The only reason this ever crosses my mind - which is rare - is because of my user subscribers, and I wonder if maybe they signed up for fics from just one fandom.

Then I remember - they signed up! They knew I’m a multifandom writer, so they knew what they were getting into! People will read your other fics if they like your work. I’ve done that, and I know other people do.

Just remember that people will read what they like and ignore what doesn’t interest them. Either way, nothing to worry about :)

I’ve followed some writers into new fandoms. Others have left me behind. But it’s always wonderful to see someone fall into a new fandom!

OMG there was only one bed AND THEY GOT ENOUGH SLEEP

Long live fandom!

The problems of being a Fandom Elder: watching fandom terminology get misused

i will die on this hill

100 words or bust

A drabble is ART. It is a display of your technical and creative skills! It is the prose version of a haiku! There are RULES!

I think perhaps some younger people (and older ones who are, well, assholes) need to learn or be reminded of fanfic etiquette. Who am I to teach anyone? No one, really. I’m just angry and disappointed about some of the things I’ve seen in my own fandom in recent times, so here we are. 

1. You don’t have the right to police (correctly tagged) content on AO3, or anywhere else the publishes fanfic for adult audiences. The world does not revolve around you; fanfic is not curated to your tastes alone. You get to do that by being selective in what you choose to read. You think incest/ABO/d-s or whatever is problematic? Fine. Don’t click on those sorts of stories. You don’t like a character being written as a sub/aggressive/ooc? Cool. Complaining on your blog about such things without naming a fic or a writer? Go ahead. But don’t flame a fic or an author because a story doesn’t suit your preferences. I shouldn’t have to explain why. Just don’t. There are a number of kinks I have no interest in. Certain characterisations of my fave annoy me too. So I do something radical about it: if I see a fic that I know I won’t enjoy, I don’t read it. Easy, right?

2. No one has the right to police ship tags either. If there is another pairing you don’t like tagged in a fic with your otp, scroll past it. There is no such thing as tag purity.

3. Authors do not ask for, nor do they deserve, non-constructive criticism of their work. I’m not talking about pointing out a typo, or politely asking about something that isn’t clear, or identifying a potential contradiction. In fact, I’m willing to bet that those of you who are guilty of this know full well what I’m talking about: comments that are little more than hateful diatribes targeting the subject matter and/or the author’s writing in general. To the people who do this - you know it’s wrong. You know you’re hurting people. Take a hard look at yourself and question why you feel the need to do that to someone. Does it make you feel better about yourself?

4. Shaming women for their kinks and for the pairings they write is part of the longstanding misogynistic oppression of women as sexual beings. Women have been vilified and abused by men for thousands of years in order to control our sexuality. It still happens today. @seleya​, @misshoneywheeler​ and others have written about this in the past, and far more eloquently than I can. But look. If you’re not comfortable with straight women writing slash, again, that’s fine - you’re allowed to feel that way. Just remember: the vast (VAST) majority of fanfic is written by women. Women writing slash is the origin story of the explosion of fanfic. Women created AO3. And on AO3, here are the current stats on stories by category:*

m/m: 2625740 

f/m: 1294662

gen: 997437

f/f: 439794 

multi: 250614

other: 145140

So those of you trolling slash authors or writing tagged rants about women being sick for writing m/m, sit down and stfu. Women - and especially female slash writers - made this sandbox you’re shitting in. There wouldn’t be a space to play in if it weren’t for them.

tl;dr: fanfic authors write for free (well, most do - published authors like Shakespeare clearly profited). They write for their enjoyment and ours. By flaming and shaming an author you’re attempting to censor them. You don’t write to Stephen King telling him to take all of his books off the shelves and never write again because you don’t like the horror genre, unless you’re batshit crazy. You don’t burn books because they offend your sensibilities, unless you’re a fascist. So don’t do it to fanfic authors. Simple as that.

*These numbers aren’t exact, because some stories are tagged with more than one category, and others aren’t tagged at all. Still, the difference is fairly stark.

it’s an unwritten rule of creating fan content that there will always be someone who comes up with some ridiculously goofy fanon, and at least one other person who directly contradicts this with the most soul-crushing angsty headcanons and in response

@buginettez hey camie look it you xD

Me, a fic writer, every moment of the day: 

why must my headcanons be "canon compliant"? is it not enough for them to be wish fulfilling, specific to my extremely niche interests, and gay?

everyone: writing fanfiction is a great way to explore your various sexual fantasies 

me, through clenched teeth: what if they lived in a TINY house and took NAPS all the time

I truly had no idea this would pick up so much traction but i’m glad to know we’re all in the same boat of living out unrealistic fantasy scenarios re: intimacy and home ownership

me, sobbing: And they had game night with friends and everyone took turns hosting and everyone was okay.

omg everyone was okay

sorry to all the ideas i never wrote down because I convinced myself I would remember. Please come back, I’ll treat you better this time i promise

Me: I’m going to write soon!

Feeling attacked

I might add something to this.

Where anon sees an organisation that is morally reprehensible, I see an organisation that saved my life.

Before I discovered ao3 I was literally wasting away. My life consisted of going to work and consuming books. I was depressed. The only reason I left the house at all was going to work so that I could keep a roof over my head. And honestly, if I didn’t need the money to survive, I wouldn’t have even done that.

I had no social life in the real world. I avoided social media at all costs and wouldn’t even speak to my own family unless it was avoidable. Hell, I wouldn’t speak to anyone for weeks at a time outside of work. Because I couldn’t face the thought of it.

So I lived for Amazon kindle where I could Bury my problems and avoid the hole that I’d dug myself into because I could see no way out. Until the day I could no longer afford my subscription.

That’s when I found ao3. I didn’t even know fan fiction existed until I desperately scoured the Internet for free stories. I discovered the website and my fandom. Then I discovered writing fanfiction.

At 31 years old, I’d finally found a passion for something. I didn’t know it was possible for me to create stories of my own. So I started writing and quickly caught the bug.

Then I started gaining readers and followers and I found my voice. Now I had to interact with people. Which is scary as hell when you struggle on a daily basis to communicate. But these people were genuinely interested in what I had to say. So I opened a twitter account. And with that, I opened a door to a world that I didn’t know existed. I found others like me who struggle to put themselves out there.

I found myself. I came to terms with my sexuality. Finding others that had the same experiences I had been through. They would come and read what I had to say and continue to interact with me on ao3. They got to know me and I opened up. This website saved me and gave me the voice I was in such desperate need of.

I’m pretty sure I post things that nobody wants read about, and similarly, there is plenty of stuff on ao3 that I have no interest in. But guess what? I skip that stuff. I avoid it. And I do that by reading tags. As a reader, it is my job to take care of myself and monitor what I consume.

You may say, “some fics have too many tags to read each one closely so I read it anyway and discovered something that effected me.”

Let me explain why too many tags is a good thing. When an author does this, they have gone through their story and thought about every single detail that could offend/effect someone. They then used the tag system to warn readers of what they would find. They have done their job.

If you still read it because you didn’t want to take 30 seconds to read the tags, that is on you. You didn’t dob your job. It isn’t for you to tell an author what they can and can’t write when you didn’t do your part.

Also, if you are purposely searching tags so you can bash the authors without reading the work, don’t do that. They are creating work for others who are interested in that subject and they’re doing it for free. In these cases, they are not creating content for you. Again, it is not up to you to tell others what they can and can’t produce.

People will not stop creating content because you tell them they aren’t allowed to. We live in a world where freedom to write and say what we want is our right. Not everyone, but most of us. Censorship is a step backward, not forward.

I might also suggest that if you have a list of things that trigger you or turn your stomach or make you angry because it exists, avoid the website altogether. Please practice self care, it’s so important.

And lastly, I’ll leave you with a thought. Ao3 is a not for profit organisation. Not only do they not gain money by promoting content that you don’t like, they don’t actually promote content that you don’t like.

They are merely an archive. The organisation does not promote any authors work. Whether you like it or not, people will always create. And the archive will store it. No more, no less.

who was the first person to write “tongues battling for dominance” and have they issued a public apology yet

i fucking knew it would be drarry

ITS NEVER TOO LATE TO FINISH THAT FIC!!!

This is so inspiring and uplifting.

three days ago I got an ao3 subscription update email and the author’s note on the chapter said they’d come back and written chapter ten SIXTEEN YEARS after chapter nine was published, so, never fear to hit that subscribe button folks

It took Stephen King 26 YEARS to write the next chapter of one of his Dark Tower books

LEAVE THAT COMMENT. Even if the fic is old. You never know who’s listening, or if your words are exactly the little push that author needs to take a trip down memory lane and remember all the wonderful things that inspired them to write the fic in the first place. Think about it, Reader. YOU could be the person that RESURRECTS THAT FIC!

if i saw a person walking around with an ao3 duffel bag i’d kill them i think 

350 dollar turbo virgin tote…..the scammery of it all….

Ok do you even think they’ll give these out though like..their website is still in beta..

It’s wild how people need a detailed report with official documents to consider reblogging a donation post of a Black lgbt person but will blindly give to a website without a shred of proof on how the money is being spent. This is why y’all fall of scams ever damn time

HI! Yall are being ridiculous!

Let me explain NGOs to you - again - because that what AO3 is.

What are my reciepts? Well, I’m a social worker at an NGO with a masters degree in social work from a school of policy studies that specialized in macro - which means that my entire degree is basically How To NGO.

Following?

Cool. Lets move on.

NGOs are basically any organization that are not for-profit and ALSO not part of any government organization. It doesn’t have to be a traditional charity the way we think about it to be an NGO - it just has to not work for a profit by providing some sort of service - thats how religious orgs get away with all the shit they do. Got that? Fantastic. Let’s move on. NGOs typically make money in a few Very Limited ways which are 1)government funding 2)grants and 3)fundraising. To get government funding and grants you have to write an insane amount of basically essays explaining what you do, why, and you’re beholden to the rules of whoever gave you the money. For example, this is US schools stopped teaching sane sex ed in the 00s and 10s cuz the government tied funds to abstinence only sex ed. Grants can only be used on the thing the grant is for, like if you work for a cancer org and you get a breast cancer grant, you cant use that money for someone with blood cancer, sorry, you just can’t. Fundraising, though, that’s way more flexible, and you can use as much of it as you can get. How do you get people to give you money through fundraising when you’re an NGO? Well, they can give a shit, but if you’ve ever seen anyone canvasing you know that shit is rough. So a long-standing practice is to find incentives for folks to donate that cost less than what they’re giving to opt-in but are still neat. Lots of NGOs do this. Seriously, its a very common fundraising tactic and a smart one if you ask me. IT works. People not only like to have shit, they like to be able to say “yeah, I gave to X cause, look at my Thing, it shows that I’m part of X.” The item being less valuable than the donation is a given as the goal of this is to raise money for the organization, not to put money into the item those donating receive which is why a tote bag that would cost 30 bucks in a store is something you dont get through donations until you hit triple digits. Still making sense? 

Wonderful! Let’s move on. Now lets say all this goes well and your agency does raise all the money it intended. Lets say it does that and more, which AO3 often does. Well, that money now belongs to the agency. It just does. You have chosen to support the agency, so the agency is supported, hurray! Here’s the thing, when an agency has a surplus of funds that doesnt have to be spend there are actually options for what they can do next! Those options can include but are not limited to 1)expanding their services 2)refining their services 3)research 4)training for staff so they can do a better job at whatever the thing the agency does is 5)paying for more resources so that consequences from shortages don’t occur as often 6)pay its employees more if it has paid employees because fyi having paid employees does not make an organization no longer a charitable one like people gotta eat JFC Got it? 

Great. Moving on. For those of you talking about detailed reporting, you’re so right! NGOs absolutely should be transparent with their spending. Transparency is very important. THATS WHY AO3 POSTS A DETAILED REPORT OF ALL THEIR FUCKING SPENDING EACH YEAR SO THAT YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOUR MONEY WENT. The most recent one is for 2017 but 2018 is either still in the process of being processed by the IRS or hasn’t been filed yet (depending on whats going on at AO3 but thats true for all companies, everyone’s hearing back in waves between now and Xmas or like…the New Year I believe or at least so sayeth my CPA relative). But hey,Ilike, if ALL OF THAT isn’t enough, you can forget the fact that they’re literally the picture of an ethical NGO that makes it so you have legally protected free access to fanfiction with no ads, right? You don’t need to access AO3. Go to Wattpad instead in all it’s predatory for-profit glory. Opting-out is always an option. I promise the archive will get along fine without you.

Yeah, you can tell none of these kids ever donated to PBS. Or any other fundraiser, for that matter. FFS, this was very basic shit we learned doing Bike-A-Thons and Walk For [Insert Cause Here] back in elementary school. 

Right?

That bag doesn’t cost $$$ because it’s expensive to make a bag but because it exists to let me brag that I supported PBS or AO3 or whatever thing. People are paying for a status symbol that visibly displays their values.

AO3′s values are that:

I’m fine stanning all of that, no mater how distasteful and “abusive” somebody finds their NOTP.

Like, I don’t even bother with the donate X amount loot, because I don’t need the loot to be induced to donate. Those things are NEVER EVER “price for value” because they are FOR FUNDRAISING. Scouts of various flavors don’t sell shit that’s worth what they sell it for, they sell things as fundraisers, and they’re worth about ¼ of what they sell it for, and the rest goes to programs and admin costs. Except thin mints. Those things are worth everything.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that we live in a capitalist society where shit costs money, and if we want to have things like AO3 which doesn’t cost money but which is a good thing to have, and we want it independent of governments, of corporate interests, and of various groups who would bend it to their will content-wise, we cough up some money for it every now and then if we’re able and if we can’t afford to or don’t like it, we don’t, and the fact that they nearly doubled their donation drive goal in 4 days (didn’t these things used to run for a week?) means that the community sees it as a valuable service and some people want the swag, some people don’t, but whatever, I’m fine with it either way. PERSONALLY I donate $10 every time the campaign comes around. This year I I chipped in before the counter hit $5000, because I know my executive function and so I do it the instant I see it. This is not  a judgment on anyone who can’t afford it, I do it in part because I *know* there are people who can’t afford it for whom AO3 is a lifeline.   It is far and away the best entertainment value I participate in, bar none. You guys I read 3-20 fics per day. PER DAY. I read fic more than I binge watch, more than I write, more than I play little stupid app games (#frozenfreefalldontjudgeme), far more than I read actual books or listen to audiobooks, more than I go to movies…. and I spend more on all those things (except the app games, I refuse to participate in that kind of upselling) in 2 months than I do on AO3 in a full year.  Thus far, AO3 has been very responsive, they’ve spent the money on service upgrades we can actually see, that make it easier to use. I’m glad they’re getting extra because they’re doing good stuff with that extra, and the more reserves they have, the more long-term stable the whole thing is.  I’ve heard no one complain that they donated for swag and then did not get what they expected. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened, I’m saying this kind of shit usually gets amplified, and I haven’t seen it. The people who are doing AO3 are absolutely NOT doing it for the money.  (This thing is so huge, and so complex, and serves so many people, so constantly, and they only ask for $130,000 twice a year, you guys that is SO cheap for a site this large and this good, do you know how hard it used to be? Do you know how many things were tried before this? AO3 is SO good, you guys.)

FWIW, I’ve gotten the majority of swag otw has ever offered.

That super cute and super discontinued bag with the red parts had seams that tended to split with heavy use. The boring black totes that replaced it were much more robust. This was a conscious choice because of the weak seams from what I heard. The logo printing varies. Some of the merch does eventually lose its otw logo if you beat the hell out of it, let it rub on things, carry it around in the rain, and get condensation from milk cartons on it regularly.

I am hell on bags, to be fair. I’ve managed to mostly kill the later totes by transporting piles of textbooks in them such that the fabric around the straps is starting to pull apart. They can take a hell of a beating, but you should probably not overfill them with pointy hardcovers or you heaviest groceries like I do.

The old ceramic mug is one of my favorite mugs ever. The new mug is one of the few things I don’t have, but it looks fine. The travel mugs, water bottles, etc. have all been solid examples. I use my travel mug often. It’s the exact same quality as other generic travel mugs. I suspect it’s literally the same blank as my other branded ones.

People are making jokes about Bethesda’s terrible bags, but OTW merch really isn’t like that. The bags are nylon, but they say they are. Nobody promised an unkillable canvas tote.

The in-person product is pretty much what you’d expect. I wouldn’t call any of it A++ primo shit, except for my mug, but it’s always a solid B+, just like it looks in the photos. You know what you’re getting, and OTW is up front and honest about sizes and materials. I’d donate again with full confidence in the perks.

I’m looking forward to the contentious gym bag. We’ll see how long it survives my rough treatment.

Uhh my ao3 stress ball shaped like a heart is A++ merchandise, and as a volunteer I need its stress-reduction powers.

This time around I got the mug, and I look forward to drinking from it extensively.

You can take a bunch of those smug mug selfies where your face is 90% hidden. :D

Gonna fill my mug with booze, squeeze my stress ball, and answer some more support questions :D

I just had a nice dinner in Albuquerque and am off to get drinks at GRL with the professional fujoshi.

Being in a long-term fandom really makes me wish we had like, Fandom Supreme Courts, just so that every time the same stupid discourse rears its ugly head for the umpteenth time in ten years, we can just be like, “Actually this argument was settled in the 2006 Fandom Supreme Court ruling in the case of AngelPotter vs. Xx_goth1c-r0se_xX, so everbody can shut up about it now.” Imagine the wank reduction.