Ask the Idiots @3-blonde-idiots - Tumblr Blog

ask-monster-hunter-jones-deacti

*pencil emoji* - 3-blonde-idiots

@3-blonde-idiots

((Not Taking Anymore. Got allot more than I thought I would. lol))

nerdgasrnz

FireAlpaca is now COMPLETELY a Paint Tool SAI alternative!

BITMAP WATERCOLOR BRUSHES, Y’ALL!!! Want to make some SAI brushes in FireAlpaca? Check out THIS handy Guide!

Want to make this brush? Just make a perfect circle and save it (I call mine “round”) and use it as the bitmap, and copy the settings above. It works pretty nicely :D

nerdgasrnz

aHHHH HOLY SHIT WHEN DID THIS POST START TRENDING?!

UM, WHILE I’M HERE:

Here is where you can download FireAlpaca (it is completely free software)

*If English is not your native language, you can download it in other languages.

Please download from the official FireAlpaca websites, because a friend of mine simply googled FireAlpaca and downloaded from some random site, and she got malware! So PLEASE be careful.

FireAlpaca has a suggestion/bug reporting box on their site so you can request features, or let them know if you’re having any issues! Also FireAlpaca works fantastically on Mac computers! (though I will say the only time FA has crashed on me is when I used a Mac, so PLEASE save your work often)

Also, please visit these tumblrs if you do get into using FireAlpaca:

@everythingfirealpaca @fpacatuto

cellular-thirst-deactivated2017

for anyone who wants an alt to Sai. :O

mcpippypants

@valynara ! Hey remember when i told you fire alpaca was a good alternative? Check it out its great for mac!

tuttuttutorials

This is awesome. And it’s free!

zacklover24

@ahzrukahl , @panzerdarkie , @nykamito

3-blonde-idiots

Everyone laughed when I said it's basically the same as sai and now everyone sees it

bruh your art is lit

Oof bruh uwu

askpapaivan

If any of you still follow this blog like this post

If you’re extremely enthusiastic about its remodel, reblog

dontaskmatt

hi used to be @dont-ask2pcanada. send asks

Pls promo

dontaskmatt

(@other ask blogs pls promo me i beg of u)

shirakinnie-moved

Like or reblog this post if you run a hetalia blog. I need more blogs to follow

The many hairstyles Alfred went through at some points in his life

1-His natural hair

2-dreads with half shaved

3-full dreads

4-buzzed on sides long on top

5-finger curls

6-braids

#APH USA #APH America #hetalia #Hetalia Ask Blog #3-blonde-idiots #alfred jones

What is your guys favorite drinks?

Arthur- Gin

Francis- obvs wine, white and red

Alfred- oof i like soda pops

Question for Mun! Is this a Human Au or Country Au?

Fully honest it's kind of both, they are all still personification but this is more about personal lives than life as a country, they can still be asked about old time lives but it's mostly modern and as them living as humans, just enjoying life in the moment and ignoring their second identity

aph--china-deactivated20190810

I think the issue with hetalia is every year more people drop from it because of new interests and no content updates from. actual hetalia. at this point we’re mostly fanmade stuff. people used to leave because of toxicity, and now that that’s evened out, people leave because it’s empty.

but if we survived that last huge hiatus surely we’ll get through this one!! all we need is more content u know? people need to make more stuff.

616nightcrawler-deactivated2021

honestly i feel like a big part of it is just that it’s fucking impossible to get like, a lot of recognition in the fandom as a creator, like, the les mis fandom’s well alive and kicking and there’s barely content to begin with. hetalia is so big that it takes forever to just dig through the canon stuff we got and then there’s like 150 characters or smth and while no content might be a factor i feel like being unable to actually get attention w hetalia stuff plays a huge part too like. i made p much exclusively hetalia content for two years and got up to 500 followers and when i started making content for other fandoms my follower account DOUBLED in like. three months it was crazy

aph--china-deactivated20190810

OKAY TRUE SAME…..

as a creator I don’t make much of anything because I’m so slow, but the lack of attention to artists and writers is so bad like I draw a picture of a Really Popular Character for notes and make a joke w/ it and i get like 150 some notes (read: the maccas/machocist post) and that got popular because a popular blog rb’d it. thats- thats the only reason.

People who repost art from pixiv (w/ permission) get more notes than original art posters.

oldfritz

Dude that’s mainly why I stopped only writing fanfic for Hetalia. I’m primarily on dA and ao3 there and my shit gets barely noticed on ao3. Sure my fanfics on dA get plenty of favs (helps that I don’t write reader inserts) but they haven’t brought my watcher count up as substantially as my original poetry has. Same thing for the vids I’ll make for Hetalia, but I work with iMovie not Sony so that could be part of it

It’s better for writers - I can’t speak for artists - to go to other fandoms and/or make original stuff to get the recognition and feedback we so desperately crave. I haven’t watched the latest season of Hetalia despite having it on DVD because part of me doesn’t want to get inspiration for a fic and write it only to be disappointed with how little people even look at it due to the thousands of other works people can choose from

heyytalia

Another reason for people dropping could be the lack of anime recently. From what I remember, the fandom usually experiences a spike in activity whenever a new anime season is ongoing, then just goes back to normal calmness when it’s over (a calmness that exists even when the manga is ongoing, since it’s still updating as World Stars).

It’s been a while since World Twinkle. No word on a 7th season yet (hard to know if there will even be one, since the series moved from Comic Birz to Shonen Jump). Hetalia is still extremely popular in Japan, but not as popular as it used to be outside of Japan. We just have to keep up the fandom on our own.

I’m sure we can. Just support our tumblr art/writing/editing/etc. community!

g00dberry

Just to add onto this with a small plug to good old /r/hetalia on Reddit. I’m a mod there and I’m really trying my best to revive that community! We’ve gained over 150 subscribers in about 4 months!

trailofgalaxies

Gonna add in my two cents as someone who was both in Hetalia at its hellish peak of 2011-2014 and came back fairly recently.

Now granted, I don’t make a lot of original content, and my blog is mostly me doing my measly part keeping this fandom kicking with lots of reblogs. But the like-to-reblog ratio in this fandom is dismal. And I think it’s a big reason why a lot of content creators run out of steam and drift away.

An original post of mine recently had ONE reblog. ONE. The rest were likes. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because a like of course is better than no interaction at all, but it’s pretty disheartening putting something out there only to watch it die in real time because people can’t be bothered to hit reblog.

Only one of my posts has ever garnered 100+ notes and that was only because a popular blog reblogged it early enough. The rest of my posts average around 10-15 notes, even with 140+ followers. And this isn’t just with rare-pairs, this is with the popular ships like Fruk!

Look, we all know the days where a Hetalia post instantly got 10,000 notes are long gone. And, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because those days also included a lot of back-biting, drama, and general toxicity. But, back then, the like-to-reblog ratio was a lot more balanced. Yes, Hima going on hiatus and the anime seemingly finished doesn’t help, but the fact of the matter is we all know reblogs are what helps spread content and keeps creators going.

The big, popular blogs do alright for themselves, but a fandom can’t ride off their coattails forever and expect to thrive, even as a small community. Because, what happens when that person leaves? I see a lot of smaller blogs struggle to hit traction, because of this persistent problem, and then we wonder why Hetalia never seems to bring in new blood?

No one owes anyone a reblog. No one owes anyone a like. Obviously. But, we’re our own worst enemies with keeping this fandom going.

hwsitaliaromano-deactivated2022

I’m going to put my own two cents in as one of the current Big Names in the fandom(or at least one of the more known people).

I joined this fandom right at the end of it’s prime. And even then the ratio between likes and reblogs was more consistent. The issue is also the denial that people come and go that some people seem to have.

Every time a Big Name leaves, people cling to their work and reblog the same posts over and over again rather than seek new content. I came as ask-lovifreakingvargas started to leave and I was lucky to get to where I am as a cosplayer. I watched people turn down new blogs in favor of the old and refusing to support new incoming artists.

I see this over and over as an artist, as a cosplayer, and especially as a writer. Do you have any idea how little appreciation the fandom has for incoming artists?

It’s ridiculous and frankly a bit sad. I understand we all have a broad range of tastes and not all of us love the same characters or the same groups. I personally love the Southern and Eastern European nations. Other people have different tastes and that will greatly affect what content they reblog.

But this is an issue stemming for everyone. People come with content for all of these tastes and they get little to no appreciation. I am watching the kudos and comments on my work on AO3 drop and I write for Spa-freaking-Mano. I won’t even go into how it looks for my minor ships.

We really are our worst enemy because we would rather continue to cry about how we’re drowning and withering away when people are screaming for us to show them appreciation and begging for us to look at what they have to offer.

We’re becoming elitist in our tastes and it is really fucking us over because people stop creating and people move on to other fandoms that give them the attention they are looking for. I have over 1000 followers on this blog and my notes don’t reflect that at all.

Trust me, creators are getting tired. I’m getting tired. I’ve had many days where I’ve wanted to delete this blog and my other Hetalia blogs in search for a fandom that will show that appreciation that keeps dropping.

And it doesn’t help that we have that pessimistic attitude of “Hetalia is dying lol”. How is that going to do anything but make people think that there is no point in creating for Hetalia? Stop saying these things. It’s only hurting us more.

We’re a very alive fandom. Just a bit scattered and not very unified. But we won’t be alive for much longer if we don’t change the attitude we have towards our creators.

You want Hetalia to keep living? Show it. Because as a creator for all things in this fandom, I am not seeing it. I’m just seeing people screaming the same thing and ignoring the solution right there in front of them.

The Hetalia fandom is killing itself. And yeah, nobody owes anyone likes or reblogs, but it is getting tiring to see people say Hetalia is dying but making no effort to help keep it alive.

Support your creators! We’re here and dying to share our work with you! Comment on fics (even just “i loved this!” is fine), reblog posts, and message that artist/cosplayer/writer you love! We love what we do and we do it for ourselves, but you have to admit it is much easier to love what you do when you have others to share it with and people willing to share it more.

I know it’s easy to stay stuck on old creators and old big names who have left. I’ve done it too. But we can’t cling to them forever. Eventually, we have to move on to the next era of creators.

I’m working on keeping the Hetalia fandom in Utah alive. I host the events here and we have a meet-up in the spring. I even took a picture with a bunch of Hetalians at Salt Lake FanX in September! We had more than we’ve had since 2016 and it was great! But they won’t be cosplaying Hetalia much longer if we keep up the attitude we’ve had towards our creators.

It’s hard to stay alive when we don’t have a new season or updates and when we have so many characters and such, but we can do it. And right now, it starts with letting go of the past and moving forward as a fandom.

- Lluvia

ellawritesficssometimes

I initially wasn’t going to do a response since this topic has been covered so many times over. That said, after ruminating over it, I think a large part of the issue is how we frame these problems. So, while yes, a lot of these issues are going to repetitive, looking at them differently may offer another insight to consider.

Hetalia isn’t empty or lacking in content. A big issue is that tags aren’t used consistently, especially by those who reblog content. There is still plenty of unrecognized creators pumping out content. Saying that Hetalia is dead or empty is to dismiss their value to this fandom.

Old content grabbing the attention of new fans is definitely a problem; however, there is always a silver lining. Tags and recent content search filters are available on several platforms. Whether these functions are used is another matter. Nonetheless, feeling hopeless and intimidated by old content isn’t going to help. I know it’s daunting, (I experienced it for nearly three years on ff.net) but this attitude is contagious, and it can prevent new fans from creating.

There is a stigma to this fandom that also needs to be acknowledged. Even though the fandom isn’t as toxic as it used to be, people are embarrassed to reblog Hetalia-related content because of its poor reputation. It’s also no longer ‘trendy’ to like it. I suggest that we tailor our morale from “Hetalia is dead, lol but I’m never leaving” to focusing on the reasons why we like it so much in the hopes of garnering new fans. Again, fatalism and pessimism never helps with anything.

Regarding the poor reblog: like ratio/ feedback ratios: Feedback will always be important, but as I and many others have said before, no creator is entitled to it. On the other hand, as a creator myself, I do believe that any interaction – anything from a like, kudos, review, comment – is done out of courtesy for the creator. Of course, not everyone is going to engage with content, but is imperative that the engagement levels are higher than they are now if creators are to be encouraged to keep making content.

The anime is another important factor. There will always be bandwagon fans who go to fandoms because of their popularity, and that’s their business. Instead of focusing on that, I believe that fans should focus on the here and now and not the what ifs. Don’t think about if there will be another season and what that might bring. Why are you here now? What do you like about this fandom that made you stay? Why should it make someone else join the fandom? Is it enough? If not, what can we do better?

Not really a point, but I just want to say that if you reblog/like content but don’t create content yourself you are just as valuable as any other content creator. Both parties contribute to the fandom.

New content creators need to be supported. They are the future; to invest in them is to invest in the fandom. This would help immensely in light of Hetalia’s terrible turnover rate. We attract new fans all the time. The problem is that they get discouraged and leave. We cannot expect to grow and sustain ourselves if this keeps happening.

The bottom-line of this all is that no matter how fragmented we are with our diverse interests, this is a community-wide problem. Rather than framing it as keeping a dying fandom alive, we need to work on making the fandom a more creator-friendly space by encouraging peer feedback, engagement, and networking.