#tldr. if you really did only make it for yourself you wouldnt be posting it and then putting it in the tags for people to find it

[hostilemuppet]

if you posted your fanart or fanfic to tumblr or twitter or ao3 with the appropriate tags, you did that bc you wanted people who wanted to see those tags to see your work. it wasnt only written for yourself. you did, in fact, want people to engage with your work. im sorry you cant have it both ways im afraid...

tangentially related to previous post but i kind of think the whole "they didnt create their art for you, they created it for themself" holds absolutely zero water the second its publicly posted or published or premiered or other p word. if it truly was for themself (and maybe a couple friends) alone it wouldve stayed on their computer or in their sketchbook or discord server. but they posted it publicly bc they wanted people to see it, and as such they shouldnt be surprised when theyre not met with unanimous blind praise.

if i post art that i worked hard on, i am in fact doing it bc i want other people to enjoy it (and if they hate it i expect to hear about it) and if i DONT care about other people seeing it, i just dont post it. i have a lot of writing in specific thats for my eyes only and will never leave my harddrive for this reason. the second art is posted online it stops just being about the creators intention and starts being about what the audience think of it, and if you cant handle what the audience thinks then dont post it

[end3rs-eye]

Here's what Ranboo said in Ranmail last night for those who aren't subbed

(TLDR at the end)

Hey guys, I wanted to talk about something here that has been weighing on my mind for quite a bit now. I talked about it on stream a little bit but I want to touch on it more here, please spread this message to other platforms as I am only putting it here because its easier for me to word my thoughts correctly here.

Lately I have found myself in kind of a weird spot when it comes to my fanbase, I have seen stuff that I have tried again and again to stop yet people sadly dont seem to take my messages to heart when I tell them about my boundaries. I really do appreciate my fanbase and I know that most of you guys are absolutely great, and if you dont do any of the things im going to list then you just keep on being a good part of the community :D.

Recently I have honestly been terrified. In case you didnt know I am a VERY anxious person, and whenever things and events keep on happening in regards to other creators and situations I keep on getting brought into it as an example. Whether it be people saying "Ranboo wouldnt do something like this" or "Ranboo did ????? so why cant this person do ?????". I ask you PLEASE to stop putting me on a high pedestal, as I am a person so thus I will make mistakes! And honestly I have been so scared, unnecessarily checking every single post that I make as well as not speaking about certain things because I am so scared of wording it wrong and making people upset because of the fact that I have an okay reputation. I am glad that you guys think of me as a good person, but consistently bringing me up and putting me above others because of what you think of me scares me so much because the higher you put me up the further I can fall.

I am in no ways a perfect person. I have made mistakes and I have learned from those mistakes. Am I trying to not make mistakes? Yes. Will I make mistakes in the future? Absolutely. I am trying my hardest to be a good person but you guys have to understand that I am in no ways a perfect person, Im not even close. So PLEASE stop holding me to higher standards simply because I have not made a mistake yet because the more you do that the worse it will be WHEN I make a mistake.

Now, this does NOT mean I am not okay with being educated/corrected. If I make a mistake I really do want you guys to inform me of what I did wrong and give me the opportunity to make it right! But this does NOT mean that I want you guys to put me under a microscope and try to find every little thing that I may do wrong because I am already putting myself under a microscope which has not been healthy for me as of late. So PLEASE stop bringing me up as an example of a "perfect cc" or an "unproblematic cc" because I know that if I get that label, the moment I mess up it will be much much worse.

Am I a perfect person? NO. Am I trying to be a good person? Yes. I am trying to educate myself on issues as well as try and understand a lot of the troubles that many people go through in my fanbase to try and make the fanbase a better place, but if I am not allowed to be respectfully educated when I mess up then I am losing the ability to learn from my mistakes. I really do want to be a good person, but the stress of consistently trying to be perfect is really not healthy for me. Part of that does come from me however so I am trying to figure out how to manage that on my own, I mean I entered this situation having no idea how to handle a fanbase of any size and I have been learning as I go. Another thing that has been still happening which I have tried again and again to stop is people associating with me and then sending actual threats. Threats of any kind are NEVER okay with me. So if you want to associate any part of your profile pic, bio, etc. then PLEASE never do these kinds of things. Another thing is if you want to associate yourself with me, but get into an argument please try to do so respectfully! So please if you want to get into drama and you decide that you do not want to be respectful about it please do not associate your profile with me. However, I am completely okay with you guys calling out issues and being associated with me as long as you do so in a respectful and educated way! I encourage you guys to try and educate others, but please do it in a respectful way if possible! (I do understand that it may be hard to do it in a respectful manner in some cases, so if you do decide to act in that manner please do not associate your page with me as if enough people see the same common denominators in a profile they will give the fanbase a "toxic" label.) If it will actually make the community, situation, or heck even the world a better place then that is completely okay! But if it is just an insult or a threat that does not add to a discussion then please do not associate your profile with me as it makes me uncomfortable! I tried my best to word this in the way that I was thinking but I know that some things may have not been worded in the best way so I will clarify if needs be! (PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS WAS WORDED WRONG! THANK YOU!)

TLDR: I want to be able to continue to interact with my community, but sadly the stuff that I have seen in SOME (absolutely not all) areas has really rubbed me the wrong way. I really want this message to stick this time, I have tried again and again to establish these boundaries yet I continue to see more and more that just really breaks my heart.

[poemsforpersephone]

but how did you know that your stuff was good so you kept posting and writing? I'm just looking for advice because i am not studying writing or something yet i write and sometimes i feel like what i write is good and other times that it sucks but either way i fear that maybe I'm the only one who thinks its good so i hesitate to post it online and i don't wanna make a fool out of myself

there isn’t much advice i can give that i haven’t already given. i’m pretty sure most writers feel the same way, i know i do. i still second guess myself all the time.

and in terms of what other people say or think.. do you know how much shit i’ve gotten for the "i am tired of re-writing tragedy without change” poem i posted last year? not even necessarily just mean comments (altho those have existed too) just people who don’t understand that the poem is about breaking habit and giving characters happy endings that are continuously held out of reach (especially lgbt characters) and feel the need to comment to tell me how wrong i am. 

“You do realize that tragedy is so we the audience learn, not the characters right?“ 

“Tragedies are Tragedies so that you learn from others mistakes or misfortunes.“ 

“Disney.“ 

“I wouldn’t change the myths for anything I grew up with them before I met Percy Jackson and they taught me a lot so no“ 

“But they died so WE could learn a lesson. Letting them live cheapens the point of the story and nothing is learned at all.“

“But Its called tragedy for a reason…”

“Sorry we got a message from the authors of the past and future “HELL NO, NINE, ZILCH, NYET���“

(at the end of the day the arguments are all the same and they seem to ignore the fact that if we were learning so much from these tragedies we wouldnt need tragedies anymore and that they’re clearly not working as they’re supposed to so why not change the lesson but thats a conversation for another day)

you just push past it. if you want to post your stuff online you need to be brave and believe in yourself because otherwise the first mean or discouraging thing someone says is gonna rip into your self confidence even worse, and people will says mean things even if you write the most beautiful poem in the world, because at the end of the day people really suck sometimes and not everyone will understand you. but again, look at that poem. despite all the frustration i feel when i see comments like those people left theres also the elation of seeing the happy comments, and the love that it gets. the good outweighs the bad. 

that got a bit long winded whoops. tldr: the best advice i can give you is believe in yourself. if you want to post things online you’ll find a way to do it, even if that belief isn’t concrete or there 100% of the time. all it needs is one second to press “publish.”