Writing Sideblog of a Strong Birb

90s kid who is now in grad school, terrible speller, still writing fic. Current fandoms I'm writing for: FMA, HP, The Adventure Zone, Voltron, Mob Psycho 100, ATLA Disclaimer: Strength of birb not guaranteed.

[kuttithevangu]

[psycho-alchemist]

– all prices seem fair until you have to pay them | m.a.w

[destinyandcoins]

edward and alphonse wandering across amestris for 3.5 years looking for a way to return to their original bodies: mustang can we get a philosopher's stone?

mustang: you have a philosopher's stone at home

the philosopher's stone at home:

[aye-of-newt]

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

*rolls up 15 years late with Avatar the Last Airbender thoughts*

So I've been rewatching clips from the show lately to refresh my memory while I'm writing my Zuko Alone fanfic. And last night I rewatched the clip where Iroh teaches Zuko how to redirect lightning and I have had thoughts about this scene for years so I might as well finally throw them into the void of tumblr.

So, this scene is insane to me, because at the end of learning how he could-hypothetically- redirect lightning, Zuko looks at Iroh and, completely seriously says "okay I'm ready to try it with the real thing now". Like, Zuko, the boy with a massive scar on his face from where his father burned him just looks at his uncle and says, "shoot me with lightning".

And yes, he's 16 and not thinking but that's part of the point because the amount of blind, complete trust Zuko has in Iroh to look at him and say "shoot lightning at me" after the insane trauma he had at the hands of his own father- that is WILD to me. Zuko literally trusts Iroh so much that he just assumes, without even having to think about it, that no matter how volatile and unpredictable the lightning is, Iroh won't hurt him because Zuko cannot fathom his uncle hurting him.

And of course, Iroh's appalled because Zuko's standing there with a massive scar on his face from when his father misused firebending against him and likewise, Iroh cannot fathom hurting Zuko. And since IROH knows how volatile and unpredictable lightning is and how it could literally kill his son nephew he is absolutely NOT going to use it just to let Zuko practice redirecting lightning, but he's so flabbergasted that Zuko would even ask him that that he just kind of splutters angrily that he will ABSOLUTELY NOT shoot lightning at Zuko. (it's also just another layer of how messed up Ozai is because he shot lightning at Zuko without a second thought later)

But I hope Iroh thought about it later and realized the amount of pure, unthinking trust Zuko has in him because ;-; the child didn't even THINK about it. "Okay uncle shoot lightning at me now. I know I'll be safe because it's you." I love them so much 😭😭

[kimbureh]

speaking of Ao3 not being a social medium:

it will always need money. It’s an archive. Even if they meet their yearly donation aim now without any problem doesn’t mean it will be like this in 5 years, in 10 years, in 80 years. Yeah you read that right. Ao3 is an Archive. It intends to be available forever. Like a library. Because Ao3 *is* a library. If you want to keep your library, you wouldn’t cut its budget just because it did well last year. Maintaining a library creates running expenses. The purpose of an archive is to preserve data indefinitely, and this costs money.

[jeromiah]

HEY!

AO3 is in danger of becoming CENSORED. if you have donated $10 or more BEFORE june 30th, PLEASE exercise your right to vote (as you should have received an email to) and VOTE AGAINST TIFFANY GU, who is PRO-CENSORSHIP and PRO making AO3 “palatable” for outsiders and antis.

this is one of the few places dead dove writers/illustrators have to post our content, which is NOT illegal, immoral, or a threat to society. however, CENSORSHIP IS.

if you have the opportunity to vote, PLEASE TAKE IT.

KEEP AO3 WONDERFUL! THANKS!

[stealing-your-kittens]

@runawaymarbles Please see this post and check out the links: https://bngrc.tumblr.com/post/692503120232792064/i-usually-dont-blog-about-anything-ao3otw It’s Chinese people who are worried she’s a government plant

Note: This post contains some terms that readers might be unfamiliar with. I've attached ℹ️ links to those terms, which will direct readers

[runawaymarbles]

- “She works in government” –> what it says in her platform is that she works in tech support for a governmental organization. The IT guy for the county sewage and wastewater department also does this. So does the person who makes sure the internet is working on the campus of a public university.

I’ve seen a few Chinese fans on tumblr expressing concerns [source], [source], that she is a government plant, and that if elected, she would use her position on the board to access private user information and doxx AO3 users living in China, reporting their activities to the Chinese authorities.

WHAT INFORMATION? THE ONLY INFORMATION AO3 HAS ON YOU IS YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS! Anyone accessing ao3 from China is already using a VPN because ao3 is blocked in China.

WHY would the chinese government decide that the way to infiltrate ao3 user data (which, again, would not do them much good, if they cared enough to want it) is have someone run for the board on an under-qualified and controversial platform.

This is ridiculous.

Lots of people within the OTW have a lot of different opinions on how things should be approached and what is more important. Some people get upset when all volunteers are accused of being pedophiles. I used to be one of them. I no longer give a shit (unless people are being hurt or there’s actual csam in the inbox.) Tiffany’s still new, so she might not be there yet. That isn’t evidence of a conspiracy.

[elfwreck]

I’m nervous about antis getting on the otw board. That could be very very bad There are no antis anywhere near the OTW board. There is a can

AO3 is NOT in danger of being censored.

AO3 was designed, from the very beginning, to be very, very resistant to hostile takeover attempts.

I mean. We had talks. “What do we do if some org called Purity Warriors buys 5000 memberships and votes in their leaders and tries to shut everything down?”

So there’s a requirement that board members be volunteers first - and you can’t buy your way into that. And the board doesn’t appoint or fire volunteers; a board member can’t fire a tag wrangler they don’t like.

(I don’t think this is a hostile takeover attempt. I think this is an enthusiastic fan who loves AO3 and hates seeing us all called pedophiles, trying to figure out how to stop that. I think she lacks the experience in active project-running fandom that would let her know it’s a lost cause, that they will ALWAYS find something to revile about us.)

But even if it were -

A single board member can’t make sweeping changes. They vote on things.

A hostile board that decided, “we will start banning all fics containing incest from the archive”…. would still need active cooperation from the abuse team. Because they are volunteers. This is not their job. They don’t get paid. If they refuse to follow orders, the worst someone could do is kick them out of the org.

…If, of course, the people who manage the IT access and account registration are willing to follow the order of “kick out anyone who won’t follow these new rules.”

AO3 is not a venture-capital startup. Getting stuff done isn’t managed with threats or even bonuses; it happens because people love the project and love their part of it. Changes are often slow and clunky and part of that is on purpose so that there’s no easy way for someone with a hostile agenda to warp the whole org into their vision.

[olderthannetfic]

A few of these are probably referring to the date posting bug thing, but AAAAAAAAAAAH!

[laikaflash]

I beg of all the younger folks on Ao3 to understand two things:

There is no algorithm on that site.

Unlearn the attention-hungry bullshit that social media has taught you.

[icemankazansky]

Do not repost the same work multiple times on AO3, or change the date/time to put you back at the top of the list, to boost your stats. Do not post new chapters of a chaptered work as individual stories. These things are extremely rude and people who are angry at you will not want to read your stories.

DO REBLOG everything on tumblr because that is the only way this site functions. On tumblr, YOU are choosing what your followers see. They see what you reblog. They don’t see what you like. There’s also no algorithm robot AI whatever seeing what you like and showing you related comment. NOTHING HAPPENS to likes that affects what content ANYONE on this website sees.

DO SHARE stories you like on AO3 with others, perhaps by sharing them with your Tumblr followers. AO3 has features specifically for this purpose. Fic recs are a wonderful way for fanfiction to get more attention, because, as we’ve discussed, there is no algorithm on AO3. AO3 is the opposite of TikTok.

[greater-than-the-sword]

Amendment: content on Tumblr with more likes appears higher in the ranking on the “popular” section of the tags. That’s it.

[userautumn]

I'm confused, what's going on with ao3?

The OTW Board elections are coming up, and one of the candidates is someone named Tiffany who is both pro-censorship and believes that AO3 should be “cleaned up” to present a better “public image.” Not only does censorship go against every single thing AO3 stands for, AO3 was not created for the “general public;” AO3 was created by fans, for fans. Tiffany’s answers are alarming, inconsistent, and confusing. Either she is very new to fandom spaces (and thus shouldn’t be on the OTW board until she becomes more familiar with the intricacies of fandom), or she’s anti-AO3 trying to secure a place on the board with intention to disrupt and change everything about the site (and thus most definitely should not be voted onto the board). I encourage every person who uses AO3 and enjoys fandom to read the transcript; it is long, but these are the people who run, and/or will run the site we all know and love, so it’s best to be informed.

[laptoparmageddon]

The [tumblr] algorithm

Reblog stuff. That's it. The algorithm is the mutuals we made along the way.

Get delivering.

[the-dragongirl]

Giant moment of YIKES today: listening to a podfic on ao3, and then being smacked at the end with the podficcer's patreon advertisement, where folks pay to get access to podfic. Glancing at their works where this advertisement appears, it's all blanket permission stuff.

Folks getting into podfic: DO NOT DO THIS. First, advertising patreons on ao3 is a huge no go, even when you do it auditorily rather than via text. It is very much against terms of service, and puts the site at risk. Second, though: authors giving you blanket permission to podfic are not giving you permission to make money off their work. I can't believe I need to say this, but if you are going to record fic for money? You need that fic author's SPECIFIC permission. And you should probably be sharing any proceeds with them, though that is something you can negotiate individually. But taking something freely offered for free transformative use and making money from it? That is a huge violation of trust in the community, and could result in authors pulling their blanket permission.

But DG, you may say, I should get to turn my side hobby into a hustle just like fanartists do! Fine. If you are a skilled podficcer who produces high quality audio, you already have an option for that - go pick up work as an audiobook narrator on audible. It's not hard for a skilled reader to find ocassional gig work that way, and it's something I did years ago when I was poor and unemployed.

In summary: Don't put the whole podfic community at risk just to make a buck. Follow the rules of the sites you use, respect authors' rights, and look elsewhere for your side hustle.

[the-dragongirl]

An update: ao3 abuse team has gotten through the reports on the podfics of the person that prompted this post, and removed all podfics which reference the Patreon. Which is most of the podficcer’s work, it turns out. Normally I would be extremely sad to see this many fanworks removed from ao3 but...well. Ignoring the ethics of podficcing and the ao3 terms of service has consequences. I hope that this was an isolated incident, and something that doesn’t happen in our community again.

[temporary-dysphoria]

a non-selective plan for the resurgence of fic commissions

[majorenglishesquire]

Too many children in the comments like ‘I think authors should be able to share ko-fi links :) it’s just nice’ and ‘OP is just a cop.’ Homie, OP is trying to keep AO3 fully functional without interruption. I will report your ass, too, because I value fic artists and our freedom of expression and my audience and our shared history far more than I value the few bux you wanna make on a commission.

It is not hard to link to your Tumblr or Twitter with a vague message like, “If you’re looking for my other works or other ways of supporting me, go here: link.” I have had people buy me coffees after enjoying my fic and asking where to support me. I threw up a link to my Tumblr and people cared enough to follow it. They were fully understanding when I explained in the comments that they could not commission me and I could not link them directly to any donation platform, but they could go to xyz link to read more. And they did! Nobody has to put AO3 directly on the firing line.

Go ahead and commission independently. Just do it anywhere else except on AO3. And then don’t come crying to the community when you, personally, get a C&D from a massive corporation.

AO3 is our bullet shield. Tumblr will pull your shit down. Wattpad won’t fucking protect you. LJ and FF.net already sold our asses for one (1) corn chip. AO3 is trying to protect us, you goddamn lemmings.

If you cannot follow the rules that protect fanspaces, you do not belong in our fanspaces.

The only people who misunderstand this are doing so intentionally and maliciously. Do yourself a favor and block the infants who think this isn’t a big deal.

[kedreeva]

Please remember that this ALSO INCLUDES FANDOM CHARITY AUCTIONS.

When you post charity auction fics, DO NOT note that they are commissions in any way. You can note them as “here is my thank you gift to X for such-and-such event” but please please PLEASE do not list them as commissions.

[the-sacred-now]

I think a lot of younger people are seeing this as a moral panic by OP. These are NOT being laid out as moral injunctions! This is not about being good! This is about covering your own ass and keeping fandom away from larger-scale legal trouble. No one is saying “If you break the rules you’re BEING BAD!” They’re trying to tell you “breaking these rules is DANGEROUS for yourself and potentially others as well!”

[loboflaco-deactivated20221016]

I’m honestly fucking appalled that the greater LGBT community is dead silent on the fact that the Indian Child Welfare Act is going under review which means that white people are finalizing their steps at complete genocide against us (Native peoples). They will sterilize all Natives and steal our babies to be raised by you demons (white people). I’m sure the gays are silent though because how many white gays adopt children not of their own race. Fucking baby stealers.

[newbreedrainbowfish-deactivated]

Genuine question, what's wrong with adopting children not of your own race? If anything, you're giving an unwanted child a home, why is this looked down upon now, apparently?

[loboflaco-deactivated20221016]

It’s literally always been “looked down upon” among the communities that have their children stolen so white people can play white savior and house all in one.

Fuck off and leave my Native ass alone.

[newbreedrainbowfish-deactivated]

Obviously stealing is extremely messed up, I feel like that goes without saying. I'm talking about adoption, as you mentioned in your original post. Children in foster care or orphanages that need homes.

[beleth]

Many children in foster care have family that still want them, and even if the parents truely can't take care of them, there are almost always other family members who are willing to take the child in.

Native children are literally taken, almost always no reason other than suspicions of not being able to take care of their kids, and families have to fight to get their kids back, if theyre able to get their kids back at all.

It's often years long, traumatizing the child in the process!

The government will harass and harass and come up with every little reason why you aren't a "suitable parent" trying to break you, wanting you to just give up and surrender your child to the system.

Then, they adopt these kids out to white families, so they're Seperated from their culture.

I highly recommend you look into the 60s scoop and birth alerts! Maybe it'll actually open your eyes into how the governments of canada and the usa keep trying to kill our cultures! ^_^ 💖

[neechees]

Video sparks outrage after Manitoba officials seize newborn from Indigenous mother in hospital

The child was taken away because of a false accusation that the mother was drunk when she arrived at the hospital to give birth, the woman’s

Police and foster care will literally steal Indigenous kids for literally no reason. The legacy of the 60s scoop is still happening with the hopes white families will adopt Native kids & they'll be effectively seperated from their culture and assimilated. This literally happens so often in Manitoba that statistics show newborn apprehensions happen at least once a day, & 90% of those kids in foster care in that province are Native. Hospital cameras literally captured police stealing this Native woman's baby DIRECTLY after birth because of a false accusation that she was drunk when she arrived to give birth.

[olderthannetfic]

*cackling*

If OTW weren’t around, this wouldn’t be “scaremongering”: It would be the inescapable status quo.

[lanninglurksnomore]

The people who believe this crap are the anti-vaxxers of fandom.

[olderthannetfic]

Oh god. They kind of are, aren’t they?

[athingofvikings]

I’d go bigger and just say that they’re the conservatives/reactionaries of fandom–or, to frame it differently, this is how conservative and authoritarian ideologies express themselves in the context of Fandom.

[kimberlyeab]

my opinion on AO3 is that it’s an important asset but i still find it scummy that they’ll ask for money but when their users try to ask for money they slam them with their non-monetization rules. Like Anne Rice is dead and this isn’t the 90s anymore, people are making money from fandom please catch up with the times.

[olderthannetfic]

I think you’ve misunderstood:

AO3 was built by a bunch of us with our free donated labor for the purpose of being a space free from commercial spam.

It’s not a public service. It was built by us to house the type of fandom culture we liked.

People who want to do fandom differently, including making money, are welcome to go build their own site with their own money or their own donated labor.

[elfwreck]

AO3 does not forbid commercial links because they think fans making money from fanworks is immoral but them making money (to run the damn site) is fine.

AO3 forbids commercial links because they are making a very specific claim about the legality of fanworks, and that claim is about noncommercial fanworks.

They’re not saying that commercialized fanworks are against the law. They’re just not prepared to host them–nor defend them in court.

In case people missed it: The OTW will not honor DMCA takedown orders that are basically, “I own X work and that’s a fanfic of it, and that’s copyright infringement so make it go away.”

The OTW says, lolnope, we don’t think that’s copyright infringement. If you disagree, sue us.

The OTW says: Disney - we will not remove explicit Mandalorian fanfic. Rowling, Warner Bros - we will not remove trans Harry Potter fanfic. Gabaldon - we are not removing Outlander fanfic no matter how much you think it’s illegal or a personal violation. Yarbro, if someone puts “The Adventure of the Gentleman in Black” on AO3, you will need to actually take it to trial to (try to) get it removed; none of this C&D order followed by fans caving because they can’t afford a lawyer.

…So far, nobody has sued them. (This is, in my mind, the strongest proof we have that fanfic is not copyright infringement. In 13 years, not a single person or company has scrounged up a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against AO3/the OTW for hosting fanworks.)

But they’re not willing to put themselves on the line for commercial works. Those get considered differently in copyright law. They’re not always infringing - there’s a whole history of parody books & songs to prove that - but the OTW is not dealing with them.

The OTW does not care if fans are making money. The OTW cares if fans making money interfere with its legal defense of its archive.

If you are not a copyright lawyer, your opinion about the situation is not going to be considered.

[thebibliosphere]

Also, it wasn’t just Anne Rice coming after fandom in the 90s as though this is some relic holdover terror from ancient history.

Events like Strikethrough and Boldthrough happened in the early to mid-2000s. It felt like you’d wake up every day in 2007 and find another fandom group on LJ gone. (And not just fandom groups either, important community groups for education and trauma survival were also wiped out in those purges as well.)

And while not exactly the same, Yahoo Groups–and yes Yahoo Groups was a major online fandom hub at one point–were deleted as late as 2019 with very little warning, leaving a lot of older fandom groups scrambling to back up decades worth of content.

I might be projecting, but Fanfic.net seems to be wobbling too. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out they go under in the next few years despite performing similar purges of adult content in 2012 and allowing for obnoxious ads, which made the site unusable on mobile unless you wanted to see an ad what felt like every couple of paragraphs. (It might be better now, I haven’t checked in a while.)

It has only been in very recent memory that fandom has gained any sort of foothold that isn’t poised directly over a precarious faultline that could at any moment open up and swallow entire communities whole, and a huge part of that is the volunteers at Ao3 who decided to play chicken with the likes of Anne Rice and won.

Ao3 at its core was and is built by fandom. Some people don’t like it and that’s fine, but to even suggest that the volunteers are lounging around eating peeled grapes and lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills making bank through fraud while fanfic authors are left out in the cold is beyond the scope of laughable.

[antiquechampagne]

“this wonderful 88-page piece has step by step breakdowns of how names work in different cultures! i needed to know how to name a Muslim character it has already helped me SO MUCH and i’ve known about it for all of 15 minutes!! i am thoroughly amazed and i just needed to share with you guy! Cultures include Yoruba, Sikh, Vietnamese, Polish, and dozens more!”

I found this tumblr reposted on pillowfort linking to this resource, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to post it from pillowfort to tumblr and keep everything intact. I have quoted some of the original tumblr/pillowfort so you can get an idea of what it is in the file.

[writingwithcolor]

Check out this detailed naming guide

1) Names are a valuable source of information. They can indicate gender, marital status, birthplace, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and position within a family or even within a society. However, naming practices vary enormously across the globe. The aim of this guide is to identify the knowledge that can be gained from names about their holders and to help overcome difficulties that are commonly encountered with names of foreign origin. 

2.) The sections of the guide are governed by nationality and/or ethnicity, depending on the influencing factor upon the naming practice, such as religion, language or geography. 

Inevitably, this guide is not exhaustive and any feedback or suggestions for additional sections will be welcomed.

https://www.fbiic.gov

[ofbeinghonests]

if you have one, tag with the “6 degrees of separation” you have with a celebrity

[temporary-dysphoria]

a non-selective plan for the resurgence of fic commissions

[majorenglishesquire]

Too many children in the comments like ‘I think authors should be able to share ko-fi links :) it’s just nice’ and ‘OP is just a cop.’ Homie, OP is trying to keep AO3 fully functional without interruption. I will report your ass, too, because I value fic artists and our freedom of expression and my audience and our shared history far more than I value the few bux you wanna make on a commission.

It is not hard to link to your Tumblr or Twitter with a vague message like, “If you’re looking for my other works or other ways of supporting me, go here: link.” I have had people buy me coffees after enjoying my fic and asking where to support me. I threw up a link to my Tumblr and people cared enough to follow it. They were fully understanding when I explained in the comments that they could not commission me and I could not link them directly to any donation platform, but they could go to xyz link to read more. And they did! Nobody has to put AO3 directly on the firing line.

Go ahead and commission independently. Just do it anywhere else except on AO3. And then don’t come crying to the community when you, personally, get a C&D from a massive corporation.

AO3 is our bullet shield. Tumblr will pull your shit down. Wattpad won’t fucking protect you. LJ and FF.net already sold our asses for one (1) corn chip. AO3 is trying to protect us, you goddamn lemmings.

If you cannot follow the rules that protect fanspaces, you do not belong in our fanspaces.

The only people who misunderstand this are doing so intentionally and maliciously. Do yourself a favor and block the infants who think this isn’t a big deal.

[kedreeva]

Please remember that this ALSO INCLUDES FANDOM CHARITY AUCTIONS.

When you post charity auction fics, DO NOT note that they are commissions in any way. You can note them as “here is my thank you gift to X for such-and-such event” but please please PLEASE do not list them as commissions.

[ao3skin]

Dyslexia Friendly Ao3 Skin (or at least an attempt at)

I've been slowly working at a dyslexia friendly skin following the design suggestions I've found in the British Dyslexia Association Style Guide.

You can find it here with all the instructions to install it

It is still a work in progress and I'm begging for feedback so that I can make it better for everyone.

To Do List:

A dark mode is on the way. I'll post it on the link I've just posted, so if you find this post in a few months you'll be able to find it.

As soon as I can I aim to make the code more ordered, with lots of comments and a guide to change stuff for people who know nothing about css, so you can personalize it for your needs.

More color combinations.

Implement more stuff you ask me. I'm designing this by just following a guide, but it might be wrong in some areas and there might be more stuff that's good to add.

[ao3skin]

I’ve updated the link to have a guide on how to customize the skin even for people who know nothing about css!

Next thing I’m working on is going to be the dark mode (which I know people are waiting for. I’ll publish it on the same ao3 work in that link as a new chapter, so if you want to be reminded just follow that work)

[ao3skin]

AND DARK MODE IS HERE

The link is still the same: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30918077/chapters/76349072 in chapter 2 you’ll find the customization guide for people who know nothing about css and in chapter 3 the dark mode skin!

[ao3skin]

I’ve made a few changes and adjustments. (these skins are always a work in progress) Most prominently the tags on mobile now look better when they are too long:

while before they showed like this:

everything is still in the link in the ao3 work. I’ve just changed the code and updated it.

[frankthesnek]

Okay seriously... 🥺😭 this is amazing. Its hard to discribe what reading with severe dyslexia is like. But in a word, it sucks.

The appreciation I have for this skin is just...I can't. I wish I had found this sooner! No two people with dyslexia are exactly the same but if you have it, trying this skin is so worth while.