#tagging the B. just so that people can filter this post

[hazbinbabbling4ever]

So I get back from my mini semi-hiatus because in a few days there will be WWDITS s6 premiere and I can't miss the craziness of tumblr about the last season, and apparently I missed: - S3 of Go almost definitely cancelled cause ˚.✦.˳·˖✶⋆Rumors⋆✶ .˳·˖✦˚ - S3 of Go suddenly alive again (but what about booting NG out?) - Now it's a movie called The Finale (so new script???) - But it's all ˚.✦.˳·˖✶⋆rumors⋆✶ .˳·˖✦˚ and they're all contradictory - A bazillion of sexy backstage photos of our comedic Duo

[carpe-mamilia]

Sorry @buttonhouseparty, I thought all your tags perfectly encapsulated what I thought when I first saw this post so I'm putting them here:

#hasn't it always been like this though? I feel like we've had this conversation ever since the beginning #obv I love the captain. but the fandom has always emphasised him heavily over other characters #even ben said that it surprised him how much the story resonated with fans #(alison is literally the main character and she gets less attention) #and since the start there's been the critique that the fandom never talks about anyone else #with the response always: well. you talk about other characters then. you create the content you want to see. #however the reasonable answer to that is #why bother to do that when you know other fans won't be interested + won't engage with it #I've always felt like: I absolutely hear that critique and I do understand the captain bias is annoying + potentially problematic #but people do fandom for fun and they're just going to focus on their fave #it puts me in the odd position of feeling like I'm 'contributing to the problem' whenever I reblog #and it makes me feel vaguely guilty for not enjoying the show in the right way

[...] #also I'm here as a comedy fan so I'm not very interested in doing deep dives on the characters' trauma #I like a bit of angst but I also like a compilation video of captain noises #I mean I'll reblog cap ship fanart #I love to see it and I like doing my part in sharing around other people's creative work #but I also adore a post discussing the idiots' writing and influences #but that's not what this fandom loves to do so I don't expect to see many posts like that

#AND I think many fans were deeply disappointed by the xmas finale and have wandered off to other things #the ppl who are still here are still enjoying shipping and sharing pics of ben looking hot #which is fine. that's a fun hobby! but I get that it's far from satisfactory for the whole ghosts community #anyway yeah. we've argued this one to death over the past five years and it just makes everyone fall out. I don't know what the answer is

controversial take but being a longtime ghosts fan over the past few months has just been watching the captain become increasingly more prevalent in tags and fan content to the point where almost no other character’s stories or personalities are explored and usually if they are, it’s in relation to the captain.

I’m gay, a lesbian, and the amount of fanbases I’ve seen fall to mostly straight women and become a whirlpool of one white, conventionally attractive gay man played by a straight man has been so disappointing. the captain is not the only character in ghosts. he is not the deepest or most tragic character in ghosts. it is a found family themed show. we, gay people, do not exist as tragic entertainment to be fetishised. the women in this show are rarely mentioned in comparison to the captain, Kitty had multiple scenes about her abusive sister, is implied to come from a horrific colonialist background and basically came out as asexual in season 5 and nobody talked about it, Mary died in a way that was so horrific they didn’t even show it on camera but havers had five minutes of screen time and he is everything now, apparently.

it’s to the point where you can’t escape it, no matter what tags related to the show you do or don’t follow. I’ve seen it before with the way the good omens fanbase changed from people who respected this incredible story criticising blind faith in religion with queer characters that inherently further that message into people calling them “uwu husbands” or whatever.

I’m not particularly angry, I’m just sad to see that the internet has turned into this again. I love the captain. I love ben, he’s a fantastic actor that I grew up admiring!!! but the captain is not the entire show and I think we need to think about why he takes up like. 85% of fan works.

[paganinpurple]

AO3 Etiquette -UPDATED

Based on both decent and not so decent replies, I have made some changes to my original post below.

It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:

As well as likes, kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished it, you liked it - so kudos.

If you really liked it, you should try to comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.

No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it (so use your notes to say if you want some constructive feedback). Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. No, posting it online is not an open invitation for that. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity and just want to share. Don't ruin that for them. I've seen so many authors just stop writing coz they can't handle the negative emotions the critism brings, and it's only meant to be a fun thing shared for free (pointing out tagging errors is not included in this).

Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.

There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.

For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.

The tag exception is if you don't want to tag a million things or spoil your story, you can rate it as "chose not to use warnings," and maybe tag the bare minimum.

Don't censor tags. How can someone exclude a tag if the word isn't typed out correctly? There are no content bans for terms so don't censor them.

If the tags are mostly content/trigger warnings, especially if they are things considered very fucked up or graphic, you might want to use "dead dove - do not eat" to ensure people know that you're not messing around with tags and what they get is exactly what you've warned them about.

Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLATONIC, like friendship or family.

Nothing is banned. This is an rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.

People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.

Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite or an exchange youve written for going public). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.

Instead of deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - consider making it anonymous or orphaning it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to your name anymore. If you still want to delete it, fair enough.

It's come to my attention that metaworks ARE allowed on AO3, which is something I wasn't aware of. So if you do post an essay or theory, please tag it as such so others can choose to search for it or exclude it. Art is also allowed.

The only reason this archive works is because NON ONE PROFITS. Do not link to your ko-fi or patreon or mention monetary gain in any way or you violate the terms and risk having your account removed. If anyone does link, it leaves the archive open to people claiming it's for profit and having the whole thing removed.

I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.

I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.

[dont-leafmealone]

some etiquette tips for quotev migrants

If you enjoy a post (piece of art, text post, writing, gifset, etc) interact however you would have on quotev!

Reblogging is like reposting an activity, but with a permanent link to op, and you can add your own thoughts in the tags or on the post itself. Very nifty. It's that little 🔄 symbol at the bottom.

Likes are a good short-form validation, and also a way to save posts so you can find them again later.

Comments are good for sharing your thoughts without having the post on your account for whatever reason.

Tags are optional, but useful for both organization and extra commentary that will stay on your blog (unless someone likes your tags. Then they may copy/screenshot and add to the post, or copy them in their own tags.)

if you trigger tag something, don't censor the trigger. That will only make it harder for people who have that tag blocked to avoid it.

"Copying is ok" rules for tags don't apply to art; art is to be reblogged, not copy-pasted, unless given permission from the artist. It's also polite to credit an artist if you use their art for a header/pfp, and/or ask beforehand!

That said, gifs are free game pretty much, since they have built-in credit to whoever uploaded them.

When posting images it's helpful to use the alt text feature to add a description, or add one in the body of the post below or above the picture, since A; it's helpful for those who use screen readers, and B; sometimes pictures don't load and the description is sometimes vital to tell what the heck's going on, screenreader or no.

Ask boxes are for things you don't mind being publicly viewed; messages are for private discussions.

Anonymous asks are optional, meaning some people may have them turned off. Anon hate is unfortunately common and many people opt to avoid it.

Block and report bots on sight. Report for spam/bot violations; even if they're an nsfw bot, reporting for sexual content won't do anything to get rid of them. Bots are pretty recognizable when you know what to look for, as their blog will either be blank/have a insta model pfp and generic URL, or...be full of untagged porn.

Bots come in waves; there'll be a lot at once, then they'll die off to a handful, then eventually come back. It's a neverending battle!

You can block tags to avoid seeing content you don't like. To do this you go into "account" in the settings menu, and type whatever you wanna block in the content filters section.

Turn on timestamps! That way you can know if info is outdated, or just in general have a time frame for when something was made.

Block rather than argue. You'll be happier in the long run. Hell, even if someone just kinda gets on your nerves or yucks your yum, but especially if it's serious, since reporting does next to nothing and arguing just won't change someone who's stuck in their ways, and it's not your job to fix everyone who's wrong. Block their account and if you want, block their name on the filtered content. Chances are they won't even know or care so don't worry that it's rude.

Most of all, have fun!

That's all I can think of for now. My askbox is open if there are any questions!

[nyahuaisang]

@reidhershel put this accurate af take in the tags of my post about heavenly delusion being a genderqueer series and I just wanted to further elaborate on it as the original post has a nsfw label because it does talk about topics such as intersex and the such so most people don’t see it. Please turn your nsfw filter off if you want to read it.

Anyways what you need to know is that a) there is a boy who’s consciousness was transplanted into a girl’s body and b) a group of children has been raised within a facility with no concept of gender their entire lives with at least half of them being biologically intersex and one of the children who has female features has been presented to the viewers by author as more male-presenting or androgynous and is referred to as “a young boy” in the manga’s synopsis.

Because of these more unorthodox executions of queer characters there is already a multitude of discourse from both anti-lgbt bigots as well as some of the lgbt+ community itself purely because of how unorthodox it is. Like Reid says, many people invalidates Kiruko(the boy who’s in a girl’s body)‘s queerness because of his unorthodox situation and a lack of explicitly statement that he is trans or queer I can imagine some people also invalidating Tokio in a similar way.

Cishet characters get to be cishet despite never once stating they are cishet. A male character kissing a female character is labeled hetero despite never saying they’re straight. A cis character is labeled as cis, again, despite never saying they are cis. So then why do queer characters have to explicitly state they are queer if they are already exhibiting queer traits?

A girl character should not have to explicitly be stated that she is gay or bi or pan if we see her kissing another female character. A gender neutral or non-binary character should not have to be explicitly stated as such if it is shown that they do not have a concept of gender. A character who has been presented as androgynous or masculine should not immediately be labeled a girl just because they have boobs. A trans boy should not have to be labeled as trans if he literally says he has a boy’s mind but within a girl’s body. A queer character should not need to state he is queer if he is professing his love to someone he knows is the same gender as him.

Cishet characters get to be as fantastical and magical and unorthodox and still be cishet so why are we trying so hard to strap queerness down to realism? Queerness has been discriminated against by almost every community and has had everything gatekeeped from it, please don’t gatekeep queerness itself from people and media you don’t deem as “queer enough” for you personally.

To be queer means to not conform to or being in line with what society’s expectations of gender or sexuality dictates you to and to then place expectations on that ideology itself, to place expectations on what being queer should be, goes against it entirely. It’s doing exactly what queer people are trying to break out of: having to fall in line with certain expectations to be seen as ‘valid’ in other people’s eyes.

Heavenly Delusion is a queer story, a really unique one where queer people gets to simply exist in a world instead of needing that world to be labeled as “queer” for them to be able to exist within in. It’s a chance for queerness to be normalized within media, don’t ruin this chance.

[gilbirda]

Yet Another Fandom PSA - tagging ships

Hi, it's me again.

Today I come with a small (ish?) pet peeve regarding proper tagging - tagging ships.

(⬆ This is where the magic happens)

What should you tag in "Relationships"?

Tag only the main relationship(s) that show up in the story. The relationship the fic is really about. Is about siblings? Is about a romantic relationship? Is about a platonic ship? Tag that, and only that.

Note: For Romantic relationship, use Character A/Character B. For Gen and Platonic relationships, use Character A & Character B

Don't tag relationships that are not relevant, or appear as background.

That includes, secondary ships that develop in the background or are established "off-screen" and don't actually have any screen time in the fic.

What if I want to warn/describe a ship that does show up anyway?

You can tag them as background in Additional Tags, adding some information that nuance how they show up if you want. For example, if it's a mention, or past relationship or if it's a temporary pairing but not the endgame.

eg. "Background Character A/Character B" or "Minor Character A/Character B" or "Mentions of Character A/Character B" or "Past Character A/Character B"

You can also use the Summary to specify and give context in what manner these relationships show up.

Why would I care? Is just a tag.

There are many reasons why tagging relationships properly is beneficial for the fandom as a whole.

First of all, keeps your tags clean and simple. It is easier for people browsing the Archive to know at a glance what the fic is about if your tags give the right amount of information and nothing more.

Second, it makes very difficult to filter if you like a ship that's not as popular as others. It can get very frustrating expecting your favorite ship to appear only to get to chapter 13 and neither of your ship shows up.

Third, the "otp:true" trick can only do so much.

If this is the first time you hear about "otp:true", it is a filtering trick that will automatically filter out all fics that have more than 1 "/" ship tagged in Relationship, leaving only the ones that have just the main ship tagged.

ID has been added to the pictures as ALT text.

For more info, you can check out AO3 official Tagging FAQs and this helpful guide: "The Fanfic Author's Guide to Metatext" (This is the chapter about relationship tagging)

Here's more filtering tricks for AO3

As always this post is not meant to shame if you do or have done this. I have done this too.

I felt so bad when someone approached me and said "hey, your crossover fic with this ship is the number 1 fic by kudos when you search for one of the main fandom's small ship" and honestly? wake up call.

So there's that!

Remember to be kind and happy fandom! 🥰✨

[buddiebeginz]

Please properly tag your posts. It's not fair to force Buddie fans to see B / T posts (even anti ones) just because you want people to see your edits.

Your 911/Heartstopper post had nothing to do with Buddie, but you chose to tag Buddie anyway, and didn't even tag T-mmy or B / T so we could filter it out?

(Or Ben / Charlie, for that matter which is unfair to the Heartstopper fans. Don't drag them into this nonsense, please.)

Hate what you want, but please tag properly so the blacklists can do their job.

First of all the post you're referring to this one is tagged properly. It is tagged with the shows it's from and it is tagged as Buddie because the majority of Buddie fans do not like T*mmy. Therefore I made this post for Buddie fans to see it. The Buddie tag isn't just for posts that contain Buck and Eddie but also for posts that are relevant to the Buddie fandom. Not sure if you're new around here but fandom tags have always worked this way on tumblr.

Also my post is not tagged with anything in relation to T*mmy or B/T because even if you tag a post "anti b*ckt*mmy" (minus the censors) it will still show up in the B/T tags. I didn't make that post to attack B/T shippers or to cause drama with them. I made that post to get across some of my feelings about the ship and express them on my blog and to share them with other Buddie shippers.

The post is tagged as Heartstopper because it is a parallel between a scene in Heartstopper and some scenes in 911. Frankly I find your comment about "don't drag them into this nonsense" really rude. Everyone on this site makes parallels from one show to another all the time. You are free to disagree with the one I made but I'm still allowed to make it and have my opinion.

I make it a point to try and only tag my posts with tags that are relevant to the content. I also try and keep my anti stuff out of the tags of people who like certain ships or characters.

I see B*mmy posts constantly where people are down right hating on Buddie and Eddie and that's right in the Buddie and Eddie tags. So maybe start with telling those people how to tag first before attacking me over a gifset with some scenes from the actual show that was literally put in my own fandoms tag.

Also I'm positive you're a T*mmy defender and your real issue isn't the tags it's that you didn't like my gifset which again you're 100% entitled to but maybe just block me next time.

[le-trash-prince]

Em, I came into the whole 'Benz-Garfield are desperate to get paired and/or make KimKenta happen' thing halfway through and I feel like I'm still desperately playing catch-up. Congratulations to them on making Part A happen and good luck with Part B, though! But in the interests of me continuing to play catch-up on this whole fascinating process, do you know if there's a timeline of events or a tiktok folder or *something* out there to help me piece together when all of this properly took off and when Benz in particular decided to go full unhinged with it?

Thanks for your help!

Anon if you weren't watching Pit Babe as it aired, I hope you are prepared for the emotional roller coaster that happens when you are waiting every week to see if Kim and Kenta even get screentime together. I felt like I was watching the last several episodes of Pit Babe on a fever high.

I am actually working on a timeline, but it’s not fully cohesive nor complete yet, since there’s simply so much to sift through on multiple social media platforms, and no platform has a perfect search function. It also doesn’t yet include social media posts where they were simply just… flirting with each other, but all the social media posts on the blog should at least be dated.

If you want to go through things more quickly, the archive page has a tag filter (one of my favorite tumblr features), and you can swap in any tag you like in the url, since the dropdown only lists featured tags.

It’s also hard to pinpoint a single moment when Benz decided to go unhinged with it, since he’s been pushing it from pretty early on. There also aren’t any dedicated translators in BenzGarfield fandom who are fluent in both Thai and English, so we either get machine translations or translations that are few and far between. There's also a lot of old posts that have been deleted, or accounts that have gone private, so even just the act of gathering everything is an effort, let alone organizing it into a big picture.

Here's what I can give as a highlight timeline though.

They met in late 2022 (Love Fest Thailand in November or December I think, I couldn't find pics, but I did just watch an old interview last night where they talk more in depth on their first impressions, which I plan on recording and uploading, but Garfield said something that can be paraphrased to the extent of "Do people this friendly and charming exist in real life?")

Benz was mingling with Change2561 actors, but they officially became coworkers in Feb 2023 when they were both cast in Pit Babe

Boys Journey started filming very shortly after—I don’t have a sharp timeline but the range is sometime from Feb to May. Benz was already going at it in Boys Journey (“BenzGarfield forever” - ep 10), when they ostensibly didn’t know their roles or if they’d be put in an actual ship (they were somewhat rotated around with ppl until later in Boys Journey, when I imagine the staff had chemistry based partnerships in mind)

In March, Garfield said he would choose Benz to flirt with out of all the cast.

By August, Benz was asking Garfield to take his last name 🤷‍♂️ (but Garfield keeps trying to take Benz's first name instead)

There was a lot going on while Pit Babe was filming (Sept-Nov). They were excited about filming the two whole scenes they had together, they tweeted about it the night before, they were improvising what communication between Kenta and Kim might be like, Benz was visiting set even when he didn't have any scenes (albeit likely for the free food, but keeping Garfield company while Charlie fakes his death is a nice bonus)

I haven’t been able to find it again (yet)(thank you YT���s horrible search function) but there was a livestream last year where Benz talked about Kenta calling Kim and inviting him to Thailand, which… never happened, so I can only assume they were at the point of making things up (which actors sometimes do when they need a better grip on a character), and probably explains the really loaded look they gave each other in the elevator, bc to them there had been more interactions between their characters.

The first event they did together (outside of full-cast stuff) was the RealMe sponsorship in September 2023, but it was presented as Garfield & Benz (didn’t stop Benz from once again asking Garfield to take his name). The first time (that I’m aware of) that they had an event with their ship name was the GarfieldBenz x Central Rayong event in December 2023. Filming was completed in November, so they obviously had known for a while that KimKenta weren’t a couple, but that wasn’t going to stop them from bickering over which of their characters would like the other first

In February, they were posting really shippy stuff right before the Pit Babe finale, which felt like queerbaiting at the time, but we didn’t know that Long Beans was being planned (they would begin the physio workshop a month later), so I think this was either a “we’re excited we get to play a ship but can’t say anything yet” or a “staff hasn’t made up their minds on casting us so let’s just show some potential.”

Also at the finale in February, Garfield said he wanted to be Kim's faen.

By the time Long Beans was announced in March and they were officially announced as BenzGarfield, there was no holding back, especially on the KimKenta front. Benz made a fuss during Long Beans presscon about them not getting any screentime together, and during the Changing event in April they talked about going to the writers and begging for KimKenta/KentaKim.

Anytime they're asked about S2, they're vague about it, and I imagine they will be until we see something onscreen (they have to keep me desperate and foaming at the mouth), but they have expressed that they want to continue working as screen partners for a long time. If KimKenta happens I don't think anyone will be happier than those two.

I hope this helps, anon! Trying to capture and organize all of their moments is a daily task, and it sometimes feels like I am Sisyphus.

[cherishingstydia]

I woke up to many things in my askbox which I will not be individually replying to. I deleted them all. This all started because I said both sides (buddie and b”cktommy) have toxic people. You can write paragraph after paragraph, berating me for things I’ve never done had no part in, nor would I ever do (and it’s a very small fraction of shippers that even do this) but it does not change the fact both sides have toxic people…..strange the only people getting mad are…ya know what I’m not even gonna say which side is mad if you know you know(hint: it’s not buddie shippers). I said what I said and I stand by it I NEVER once excused anyone’s disgusting behavior…simple solution if you don’t like me or what I have to say hit the block button.

There was a common theme to the messages so maybe some of it was the same person I don’t know but here’s some things that were said to me.

“Buddie fans wished death on Lou” obviously that’s is not ok at all however the same has been done to Ryan.

“Buddie fans sent death wishes to Bucktommy shippers” again not ok but literally again same thing and I know from personal experience I was told to die just for saying I didn’t like B*cktommy\T*mmy.

Like obviously harassing or wishing death upon anyone is not ok at all and I never said it was, stop twisting my words, and stop blaming all buddie shippers when half the things I’m being accused of I have no part in, nor do interact with people who do I literally talk to maybe like 4 people between tumblr and tiktok and none of them would EVER take part in any of the vile behavior I’m being accused of, and if they did we would no longer be speaking!

Another one of the key points of these were how I don’t call out bad behavior from buddie shippers…mind you the post that got them riled up was calling out bad behavior and toxicity of both sides, but i guess I’m only supposed to call out buddie shippers.

Didn’t tag them and filtered the name because I don’t feel like getting bombarded any more than I already was. Which I still expect more but I didn’t want to say nothing.

[yuseirra]

i need u to know I read your tags on my post about the OnK side stories and got blasted into a crater by my feelings 😭 I COMPLETELY AGREE....... idol is such an incredibly personal and revealing song, it rly does feel like Ai's whole arc compressed into a really densely packed mv....

Hello!! sorry for taking awhile! I wanted to reply to this fast, but I also wanted to attach an Ai to the reply because she deserves the love. I haven't used the search function on tumblr lately, but whenever I did for this series, I found many good analysis from you. I thought 'wow, they write so well!' So, it's an honor to hear you agree! ;v; Ah, I read tags on my posts all the time too and I LOVE the really sweet ones, so I'm glad what I've written's felt like a good piece of feedback for you. I felt like jotting down my thoughts after having read the side B story.

Yeah.. IDOL felt like a song that was "painfully revealing", it was very exposing of everything Ai went through, so blatantly without a single filter of protection, that's how I felt about the song at first. As I read the comics, I came to understood that's probably what Ai wanted to do all along. I understand why that character said that lies are a form of love, she tried so hard to pose as this invincible and perfect individual, not just to save her face and be loved, but for everyone around her. I believe that Ai must have thought being that way would be a way to compensate for others, meeting other's expectations and all, what they want from her as well so she tried again again and nobody ended up seeing her behind her mask because she ended up being too good at it. All of that seems to have resulted from the lack of love in her upbringing. She wasn't loved, so she wasn't sure what love was. I think the thing here isn't that she CAN'T love, but is unsure of the idea of love. She was quite loving all along, but she wasn't sure if she had was really love and she had a hard time expressing it. Keeping up a front was her idea of "loving" but that kept her from being understood and accepted as a person. So that's why she was so straightforward about everything in the song IDOL. She wanted to be understood and loved back and engage in a "truthful" manner.

People say Ai is a complex character and she is, but I don't think she's so hard to understand. Her mentality may seem a bit extreme for some, but I feel none of it is exaggerated or unrealistic. There could be a lot of people feeling this way, just in various degrees. Her story was short, but I think that's why it was still able to leave a lot of impact.. ;v; whenever I listen to IDOL, I feel Ai is a great character. She's always been striving to get what she wants, and she did in the end.. you can feel how much she tried despite all the troubles she had! She's in fact, not as perfect and a bit awkward at times, but she was always hardworking. So I like that in that song. It really shows a lot about her character :)

Thank you for the message, and for the translations again! Hope you have fun with the series, I'd love to see more good analysis from you because I agreed with a lot of the takes you had from your posts, I appreciate you insights!

[gilraina]

Sometimes when I browse the podfic tag I see posts like "I'd like to start making podfics, tell me what stories you'd like to see me podfic" and there's just something so weird about this to me? Imagine someone saying "I wanna get into making fanart, tell me what I should draw first", or "I'd like to try writing fanfic, give me ideas for stories". I know it's not a 1 to 1 comparison (and maybe it even happens sometimes, I dunno), but it just feels like such a backwards approach?

I started podficcing because I was reading a lot of fanfic and had so many fics I loved and wanted to try recording, either because I had an idea for what I wanted them to sound like when read out loud, or just wanted to experiment. Over the years I've had to tell multiple people that I don't take requests, or even commissions, because my to-pod list is already long and keeps expanding. Finding a good story, and reaching out to the author to get permission to record it, is all part of the process to me.

I don't know, maybe it just comes down to people being new to podfic and not fully understanding that part of fandom and its etiquette, but even so, my question is: if you don't know what stories you'd like to podfic, or it doesn't make a difference to you, to the point where your first instinct is to ask random strangers what they'd like you to record rather than to pick something yourself, then why would you even want to do it in the first place? Contrary to what some may believe, making a podfic is actually a lot of work (especially when you're new to it), and personally I just can't imagine putting all that work into something I'm not passionate about. And if you haven't even made a single podfic before, then how can anyone even give you a good suggestion, when they don't know yet what kinds of stories you gravitate towards, what would be the best match for your narration style, etc.?

Also, from the fic writers' perspective, I imagine there's a world of difference between

a) reaching out to the author for permission to podfic their fic, because you loved it so much that it inspired you to create something based on it

and

b) putting out a general "send me fics and (maybe) I'll record them" statement

One of those will get you a much more enthusiastic response from the writers than the other. Not to even mention that there are plenty of writers who have already given blanket permission for their fic to be podficced, and would love to get a surprise podfic of their story. If you're a podficcer or want to get into podficcing, I can't recommend using the Blanket Permission Highlighter extension enough. It highlights the names of AO3 authors who have given blanket permission for their works to be transformed, and allows you to filter the archive to only show works from authors who have BP statements.

If you'd like to try podficcing, but feel anxious about reaching out to authors to ask for permission, choosing a fic from an author who's already given that permission is a great place to start! Much better than announcing that you want to make podfics and waiting for people to reach out to you, I promise!

[dippersguidetotheunexplained]

I love looking through the TBOB tag but at the same time I’m so dang annoyed at how much filtered content is on there (b*//ford) like, why do people do this??? I’m still particularly new to the fandom and had no idea the shipping culture here was like this (I mean, I have heard of b*//dip but I just assumed that people were over that)

Anyways, just a little anon ramble to get my thoughts out—

can i be insane i actually ublocked the entire gravity falls tag so i would stop looking at it and making myself mad lmao. yeah i dont even know the popularity of it kind of feels like a recent thing too? like dont get me wrong i definitely remember seeing people posting about it when the show was airing but it feels so weirdly inescapable now. very strange

[laura1633]

At one point you can see Max look towards chat, and they were all being very appreciative of his thighs and that’s why he pulls it out of view there at the end.

well from our perspective it’s kinda gives vibes of victorian women showing her ankle, but i just thought that it’s can be really uncomfortable for him seen all this stuff and thats why he did it… and it makes me sad that lots of people don’t understand what you can write in chats like this or tag person who you writing about…

sorry for bringing this kinda sad vibe here😅 hope you have a nice day! absolutely adore your last a/b/o drabbles!!!!

Thats okay anon 🥰 Glad you like the recent a/b/o stuff, there was going to be another one today but I accidentally deleted it so there will be another tomorrow probably.

I don't know what people were saying on that particular chat so I won't comment on that directly but more generally I agree with you, I think some people don't seem to have any filter online at all. That probably sounds so odd for me to say given what I post here but I would never, for example, go on Instagram and link one of my fics for Max to see or make comments about what I think Charles is going to do to him after the race. All that is just for my imagination, Tumblr and ao3, he really does not need to know about it at all! 😂

It goes in the opposite direction too with people making nasty comments. I've never understood going on someone's social media just to throw insults at them. I guess it's sometimes easy to forget that these are real people!

[hermitcraftx]

sorry but the amount of people in the hermitcraft/trafficblr fandom who bitch about large swaths of other portions of the fandom and saying its overrated and popular is… insane. yall, MOST of the people who watch grian and other hermits dont interact w/ it outside of youtube and reddit. you just saw something you didnt like and are mad at its existence- if shipping is not for you, BLOCK THE FUCKING TAGS! if angst isnt for you, FILTER IT WHEN SEARCHING ON AO3!

im sick of people complaining that scarian is overrated or x is overrated, because tumblr has just become a highschool filled with cliques and after a few months of something being popular you all flock away from it claiming that it’s “overrated” and “mainstream” (ie. the cannibalism/time loop phase tumblr went thru) and yall are doing the same exact shit abt almost every component of this fandom whether its shipping or a character concept or what. im sick and tired of yalls whining abt not wanting to see shit or groups of people when you can LITERALLY just:

a. block people who post it so you dont see it

b. filter the tag so it doesnt show up

c. filter keyword content so it doesnt show up

d. laser focus your ao3 search so you dont see angst or shipping

like sorry but “but i dont WANNA see that!” is just throwing a tantrum about stuff existing and then getting mad when we offer you options to not see it. if you dont like it, DONT INTERACT WITH IT! get the fuck over yourselves

[aroaceleovaldez]

how do you reach the askblog demographic you want?? Me & a friend recently started one and we have very little interaction despite trying to tag relevant things, advertise on our main blogs, etc. Also just tips for starting one in general would be appreciated lmao

I've gone over tips for how to start an askblog [here], but as for the rest:

A.) Make sure that you actually are an askblog and not an RP blog. Some people will use those terms interchangeably or call their RP blogs askblogs and those are not the same thing. This is actually a very common problem. If you are doing RP stuff but calling it an askblog people will not send you askblog asks because they will assume you are a mislabeled RP blog. Sometimes also vice versa. Making sure it is labeled appropriately will make sure people are going to interact more because they can identify your blog more clearly. If you're unsure about the difference, I have a rough definition:

A tumblr askblog is generally defined as any tumblr blog in which there is a subject/focus on a “muse”/character to whom followers/the audience can direct questions to via the blog’s inbox. The “mun”/mod/admin(s) of the blog will respond to these questions in-character. This is different from a roleplay blog, in which the audience always plays the role of characters the blog’s muse will interact with directly, usually providing a narrative prompt to reply to/continue off of. Askblogs can be of a variety of formats, including illustrated/“drawn-response” askblogs, text-response askblogs, cosplay askblogs, voice acting askblogs, and more.

B.) Be careful when you tag things - if you are cross-tagging too much (i.e. posting about one character but tagging another character not referenced) people in those tags may actually block you, or tumblr may flag you as a bot. You can usually tell if your blog accidentally got flagged because your inbox and messaging icons will disappear when you look at your blog's dashboard preview. Do not crosstag! It is never a good thing on tumblr and will never help you. Only tag stuff that's strictly and entirely relevant. In PJO-sphere the only real exception to this is tagging anything PJO related "Percy Jackson" because that is both the series and the character, so people will not get on your case for that. That one is fine, nobody really cares. "Riordanverse" is the common all-encompassing tag for all PJO-universe series and etc though.

Other than that, making original posts frequently and having original posts on your blog that people are more likely to reblog (ex: normal fanart outside of askblog asks, shitposts/memes, etc) will help people find your blog more. People are not likely to reblog advertisement posts, but will reblog general fanart and memes. Try not to reblog too much stuff to your blog especially at first because that clutters it a lot and people will have a harder time figuring out what your askblog is like when you're actually answering asks (also only original posts count towards your blog appearing in tag searches and etc).

C.) I actually have a dedicated blog for this exact type of thing - @askblog-index. The format there is basically people submit an index of their askblog and that gets posted so people can filter for specific fandoms or other criteria to find askblogs they might be looking for. Because looking for askblogs can be difficult in the tumblrsphere. I usually post indexes pretty quickly so if you submit one I will absolutely get on that.

As some extra tips, make sure you enable your blog's custom theme (you don't have to do much setting up for the theme itself, though if you want it is really easy to do so. Recently I've quite enjoyed the theme Vision, though particularly for askblogs you can never go wrong with good ol' Redux). Double and triple check your inbox is open. And in your blog settings there is a "featured tags" thing that you can edit - edit your blog's featured tags to whatever the subject of your askblog is. Fandom, main character(s) of the blog, the terms "askblog"/"askblogs," etc etc all that jazz. This feature literally tells tumblr how to recommend your blog to people.

[soleminisanction]

What comic issue did the whole kon v steph showdown happen? In which he basically called her a poser? I’m wondering what the rest of the young justice teams reaction to her was. I think greta tried to kill her at one point? I don’t think she’s very well liked among that team, but it also makes me wonder if she’s very well liked in the wider hero community at all besides her small group of vigilantes she’s enmeshed herself with through getting involved w Tim and to a lesser extent Batman? What are your views?

Teen Titans (2003) issue #13:

That's it in its entirety. The bit with Tim and Conner is very much the story's B-plot, the A-plot is focused on Beast Boy and the rest of the Titans back in San Fran.

As for Steph and Greta -- it is true that Greta is the one member of YJ that Steph ever truly interacted with during that time period. I actually wrote up a whole thing here about the arc of those interactions, but it was kind of off-topic with your question and also long enough that it really deserves its own post, especially because lining it all up together without the multi-year gap between plot points gave me a revelation about how the story actually went.

I'm going to try to get that post up in the next day or so to prove my point but the summation here is: the first time they met, Greta explicitly didn't try to kill Steph -- but afterwards, Steph framed it as "she tried to kill me in a jealous rage" and people took Steph's side because part of Greta's story was that her "good people bad powers" thing made her kind of sus and that's what eventually drove her to join Darksied.

So while Steph did get mentioned in YJ, including getting brought in to help as part of the invasion of Zandia in issues 50-52, her only significant contribution there was a very brief stand-off with Greta and getting stuck in a bubble with a several other 90's characters who I'm pretty sure don't exist anymore.

The only other person I recognize here is Lagoon Boy. The pink filter doesn't help.

Other than that, the only interaction Steph's had with any member of Tim's friend group is the one issue of Teen Titans (2003), #66, where they're doing this membership drive thing and Steph (recently back from faking her death) tags along so they can pretend that maaaaybe she's going to join the team, but actually she's just there to have a very brief interaction with Traci 13 and Bombshell.

And an even briefer, awkward stare-down with Cassie that's only there because she and Tim's budding romance had been awkwardly cut short just so he could back to Steph the very instant she got back from faking her death no matter how little sense that made.

And then Steph wasn't even interested in joining the team anyway she was just there for quote, "moral support" as Tim told Cassie he needed to take a break for a while and focus on the pre-Final Crisis chaos going down in Gotham.

Stephanie has never spoken to Bart, Anita, Slobo, or Ray so far as I know. She's never even met Cissie because the Arrowette who went to Zandia turned out to be Bonnie in disguise.

Pre-Flashpoint, the only other people she'd met outside of Gotham are Supergirl (whom she met in World's Finest (2009)) and Squire, who's still technically a Bat even if she lives in England. Stargirl and Miss Martian show up alongside Bombshell and Supergirl towards the end of Steph's solo series but they come out of nowhere only because BQM had wanted to make them part of Steph's entourage at some point but didn't get the chance, so I don't really count them. Nor do I count her showing up in a group shot at the end of the Gail Simone Wonder Woman, since that was just a line-up of cameos from every female hero she could get at the time.

So with all that as the preamble, to answer your second question: no, I don't think Steph is very well-liked by the wider superhero community. I also don't think she's disliked. I think the vast majority of heroes and villains have no idea who she is.

If they know her at all, it's probably as, "That girl in the purple that Cass is always hanging out with" or "Robin's ex-girlfriend who faked her death that one time" or maybe even as, "There was a girl Robin at some point right? I feel like I heard that somewhere," particularly since there was a big media shake-up after War Games. Heck, they might even know her as, "Cluemaster's daughter; she runs with the Bats, yeah? Heh, sucks to be Arthur" since he's actually gotten around more than her just by virtue of being on the Suicide Squad.

But as Spoiler, as Batgirl, as a hero? Basically unknown outside of Gotham. She's always been too much of a supporting character to develop those kinds of connections.