methinks thou dost protest too much

paloma de la guerra. poeta.

[favillesco]

some thoughts on the current AI crisis and how it relates to fandom's dynamics

the shift in fandom's discourse, and in the production and reception of fanworks reflects both the current profile of its participants and the inherent dynamics of the platforms themselves. 

when I joined the fandom circa 2006, communities were much more critical, largely because the internet was made up of a more select group of people, mostly adults, who had access to and knew how to use the technology. but also the fandom spaces were more decentralised, text and discussion based, and usually created (or at least regulated) by the fans themselves. because of this, the dominant discourse was markedly critical, even sardonic. spaces and forums dedicated exclusively to dissecting bad fanfiction abounded, as concepts like "bad fic" and "sporking". 

I was a young teen back then and definitely remember reading mostly bad fics and writing even worse fics. however, i did not feel as these spaces made me want to quit writing or even stop posting. on the contrary, they taught me a lot

with the gradual but massive entry of people from different social backgrounds, primarily children and teenagers, and the change in the structure of media platforms, these norms shifted. negative criticism ceased to be socially acceptable, as it once was; in fact, it became frowned upon. even constructive criticism became scrutinised because the prevalent attitude now was that, since the ficwriter offers their effort and writes for pleasure, we should be thankful and avoid anything that could harm or demotivate them. 

this shift in reception, influenced by a type of progressivism that became discursively dominant in fandom spaces, is neither inherently good nor bad, but it explains why the current phenomenon of ai generated fanfiction is so controversial. in other times, these fanfics would have been instantly called out for what they are, without so many attempts to silence those seeking to demonstrate that many authors were using AI without explicitly stating it. the resulting discourse would have been different, allowing for a deeper analysis of the topic, something also facilitated by the structure of platforms like livejournal or older forums, where discussion was more extensive and less scattered. today, each time someone attempts to point out that some authors are using AI without labeling it, they are immediately attacked, unfairly accused of jealousy or trying to cause harm, reflecting how we consume and produce art today (much more acritically).

the platforms themselves, excluding ao3, also are way more hierarchical (as in, not created or moderated by users) and prioritise short content that is quickly consumed and discarded, all which are perfect conditions for clout chasing

i've been maturing these ideas for a while after taking a grad course on media platforms and their users and wanted to hear other fanpeoples' opinion

this text was written in spanish originally and then translated by myself so that's why it may sound a little weird)

i had to reopen this account to post since most subreddits on fanfiction prohibit discussion on ai, which does reinforce my point)

[5ummit]

AO3 Ship Stats: Year In Bad Data

You may have seen this AO3 Year In Review.

It hasn’t crossed my tumblr dash but it sure is circulating on twitter with 3.5M views, 10K likes, 17K retweets and counting. Normally this would be great! I love data and charts and comparisons!

Except this data is GARBAGE and belongs in the TRASH.

I first noticed something fishy when I realized that Steve/Bucky – the 5th largest ship on AO3 by total fic count – wasn’t on this Top 100 list anywhere. I know Marvel’s popularity has fallen in recent years, but not that much. Especially considering some of the other ships that made it on the list. You mean to tell me a femslash HP ship (Mary MacDonald/Lily Potter) in which one half of the pairing was so minor I had to look up her name because she was only mentioned once in a single flashback scene beat fandom juggernaut Stucky? I call bullshit.

Now obviously jumping to conclusions based on gut instinct alone is horrible practice... but it is a good place to start. So let’s look at the actual numbers and discover why this entire dataset sits on a throne of lies.

Here are the results of filtering the Steve/Bucky tag for all works created between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2023:

Not only would that place Steve/Bucky at #23 on this list, if the other counts are correct (hint: they're not), it’s also well above the 1520-new-work cutoff of the #100 spot. So how the fuck is it not on the list? Let’s check out the author’s FAQ to see if there’s some important factor we’re missing.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in the FAQ is that the data is being scraped from publicly available works. That means anything privated and only accessible to logged-in users isn’t counted. This is Sin #1. Already the data is inaccurate because we’re not actually counting all of the published fics, but the bots needed to do data collection on this scale can't easily scrape privated fics so I kinda get it. We’ll roll with this for now and see if it at least makes the numbers make more sense:

Nope. Logging out only reduced the total by a couple hundred. Even if one were to choose the most restrictive possible definition of "new works" and filter out all crossovers and incomplete fics, Steve/Bucky would still have a yearly total of 2,305. Yet the list claims their total is somewhere below 1,500? What the fuck is going on here?

Let’s look at another ship for comparison. This time one that’s very recent and popular enough to make it on the list so we have an actual reference value for comparison: Nick/Charlie (Heartstopper). According to the list, this ship sits at #34 this year with a total of 2630 new works. But what’s AO3 say?

Off by a hundred or so but the values are much closer at least!

If we dig further into the FAQ though we discover Sin #2 (and the most egregious): the counting method. The yearly fic counts are NOT determined by filtering for a certain time period, they’re determined by simply taking a snapshot of the total number of fics in a ship tag at the end of the year and subtracting the previous end-of-year total. For example, if you check a ship tag on Jan 1, 2023 and it has 10,000 fics and check it again on Jan 1, 2024 and it now has 12,000 fics, the difference (2,000) would be the number of "new works" on this chart.

At first glance this subtraction method might seem like a perfectly valid way to count fics, and it’s certainly the easiest way, but it can and did have major consequences to the point of making the entire dataset functionally meaningless. Why? If any older works are deleted or privated, every single one of those will be subtracted from the current year fic count. And to make the problem even worse, beginning at the end of last year there was a big scare about AI scraping fics from AO3, which caused hundreds, if not thousands, of users to lock down their fics or delete them.

The magnitude of this fuck up may not be immediately obvious so let’s look at an example to see how this works in practice.

Say we have two ships. Ship A is more than a decade old with a large fanbase. Ship B is only a couple years old but gaining traction. On Jan 1, 2023, Ship A had a catalog of 50,000 fics and ship B had 5,000. Both ships have 3,000 new works published in 2023. However, 4% of the older works in each fandom were either privated or deleted during that same time (this percentage is was just chosen to make the math easy but it’s close to reality).

Ship A: 50,000 x 4% = 2,000 removed works Ship B: 5,000 x 4% = 200 removed works

Ship A: 3,000 - 2,000 = 1,000 "new" works Ship B: 3,000 - 200 = 2,800 "new" works

This gives Ship A a net gain of 1,000 and Ship B a net gain of 2,800 despite both fandoms producing the exact same number of new works that year. And neither one of these reported counts are the actual new works count (3,000). THIS explains the drastic difference in ranking between a ship like Steve/Bucky and Nick/Charlie.

How is this a useful measure of anything? You can't draw any conclusions about the current size and popularity of a fandom based on this data.

With this system, not only is the reported "new works" count incorrect, the older, larger fandom will always be punished and it’s count disproportionately reduced simply for the sin of being an older, larger fandom. This example doesn’t even take into account that people are going to be way more likely to delete an old fic they're no longer proud of in a fandom they no longer care about than a fic that was just written, so the deletion percentage for the older fandom should theoretically be even larger in comparison.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the author of this "study" KNEW the data was tainted and chose to present it as meaningful anyway. You will only find this if you click through to the FAQ and read about the author’s methodology, something 99.99% of people will NOT do (and even those who do may not understand the true significance of this problem):

The author may try to argue their post states that the tags "which had the greatest gain in total public fanworks” are shown on the chart, which makes it not a lie, but a error on the viewer’s part in not interpreting their data correctly. This is bullshit. Their chart CLEARLY titles the fic count column “New Works” which it explicitly is NOT, by their own admission! It should be titled “Net Gain in Works” or something similar.

Even if it were correctly titled though, the general public would not understand the difference, would interpret the numbers as new works anyway (because net gain is functionally meaningless as we've just discovered), and would base conclusions on their incorrect assumptions. There’s no getting around that… other than doing the counts correctly in the first place. This would be a much larger task but I strongly believe you shouldn’t take on a project like this if you can’t do it right.

To sum up, just because someone put a lot of work into gathering data and making a nice color-coded chart, doesn’t mean the data is GOOD or VALUABLE.

[5ummit]

It's that time again.

Has centreoftheselights learned the error of their ways and tried to actually collect their data properly this year so as to not misrepresent the popularity of every fandom on AO3? Nope! They're doing everything exactly the same, and as expected, the counts are WAY off (Castiel/Dean didn't even make it on the list this year despite having 6000 new works in 2024, which should've put it in the Top 10).

Do NOT trust this data.

Fortunately, Randomist1031 has done the hard work for us and compiled a 2024 dataset that includes privated fics AND gathers the counts correctly. They've even gone the extra mile and added separate public vs locked counts, percent locked calculations, and common ship names. I can't vouch for the accuracy of every data point but the handful I checked were very close (another benefit of using the "created by" filter method is that it's fairly replicable, unlike certain people's methodology).

Please share this list and use it for fandom analysis instead.

[rider-waitedeactiveted00000-blog]

I just ordered a tarot deck, and I was wondering if you had any beginner tips for me? I'm super excited to start learning and doing readings!:)

Hello!!! First off you should check out my resource tag, it’s got some decent stuff in it.

Second, introduce yourself to the tarot community! We’re all super nice and love helping newbies join our cult family :) I’m paging tarot-sybarite, innerselfnotes, and arcanemysteries who all have excellent resources for newbies. 

[tarot-sybarite]

*CRASHES THROUGH WALL* Did someone say they needed to beginner info to learn tarot?!

A while back I went online to gather the best—IMHO—free resources I could about tarot for use by them as wants to learn.  Below are the fruits of my labor. 

Quick Methods of Learning Tarot

Learn Tarot in 7 Easy Steps (PDF)

Learn the Tarot in Two Hours - Part One and Part Two, by Ben Lucas (YouTube)

The Symbolist: A Simplified Guide to Tarot Symbols and Terms, by Corrine Kenner

A quick and dirty chart to tarot cards and their common meanings

Minor Arcana Quick Reference Chart - thetarot.co.uk

Learning Tarot

What Every Newbie Tarot Reader Should Know by Mary K. Greer

Easy Tarot Lessons with Dusty White (YouTube) - Part One 

How to Read Tarot by Bonnie Cehovet - PDF from AclecticTarot.com

Tarot for Beginners, or Now That I Have a Deck, What Do I Do With It?  by Olympias (TarotByOlympias.com) - PDF from her website

Learning the tarot (PDF - 19 lessons) by Joan Bunning.  The complete course is also online for free here.

Tarot Worksheets for Download and Study (PDFs)

Trainee Tarot Course by The Four Queens (Youtube)

Tarot Oracle’s Complete Tarot Course by the Tarot Oracle.  Part One is here,  and there are 15 hours in total (YouTube)

the Aeclectic Tarot Forum’s Cards masterthread (multiple links to articles on all 78 cards)

The Socratic Method of Tarot Reading by Jeanne Fiorini (YouTube)

How to Shuffle Tarot Cards by Kate Madison (YouTube)

Learning Tarot - Reversals

The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals by Mary K. Greer, via MyTeaCup.com (PDF)

Reversals, and What to Do if All of the Cards Are Reversed, by Christiana Gaudet (YouTube)

Learning Tarot - Court Cards

Why You Can’t Read the Court Cards, by Marcus Katz. Unpublished material from Tarosophy: Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape It by Marcus Katz.  PDF.

Understanding the Tarot Court by Mary K. Greer and Tom Little, via ChinaTarot.com (PDF)

Court Cards at a Glance - Site and Printable Chart via TarotCourtCards.com

Learning Tarot - the Thoth Deck

Tarot: Mirror of the Soul.  A Handbook for the Aleister Crowley Tarot by Gerd Ziegler (PDF)

TarotTown: Thoth for Beginners - a Worksheet that breaks down a few of the complicated aspects of the Thoth tarot deck. (PDF)

Doing Readings

the Aeclectic Tarot Forum’s All About Reading masterthread (formulating questions, reading techniques, and more) 

Gaining Confidence in Your Tarot Readings by Teresa Michelsen/TarotMoon Press

How to Read For Others - the Tarot Sybarite

Overcoming Reader’s Block from TarotMoon Press

When the Cards Just Make No Damn Sense - the Tarot Sybarite

To Rephrase or Not to Rephrase from TarotMoon Press

Working With Vague of Complex Questions from TarotMoon Press

Interpreting Large Readings from TarotMoon Press

Asking Questions (For Those Seeking Readings)

How to Phrase Tarot Questions - The Free Reading Network

How to Phrase a Question for a Tarot Reading - PlanetWaves.net

Seven Ways to Ask a Good Question in a Tarot Reading  - TarotCanHelp.com

Effective Tarot Questions - The Tarot Reader Blog

What NOT to Ask the Tarot- BiddyTarot

The 37 Best Tarot Questions - Alec Satin

Public Domain Tarot Books (PDFs) via EsotericOnline.net:

Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite

A French Method of Cartomancy, by A. E. Waite

An Introduction to the Study of the Tarot, by Paul Foster Case

Oracle of the Tarot, by Paul Foster Case.  Keyed to the Knapp-Hall Tarot

The Wisdom of Tarot by Elizabeth Haich

What is the Tarot? by Ouspenpsky

Book T, by MacGregor Mathers  Intro the the Golden Dawn system of tarot interpretation.  Very dense reading, not keyed to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and not for beginners

Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus.  References the Tarot de Marseilles and the Oswald-Wirth Tarot.

A History of the Tarot, by Dame Gabby

The Continental Tarots by Christine Payne-Towler

A Self-Guided Tour of the Tarot by Cameo Victor

The Continental Tarot, by Christine Payne-Towler

The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang

Sex Magic, Tantra, and Tarot: The Way of the Secret Lover by Hyatt and DuQuette

Printable Tarot Decks (Public Domain Art)

Rider-Waite-Smith Deck (High-Resolution Images) viafantasycards,wordpress.com

Color-Your-Own Rider-Waite-Smith Deck via tarotinstitute.com.  Coloring your own deck is a simple and effective way to fix the image in your mind and internalize its many meanings.

Color-Your-Own Marseilles Deck via tarot-cards-reading.net

The Tarot de Marseilles is one of the oldest known tarot decks, and is the basis for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Click here to download a full-color Marseille Tarot Deck

VintagePrintable has a tarot deck from Venice circa the 1500s for print.

You can also print the Bodet cards from 1739 by clicking here.

DarkTarot.com has another printable traditional deck available for personal use. Please note the copyright.

Once you’ve decided which deck(s) you want to print, save the printable tarot cards to your computer. Avoid printing directly from the browser as you might end up with some weird and unwanted results (trust me on this).

Print out the tarot cards on your chosen paper. Make sure that you print them in the standard tarot deck size. If you’re not sure that the size is right, do a test print of one card so you don’t destroy the entire paper. If you printed the images on regular paper and want a good backing, then you need to use spray adhesive to glue the paper to the actual cards.

Carefully trim the edges of the cards - some people like rounded edges, so make sure you have enough place for the borders. 

Once the cards are printed, let them dry and then seal them with a varnish spray. After that, run them through a laminator. These days laminators are pretty affordable, and if you find yourself creating lots of tarot decks, you might want to invest in one.  You can also take the files to office supply stores (such as Office Depot in the USA) for printing and laminating.

Tarot Spreads:

Creating Tarot Spreads (PDF)

Divination Spreads (PDF)

Three Card Spreads (PDF)

Three Card Yes-Or-No Spread (PDF)

Popular Spreads with Interpretive Charts from MyTeaCup.com (PDF)

KMilliron’s Free Tarot Spreads eBook (PDF) - a poster over at AclecticTarot’s forums collected all of his spreads into a PDF for sharing via MediaFire

41 Quick Tarot Spreads For Reading Any Situation - JeanneMayell.com

Original Tarot Spreads - TarotMoon Press 

AeclecticTarot Forums’ Tarot Spread Index

gardenofthequeen’s tarot spread tag

hellboundwitch’s tarot spread tag

TarotSybarites tarot spread tag

Tarot Journaling

http://austinpagan.com/ebooks/Tarot%20Exercises.pdf

Creating Your Own Tarot and Oracle Card Journal by owlmoon (YouTube)

Tarot & Astrology

Tarot and Astrology by Hajo Banzhaf. 

Simple Astrology Spread (PDF)

Tarot & Numerology

Secrets of Tarot Numerology by Gary Meister: Lesson One, Lesson Two, Lesson Three, Lesson Four, Lesson Five, Lesson Six, Lesson Seven, Lesson Eight, Lesson Nine, Lesson Ten, Lesson Eleven, Lesson Twelve

Issues in Tarot

Ethics When Reading For Others by Dixie Vogel (YouTube)

Ethical Tarot Reading by BiddyTarot

Setting Boundaries and Developing a Code of Ethics from TarotMoon Press

What A Tarot Reading CANNOT Do For You by Mita Bhan

Third Party Readings by BiddyTarot

Why I Don’t Do Tarot Readings For Third Parties by tarotcanhelp.com

Your Tarot Reading Made the Client Mad!  What Now?! by Dixie Vogel (YouTube)

The Peril of Practice - Unhappy Clients from TarotMoon Press

Are There Any Clients That You Would Refuse to Do A Tarot Reading For? via TarotWisdomReadings.com

Going “Pro”

Becoming a “Professional”: How To Know When You’re Ready to Charge For Your Tarot Readings by Biddy Tarot.  See also her article How Much Are Your Tarot Readings Worth?

Becoming A Professional Tarot Reader - What You Need to Know by DailyTarotGirl

Suggestions for Becoming a Professional Tarot Reader by Mary K. Greer

Charging Fees for Readings by Madhavi Ghare

Why I Do Not—And Will Not—Do Free Readings by idanceitarotiart

Mary K. Greer: Tools for Recording Your Readings

Getting Experience: Join the Free Tarot Network where you perform free Tarot readings via email, with the support of a Tarot mentor.  See also biddytarot’s Seeking Feedback from Your Online Clients

The following is NOT free, and some of the information on the Internet is dated, but the bulk of information contained within is outstanding: Christine Jette’s book Professional Tarot.  Highly, highly recommended.

Organizations That Support/Promote Tarot

Tarosophy Tarot Association - “We teach methods of Tarot to divine your life, and make your way better through it – understanding more along the way.”  This organization runs TaroCon US, TarotCon Australia, and TarotCon UK.

American Tarot Association - “The American Tarot Association is a professional and social organization for Tarot enthusiasts, students, scholars, and readers. We promote the study and appreciation of Tarot by supporting a variety of educational programs.”

Tarot Association of the British Isles - “TABI is a not-for-profit association run by unpaid volunteers with a passion for Tarot and the esoteric. We were formed in 2001 to provide support, information and resources for Tarot enthusiasts of all levels.”

Tarot Guild of Australia - “The TGA represents a community of Tarot enthusiasts, readers and teachers from across Australia and worldwide.”

Tarot Publishers

Tarot Media Company - “…our goal [is] promoting the work of Tarot authors, artists, and scholars to make their creations available to the Tarot public and to support them in their goal of right livelihood.”

US Games Systems - Publisher of classic and contemporary tarot decks, Rider-Waite, Crowley Thoth, divination and oracle decks

Lo Scarabeo - Born in 1987 in Torino, Italy, Lo Scarabeo is now a leading international company in the mind, body and spiritual health publishing, with a main focus in Tarot publishing. Lo Scarabeo is one of the most important Tarot publishers in the world.

The Game Crafter - “the world’s first web-to-print game publishing company and offers a print on demand game publishing service…The Game Crafter gives designers an easy-to-use system to make a board game, card game, or custom playing cards. TGC offers templates, instructions, videos, and proofing tools to help designers create a quality product”.

Shopping For Decks

TarotGarden

ShopTarot

If you’re browsing decks on AeclecticTarot, you can usually click a link on the deck’s page and be taken to a web site to order.  Those affiliate links usually help the site, too.

Tarot Card Games

Wikipedia’s article on tarot card games

Simplified Rules for The Game of Tarot, via Mary K. Greer’s blog.  For a copy of the rules of French tarot, see here. 

Rules for Games Played with Tarot Cards via Pagat.com.  There are literally hundreds of rules variations out there, here’s a handful of them.

Emperors, the fortunetelling betting game played with Tarot cards by copperbadge

Theoricus Poker by Frater B.T. - a fun way to learn correspondences from astrology, etc., with the different tarot cards.

Arcanus Major - A Tarot Roleplaying Game

Tarot History

Take a look at this graphic for some quick facts about tarot

Thomas L. MacDonald’s detailed, excellent series on the history of tarot cards.  MacDonald is an editor over at Games magazine.

For a shorter overview of the history, you can look at tarot author Mary K. Greer’s blog post What Every Newbie Tarot Reader Should Know About the History and Myths of Tarot and the TarotL History and Information Sheet.

History of Women’s Tarot - Tarot as a keystone of the Women’s Spirituality movement branches off in a different direction from the mainstream in the mid-1970’s.

Make sure you do some reading about Pamela Colman Smith. Smith is the artist who designed the artwork for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (the world’s most popular tarot deck, and the one most people think of when they hear the word “tarot”) in 1909.  

Smith based her RWS deck design on the Tarot de Marseille.

Smith’s creation of individual scenes on the cards of the minor arcana was a huge leap forward in tarot deck design, and contributed mightily to the enduring popularity of the RWS deck.

You can see examples of her non-tarot artwork here and here.  Don’t forget her book Susan and the Mermaid!

One thing to keep in mind about Pamela Colman Smith is that she made a deliberate decision to reduce or eliminate the Christian imagery found in the early tarot decks.  For example….

The Hanged Man image comes from the medieval Italian practice of hanging traitors upside down (Fun Fact: at the end of WWII, Mussolini was hanged upside down to mark him as a traitor; and please be warned that link is GRAPHIC and TOTALLY NSFW).  That practice was inspired by the death of Judas Iscariot in the Bible, where Iscariot is described as falling “headlong” (Acts 1:18). In the earliest tarocchi decks, the Hanged Man is depicted with bags of money, or with coins falling out of his pocket, a reference to the infamous thirty pieces of silver Iscariot was paid for betraying Jesus Christ.

The World card can be seen in many churches and ancient Christian manuscripts, usually showing Christ ascending into heaven surrounded by symbols of the Four Evangelists.

Smith’s High Priestess replaced La Papessa (the Papess, a female ‘Pope’ figure) in the deck.  Lots of folks assumed that this image was inspired by the legend of Pope Joan, but evidence suggests that the image is a female allegorical figure for the Roman Catholic Church (which claims the title ‘The Bride of Christ’)

General Cartomancy

Origins of Playing Card Divination - Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog. An illustrated presentation of theories and research on the origin of playing cards.

The New World Witchery Guide to Cartomancy by Corey Hutcheson (PDF)

Secondhand Souls: Cartomancy - Guide to learning cartomancy. Includes a brief history, discusses cards, and gives spreads.

Playing Card Meanings - Serena’s Guide to Divination

Sarena’s Tarot: Using Regular Playing Cards - A guide to using regular playing cards for divination.

A Manual of Cartomancy, Fortune-Telling, and Occult Divination by Grand Orient, published 1909 (PDF) via the Wayback Machine

A French Method of Fortune-Telling by Cards, by A.E. Waite, published 1912, via Hermetics.org

Fortune-Telling By Cards by Prof. P.R.S. Foli, first published 1915 . PDF via labirintoermetico.com

Cartomancy: History and Legend of a Prophetic Artvia associazioneletarot.it (PDF) 

Arcana Arcanorum: The Playing-Card Oracle - A personal system of playing card divination is presented with card meanings and layouts.

Other

A Glossary of Tarot Symbols from TarotMoon Press

the Difference between Oracle and Tarot Cards by hellboundwitch

World Tarot Day

World LeNormand Day

Tarotpedia, the Online Encyclopedia of Tarot

Tarot Reflections Archives - Back Issues of the newsletter of the American Tarot Association

Tips For Reading at Psychic Fairs by Teresa Michelsen

Reading at Charity Events by the Tarot Sybarite

Have fun, and good luck!

[stylesrecord]

this is us is the best movie ever produced. the teenage dirtbag scene? iconic. the reggae version of last first kiss being sung? iconic. the change my mind performance featuring harry’s ‘are we friends or are we mooOOOre?’ note change? iconic. every minute of the film is iconic.

[eggtoastie]

This is honestly the funniest thing I’ve seen

[buscandoelparaiso]

I am glad Mark Rylance recognised and mentioned also the talent of all the young actors that are working with Harry, i am glad he’s getting on well on set but people tend to forget there is a whole group of young actors maybe trying a big movie for the first time so kudos to them as well, good answer Mark 

[blouehjob]

It’s fascinating, how as fans of a band we care about the technicalities involved, about things like non compete when generally, fans usually don’t bother about such stuff. And I really don’t know whether this characteristic of our fandom is a good thing or a bad thing. 

[obviouslymeandyou]

#i think it’s a new development #in fandom culture in general #i think in our fandom it’s been exacerbated by the continual shadiness and lying #but i think it’s a product of the way we can now communicate #and the access we have #i’ve noticed the same phenomenon in hockey fandom #people are now focused on terms of contracts #hidden clauses that no one used to give a crap about or even know about #because now there is a platform to share that information efficiently and easily#it’s driven away simply from the entertainment value of the game #and thats happened with 1D too (whisperedlouis)

[downheresomewhere-deactivated20]

#I agree #I think we’re an extreme example #because 1DHQ didn’t anticipate this aspect of social media #they didn’t realize at first that old PR tricks and stunts wouldn’t hold up #in a modern fandom#and yet tried to lie in the same way as they always have #they blatantly changed the story while people watched and I’m so glad that fans called them on it #I love it #there’s power in knowledge and information #we’re informed consumers for a boyband (via @obviouslymeandyou)

[cherrysmoon]

Harry today in London, 21.06 ©chiara kim (x)

[sexatoxbridge]

Stop being creepers - you know he’ll catch you. Plus it’s creepy. Let him live. That is not the face of someone who’s happy to have their photo unwillingly taken.

[sslarrysettingsail]

This is probably going to sound harsh, but all I read in that article was “Briana didn’t want kids, until she found out she was pregnant by Louis Tomlinson.” I mean that is basically what it says. 

[bulletprooflarry]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

A close friend of the family tells us: “Briana always said she never wanted children but as soon as she fell pregnant she saw it as her own miracle. They all did, it was God’s miracle gift to them and that’s what they refer to Freddie as. Briana was raised as a Christian and it was all a blessing from above.” 

“She sat down and weighed up all her options and prayed it’d all work out,” our source adds. “She was very positive about everything and she would tell us we all have to live in hope, because there’s no living at all if we live in fear.”

The source also reveals how sensible Briana took her parental responsibilities seriously from the moment she found out she was expecting.

[aslowmotionaccident]

[westcoastharry]

this one’s for the larries: do you say louisandharry or harryandlouis? rope and anchor or rose and dagger? mario kart interview or paris interview?

[obviouslymeandyou]

Y’know, Louis specifically taking care of that girl because he knows how to sign makes so much sense because I was wondering why she went with Louis when he was second to last in line. It seemed like on the other team, the kids were led out by the first few people. He was with her because he was the only one she could talk to and he held her hand the whole time because he couldn’t always keep his eyes on her and at the end when they went to part ways, he almost followed her and had to do a double take and head off where he was supposed to go because he was so focused on her………

[harryandlouisarehappilystrong]

I’m gonna be that person and say not once has Louis looked at his son or his girlfriend with even an ounce of the happiness he’s had during Soccer Aid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[march25ths]

Listen,

[triangletat]

what really happened://

[l-o-u-i-s-h-a-r-r-y-deactivated]

[delladilly-deactivated20161011]

look not to be that one person crying real loud in the dungeon of her own soul about another ugly tattoo another boy band got probably without thinking about it at all but like SOMEONE HAS TO, and the thing is is that everyone is talking about it as a laurel wreath, as harry crooning we are the champions to the slide of his own hipbones and okay yes but if we take this just a little further back

i mean to the myth of apollo and daphne from which we get this meaning about leaf crowns, and i mean about shockingly DAPHNE, this is going to be a story about harry as daphne, i want you to think with me about harry naked wikipediaing greek myths on one of his eight phones late at night after being followed around by paps all day doing his earnest snickerdoodle best and basically

apollo is pursuing daphne and she can’t get away so she turns into a tree, and then apollo takes her leaves for his crown or whatever apollo is a sleazebag here is the thing is sometimes you can’t quite get away– from people wanting you, from people marking you–  but you can make it so even when they have you, they have the [you] you let them have. you can remake yourself, you can safeguard yourself, you can turn into flower and bark

and like harry styles has so many legitimately labored inarticulate thoughts on the nature of fame, of people looking at him and his body and reducing it to how accessible it is to them, on reading so many things onto him, on not thinking about his personhood, and harry styles– “the perfect pop star”– in particular has carried this awareness from adolescence into some kind of babyfaced adulthood shaped largely by his attempts to determine himself yet in that light

because you can’t stop people looking at you, and maybe you don’t even want to, and harry has always been the most naked person you know– and that nakedness is maybe easy, and maybe that self-declared ease is part of the power discourse, but it’s not simple either way. and people are looking at him– but he can change what they see, and tattoos are a way of forcing people to look at your body the way you tell them to, i mean ugly tattoos as metamorphosis

and like, we can get into my myriad swamplike feelings about harry identifying with feminine bodies and struggles and carrying them in his own fraught body under a public gaze that has made him a sexual object since 16, or we can just talk about this–

about daphne’s outstretched fingers turning into leaves, and harry styles under stage lights with a new tattoo