#share my opinion on discourse here

[glith0]

I left social media/ QSMP for a few weeks... and I come back and just- wtf happened. Could I please ask for UNBIASED information on what is going on for the past month? Idk what's going on and I just see people being mad at each other without context, and looking for it myself is just fucking miserable and I just wanna leave again. But I still haven't learned a thing about the problem...

[goat-boy]

Wow people make Käärijä a villain in the story that is actually so much bigger than our fandom or the history we’ve lived. It’s so unfair to him. I’m scared actually and hope he will be safe <3

I think he'll be mostly fine though admittedly I'm only tuned in here on tumblr. I have definitely seen some people being incredibly harsh on here as well though and I have heard that the reaction on Twitter has been way worse. (I heard people sent kä death threats, which if true is just like really??? over this?) It's just such a strange hill to die on to me.

I see it as reflective of the more recent phenomenon of people snapping at others online for what are ultimately little mistakes or just opinions that don't fit a specific mold. I've seen literally anyone being attacked just for not holding the most extreme version of a belief.

I don't think there's much cause for concern this time. Most of what I'm seeing here on tumblr is just people wanting a better apology or explanation anyway <3

[sapphire-weapon]

"It's not the game. That's not what we're arguing about. It is all about an inherent thing we do of social sorting. The reason we socially sort is because we want to put ourselves into a group that gives us a sense of belonging, a sense of friendship, love, whatever you want to call it, and creating a sense of identity through which you can express yourself. These are very important things to people. [...] That is what people are really fighting over. It's masked under all these arguments over these merits about the game, but that's not actually what people are fighting about. They are fighting to defend their sense of identity and belonging from those who they believe are attacking that with their opinions about the game. [...] "What you can do is at least be aware of what's really going on inside of you when you get these strong feelings -- when you see these opposing views to what you believe. [...] Realize what's happening -- realize what's really happening. Take a step back from that. You have this cognizant higher thinking part of your brain right here behind your freaking forehead that you can use to go, 'Hold on a second, emotional part back there. This actually isn't all that serious.' [...] "Because it's going to happen. You're going to have a feeling that comes up. You're going to see somebody who says something and you're just going to feel annoyed. You're going to feel angry. You're going to feel all those feelings. You don't have a choice in that, by the way. That's just going to happen to you. That's the part we're saying you can't control about your human nature. But you can control -- being aware of where that's really coming from -- how you go about responding to that. [...] "We have to wrestle with this. We have to wrestle with how we respond to this. Because [...] we have tools at our disposal that put us into contact with people who, it feels like, are threatening us all the time when they're not. They're not. They're not threatening you. It feels like they are -- it really feels like it. Trust me, I know exactly what you're feeling. [...] I could not control myself. I literally couldn't for a while. If I saw somebody say something like that, I felt the need to validate my position, clarify, tell this guy or girl or whoever was saying it why they're wrong. It's in me, too. [...] "And, I feel like, just in the past couple weeks, I had a little bit of a breakthrough, where I was looking through some comments and I saw something, and I just kind of laughed at it instead of getting angry. I laughed at it because it was wrong; I didn't get angry because it was wrong. Like, my brain -- the prefrontal cortex finally broke through and convinced the amygdala that: 'You can laugh at that; it's okay. You're not threatened. Just laugh it off and walk away. You don't have to fight this person. You don't have to engage. You don't have to prove that they didn't understand what you really meant. You don't have to do that. It's just a video game.'"

-- Mike from Resonant Arc, talking about video game discourse and shipping wars

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

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[reduced-sour-cream]

I’m having a lot of opinions today so if you see a lot of tags please ignore me or feel free to read them ig but I’m having views and that’s something ig

[drjadziagrey]

I have recently come across multiple posts talking about people using AI programs to finish other people’s fanfics without their permission. In the comments and reblogs, a debate started about whether this was ethical or not.

It is taking someone else’s creative work, which they have spent hours working on as a gift to themselves and other fans, and creating an ending outside the author’s vision because the reader wants a story and for whatever reason the author hasn’t completed it yet. They may have left it unfinished for a reason, or it could be still in progress but taking longer than the reader wants because fanfic writing is an unpaid passion project on these sites.

Fanfic writers shared that they were considering taking down their stories to prevent this, while some fans defended the practice saying they would use AI to compete unfinished works for personal reading but wouldn’t post the AI story. Even if the fic isn’t being posted, the act of putting the fic into the AI as a prompt is still using the writer’s work without their permission.

As you search Tumblr and Ao3, there are dozens of ‘original’ fics being posted with AI credited as having written them. As this practice has become more common, writers are sharing their discomfort with these fics being written by AI using their works as training material.

Fanfiction is an art form, and not a commodity which writers owe to readers. It is a place where fans can come together to discuss and expand upon their favourite fandoms and works, and brings community and a shared appreciation for books, tv shows, movies and other creative mediums. Some of the best fanfics out there were written over the course of multiple years, and in the writing, authors notes and comments, you can see friendships grow between fans.

There is a related discussion in this community of fic writers about the influx of bots scraping existing fanfic. Bots are going through the Ao3 site, and leaving generic comments on fics to make their activity look more natural. In the weeks since I first saw posts about this, fic writers are locking their fics to users with accounts or taking their fics down entirely.

There is talk of moving back to techniques used before the advent of sites like Ao3 and FanFiction.net, such as creating groups of fans where you can share amongst yourselves or the use of email chains created by writers to distribute their works.

This is the resilience of fandom, but is a sad move which could cause fandom to become more isolated and harder to break into for new people.

Here are the posts that sparked this…

[tellmegoodbye]

I've had some time to collect my thoughts after a couple of days so here they are even though nobody asked.

I really loved the finale. It was devestating, no doubt, but I think this is their best one yet and I absolutely loved how they handled it. There was so much grieving in this episode, not just from Carlos, but from Owen and Judd as well. But despite everything they chose happiness and the wedding ending up being beautiful and bittersweet and joyful all at once.

There has been the question of deleted scenes but there's really only one we've seen so far that I would have loved to see in the episode. Other than that, I'm just glad we get to have them all as extras. I don't think the wedding needed them though.

Another thing I'd like to add is that yes, sometimes storylines can feel rushed in shows where you have a lot of characters and especially if there are clear favorites within a fandom. There was a lot going on, but that doesn't necessarily mean any one character's storyline is less valuable than another's. I guess I'm speaking as less of a fandom member and just more as an enjoyer of the show if that makes any sense. I love all of the characters in this show, and while I would be lying if I said I liked every single storyline, that doesn't mean I wish they didn't happen. In this case, however, I loved all of the storylines and I think they all made sense together given the theme of this episode. I personally don't think any of them shouldn't have been there in favor of getting more wedding content.

Honestly, my only regret is not getting off of tumblr as soon as the final bts stuff started coming out. I'm pretty bad when it comes to guessing things so if I hadn't been aware of the theories I literally would have had no idea and it would have hit me so much harder. It still got me pretty good though.

Again these are just my opinions so feel free to ignore everything I say if you didn't feel the same. I'm happy though, and I'm going to continue being incredibly annoying about this show. ♡

[zenlesszonezero]

As the conspiracy reaches its finale, the Void Hunter joins the fight.

Uncover the Conspiracy in Zenless Zone Zero's All-New Version "A Storm of Falling Stars", S-Rank Agent Hoshimi Miyabi is here! With S-Rank Agent Asaba Harumasa Limited-Time Giveaway! Pre-register to obtain additional rewards.

[grungekitty-77]

Someone on my dash posted a god awful take this morning. It made me angry. They were very wrong and very offensive about it.

So I unfollowed them.

That’s it. No anon message telling them that they should be ashamed. No reblogging with a rant about how wrong they were. No direct messages telling them how out of line they were.

They make me upset. So I walked away.

[gokkyfanboy]

[dawnstaley]

ok this seems to be a hot take for f1blr but i don’t think the drive to survive episode titles are disrespectful sorry

[mxxnlightwriting]

Maybe someone already said this in the reblogs, but I also believe this "self-insert" mentality in first person is another reason why so many FMCs get hated for simply... being a character and doing things, especially when they're not 100% good or have a personality (the biggest sin of all—I say this with sarcasm) or aren't what the reader deems as "correct" in their eyes.

So, when an author writes a morally grey woman, and the reader uses their personal compass to guide themselves through the story, and suddenly this character that they're projecting onto does a bad thing they wouldn't do, they're like "nope, this is not me therefore this is a BAD book and whoever likes it is a bad person."

Not only is that a terrible take to have on a piece of fiction, but it also shows a lack of compassion and media literacy on the reader's part.

I say compassion because, in my opinion, part of engaging with any sort of art is to ask questions while trying to find the answers within ourselves. Why did this character do this thing? What led them here? Was there another option for them? Can I empathise with them for making this choice or not?

Also, art doesn't have to be questioned to be understood, and not every book is made to be analysed, which is more than fine (all books are valid and I will not tolerate people criticising romance as a genre because some of you think it's not "intellectual" enough. This is not about you, either).

And I say media literacy because characters are not—and I can't stress this enough—people!! So using your moral compass to judge a character will not work because, once again, they're characters. They'll always be constricted by the rules of plot and not the rules of reality/real world (even when these characters live in our world).

And like, there's nothing wrong with wanting to find characters that you can relate to, especially when they're the main characters! That's why representation is so important—sometimes we need to see some sort of "us" in the media/art we engage with so we can find value and understanding in who we are as individuals. But you're not the main character of the books you're reading.

And if you want to be the main character of a book, maybe write an autobiography, I don't know.

wait do people read first person stories and think they're the ones in the story???

Saw people talking about not liking first person, which is fair, but their reasoning was like "I would not do that" and I don't understand that mindset.

First person stories are still about a character. A character making their own decisions. First person isn't about you???? At least I thought it wasn't. What am I missing? I've always seen first person as just a more in-depth look into a character's mind and stricter POV. Not as a reader stand-in.

[zenlesszonezero]

As the conspiracy reaches its finale, the Void Hunter joins the fight.

Uncover the Conspiracy in Zenless Zone Zero's All-New Version "A Storm of Falling Stars", S-Rank Agent Hoshimi Miyabi is here! With S-Rank Agent Asaba Harumasa Limited-Time Giveaway! Pre-register to obtain additional rewards.

[tim-official]

the current trend of "tumblr users embarrassing themselves by proudly announcing why they don't listen to any music made by black people" is really astounding.

i cannot help but think this is a direct result of liberal White Guilt and how people have interpreted "anti-racism" as form of cultural self-segregation - the kind of person who thinks trying to cook chicken curry is cultural appropriation, or sends white people anon hate for wearing a kimono (yes, this kind of discourse happened). like, "oh, no, i could never participate in this culture, i'd get my evil white hands all over it! it would be more Progressive if I only did White things."

if you're a poc you've seen this, i'm sure - this deer-in-the-headlights stare you can get from white people when you play music / show art / share a story / anything that is Racially Coded, this total refusal to actually engage with it out of fear that it is in some way Wrong for them to have any opinion on it. because they read somewhere that it's bad to use AAVE but the only lesson they actually learned from that is "gotcha, white people are not allowed to interact with other cultures as punishment for my White Crimes. this helps to fill up the gaping pit of my white guilt and makes me one of the Good People." this transforms their discomfort around non-white cultures (black culture, especially, i should add) into a kind of virtue

anyway if you are white and reading this. go listen to some fucking haliu mergia. ethiopian jazz. will knock your dick right off. go listen to rap or reggae or bollywood and have a genuine reaction to it - like, an actual, from-the-heart reaction. you are allowed to not like some of it. but you will definitely like at least a little. yes, you can compare it to lemon demon (or whatever) if that helps you get into it and that's your only point of reference. maybe don't say that part out loud. but don't, like, separate yourself from it, like you are seeing it in a museum and the only polite thing to do is go "ahh, huh, very interesting, so much culture here."

[ladygrey7]

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[0uroboring]

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[protectoroffaeries]

Anon hate (but on this blog)

Defensive response (but on this blog)

[zenlesszonezero]

As the conspiracy reaches its finale, the Void Hunter joins the fight.

Uncover the Conspiracy in Zenless Zone Zero's All-New Version "A Storm of Falling Stars", S-Rank Agent Hoshimi Miyabi is here! With S-Rank Agent Asaba Harumasa Limited-Time Giveaway! Pre-register to obtain additional rewards.

[catgirl-kaiju]

we (transfems) deserve to have spaces online where we can feel safe and where we can thrive.

there's been plenty of discourse recently alleging that we are trying to separate ourselves from the rest of the community by talking abt transmisogyny. but, we're not trying to separate, we are being separated. we are being pushed out of public spaces, and even the spaces where other queer folks are allowed to exist without fear.

and this has an effect on our ability to advocate for ourselves and share our perspectives. it also suppresses our art and the records of our lives, our existence. i'm an artist and aspiring entertainer. I would like to be able to bring a larger audience to my work, i want my work to be able to find folks who can connect with it. how can i do that effectively if so many social media sites are not safe for me? what happens if i get banned, and my profile scrubbed of all content?

i already have a decent following on here, and i feel like the bigger i get on here, the more likely i am to be stripped of everything i have on this site by displeasing the wrong people. my presence online should not be contingent on being a good little tranny with no controversial opinions, who is quiet about my weird kinks. we shouldn't have to be pallettable sterile objects for your consumption just to exist in public spaces, online and offline.