just like any other site. Make sure your profile isn't private unless you're comfortable having people look at your pictures. Don't post pictures that are too sexual or contain inappropriate language! People could get offended (or curious).

Once you have an account, make sure to follow and comment on other accounts. As others follow you back, those followers may choose to buy products from your store if they think you are legit. You'll receive payment based on how many followers you have. I recommend using PayPal to receive payments after completing tasks. If you want to reach me on Instagram, my username is u/zebknowledge.

The answer to this question lies in how many followers you have versus likes. If your ratio of followers to likes is low then your post won't get seen by as many people. And if you have a lot of followers but few likes, you'll have even less success. But if you can find a good balance between these two numbers, then you're golden!

How many views do you need to get paid of  Instagram

 1. Instagram has been around since 2010 but is still often underestimated as a great tool for make money of Instagram. A lot of people are starting to realize that this free app can bring them passive income if used correctly. This article contains some really powerful information about how you can use how do you make money on Instagram.

 2. You have to have a good camera.

It doesn’t matter what type of camera you own; you should always use the best quality lens you can afford. You don’t want your pictures to look blurry at any time!

 3. Be creative.

 Don’t just post pictures of your food or exercise. Use your creativity and imagination to come up with unique ideas that your followers will love and remember.

 4. Comment on other peoples' posts.

 Even if you aren't commenting, you should be liking others' pics/videos. Keep in mind that even though this may not seem like much work now, it'll eventually add up. The more likes you get, the higher you're ranked. When you comment on someone's picture, they're going to notice and you’ll likely receive a follow back. If you’re looking to speed up the process, then create multiple accounts and like/comment on pictures from different users.

 5. Engagement is everything.

 I know it's cheesy to say something like this, but you need to pay attention to engagement. If you want to make money of Instagram, then you're probably doing it wrong if you're only getting between 10-20 likes per photo. To start, try posting 1 or 2 times per week. Once you start gaining traction, then you can bump that up to daily.

 6. Hashtag properly.

 Before adding hashtags, ask yourself “What am I trying to sell?”. Then, go ahead and tag relevant keywords. Don’t overuse hashtags, as this could hurt you instead. Remember, the more relevant the hashtag sounds, the more people will search for it.

7. 200-300 followers per post

 The average Instagram user has about 800 friends, which means that if your total number of followers is 100, then your followers per post is around 20. So if you want to make $200-$300 per month from IG ads, you have to get at least 2,000 followers. You can buy them, sell them, or ask people to follow you for 10 bucks. I bought 1,000 followers for around 10 dollars at the beginning of 2017. But now they are going for 15$ - 20$.

 8. 5 posts per day

 On average, users share their content once every two hours. In other words, if you want to make money of Instagram from posting, you'll need five posts per day on Instagram. If you're willing to spend some time promoting your accounts, you can increase this amount dramatically. While there's no way to force yourself to produce more quality content, the good news is that you don't necessarily have to put out the same type of material over and over again.9. 15 likes per photo

 Instagram is based on the concept of LIKES! This means that users like your content if they feel that it makes them happy. It doesn't matter how beautiful your pictures are, if people don’t like them... well then, you haven't got much luck with Instagram. So basically what we're saying here is that your photos should give people a reason to LIKE them. As mentioned before, Instagram is based on LIKES -- so if people like your stuff, it will continue to grow organically in popularity (aka "go viral") and reach a wider audience.

10. 5 million

 Instagram has a daily limit of 15 million impressions per day. This means that you can only get approximately 6,000 likes per post. If you are looking to gain followers, then this may not be enough. However, if you have a certain amount of followers already, then you want to keep them happy. To do this, you should try to make posts that get at least 5-10 thousand likes. You don't need to pay to promote your posts.

 11. 1 Instagram allows users to follow other users.

 If you have 10,000 followers but you are following 100,000 people, then Instagram thinks you are spamming. When you reach this point, Instagram will start to filter out some of your followers. To avoid this, you need to be following around 1 million people. This doesn't mean that you need to follow 1 million real people. Just think about how big your community is. Then divide it into smaller subgroups.

12. 500,000

 If you want to earn money from your Instagram account, then you will want to focus on posting quality content. People use Instagram to share photos and videos they like. If you want to how make money on Instagram, you need to help others find similar things they like. Try to create original content that gets lots of engagement.

Read More CLICK HERE!

[asirensrage]

Hey, I can answer some of this with what I've seen (and my own involvement lol). It's under the tag for those who want to know and who don't.

It starts before the OFCA decided to call themselves that.

I joined in to the OC community a couple years ago (around late 2020 if I remember correctly). I was introduced to it through @ocfairygodmother who liked and reblogged some writing. It seemed great. I met a ton of people and it was a nice change from the history of people hating ocs that I was used to.

Some of the people I followed started getting anonymous asks last year, claiming problems with specific individuals. They were invited repeatedly (by multiple people) to come off anon so it could be worked out or show proof of their accusations. They refused to do either.

They would fade away for a bit before coming back to make the same complaints and accusations. They went into people's fics on ffnet (particularly those they were accusing) and left vile "reviews" that included calling people names and throwing the accusations. They were repeatedly invited by multiple people, including those on the sidelines, to come off anon and work it out. People tried engaging. They tried not engaging. Nothing worked.

Personally, on my end, I could see things weren't lining up. They were refusing to either block the people they didn't like, show proof or stop harassing people. I reached out to some of the people that were targeted to check how they were doing. I made comments on some people's responses to their anons, pointing out how ridiculous they sound. Said anons were not happy and came into my inbox to tell me to "butt out".

Some more people started getting "fake reviews" on their fics as they "warned" people against the specific people they targeted. (the people stayed relatively the same, I got added when I refused to let them try to harass me but that comes later).

Now, it escalated this year.

They started sending asks demanding we stop engaging with people and fake reviews claiming they want to help the oc community by purging these people from it. I have screenshots of the fake reviews starting in Feb. My recent responses are tagged "stop being a dick" but you can also find some tagged "anonsense" or "anon" for the older ones.

(edit: I looked back at my own "stop being a dick" tag. the first time I used it was in early Feb. I reblogged something about authors wanting reblogs instead of likes, someone thanked me for it, another anon came in telling me they were sick of hearing about authors complaining and then an anon used my response to that to try to complain about specific people they didn't want to see...which spiralled further and I believe is the same ppl who have and continue to harass people)

They have left numerous asks that range from "wanting to help" to shifting to accusations that I am joining in for attention. I have been called "fish girl" "stinky mermaid" and various attempted derogatory names. I have screenshots of how it went from anons demanding you "Accept the truth", declaring me "enemy number 1" (when I refused to back down to them) along with multiple first warnings and they got angrier when I left reviews on fics that were written by the people they're targeting (they claimed to pull receipts. The receipt was the review I left the other day).

They recently accused me of stealing smut, and when I demanded proof, they couldn't and wouldn't give actual links to things they claim I stole. Only things copied and pasted. You will notice, if you look, that they attack and once they realize they're not getting what they want, they try to play the victim. It happened with their accusations of stealing.

The OFCA appeared on February 28 (according to my screenshot) where they left a "review" which was their claim of a newsletter. They continued to make their accusations, claim they want peace and use other people (like Kass) as proof of their legitimacy. Regardless of the fact that those people denied any involvement and asked not to be used in such a way.

Many people got these fake newsletters and were pissed. Wouldn't you be if you got an email saying you got a review but it was this? Something that had nothing to do with you or your story? The OFCA came into my ask box as anon and demanded I listen. I refused. It was the same things the anons previously had been saying. They didn't like that.

The aggression has continued and they lash out at those who engage with the people they're attacking or those who refuse to back down. They claim to be multiple people, though the style of writing is often the same. They sign off in the same way (as the claimed OFCA or as the anons lashing out). I made a post about their patterns here after the last one I got. They go as regular anons, as OFCA and as different anons, but all demanding the same thing. That you give in. (the one I linked was the last one I got yesterday. By the third one demanding I stop replying, the pattern appears that they're accusing me of wanting attention and they're angry at my friends. This shows up through the anons, as OFCA or not which leads me to believe they're all the same). They also have refused to either block people they don't like or filter their tags. (they continue to claim they want pure internet where they don't have to filter things they don't want to see like smut but if that's the case they shouldn't be online)

Now, this is all from my personal experience and what I've seen. I'm sure others have heard and experienced things differently. You can take a look at how people have interacted and responded to them, but you will consistently see that a) they have refused to provide proof of their accusations, b) they refuse to come off anon and deal with their problems like an adult and c) they refuse to take personal responsibility and curate their own dash.

(note: I have screenshots from Feb, along with the responses posts on my blog)

I hope this helps in the explanation.

Uh so this is not an update to my story obviously but I’ve been seeing a lot about this OCFA and was wondering if anyone could catch me up on the beef? I don’t understand wth is going on and I’d like to.