#this is like how I get random fannish stuff

[mixelation]

wait hold on. i figured out the best* way to deal with jiraiya subconsciously writing his teammates fucking in reborn au

*best, as always, means funniest

okay, so. tori is trying very hard to go back to her old fannish ways wrt icha icha. the PROBLEM is that she's "too young" for it. kushina sees no problem with a young girl exploring her sexuality via dumb novels and loans her copies, but basically everyone else gets super fucking weird when she tries talking about it to them.

tori: hey did you see the new fan comic strip in-- (KAKASHI SLAMS HIS HAND OVER HER MOUTH)

kakashi: (nervous laughter) why does a kid know about that???

the konoha fanclub won't let her in. she's tried a henge a few times but there's enough ninja in the club she gets caught. she has to do a lot of convincing and sweet talk to buy fanzines or her own copies of the books. she meets jiraiya and even he is like ".....why don't you look me up again when you turn 18" and then kushina attempts to murder him

so she turns to OTHER franchises to look at. rpf. bad tv. itachi's library of completely stupid paperbacks. in fact, i realized this Solution because i was looking through old posts and one was talking about a book series about a kunoichi turned into a cat and then adopted by the missing-nin she was assigned to murder, which for some reason i named "kitty girl stabby ninja." it's PG-13 rather than E, so tori reads the first book of what is allegedly itachi's favorite series and then attempt to talk to him about it, and he's............ bad at it. like he's just bad. at conversation??

not to be deterred, tori is like "okay, fine, THIS is my fandom now and i'm going to start a book club" and itachi is just of like "okay?" and she goes to deidara first and then kakashi and then some random icha icha fan club people she barely knows because she doesn't have real friends. all of them are like "that sounds completely stupid" and she's like THAT'S THE POINT. then the whole idea gets completely out of her control because kushina finds out and wants to join as a team thing and tori is like NO, NO COMMANDING OFFICERS AT THE FUN SOCIAL EVENT-- but somehow they end up at kushina's house and so the goddamn hokage is also there. smiling. with snacks. the two normal people tori tried to pull from her failed forays into the icha icha fandom bail because would you willingly go talk to your hokage about a stupid as fuck romance novel for teenagers? while other famous ninja like kakashi and itachi* are there, judging???

*don't try to explain to them uchiha itachi is the source of the club or that kakashi likes icha icha for the romance and not the raunchy parts and barely needed convincing to read the catgirl romance book, it will confuse them

toward the end of the inaugural meeting deidara asks tori if people still hate her fics and minato is like "if you want writing tips, i can invite jiraiya to the next one :)" and tori is going to kill both of them. yes, even the hokage. maybe ESPECIALLY the hokage. she doesn't even really LIKE stupid kitty girl stabby ninja she just wants to do fun fandom stuff okay!!!!

jiraiya shows up at the next meeting anyway because he wants to "scope out the competition" and he makes a very dramatic speech analyzing why ninja romances appeal to civilians and how he's very cleverly using his spy skills to infiltrate civilian spaces and figure them out psychologically--

itachi, sounding genuinely confused: i thought all your plots and characterizations were just projections of your complicated relationship with Tsunade-hime and Orochimaru

Jiraiya: (SHOT DEAD)

jiraiya has to leave immediately to go rethink his entire life and maybe drink himself to death, but tori is touched itachi apparently listened to her at some point u_u

[illwynd]

Get to know you better tag game

tagged by @rynfinity. ty!!! :DDD

Last song I listened to: Frank Zappa's "Dirty Love." Some trivia was going around among my co-workers the other day and one of the questions was identifying the musician who said a particular quote, and one of the older guys thought I was too young to know it. Lol sir I may be a millennial but I am a millennial whose friends ask them to identify random oldies songs on the radio because It Is Known that I'm into a bunch of obscure shit, and you think I won't know who Frank fuckin Zappa is?? The funny thing is I had never actually heard the particular quote before, it just had his vibes so it was a good guess. But it was making me realize there's a good bit of Zappa I'd never really listened to. So!

Currently watching: In terms of fannish stuff, I'm sort of halfway through a Tour of Duty rewatch? Also waiting for moar Sandman and moar Iwtv, and living in blissful ignorance of whatever tf marvel is doing these days. More generally, the other day I found out that a few years back there was a show based on popular creepypastas, and I am a sucker for creepypastas. So I'm sort of watching that. (Also very curious how the IP issues were dealt with in a genre that so commonly has anonymous and communal authorship lol.)

Currently obsessed with: At Wondercon last weekend I impulse-bought a clear green acrylic contact juggling ball, because wouldn't that look cool for a Loki cosplayer to do? I do not yet rly know how to contact juggle, and it will be a loooong time before I can even think of doing a Jareth cosplay on the strength of those skills, but the damn thing is super fun to play with regardless. I'll just be over here, pondering my orb.

Tagging: @hechizero-emplumado, @actuallyvady, @pyrebomb, @philosopherking1887, @your-dark-thor, @neph-le-geek, aaaand oh anyone else who feels like doing the meme can say I tagged you :)

[melrosing]

As your not a big fan of fantasy books in general. What drew you into loving asoiaf? What got you hooked?

now that I'm invested in asoiaf I do genuinely like the fantasy elements of the story, but the stuff that really pulled me in was the human drama and political intrigue etc. I love the character work, almost all of the POVs feel fully realised and subvert typical tropes in really interesting ways (imo). I like the inter-generational drama (the reasons I like succession are v similar to the reasons I like the Lannisters), like if I want to understand Jaime and Cersei and Tyrion I can look to Tywin, and if I want to understand Tywin I can look to Tytos, and if I was to understand Tytos I can look to Gerold, like it's a russian doll of intergenerational trauma what more could a girl want.

and on that note I really like the scope! GRRM obviously feels this need to account for all details minor and major, so that even with everything that's already on the page there's room to extrapolate so much more. i mean here I am writing who knows how many words about a fake 20-episode long robert's rebellion tv series lol like this all happened before the series even starts and yet I hardly need to make anything up bc there is so much to draw on just based on all the random little details we've got here and there from characters reflecting on the same events from different angles, and trying to piece together portraits of the people who died based on the recollections of those on the page who remember them..... it is so fun)

and yeah usually I prefer to read about that kind of thing on a smaller scale but the drama that plays out in AGOT is so engaging that upon initiation I didn't find it so much of a chore to keep track of all the various houses and lands etc in order to understand the full implications of each thing that happened - it felt like it was worth the effort. generally it's the 'keeping track' of it all that I find grating about fantasy bc I really want to just get on with the story rather than keep on top of a hundred magic systems and sub-species of pixie.

and obvs asoiaf is low fantasy rather than high fantasy, i.e. there aren't intricate systems to the magic and or complicated genus for each of the creatures, so that made it feel a lot more accessible for me as someone who just isn't very interested in those kinds of details. Dany's magic is made up as she goes along, it's never explained, and that's the same for pretty much all the fantastical elements - it's very show don't tell. and even though when you count it all up there are quite a lot of fantastical features and subplots, taken together with the rest of the story it's more like.... seasonings I wouldn't usually choose but ended up liking just fine in this overall dish lol

and finally asoiaf just really appealed to me from a fannish perspective! I really hate when you're trying to dig deeper with a work and you quickly start to realise that the writer(s) just weren't thinking that hard. it feels like striking concrete with a spade, like it's a one-sided conversation rather than something both the writer and the reader are participating in. I think some fans are perfectly fine with that and good for them - who cares if the author built the work to sustain your analysis if you're just having fun doing it - but for me it's a complete killjoy, I end up v frustrated and like the work isn't worth my time

so here's GRRM who is so fixated on the finer details that he's churned out a history book like 700 pages long and a bunch of short stories and also another history book just to add a bit more texture to the main story. and I don't have to worry about network input or co-writers or actors' intentions or whatever other external conflict or influence cos for better or worse it's all his story. and that just suits me better lol, it's one guy and his shitty computer, and me reading the shit he wrote with it. pure and simple living in the moment no phones in sight

also jaime and brienne are everything to me xo

[codelyokooutofcontext]

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog's first post!

One year ago today, I acted on a whim and made a new blog to post moments from this show that, without context, look absolutely insane. I thought it was funny, my friends thought it was funny, but I didn't really have any big plans. I thought "I'll keep this around for a little bit and then probably drop it". Like I usually do with most projects of this nature.

If you'd told me I'd still be here a year later, I wouldn't have believed you. I especially wouldn't have believed you if you told me how many followers this account would amass in that time period. Honestly even being here now and seeing all of it, it's still a little hard to believe.

Thank you all for supporting this ridiculous little blog. It means a lot.

And after all this time, perhaps it's time for a proper introduction.

Hi, I'm YoshiStack! I've been utterly obsessed with this show since I was 4 years old and I've been involved in the fandom in some capacity since I was 13. Given that I'm about to turn 24 here in a little over a month, you could say I've been here for awhile!

Aside from this blog and the other few video edits I've done, my main contribution to fannish materials is fanfiction! I mostly write gen work about the friendship between the characters, as that's always been one of my favorite parts about the show and characters. You can find my CL work (and other oddities too if you're feeling adventurous) on Ao3 also under the name YoshiStack.

I'm also on YouTube! Right now I'm wrapping up a playthrough of the original Super Mario RPG before the remake releases and in the middle of a playthrough of a childhood game of mine, Thrillville: Off The Rails. I'm still a novice when it comes to recording stuff, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it and it'd mean the world to me if you checked it out.

(And as an aside: if you have audio or video editing you need done, hit me up either on here or the email I have listed on youtube! We'll see if we can work something out!)

Zero obligation to check out either of those ventures, but it'd mean a lot to me if you did!

Now here's some answers to some basic questions for CL and this blog that you may or may not have wondered about:

Favorite Character: Definitely Aelita! I love her arc! Her development from this character the others feel very protective over to ultimate sass master is so fun to watch

Favorite Episode: Oh that's so hard. But If I had to pick just a few...[REDACTED UNTIL POLLS CONCLUDE]

Spoilsport. Favorite season then?: Oh this one is easy! Season 2 for sure! It does a great job introducing all the new elements you need to know about in the beginning of it (Franz Hopper, William, Sector 5, etc) and has well done pay off at the end. And the stuff in the middle is just downright fun! A well executed season all around

Favorite Sector: Prooooobably forest? Something about all the trees is fun to me. Honestly I like most of the sector though. Minus desert. Too much desert in S1

Favorite Monster: I used to be all about the Bloks, but after running this blog for a year now I've gained an appreciation for the comedy that the Tarantulas often pull off. From well timed devirtualizations to killing one of its buddies with their own lasers, they're unintentionally really funny!

Favorite XANA Attack: I unironically love the food monster. Also the rat army. It's absolutely horrifying but pulled off so well

Favorite relationship: Ulrich and Aelita all the way man. Platonically I mean, their friendship is so underrated in the show itself but the few times they get to interact they're just gold (I am Jerlita trash too if you want to know more in that kind of relationship sense)

How do you pick out of context moments?: Honestly most of the time I just pick a random few episodes and skim through until I find something. Sometimes I'll have a particular moment in mind, but sometimes the funniest clips come from me just mindlessly looking through some episodes

Will you ever do Evolution out of context?: I considered using a clip from it for April Fools Day but I got lazy and never got around to it lol. Aside from that idea though, I don't know Evolution well enough to pulls clips from it, and I'm just not super interested in doing so at the moment. If anyone else reading this though has a burning desire though then you absolutely have my blessing (not that you need it obviously)

What do you think about the idea of the show possibly getting a continuation?: So I’ve always been pretty set in my thought that the show doesn’t really need a continuation. While more backstory on Project Carthage would be cool, it never really mattered to the Lyoko Warriors in the end, and the idea of bringing XANA back after they fought so hard to bring it down always felt cheap to me. They had their fight, they won, let them move on in peace.

That being said, the idea of the brains largely responsible for the original show having a genuine interest in continuing does have me at least a little intrigued. It’s way too soon to say whether or not anything will come from that interest of course—TV is a complicated thing and interest from creators alone isn’t enough to make it happen. But if nothing else, it’s nice to know that even all these years later, there’s still interest in the show and these characters from them.

How long will this blog be around?: Honestly I have no idea! I never thought I'd make it this far! I have no plans on stopping any time soon at least—there's tons of episodes I haven't even touched for out of context moments, so I'm not running out of material any time soon!

For now I’m just going to letting things run their course naturally and enjoy the ride.

That’s all I can think of to put here, but my askbox is always open for more questions!

Thank you all once again for your support for this year. I hope you'll join me going into our next one and beyond.

Here's to another year out of context!

[jmtorres]

ETA 11/7/24 we are in all kitty all knitting all pretty pictures hours until my dashboard stops being the most depressing thing in the world. i come to tumblr to distract me from shit like the fucking election and right now i have a dozen blocked posts in a row because no one knows how to step away. I'm stepping away. it's all fluff here.

I thought as a fannish tumblr I could stumble along without a *jazz hands* policy but I guess I gotta pin a post.

I am on Tumblr for fun.

If you send an ask for money I will block and report spam.

Below the cut: stuff I reblog, sideblogs, stuff I try to avoid, block policies, queue, do not ask me for money, and as a palate cleanser to thank you for reading, a nice picture of my cat.

I like to reblog:

pictures of animals and flowers

fannish stuff about shows, books and podcasts I'm enjoying (I like a lot of shit and I'm a fannish butterfly and/or magpie, it's not useful for me to post a fandom list, it expands often) (this includes thinking about characters banging, if you are an "anti" you will probably not enjoy my blog)

sometimes chronic health stuff, that's less fun but the spoonie community sometimes offers advice i find useful or just, relatable weariness

neurodivergent stuff too

food and recipes

art (no AI. if you see me reblog AI-generated content feel free to let me know) (by the way I HATE being suspicious of artists and trying to figure out if something is genuinely creative or machine-mixed.)

architecture and interior decor

fashion

hot people, often wearing fashion

if it makes me laugh. memes and shit.

language/linguistics stuff

filmmaking stuff

knitting and other fibercrafts

general nerdery

queer stuff (history, queer rep, talking about the queer experience, hot queer people flaunting it)

jewish stuff (usually cultural, some midrash, I try not to post about current events see below)

scifi & fantasy writing/what-ifs/meta

polls I miss LJ clicky-boxes but i vote in all kinds of polls it activates something in my brain

like literally whatever interests me, this is a personal blog, not themed*

* i have a couple of themed blogs, which I very occasionally update:

@teachdeathtodye, about both fiber and hair dyeing

@wheresmygoddamnlunarbase, about surprising or exciting scientific and technological advancements.

any other blogs that are not defunct? apparently as of 2023 I still post to @hewasonfogmachine, which was essentially a moodboard for an epic plotbunny I never wrote. it was a rock star AU, so lots of interesting musical instruments and performances. also an MCU/Mission Impossible fusion so hot pics of actors from both franchises, and my fancasts for OCs. either a very specific or very random themed blog, but if it's to your taste, enjoy.

But back to THIS blog!

I try not to post about politics (I am trying not to even read about politics on tumblr tbh) but sometimes the moment moves me. I will tag relevantly (I use "us politics" for American shit and "i/p" for the Israel-Palestine conflict).

I believe in curating my tumblr experience. I filter a lot of keywords and tags, but I also unfollow people if you post something that upsets me and gets past the filters. It's rarely personal. Who I follow is meant to give me an interesting and pleasing dashboard experience, not necessarily be a reflection of who I'm friends with.

I block fairly liberally. If I find your posts/opinions antithetical to my existence or my friends' existence, I will do my damndest to block you rather than argue with you (sorry if i was unable to resist arguing with you before I remembered the block button).

I softblock declared minors who follow me. I'm not an "adult" blog per se but I'm not filtering my content for children and also if you are a minor for your own safety you should not be announcing it on the internet, get that shit off your profile.

I periodically check who follows me and I might softblock (or hardblock) you if I do not think we are compatible (ie you have a DNI that lists people like me but followed me anyway for some reason??)

I queue shit and don't mark it queued so me posting is never an indication of whether I'm actually online.

And here's the thing I need to say that got me to pin a post:

I do not reblog ANY requests for money, I do not respond to asks from people I don't know personally asking for money. I'm on Tumblr for fun and my wallet is not available.

If you send me something like that and it looks spammy (which if you're cold calling, it does), I will report you to Tumblr. If you send me something like that and we don't know each other at all, I will block you. (If I know you I will probably gently remind you I don't do that. Unless I know you but you've been borderline annoying or upsetting in the past, in which case I might just block you anyway.)

Look. The world sucks. A lot of us are in financial straits and are not getting the support we need from our communities, our governments, our families. But I don't have the energy to figure out if you're "deserving" and I'm not loaded either. I do my volunteering/community aid locally in person, not online, to be sure I know who I'm helping, and because a lot of the help I am able to provide is via action rather than money. I am very sorry for the failures of our society that have made social media your best chance of getting help, but please don't ask me to participate in that.

Here's my cat.

The end

[rosysugarr]

random post bc this was on my mind based on a chat I'm having with a friend: I just wanna remind everybody that hyperfixation and being into something in a fannish way are not the same thing.

Hyperfixation means that you obsess over something so wholly that you struggle to actively think about anything ELSE, lose sleep or miss meals because of it, etc etc, like. Hyperfixating on something is not Healthy. I mean, it's often attached to various serious mental illnesses, but somehow I still feel like this needs stating. Hyperfixation is fixating on something at LEAST to the point that your brain has genuine trouble thinking about things outside of the hyperfixation/you struggle to have conversations that aren't About The Thing.

You can be a huge fan of something and think about it a whole lot without being hyperfixated on it!

LIKE for me for example, when I'm hyperfixating, talking about something besides the hyperfixation genuinely feels like I'm dragging my brain kicking and screaming, like... my brain is a cat that I'm trying to bathe. It actively fuckin fights against me trying to focus on or have a conversation about anything else. I get uncomfortable and anxious about it sometimes, or just mildly stressed bc of how difficult thinking about other things is. I have to actively, consciously steer myself away from it to talk about other things, like. It's the Default Thing my brain goes to.

SO YEAH just a note I guess since there seems to be some lack of clarity on this lately. being a big huge fan of something and being hyperfixated are not the same! If you can easily switch subjects, if you can focus on other things, if you aren't thinking about it nonstop just... idly while doing other stuff or losing sleep/missing meals to engage with the thing, then you probably aren't actually hyperfixated (which is a good thing, because hyperfixation is an unhealthy way to engage with things, but some of us really can't help it, it's just how our brains are wired!)

[tryslora]

Support your favorite creative(s) this season!

So, it’s the holiday season (for values of holiday which can be anything you care to celebrate during the winter months) and you would like to support your favorite creative(s). What are some good ways to do that?

Tell the world about them

If someone is a favorite of yours, there’s a good chance that you know someone else who will enjoy their work. Signal boost the creative’s posts. Create your own post with links to their work. Showcase some of your favorite pieces of theirs with a snippet and a link to the original. Talk about why you love the work (trust me, your favorite creative will love to hear this just as much as your friends will appreciate finding out about something new).

Important side note which I know you know but it bears repeating: please reblog and link to your favorite creative’s posts; do not repost their material. Reposting might sound like a great way to show off what the creative does, but it doesn’t help anyone find them. Please be considerate.

Post reviews of their work

Instructions for this depends on what type of creative you are following. If they are a writer, leave a review on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, B&N, whatever platform you choose. Positive reviews are how writers get discovered.

If your creative is an artist and has a platform where they offer commissions, leave a review there if appropriate. Give them five stars. Help your creative climb the ranks from unknown to well-reviewed!

Follow them on social media

If your creative has a list of social media accounts, follow them! This gives you a better chance to help signal boost their cool stuff (as well as hearing about it when they post!). It also gives you a chance to interact, and to see what they’re like when they aren’t creating. If you like their creations, you might have other things in common. 

Does your creative have a newsletter? Subscribe! You can even forward copies to your friends if there’s something really cool you want to share. A Patreon? Check to see if they have free material posted. Many Patreons allow people to follow at a free level, and while there might be paywall-locked material, there might be unlocked material as well.

Social media is wide and varied these days, with everything from Bluesky and Mastodon, to old-school Facebook pages, to even older-school platforms like Dreamwidth. Don’t forget the little known Pillowfort, or the highly fannish Tumblr. Even better, be aware that your creative may present different faces in different spaces. They are just as human as the rest of us!

Talk to them

I’m serious! Being a creative is like shouting into the abyss… if the abyss happens to shout back, that’s emotional food that can sustain a creative for days. Most creatives have several places where they can be found, either for private communication (check to see if they accept messages/DMs/emails first, please) or for public conversation (social media can be wonderful!). 

Create a transformative work

This won’t work for all creatives. BUT. If your creative is a writer, I would place a bet that they would LOVE fanart of their work. Or maybe that’s just me.

Buy their stuff

Yes, this one requires money, and I am well aware that most of us don’t have the budget for monetary support. And that’s fine! As shown above, there are so many other ways to support your creative and help them grow. But if you do have the budget, picking up copies of their work means you can get great gifts for your friends (and help spread the word!). And if you’re up for it, monthly support via Patreon, or random tips are always nice and appreciated things.

Ask them what will help

In the end, every creative has their own list of things that will help them most, and almost every single one would be happy to tell anyone what would help Right Now.

I’m putting this next bit behind a cut/read-more/clicky-link — whatever is appropriate to the platform you’re reading this on. Because this is the personal bit where I add links to the places you can find me. 

And if you are a creative and you are reblogging this on a platform which allows reblogs, please add your own list of helpful information. If it’s a place with comments, please comment! I want to help by giving other creatives a way to get information out.

Where can you find me…?

TrisLawrence.com is my professional website, with blog posts, upcoming appearances, and links to where to find my Stuff.

I post blog entries on Tumblr, Pillowfort, and Dreamwidth (which mirrors on Livejournal and Insanejournal).

I babble randomly on Bluesky and Mastodon. While I exist on Twi-X, I no longer post there.

I have a professional Facebook page. I have an Instagram. I have a TikTok that I am trying to learn how to use.

I am also active in several Discord communities, if you happen to find me there.

Want to support me? -- Patreon | Ko-Fi | Reblog & Comment

Want to hear more from me? — Join my mailing list

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Hello, I’ve been really enjoying your podcast and thinking about various incidents that might make for good episode topics and how they could be approached, and since you seem rather receptive to random suggestions, I figured I’d send some in.

The Black Sails vs OFMD tumblr poll, a recent incident where a tumblr poll pitting two pirated against each other caused mountains of drama, a massive unhinged rant from the op of the poll, and a sort of fandom rivalry. Could be useful as a jumping off point to talk about the way comedy and dramas are perceived in fandom spaces and the ethical issues that spring up around media that whitewashes (in the moral sense, but the other definition could play into the discussion too), completely fictionalizes, and glamorizes real historical figures.

More Star Trek stuff than I can recall in one sitting, but Die Seven Die! was a pretty crazy happening, where a bunch of shippers decided to write fanfic of a certain character dying because she got in the way of their ship (she got randomly paired up with a character she didn’t interact with much, and the rumor is it’s because the actor who played him made a joke about it while negotiating his paycheck). The 1982 Con of Wrath, just a classic convention fuck up. And really, just any given thing happening with Spock’s love life at any given time. I know people got extremely nasty regarding the Kelvin Timeline’s Spock/Uhura stuff and more recently with Spock/Chapel.

I think the release date of the first Big Finish audiodrama could make for a good starting point for an episode about the dr who wilderness years, which could focus on the role fan activity can have in rebooting or reviving a dead series. Or, on a crazier note to reach the same point, the release of the music video for Doctor in Distress, which is something I really can’t describe beyond “a compellingly awful charity song made to get Doctor Who back on the air”, and Hans Zimmer was involved in making it.

I’m sure you’ve gotten suggestions for Thanfiction and the Hamilton AIDS incident a thousand times, but how about the time Voltron fans tried to reinvent the concept of original fiction through the lens of fanfiction. As I understand it they were so upset by the ending of the show that they decided to collectively file the serial numbers off of their fandom. Sort of replacing the actual show with a invented goncharov-thing and writing fanfic for the fake fandom they made. Not sure what ultimate point could be derived from that, but it’s sure fascinating from a sociological point of view.

Thank you for writing in!! Sorry it's taken a little while to reply; we didn't want to spoil too many of our own upcoming episodes in our answer, but it's rude to leave you hanging, so here we go... :)

The Black Sails versus OFMD poll is a great suggestion! And I love your take on how comedy and drama are totally perceived differently in fannish spaces and have such, like, essentially different modes of fandom. It would also definitely have to touch on how OFMD in particular whitewashes real-world slaveowners -- although if we do a Hamilton episode, we'd probably talk about that a lot there, too.

Thank you for sending in some new Star Trek stuff! I (V) hadn't heard of any of those particular events, so I'm excited to dig in and take a look. :)

And I love that suggestion for a Doctor Who event! It's been surprisingly hard to find a good record of fannish history, rather than show history, for DW, which is insane considering what a huge fandom it's had for so many decades.

Thanfiction and the HIVliving Scandal are already on the 2023 schedule, have no fear!

But this Voltron thing sounds nutty. ::pencils it in::

[combatfaerie]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Taken from the fabulous @ashleyfanfic

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

In my current account, 101. I really wish I'd broken down FLAMES differently; maybe I'd get more feedback/interest if I had. But right now, I have 100 WWE fics and one AEW.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,961,702. (Hopefully I'll hit 2 million by the end of the year.)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly WWE right now. I had another AEW House of Black one started, so hopefully I'll finish that someday. I miss writing book-based fic, but I need to find another series I really love.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Flames, The Arrangement, Lass Ride, Pack Mentality, Queens of the Underground. (Flames: Bonus Scenes was technically in third, but it's really just a collection of random additional scenes.)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to. I figure if someone's nice enough to take the time to leave a comment, I can take the time to reply.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have no clue. Everyone defines "angst" a bit differently. I guess I'd say either THE WIND BETWEEN THE STARS or UNFIENDED.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Um.... offhand, I don't know. Common Grounds, maybe?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got a few comments on Flames and The Arrangement. Not often, and I'm pretty sure I know who they're from.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. I mean, I guess it's smut? I don't know. Like angst, that's a word everyone seems to define slightly differently. The ROSE & THORN stories are basically just smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have, but that was for previous fandoms. I haven't written any wrestling ones yet. (Though I was tempted to try a WWE/Westworld one.)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think so. Not any of my wrestling ones (at least not to my knowledge), but from previous fandoms.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Only once. I'm not great at it.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

For my current fandoms, it's still Becky/Seth. Overall, probably Catwoman/Batman. (I got an early start in comics, so most of my earliest fannish stuff is comic-based.)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Disruptors. Or the "Finn's a vampire and Becky's his donor (but not for much longer)", sadly. I just can't remember enough of what I intended for them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told "normal moments", which I guess is a nice compliment. I like "slice of life" stories, but they don't seem very common in fanfic, at least not wrestling fic.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything else? I know I'm not great at pacing and like most writers, I have words/concepts I overuse.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don't mind it, in moderation. I don't agree with people who say that people don't just drop a non-English word into an English sentence. Sometimes the non-English word fits better. Sometimes it's what you're used to. Sometimes you're so mad/sad/intense/whatever that languages start getting mixed up in your head. Our actual dialogue—spoken, thought, etc.—is rarely as crisp and concise as writing makes it out to be.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X-Men, probably.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

My fave of faves is from a different fandom. From WWE, I don't know. I'll probably always have a soft spot for THE WIND BETWEEN THE STARS (and no, that's not a thinly veiled attempt to get more people to read it). I also have a fondness for BREAKER OF RINGS and kind of wish I'd made it an original story, but c'est la vie.

[deadscoutz]

Ye olde list of my dankest oldest yaoi

I made a meme template for my fella. You can see how he filled his out on his blog. You should do this too! Just save the image and repost it with your ships, no credit necessary.

10 years ago can also be 10+ years ago, just any ol' fashioned classic yaoiyuri.

My ye olde ships:

Slade/Robin (now Nightwing/Slade lol)

Kefka/Terra (ff6)

everyone including random monsters/Vincent Valentine (ff7)

Harvey Dent/Joker (dark knight movie)

Riddler/Scarecrow (batman comix)

Kaiba/Yami Yugi (ygo)

Malik/Yami Bakura (ygo)

Sniper/Spy (tf2 /neg)

Superman/Batman (capeshit)

Deadpool/Cable (capeshit)

These don't include some of the obvious ones that I'm still drawing to this day LOL like Scout/Spy or Goblin yaoi.

Warning for LONG ASS rambling about each ship under the cut.

The common thread is that 86% of these were memes posted to 4chan's /co/ board. When I WAS. A YOUNG MAN. I just liked whatever I saw other people posted cuz i couldn't form my own opinions yet. I think that's just a general age thing, as you get older you hone your personal tastes more, whether it's books or yuri or food, and it's less satisfying to wait around at the buffet for other people's tastes.

It's a lil interesting how much easier it was to just let other people feed me things to enjoy. Now that I'm older and pickier, I have to proactively seek very specific tastes and sometimes make dishes for myself!

Some thoughts on thots:

Slade/Robin: This is like, baby's first "dark ship". Lots of 8 yr olds saw the Apprentice episode, and pogged out cuz of the evil groomy tension. Then you get all the 8 yr olds posting their dark yaoi on deviantart LMAO.

The default back then (And still now?) is evil daddy dom Slade making poor widdle babby Robin cry. I didn't have particular tastes back then in regards to that ship cuz I was 8 and just followed what was popular LOL. In [current year], I only like the pairing if Slade gets his anus slapped and slorped by the dude he tried to groom. What can I say, I get older and the old gnarsty dudes keep getting older too...!

Also, I'm really shocked that new people are getting into this pairing because of Teen Titans Go's chibi Robin. It's time to bring chad manlet Dick to public consciousness!!!

Kefka/Terra: 👴 Back in my day, I did not see any FF6 shippy stuff on the internet at all. The doujins and fanart were mostly for the FF7 and above 3d games. So this was something I thought up for myself while playing the game, without any outside influence... incredible for a kid I must say! The dynamic is "evil clown grooms psychic girl into a MAGITEK WEAPON". It's really funny how things change, I wouldn't find interest in that dynamic now :p But I understand why a depressed edgy 10 year old (me) would find that interesting to explore.

Everyone/Vincent Valentine: I just thought Vincent was cute! I still like goth dudes who look like ladies with long hair (Who also turn into monsters). I tried to get into ships proper for Vincent, like Sephiroth/Vincent, Cloud/Vincent, Cid/Vincent.. but none of them really struck my fancy. I didn't really care for their character dynamics. I just liked Vincent LOL. So my favorite doujin I found when I was a wee lad was a monster x Vincent manga, cuz Vincent was cute :3c That segues into the other side of the fujo spectrum: A lot of my fannish thoughts when I was a kid (and even now) was based on having one favorite character and just wanting to see them look awesome and hot and cool and sexy. I think that's actually more related to gay manga culture than fujoshi culture, where gay manga can commonly just focus on one guy getting gangbanged with no emotional pairing necessary.

I could live with just seeing sexy Green Goblin and never shipping him with anyone else, ya know? And I'd be happy just drawing my sexy Senspai without any annoying Scunts around. The annoying younger halves of my pairings are often just projection opportunities, ya know? But I don't have the mental ability to do self-inserts because I have no conception of self.

Harvey Dent/Joker: Hey, when you're a kid and the new Batman movie comes out, you get sucked into it! You can see this in action with all the new Riddler fans cuz of the edward cullen batman movie! Nurse Joker was a huge meme on /co/ when this movie came out, and as the joke says.. /co/ is gay. And probably full of closet fujos. I had no emotional connection to this pairing, or even thoughts on their interactions, but I have quite a bit saved of these two on my computer. Plus I stole a lot of Aaron Eckhart's Harvey for my character Angus. Blonde and buttchin!

Riddler/Scarecrow: Again with the new Batman movie at the time, this time reviving interest in characters that weren't even in the movie! I liked Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow even though he only gets 5 minutes total of screentime in all 3 Nolan movies combined. Because I like girly men with killer cheekbones and kissy lips. I also REALLY enjoyed Jeffrey Comb's voiceover for BTAS Scarecrow. And Frank Gorshin Riddler was also a beloved meme on /co/.

I don't remember what the dynamic even was between these two. I just remember a small imageboard split off from /co/ for just Batman yaoi at the time, and this being a popular ship. Sometimes I wish it could be this easy for me to get into media and enjoy it with random strangers again LOL.

Kaiba/Yami Yugi: I loved Yugioh as a kid. This was one of the most popular ships, so as a kid you're just ecstatic that so much art and writing and fans existed for this one thing. You never starve, even if you don't have especially strong feelings for the food! Kaiba/Yami is still pretty cool to my adult brain though. I love the obsessiveness of Kaiba, and Yami is just an eternal waifu.

Malik/Yami Bakura: You can blame the abridged series for this one! Yaoi bait begets yaoi bait. This falls under the "dumbass x grumpy" archetype that I still enjoy. No especially strong feelings for this one, though I do have more modern headcanons of Malik, Rishid, and Bakura living together in a strange poly-angle. It's just cute!

Sniper/Spy: Ah, TF2chan.. a place where dreams live and die. Sniper, Spy, and Scout were part of the cursed twink trio on that chan. REAL MEN liked MANLY ships like Heavy/Medic, Demo/Soldier, or Soldier/Engie. You're a gay stupid yaoi fangirl if you liked any combination of Sniper/Spy!!! Jokes on them, I liked pretty much every pairing for TF2 back in Tha Day.

TF2 truly was a milestone in the fujo pipeline, from anime twinks to middle-aged slightly more naturalistic twinks to finally burly hyper testosterated manly men. We can blame the SSS twink trio for helping many transition (And I mean that in every way of the word 😜).

I think now I'm just sick of anything TF2. Reminds me too much of assholes and shitfucks! The transition of TF2 from edgy gamer chan culture, to tumblrites, to twitter geeks... eugh. I only care about fearless Scout/Spy allies :)

Superman/Batman: Hey, it's the NaruSasu of superhero ships! I have a lot of these two saved on my hard drive from my /co/ days. Once again, because gay art of these two was posted constantly as a meme. When the "straight dudes" on the edgy imageboard acknowledge the inherent homoeroticism of a pairing, it's validated in the young fujo's eyes. (cuz what girls like is stinky? and what men like is cool and real? lol lots to unpack) Still think this one is cute! I'm not AS invested in this as some people are as an endgame OTP that gets married and love each other ONLY, but it falls under the genki x grumpy archetype that I enjoy. It's a good relationship for Bruce to have and ruin!

Deadpool/Cable: Ah, the final channer-approved pairing. Complete with channer-approved fanart and pornography I still have on my hard drive! I might actually have the most art of them together saved out of all these ships...They had a comic together called Cable and Deadpool. Deadpool flirts with Cable and dreams about putting lotion on Cable's bare back (heh). What's not to like? Still cute, still genki x grumpy! Again, not an invested endgame ship for me right now, but certainly something I'm grateful to have enjoyed and shared with Shane :) Especially having enjoyed this before the Deadpool movie came out, and before all the weird fucked up Waid comics! I WAS HERE FIRST!!!!!!

[the-laridian]

What got you into Fallout

How long did it take to get so good at quilting

What's one random fact about yourself

I played Wasteland, the precursor to Fallout, so when Fallout was released, it was a natural progression :) also I've always been into post-apoc stuff.

(I actually go into this a lot more in an upcoming Fannish 50 essay but that's a very short simplified version of the story)

Let's see, I've been quilting... about 10 years now? It's a (comparatively) recent addition to my adult life. And my early stuff sucked XD XD I find it now in the closet and it's "oh man can I rip this apart and do it better this time." But the secret, like with art or writing, is: just keep practicing until you get better at it. So, y'know. Several years.

Let's see, a random fact. I've gone diamond mining in Arkansas and gold mining in Alaska. Like most people, I got nuthin', but it was fun and I can say I did it. :)

[kneelbeforeclefairy]

I am sitting here thinking about going BACK into a fandom. Most fandoms wax and wane but they're always kind of there. You always like them to some extent, it just changes how much Fannish behavior you do. Some you really move on from. Some stick with you and become a LIFESTYLE even if they're not always in the forefront. (I call these Base Fandoms. Mine is Les Mis. )

But I think there is a Fandom Danger Zone I call Back Into Hell. It's when you liked the thing, maybe were in the fandom for a while, but you eventually moved on and didn't think about it for like. Years.it probably wasn't even your BIGGEST THING at the time. Just something you were into for a while.

And one day. Something snaps in your head and you go. Huh. The Thing. I miss The Thing. I should like....revisit it. Especially if there's been new content since you left The Thing.

Cause every time that has happened with me it has been a HIT BY A BUS level of brain rot and derailing my life.

Vampire Chronicles. Read the books up to Vampire Armand in high school. Was DEFINITELY weird about Claudia. Eventually moved on after a while. Almost fifteen years later get a random craving for Tale of the Body Theif. Reread entire series, plus the new ones, drag friends into hell, cosplay Lestat, create the Blog, have vampire themed birthday party and am now working on my dress for my SECOND Anne Rice Ball.

Hunger Games . Haven't thought about it since college other than occasionally saying "I volunteer as tribute" or something, like every other millennial. Hear about songbirds and snakes, just sorta check it out. Now have reread entire books, watched movies, dragged friends into hell @bestnoncannonship has had her brain rewritten by haymitch and is projecting all her Rural Trauma (we call it Twelve Bullshit) onto him, and now planning Effie's Ruffle Dress of Doom.

Sherlock Motherfucking Holmes. Read most of the series during college when BBC Sherlock was big. Enjoyed it. @bestnoncannonship was WAY into Sherlock. It was a base fandom from when she was a kid. Need something low-key to listen to at work when things are slow, why not listen to audiobooks of Sherlock Holmes? Wind up starting to watch as many adaptations as we can, cosplaying Holmes and Watson, have Sherlock Holmes themed murder mystery birthday party for Ann, give WHOLE ASS PANEL at flame con about why Sherlock is gay and acd knew DAMN WELL what he was doing, and now I know WAY more about Victorian gay men than I ever needed to know.

American Girl dolls. I had Molly as a kid, but wasn't really into her. I did have a Bitty Baby I adored, and a HUGE collection of clothes. Read a lot of the books, definitely credited it partially with making me a history person. But eventually grew out of it. somehow starting seeing American girl stuff on Tumblr. Check in. Now I have a brand new Rebecca and a GROWING collection of clothes. Ann has a Samantha and her clothes. We do doll photo shoots. Drag friends into hell (noticing a pattern here?) Now my mom has a Julie, another friend has a new Molly and a new Caroline, her partner is literally CUSTOMIZING dolls and it up to date on all the new releases. other friend dug up his Addy, and found out he had a rare girl of today ,two more dug up their Kirstens, and at some point we're having an American Girl party.

At this rate the next SLAM is gonna be like Doctor Who or something, though i really doubt this Second RTD Era can stand up to the first one. Also I think when it comes down to it I'm more of a Classic Who bitch. But there always MORE classic Who to watch.

Anyway. Beware the Return. The first time in a fandom is a visit. The second time that shit moves into your brain full time and you can check out any time you want but it will never leave.

[viklikesfic]

some rambling observations about being an autistic fan

So I've been thinking a lot about ✨The History of the Internet✨ lately, and in particular the history of how fans find community, and I thought I'd share these observations into the void. I'd be curious to know others' experiences!

Specifically, I'm thinking about how my autistic way of communicating and socializing maps (or doesn't) to fannish norms and how that's changed over the years.

Some facts about my specific neurotype (because every neurodivergent brain is different!):

I strongly dislike small talk, but I LOVE going on at length with someone about a special interest.

Shared SQUEEE is super affirming to me.

I tend to think in systems and lists, so I love to do things like think through the details of worldbuilding.

I'm on the ace spectrum, and I both experience a lot of my sexuality through my muses and interacting on their behalf and don't really have a personal feeling of desire towards actors (and sometimes squee based in sexual attraction makes me uncomfortable because it feels like I'm misrepresenting my own identity if folks don't get the whole muse thing).

I have highly variable spoons and social anxiety.

I tend to hoard information, and if I like a creator I want to see EVERYTHING they put out, and it makes me anxious to think about missing things.

Okay, cool, so given all that, here's how I've experienced socializing in fandom, and what I'm realizing in retrospect about how different "waves" of this map to my communication and social needs. Note that the "waves" are just how I personally interacted with fandom, of course your mileage may vary!

Wave One (2004ish-2008ish): LiveJournal, mostly. In this era, I was primarily interacting through LJ, and finding fic on random sites around the Internet. I didn't have a ton of sense of connection to other fans, except those I met in real life.

Wave Two (2008ish-2013ish): Dreamwidth, Ao3, and RP. And then DW and Ao3 were born, and choirs of angels rejoiced. This was my personal golden era. First, DW, where I started forming more personal connections through a journal site and its communities. This was the point at which I felt like I actually knew people through being "mutuals," and I generally tried to read everything on my feed, interacting regularly. I went to ConTxT a few times and met fans in person, as well as a few local hangouts hosted by fans. I also started RPing in this era, and for a few years spent regular time in an AIM chatroom pretty much daily with RP partners. I started dating two people long distance from this group, and most of my friends were here. Ao3 also came out in this era and made reading fic SO much easier. My brain fucking loves a database and structured tagging! I also did a bunch of prompt challenges, big bangs, and the like, which I think really helped structure my participation in fandom. Through co-writing I was getting a lot of my sexual needs met (though I didn't really understand that at the time, since it wasn't "real") and the nature of the RP chatroom meant that I could focus on a fictional world and building relationships there, which was far more interesting to me than hearing about the minutae of people's lives.

Wave Three (2014ish-now): Since that golden era, I've mostly been engaging with fandom just through writing and reading, with the exception of one fantastic RP partner I met two years ago through the comments on my fic, who's become one of my best friends. I tried Discord for a little while, but got super overwhelmed. Creating a Tumblr, I'm noticing how spoiled I've been by Ao3! I'm so used to engaging with fic in a way that I can easily see when there's new stuff, and it's really freaking me out that I can't do that here, unless I'm able to dedicate the time to reading everything the author posts about their life in addition to their stories. I think we hypothetically did that back in the DW days, but maybe the difference is that folks are used to social media here, so rather than posting a couple of essays a week like a blog, it's standard to do a bunch of short posts per day? Perhaps in some ways, Discord is more autism-friendly, because it's possible to say "I only want to communicate about THESE topics" and then get to know who the people are who are talking about those things. It's weirdly isolating, I think, to show up to a platform like "HERE ARE MY SPECIAL INTERESTS I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THEM" and then to see others doing that but not be clear on how to engage. To be fair, that may be aging more than autism 😂

I'm not sure if this is, uh, actually reaching any conclusions, but hey, having space to process the thoughts and feelings is nice nonetheless!

[profoundnightwinner]

lady-lamb21

man this is overkill—no one is taking your humanity away, and people are absolutely allowed to criticize you for something you want if you publicly express it. just as you are allowed to criticize someone if they said “hey i really want there to be no laws restricting paparazzi, i just wanna see every single angle of every single moment of someone’s life” (and hey i sure hope you would criticize that…right?)—im not even gonna justify the princess di remark with a response bc…wtf

lady-lamb21

i apologize for my misuse of the word advocating, but the rest of my argument still stands

I hope you don’t mind me replying like this, it is not to @ you, but rather because I think it is an interesting discussion and if anyone else is following it I would like for them to see it as well.

People are absolutely taking other people’s humanity away. It is a huge problem and it has been for a long time.

At first it was just drips. Those weirdoes that you blocked. But they wouldn't stop. They bored into every fannish space on the Internet.

You liked pirates? “Do you realize that pirates were problematic because they looted and stuff?”

—Eh, well, yes, actually . . .

*SCREECH*

There became long, whiny treatises about everything. Everything that people liked were problematic. Anything that was normal and human was problematic.

And they just. Would. Not. Shut. Up. About. It.

The Rocky Horror Show? (And I never even liked that movie . . . )—Problematic.

Liking villains?—Problematic.

Anything fun at all? Problematic.

And eventually, most of the sane ones just left. They found their safe spaces on the Internet, closing out the crazy ones. Discord and the likes.

And the whiny people followed people out into the real world, invading people's spaces there, scheeching about things that nobody in their right mind gives a hoot about.

And now?

The simple emotion of just wanting to say goodbye to a loved one? Problematic.

All of the above is just ordinary human behaviour. All problematizing the above does is leave the floor to the inhuman ones.

Be honest. Did you need some random chick on the Internet to tell you not to harass Liam’s family (the very thought of doing that at least makes me sick). Or behave like a gremlin? Would you have been there, at his funeral, screaming at the sight of the other boys like it was 1999 2013, if it had not been for that post? I don’t think you would have.

And that opens up the question of why whoever that was felt the need to post. And the reason was probably to show Moral Superiority™.

And that sort of whiny performative stuff, it's got to stop. It is so tiring.

And people are sick and tired of it. They have chosen the nuclear option to just get the screeching to stop.

And it doesn't mean anything. I would see treatise upon treatise (all of them dull as dirt) written about mental health, but when it came to an actual person who had mental health problems, our Liam, none of those same people had any grace at all.

Those people have turned the Internet and life grey.

There’s this funny post going around about how the Internet ruins anything fun, and I laughed too, and reblogged it, but the truth is that the Internet didn’t used to be that way.

It used to be so much fun!

It’s being taken over by people who just want to preach without caring, and control others.

Now everything that isn’t as bland as a Coffee Shop AU is problematic. Real people with their messy, real feelings are problematic.

People, and especially girls and women, aren’t allowed to have natural feelings or think about what’s in their own interest at all.

Look, I don’t think everyone who reblogged that post or similar sentiments was the ebil or whatever—I’ve parroted things mindlessly, too. A lot about stalkers and whatever. And then I read all of these nice posts now from people who wished they had said something to Liam— and . . . I keep thinking, was those people filtered away from him by those posts? Did those posts keep some kind, good people he should have found away from him?

And Liam’s father seemed to really appreciate the memorial. And the fans keeping vigil over him. One post I reblogged said that Liam’s father returned to the memorial before leaving :(

It’s not that I think people should run off to be stalkers, or whatever. But maybe we should all just . . . keep our traps shut about things we don’t know anything about? Maybe we don’t need to have an opinion about absolutely everything? Maybe we should focus on having fun and being decent human beings ourselves?

(Still, like, pleasantly gossiping amongst ourselves—if anything, the good gossip has always been hard to come by in this fandom. If somebody gives a bad vibe or whatever. But much less with the preaching! Humility needs to make a comeback!)

If I could give advice to the kids of today, I would say—go out, meet people, drink, smoke a cigarette and have sex. Don’t do drugs.

Since this is Tumblr, I will instead say read that kinky novel, eat a licorice cigarette, and drink something through a plastic straw. (Just throw in the trash later, like all of us always did! Unless raised in a barn!)

Allow yourselves to feel. It is not bad to want things, just don’t be a creep about it. And try to avoid serial killers.

i know you’re likely to find this offensive considering the tone you’ve used to respond to similar criticisms, but i genuinely mean no disrespect when i say: liam payne wasn’t a celebrity first, he was a person. i understand why princess diana had the funeral and public mourning that she did, though i think an argument could be made for the fact that she never wanted to be a part of the royal family and therefore, it could be assumed that she likely wouldn’t have loved being mourned the way royal family members are—but she’s a different person and that’s a different situation.

i think it’s been really lovely to see all the memorials popping up for liam and group events that have been held for fans to express their grief with each other. i think it’s also been really nice to see how many heartfelt posts and statements have been made about him, from fans, colleagues, and family members alike. but liam’s funeral is for his loved ones. it is not for anyone who thinks they’re entitled to his family’s grief because they loved his music. privacy is such a gift, and for someone who was torn apart in the public eye so aggressively, i think it’s important that he’s given that gift at his own funeral at least. i think what you’re advocating for is pretty disturbing, and the way you’ve responded to people who’ve said similarly has seemed pretty inappropriate. i’m sure you’ll respond the same way to this, calling me a bitch and critiquing my reading comprehension, but i read every word love, and you’re just in the wrong here. think about if it was you, and maybe the criticism wouldn’t be so befuddling. leaving anon off so you’re welcome to block or speak further if you’d wish.

all the best <3

I am not advocating anything, that's the thing.

I resent being told what I can and cannot want. And there has been so much of that, both in this fandom and on the Internet at large.

You think a private funeral would be best. And I can see your point.

But that is not what I *want*.

Do you understand the difference?

(Not critizing your reading comprehension. *g*)

Do you realize that critizing people for wanting something that is perfectly natural, wanting to say goodbye to a loved one, is wrong? It is simply human nature.

Princess Diana was also a person first, before she was a celebrity. *Every* celebrity is a person first, before they are a celebrity.

(Oh, and Diana would have loved that funeral, mark my words. *g*)

I am not saying anyone is entitled to anything. I am saying the exact opposite. *You* (*nobody*) are entitled to tell anyone what they are allowed to want.

The fandom police/the thought police wants to tell us all how to think, how to feel, that it is wrong to have wants and interests.

It is *okay* to have wants. It is *okay* to have your interest in a matter diverge from someone else's, even if it is someone you respect.

You have to ask yourself—the people who posted that, if they had received an invitation, would they have gone?

I am not advocating anything. I was peacefully minding my own business on the matter when that video started circulating and suddenly there were even more posts going around.

And I am just so incredibly tired of that kind of performative whining. It does no good and does in fact do a great deal of harm (look at the recent election) and it gaslights people into thinking that having a simple wish or want is somehow wrong.

Beloved public figures sometimes get a big public send-off.

There is no harm in quietly, peacefully, respectfully wanting something like that.

We need to stop letting people take our humanity away.

It is only the inhuman ones that want us to stop wanting.

[bomberqueen17]

everything is ads

i was just complaining about this on a discord i’m a member of. (discord is. sigh. what is it. well it’s not the public internet. it’s not a substitute for social media. but it’s something. the incalculable harm done to fannish community by having so much of the active discussion now silo’d in these private, unsearchable servers is hard to state, but it’s a necessary retreat given that all the platforms keep proving themselves to be garbage. A N Y W A Y i had a thing i was gonna say.)

You are interested in an art form, or hobby. so you look it up on the internet. you find a creator who does the thing you like, and you follow them, probably on instagram currently. Their instagram has frequent posts about their art, which is great. Sometimes you can learn some techniques from them. But then they want to sell you courses in how to learn it. Of course they need to monetize, but it’s a bit off-putting; you just want to do this for a hobby, and want to learn how, and to have to pay to take a course in it is sort of beyond your means for this kind of thing.

And then like... half the posts are unboxings.They bought art supplies, which they are going to review for you. Here’s a haul video, which isn’t really even a review so much as it is just showing off each of these products. As they put them away, you can see that their storage is stuffed full of more and more unused stuff from all the previous haul videos and unboxings. Where are they putting all this? When are they using it? How much money are they spending on it?? Yes there’s an affiliate code if you want to buy one too, there’s a discount if you use it. Help a creator out. Support a small business!

I’m happy to support small businesses and I do like supporting independent creators but uh like... that’s... you wind up so inured to this constant buying of new stuff, and yes you can get a lil dopamine hit from shopping but my god, no. No. It is not harmless and it is not innocuous, when you are being constantly bombarded with this normalization of constant consumption.

(I have a fraught relationship with buying things. My ADHD Or Whatever It Is really likes the shiny new, but I have been broke most of my life, and my inability to do math makes me alternately over-conservative and reckless with money. I have had years where I spent almost everything I earned on frivolous bullshit. i have had years where I spent nothing that wasn’t on food or gasoline, and wore clothes with holes in them that didn’t fit and just made do and just lived smaller and smaller. This is a constant, ongoing problem, and watching a creator I admire unbox her new purchases of random shit literally twice a week does not help me untangle it, and that’s just one of the people I follow, seriously how does this person have the money to just keep buying more stuff.)

I know that the underlying problem is capitalism, specifically the current hyperconcentrated strain of it we have that means that the middle class basically doesn’t exist. When I was growing up, an author could make a reasonable career in the mid-list, putting out a book every year or two and living off the advance on the next one while the previous one earned out, and after a couple decades you could retire on the residuals. But by the time I was old enough to pursue a career, that line of work was dead; now you’re either a superstar or you’re grinding out two or more novels a year to make poverty wages if you’re lucky, and doing all of your own marketing too on top of it. Every industry has gone that route; anything remotely creative, there’s now no outlet for except hustling as a Content Creator on the Internet. You gotta have a little Etsy or a shopify, you gotta have a Patreon and make that worthwhile somehow. instagram wants a reel every day, you gotta game that algorithm for exposure, teach yourself video marketing on top of whatever it is you actually like. You can’t just work your undemanding civil service job and make extremely detailed tutorial pages in your evenings and weekends because you don’t have evenings and weekends anymore and every hobby has to become a slave to the grind.

So I’m not mad at the creators, I’m not mad at the people forced to hustle. I’m just so tired. The solution has to be systemic; yelling at the content creators isn’t going to fix anything. We need higher wages, we need better labor protections-- I know that’s unsexy and not a good slogan for anything but believe me, that is the bottom line here.

IDK I don’t have a punchline. I guess I want to gently encourage y’all to practice non-consumption as self-care. Be aware of that side effect of constantly being bombarded with ads, where you just sort of absorb this feeling that it’s normal to constantly be buying things.

I’m not saying don’t click on your little indie creators’ ads. I’m just saying remember that everything is ads. [Just this week I bought deodorant from an Instagram ad because the girl selling it was hot, I am not immune. I know fine well what I did. Listen I needed more deodorant anyway and I don’t find very many people hot so it was notable.]

And, bringing it around to be immediately topical, when we say don’t interact with corporate accounts here on Tumblr, we mean corporate. Don’t hate the tiny hustlers. This is maybe the only platform where they can still have any kind of meaningful reach. All the others have realized that you can make businesses pay to not be hidden, and if they don’t ransom themselves, you can hide them from their friends and customers, but Tumblr hasn’t hit that yet. That’s the real origin of the Instafluencer-- the actual brands’ ability to market directly is limited, so they have to find people to shill for them.

You can block ads. But when your favorite creator is shilling, you can’t block that without losing the parts you like too. it’s so fucking insidious.

[olderthannetfic]

I've been low key obsessed with your blog. You've managed to cultivate a lot of interesting conversations and topics, so I wind up always coming back to scroll anything I may have missed. So, out of curiosity, what motivated you to create this blog, and what kinds of conversations and responses do you enjoy the most?

--

Heh. It's just my personal blog. I couldn't get my usual username, so the name is a random joke about some 1990s fandom wank I was reading about at the time. I don't really do side blogs or themed blogs usually. I just have a personal account wherever fandom has moved most recently.

What motivated me to join tumblr specifically was a promise I made to myself back in like 2003 to not be an embarrassing grandma next time we were all switching platforms and to try to be an early(ish) adopter of the next big thing instead of kvetching about it and needing to be dragged by my ear.

By now, I'm much more used to Tumblr, and Dreamwidth feels awkward and unfamiliar, which is pretty funny. I wouldn't have predicted that back in 2011.

--

I enjoy meta. I like it when people have long text comments about how they see a fandom or a trend in fandom. I love it when people post about bits of fandom history I don't know about. I like hearing about fandom outside of English. I like people posting personal impressions and anecdotes as much as harder facts, but I don't like appeals to emotion. I like people celebrating their rare fandoms and underappreciated fannish interests but not guilt trips.

If you really love the thing, go make the thing happen! Don't bitch about nobody else doing it for you! In fact, that's the root of a lot of what I like in fandom: the DIY, can-do attitude of community and infrastructure builders that we see in niche subcultures. I think it's been diluted a bit as fic fandom has become more accessible and mainstream, but it's still around.

Basically, I like an oldschool Livejournal and mailing list vibe. I'm in fandom for conversation and discussion and longform text.

I want that oldschool style but without the depressive wangsting about being left behind or the full dose of 'offa my lawn' that sometimes goes along with it in the genuinely oldschool spaces. I want to see younger people picking up bits of that LJ vibe because they enjoy it and it's a cultural style that can be applied to any community, not because they think they were born decades too late.

It's never too late to go consume old media or research an interest or pick up a hobby! It's never too late to create new communities, using what we like of the old and discarding the shitty bits. Somebody made a Miami Vice discord not so long ago. I was shocked but pleased.

I like it when fans who build things tell me about their cool projects, whether it's a little discord or something as ambitious as bobaboard. I like it when people ask me for help with their research or tell me the results of research they've already done. I love those "how do I find fandom history thing X?" questions that let us dive down a rabbit hole of figuring out what platform the thing would have been on and if there are any wayback links.

I guess I prefer happy things overall. We all need more happiness in our lives. But I'm not someone for whom pure squee of the "So dreamy!" *swoon* variety works very well: I express my love by analyzing and making things, and I like other fans who do the same.

I keep meaning to go back through the BTS a/b/o fic I've read and pick out all the weird gender roles and fun worldbuilding ones and write some meta about how this style of fandom led me to liking a/b/o where before I hated it. That's the kind of happy + navel gaze-y fandom thing I most enjoy. When I find someone else writing this kind of thing, even for fandoms I don't care about, I love it.

I dunno... I think it's pretty obvious what I enjoy from what I spend my time on: longform text, intellectualism, history, telling sanctimonious bullies to stuff it.