Anonymous writings, anonymous questions.

Or not, up to you. You can ask anything you like about the stories linked on this blog. If you want an answer everyone can read, use the Ask box. If you want to keep it private, send a message.

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

No-Google (fan)fic writing

After this post about Google automatically enrolling everyone into their AI program (including reading Google docs), I realised that many people may not be aware that there are actually very, very good alternatives to using Google docs – although what they can do for you varies.

So, since I’ve over the years tested quite a lot of different applications for usefulness in writing fanfic, I thought I’d share some of my experiences here. The link list below will be expanded as I continue writing more pieces, so keep checking here.

Part 1: LibreOffice Writer

Part 2: Zettelkasten

Part 3: LaTeχ

Part 4: Markdown

Part 5: Obsidian

Note: I updated some of the posts with screenshots of the interfaces for illustration purposes. You might want to reblog those again.

[solarmane]

new fanfic writer who has marked their work completed ao3 only to leave a note at the end saying: thanks for all the support guys if you want to read the rest of the fic subscribe to my patreon :)

me, an elder fandom veteran, suddenly having anne rice flashbacks:

no.

NO.

starting to rock back and fourth.

you do not understand.

you were born into an age of peace. i was there Gandalf. i was there three thousand years ago. i remember the cease and desists. i remember authors hunting fanfic writers for sport. i remember when every fic opened with a disclaimer because we genuinely thought it might protect us.

we do not charge money for the copyrighted gay wizard stories.

do not tempt fate youngling.

step away from the paywall.

that is how you summon the ancient evils.

that is how you wake the lawyers.

[fanlore-wiki]

To understand the reference to Anne Rice and her lawyers, please check out the Anne Rice page and Where has Anne Rice fanfiction gone? on Fanlore, and while you're there maybe check out the list of "Notable C&Ds sent to fans" on the Cease & Desist page.

[radioactive-earthshine]

Writing tips for long fics that helped me that no one asked for.

1.) Don't actually delete content from your WIP unless it is minor editing - instead cut it and put it in a secondary document. If you're omitting paragraphs of content, dialog, a whole scene you might find a better place for it later and having it readily available can really save time. Sometimes your idea was fantastic, but it just wasn't in the right spot.

2.) Stuck with wording the action? Just write the dialog then revisit it later.

3.) Stuck on the whole scene? Skip it and write the next one.

4.) Write on literally any other color than a white background. It just works. (I use black)

5.) If you have a beta, while they are beta-ing have them read your fic out loud. Yes, I know a lot of betas/writers do not have the luxury of face-timing or have the opportunity to do this due to time constraints etc but reading your fic out loud can catch some very awkward phrasing that otherwise might be missed. If you don't have a beta, you read it out loud to yourself. Throw some passion into your dialog, you might find a better way to word it if it sounds stuffy or weird.

6.) The moment you have an idea, write it down. If you don't have paper or a pen, EMAIL it to yourself or put it in a draft etc etc. I have sent myself dozens of ideas while laying down before sleep that I 10/10 forgot the next morning but had emailed them to myself and got to implement them.

7.) Remember - hits/likes/kudos/comments are not reflective of the quality of your fic or your ability to write. Most people just don't comment - even if they say they do, they don't, even if they preach all day about commenting, they don't, even if they are a very popular blog that passionately reminds people to comment - they don't comment (I know this personally). Even if your fic brought tears to their eyes and it haunted them for weeks and they printed it out and sent it to their friends they just don't comment. You just have to accept it. That being said - comment on the fic you're reading now, just do it, if you're 'shy' and that's why you don't comment the more you comment the better you'll get at it. Just do it.

8.) Remove unrealistic daily word count goals from your routine. I've seen people stress 1500 - 2000 words a day and if they don't reach that they feel like a failure and they get discouraged. This is ridiculous. Write when you can, but remove absurd goals. My average is 500 words a day in combination with a 40 hour a week job and I have written over 200k words from 2022-2023.

9.) There are dozens of ways to do an outline from precise analytical deconstruction that goes scene by scene to the minimalist bullet point list - it doesn't matter which one you use just have some sort of direction. A partial outline is better than no outline.

10.) Write for yourself, not for others. Write the fic you know no one is going to read. Write the fic that sounds ridiculous. You will be so happy you put it out in the world and there will be people who will be glad it exists.

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Seconding all of this and pointing out once more (because I’m annoying like that) that if you want to keep stuff that you aren’t sure you’ll ever use …

It is possible to skip the copypasting from/to your WIP document by using an editor that allows you to “outcomment” whole sections, even chapters of text in the output, while the outcommented portions of text remain in your document, ready to go for when you need them. Or, if you never need them again, then at least saved for posterity.

For everyone who hasn’t come across this yet, outcommenting works primarily in systems like Markdown and LaTeX and looks like this in Markdown:

In the image, what you see on the left side is the text as I have written it, with several paragraphs of text marked in various ways as a comment, none of which is shown on the right side, where the preview only shows how the text will be exported once I’m done writing it. This is done either by

a) enclosing the text to be outcommented in square brackets [], putting a colon : right after the closing bracket and then adding space and a hash # after the colon; or

b) using <!-- plus space before the first word and double-dash -- plus > after the last word to be outcommented – note that this works for several paragraphs of text, while the others only work for one paragraph; or

c) putting the text to be outcommented in parentheses () and putting square brackets [], empty or with a random character like a slash, followed by a colon : plus space, before the parentheses with the outcommented text.

The editor used for that image is called Ghostwriter, it’s free and open source software and also runs on Windows. But there are other editors as well, so here’s the obligatory link to the post where I have linked all of the different editors.

Note for die-hard MS Office users: Hiding text works in MS Word. If you ask me, it’s much more cumbersome and annoying than Markdown, but I’m very biased, so hey, each to their own.

Note for LibreOffice users: It also works in Writer.

Does it work in Google docs? Possibly. I have no idea. I’ve used Google docs exactly once in my life and never again. But I’m reasonably confident a simple search will help you with that.

[fowo]

not that i was asked or think anyone actually cares much about my writing/editing process, but i liked this little bit i did to expand some characterisation.

because as a reader, i so often come across exactly these kinds of bits in fanfic where i'm left wanting, or wondering. so i want to make a post about how i approach my writing and the edits i make afterward.

(also a call to action for all fic writers, PLEASE edit your fics. nothing drives me more insane than people going "wrote this at 3am in the ao3 text editor and posted by four lmao" in the author's note. let it rest, come back with fresh eyes! you can only become a better writer for it!)

okay, so. for a fic i wrote the following exchange.

which is fine. it works. it has everything in it that the reader needs to know.

but it can be made better and more distinct in several ways.

for example, i don't like that Optimus does all the exposition. (exposition dumping isa lready SUCH a delicate balance.) there's no reason Impactor (who is a sort of high command officer himself) would not know about a Decepticon fuel storage. am i saying every Autobot ever always knows about everything that the Decepticons do at any given moment? No. but it's noteworthy, in this context, that Optimus is telling Impactor something he doesn't know, especially when followed up by Impactor clearly knowing who Octane is and what a leadership position of his would mean.

so i rewrote the scene a little:

I expanded one sentence into three. This changes a few very important points for the reader to pick up.

First of all Impactor now interrupts Prime, which says a lot about Impactor. We also now know that he knows about the base, which simultaneously grants some weight to him asking Prime about it.

Secondly, we get a bit of background information why this is noteworthy. the base hasn't always been under leadership by Octane. this is the change that happened, and the reason Prime is now calling the Wreckers. It's also mire believable, as background noise, that Jazz picked up on a change on a roster that the Autobots clearly knew about beforehand, as opposed to finding out about (what turns out to be a quite important) base in the first place.

Third, Octane's questionable leadership skills get a bit more emphasised, in a way that a reader might perk up and go "what's this about, then?"

I'm quite happy with this little change. i generally like editing quite a bit, because i get to do stuff like this.

anyway. thought it was interesting and wanted to share.

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Very good example of how and why editing often really enhances writing and why it can be a good idea to simply let things lie for a night, week or month before coming back to it.

Expanding on something doesn’t always work, of course. Sometimes it’s better to keep things short and simple. But many edits are not long, they’re simply adding a word or sentence here or there, or deleting it. Personally I find that re-reading and editing a scene often gives me a clearer idea of where I wanted to go with it, which means I can subsequently cut out the padding and use it elsewhere, where it has a chance to shine on its own.

[ickaimp]

So this is not a plea for money. This is something that surprised me, and chatting with people on discord, they were unaware of as well.

Discovered last year I couldn’t look at my 2015 MacBook Air without it triggering nausea and migraines, and figured the screen died. Have been getting by on my phone, but concluded I really need a laptop again.

Saved up, realised I could afford a brand new MacBook Neo, and got one.

-And I couldn’t spend more than five minutes looking at the screen without massive eye strain, nausea, vertigo, and if I pushed it, I-need-to-lie-down-in-a-dark-room-for-hours migraines.

Looking up MacBook and Eyestrain explained what is going on. The liquid retina displays that Apple currently has uses Pulse Width Modulation or PWM. In order to give the screens a deeper depth of colour and contrast, PWM flickers between several hundred to thousand times a second.

And there is currently no way to turn it off. There are settings and apps to reduce it, but there is no way to stop the screen from flickering. Checked Apple forums, called Apple Support, and the time I could look at the screen kept shrinking. Got the laptop Tuesday, returned it Friday, today is Sunday and I’m still dealing with a vertigo migraine.

For MacBooks, it seems to vary on the computer model and the software it uses. In retrospect, the issue with my MacBook Air started after a major software update.

And it’s not just an Apple thing. Current Windows and Android screens do the same thing. There’s even a Reddit for people who are sensitive to PWM flickers to help find computers and screens that won’t trigger eyestrain and headaches.

So, yeah. This week has been a learning experience. But for those who are prone to headaches and migraines, this may be something to be aware of, cause I was not.

[mochamakesposts2427]

Where is the Aro/ace Robots???

I like being in fandom spaces and making fan art and fan fic and all the things, but for transformers it feels like everything is always relating back to sexuality and romance. Like, I'm not opposed to it, (If you don't at least see the concept of megop why are you here?? It's can be interesting) if you're in fandom it's kinda inevitable for things to be romance and ship centered. But, can we just have some variety please? There's a whole world of these inherently asexual beings where this is the norm, a rarity, in way that (since it's a childrens franchise mainly) the canon material can't talk about in a meaningful way, which gives room for fanfic to take up that opportunity. For aro/ace life and relationships to be explored outside of an allo perspective or as their aro/asexuality being the point of the story, being normal and talked about from actual aro/ace perspectives. And then you INVENT pregnancy just so you can have sex exist, and invent whole new types of sex and kink just so they can do it. And basically nothing else. Everyone that's actually active is making porn and, though sometimes interesting, it's literally all there is. Like

Am I in the wrong side of this community or is this really all there is??? Where are my aro/ace robots? Where is the qpr?? Where is the platonic friends that would die for each other??? Where are relationships that go beyond touch and kissing as a way of showing their love? Where are the romantic customs and gifts and traditions and amica endura? There's so much here that we just aren't exploring because we're too used to the norms of human love that we can't even project human asexuality and aromantic things onto these silly space robots???

WHERE?? GIVE ME RECS PLEASE I BEG YOU

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Had a conversation with a friend about this topic earlier and then stumbled across this post. I can’t really speak for all of the fandom, since it’s pretty big and I only hang out in specific ships, but I can tell you that I’ve written one (1) story including an asexual Optimus:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Other than that, I can think of only one more story that features an aromantic Optimus, but there are probably more in the tag. Probably.

[admiralallen]

Optimus is having trouble with his paperwork. Megatron is here to help.

based on the following fic

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Well, I had no idea this existed until today, but all the same, thank you, it’s lovely ^^ (glasses do look very good on him, don’t they?)

[ao3commentoftheday]

I guess one good thing about writing directly into the AO3 window is that I never have to deal with some AI algorithm attempting to change my spelling/grammar on me.

(there are many other reasons why I do it, but that's a new one to add to the list)

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Why not use a writing tool that also won’t try to change what you’re writing and where you can disable spell- and grammarchecking any time you want? ;-)

Post by @minimalsizeconspiracy

💬 9  🔁 181  ❤️ 334 · No-Google (fan)fic writing · After this post about Google automatically enrolling everyone into their AI program (inclu

[mostlyvalid]

A proposal

Sometimes, in fandom, we just want to write id-tastic fic that rolls around in tropes that might be viewed as problematic. But we don’t want to address the problematic side of things in this particular fanwork; we just want to roll around and wallow.

It is considered courteous to give readers a heads-up via use of AO3 tags. I propose a tag that signals that a given fanwork is for rolling around, not giving a measured evaluation of anything. The MCU has carved out a space for this sort of fic with the “HYDRA Trash Party” tag, for which I commend them. Trash Party is a bit too specific to cover all of the ground I’m thinking of here, though; I propose “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.”

For those of you not familiar with Arrested Development, Michael Bluth finds a paper bag in the freezer labeled “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.” He opens the bag, finds a dead dove, and reacts as follows:

[gif of a white man saying “I don’t know what I expected” in a deadpan manner]

The “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” tag would essentially be a “what it says on the tin” metatag, indicating “you see the tropes and concepts tagged here? they are going to appear in this fic. exactly as said. there will not necessarily be any subversion, authorial commentary condemning problematic aspects, or meditation on potential harm. this fic contains dead dove. if you proceed, you should expect to encounter it.”

(more at KnowYourMeme: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-dont-know-what-i-expected)

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Read the tags before you read the fic. Remember that the author may have a different idea of what the tags cover than you do. Remember that every time you guess at the author’s intentions, you’re guessing. Remember that not everyone’s boundaries are the same as yours.

And for god’s sake, heed the dead dove!

[fanlore-wiki]

Terminology Thursday: Gratuitous Foreign Language

For this Terminology Thursday, we’re exploring Gratuitous Foreign Language, a term used for fanfics written in English that incorporate non-English words, phrases, or dialogue throughout the story. This term is usually used critically, and is often directed at fanfics where the inclusion of a foreign language is show-offy, excessive, or just embarrassingly wrong. This typically appears in dialogue for characters of color or ESL (English as a second language) characters, who may "slip" into their native tongue, especially during emotional or intimate moments like sex scenes.

The main critique is that it’s generally unrealistic. Most multilingual people speak different languages with people who understand them, and unknowingly switching languages in the heat of the moment rarely happens in real life. When overused or done poorly, it can come across as fetishistic. That said, the use of foreign language in fanfiction isn't inherently bad! It can be very effective for conveying setting, demonstrating language barriers between characters, or signifying shifts in tone or relationship dynamics (like with honorifics or Japanese dialects).

Have you encountered gratuitous foreign language in your fandom? Let us know in the comments, then check out the Fanlore page to learn more!

-----

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

This is one of those posts where I have such mixed feelings on whether I agree with it or not, and mostly I can only conclude that it lacks nuance.

I’m multilingual and also in a relationship with someone whose native language isn’t my own. We do each speak the other’s language (at different levels of proficiency), but there is a clear and distinct bias toward the language that both of us speak more fluently, simply because it’s easier for everyday conversations. We also in addition speak other languages, some of which overlap, some of which don’t, and we work in environments where multilingualism is the norm rather than the exception.

Hence I’m always cautious when it comes to the question of whether the use of foreign language in a fic counts as “gratiuitous” or not. “Realistic code-switching”, from where I stand based on those experiences, most often occurs spontaneously, in everyday interactions and both consciously and unconsciously. And it’s always stupid little things. Like me asking my colleague to hand me a cup for my tea and forgetting the bloody word for “cup” in every single language I speak and I know she will understand (that’s three, by the way. I could have said it in three different languages and she would’ve understood it, and the only word I remembered was language #4, which she doesn’t speak).

Or it’s me starting to teach a lesson in the wrong language, because I’ve taught the exact same lesson in a different language just an hour before, and only noticing it when my students are giving me blank stares.

Or my partner and me discussing a specific topic that we’ve both studied, but in different languages, and using our native terms for particular concepts and ideas because we don’t know what they are in the respective other language. This isn’t me being pretentious, there are topics I can only talk about in my third language, because I don’t know the right terms in the first two. Because I never studied the subject in the first two languages and never read literature about it in those languages.

To people who aren’t familiar with these issues, I can see how that comes across as show-offy or excessive. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s my actual, lived experience.

Multilingual people do speak different languages with people who understand them, and they also unconsciously switch languages in the heat of the moment, or if a word has suddenly dropped out of their brain, or because the only word they know for the concept is in a different language. It can be conscious and it can be unconscious, it all depends on the situation and how preoccupied you are with trying to convey your thoughts rather than how you’re conveying them. In my relationship, we also consciously use terms in a different language because they encapsulate the exact feeling/concept we’re trying to express better than the word in the predominant language.

Multilingualism is so much more complex and individual than “being able to speak different languages”. There’s all kinds of weird phenomena that happen. Carrying over words, intonation, even grammatical structures without noticing is a completely normal phenomenon and usually referred to as “interference”. Languages aren’t distinct silos in our brains, they mess with each other all the time.

Proficiency also plays a big role. I’m much more likely to fall back on my other languages when speaking a language I’m only capable of using at the A or B1 levels. And the kinds of interferences I get also differ between languages. Sometimes it’s more the words, sometimes it’s more the grammar that carries over. So just because I don’t struggle with or have experienced a specific kind of interference doesn’t mean that the kind of interference described in a fic doesn’t exist.

So, at the end of the day, as so many things, I believe this mostly boils down to the actual experiences people have had, because what is unrealistic for one person may be what happens to another person every single day. “Gratuitous Foreign Language” use in fic would be “during sex”. Because that, in my experience, doesn’t happen.

But I’m a sample size of 1.

[yourspecialeyes]

Reddit user has cracked the code on how to read fanfic and study at the same time

(image via twitter, original Reddit post is here)

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Reblogging this because remember what I said in my post about using LaTeX to write fanfic? About how I was going to laugh my arse off if any of you told me you’re using your university-sponsored Overleaf account to write fanfic?

I very, very definitely AM laughing my arse off right now, and my compliments to OP both for the creative approach to studying AND making my day ^^

Now that we’ve found the natural sciences person using LaTeX to write fanfic, does anyone from the humanities want to follow suit? ^^

[pipermca]

I got another spam comment today on AO3, and I want to share it as a PSA. But before I do, I want you to understand that you SHOULD NOT DO what this comment is asking. Ok? Ok.

See that bit at the bottom? Don't do that. Insert ParamedicGuy.gif going "Don't."

Other malicious spam comments I've gotten seemed designed to make an author question their writing, or outright encourage them to delete their stories from AO3. This one is different, in that it tries to get you to destroy the work on your own computer.

If you ran that command, it basically locates your Documents folder, then deletes everything in it, including all subfolders. It also does it without any prompt, so you have no chance to second guess your actions.

This is just fucking trolling.

Coincidentally, we just did training on a cyberattack similar to this, called a ClickFix attack. You can read about how that works here.

As a general rule, if ANYONE or ANY WEBSITE tells you unsolicited* to do anything in Powershell, CMD RUN, command prompt, shell command, or something similar, DON'T.

*There are legit reasons for running commands in PowerShell or the command prompt, but in those cases you are likely seeking out a solution to a problem you are already experiencing. Don't just run random commands on your computer as recommended by some unlogged-in guest on a fan fiction site.

Always think and consider before taking action, and get a second opinion from a trusted source. When I got this comment I was pretty sure what the command would do, and it took me about three seconds of googling to confirm it.

Be safe out there!

[fowo]

as an IT guy I can confirm that this command WILL delete all your shit. DO NOT DO IT.

Here's a bit of a further breakdown for the ones curious about what the hell this command does.

What you're basically telling your PC if you ran this is "go into this folder (Documents) and then Recursively (for all sub-folders) Remove (delete) all files therein Forcefully (without any user input and also if a file was locked)."

The little "Exclude *.archiveofourown" they tack in there is just honestly absolutely diabolical if you don't know what you're looking at.

As an inexperienced user, you'll think "oh of course, exclude ao3, that's what I want!"

*.archiveofourown is a file ending, including any file title.

There are not archiveofourown files.

This is telling your PC to ignore files that don't exist.

Honestly, the gall of these trolls is astounding.

DO NOT DO THIS.

And as a further alarm bell, even if a well-meaning anon came to your comments to warn you:

why has ao3 not put out this warning officially?

this command is for Windows users. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE WHO USE MAC OR LINUX?

Hope my humble knowledge was informative to someone. Stay safe, everyone.

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

What the previous posters said, and I would like to add that it’s also absolutely, 100% possible to ignore the “Documents” folder Windows so kindly creates for you (as well as the “Music”, “Pictures” and whatever other folders come pre-created once you install Windows) and store your files in a different location on your computer.

In ye olden days (and also for Linux), it used to be quite common to have your operating system (Windows, Linux) on one partition of your hard drive and your files on the other. That way, if your OS got corrupted, it was much more likely that your files would still be salvageable.

I gather that this practice is today somewhat debated, even by Linux users, for whom this used to be the standard even long after Microsoft decided to just use the whole drive as one partition and store everything on C:

And there are reasons for and against doing it that way, but one very good reason for sticking to that practice, or at least not storing all of your files in the “Documents” folder on your computer is that it’s going to be much more difficult in the case of an attack like the one described above to get to your files and destroy them. Because if your Documents folder is empty, there’s also nothing to delete.

In order to delete files in a different folder, that only you know the name of and where on your computer it’s located, the attacker would first need to figure out where these files are and then adapt the path to point at the right folder.

It’s also honestly quite easy. You can just create a new folder and name it whatever you want next to the documents folder. Even partinioning your drive isn’t difficult anymore these days.

In any case: keeping your files in folders that an attacker can’t immediately guess is a fairly easy way to add some safety. It won’t protect you against all kinds of attacks, but it would certainly render the abovementioned attack entirely pointless 😊

[fuckyeahfightlock]

I feel like I'm the last person alive writing in Word, but wanted to share this because it might save someone some heartache.

I am used to Word autosaving relentlessly; for the last few years it didn't really even have a "File>Save" command that I could see--it just autosaved like every five seconds or something. It took me a long time to get used not clicking File>Save at the end of every writing session, and I never really trusted it--with good reason, it turns out.

Apparently, when you turn off Word's new ai features, AutoSave is disabled and cannot be turned back on. There is toggle button in the upper left for it, but when I try to toggle it on, it says "Autosave is not available because of your privacy settings." I worked in my document yesterday, put my computer to sleep with the doc still open on the taskbar (my usual habit), and when I opened it today, the new work I did yesterday was gone.

This time I only lost about 300 words, which I had typed into my document from my longhand-writing in a notebook (so I guess I kind of autosaved them that way!), but if I'd really been on a roll, this could have been a disaster.

Be careful out there. Everything is terrible!

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

And in case you are fed up enough with Word, here are (currently) five alternatives you could switch to, with description, explanation, feature overview and usefulness for writing fanfic:

Post by @minimalsizeconspiracy

💬 7  🔁 179  ❤️ 325 · No-Google (fan)fic writing · After this post about Google automatically enrolling everyone into their AI program (inclu

I keep meaning to write more and update the master post, but never seem to get around to it, so I’ll add another alternative here:

Your One-Stop Publication Workbench - Zettlr

Your One-Stop Publication Workbench. Author Markdown documents with ease. For researchers, journalists, and writers.

[wyn-n-tonic]

Hi friends!

Discord is asking how we feel about AI and how we would feel about having AI integrated into the website. Here's the survey!

The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account toda

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

I don’t think it’s a secret how I think about it, but mainly I want to encourage people to take the survey as well and voice their opinion. It doesn’t matter if you’re for it. I won’t see it, I don’t work for Discord, I’ll never know. But I do think that it’s important to take part in surveys, even if you’re largely apathetic to AI on Discord, because one real problem surveys often struggle with is that only the people very engaged with the topic (one way or another) participate. In turn, that creates the impression that there are two camps, one strongly pro and the other strongly against it when, most likely, a lot of people actually have no strong opinion about it.

So participate! Be for, be against or be that person who really couldn’t care less, because you’re also an important factor in how decisions are made!

[novella-november]

If you are on a Windows 11 computer, pause everything you are doing for one minute and:

Open computer settings

Click on Accessibility on the left-hand menu

Scroll down the Accessibility menu and click on the Keyboard Option

Under the "related settings" tab, click "Typing" which should have a description of "spellcheck, autocorrect, text suggestions."

Turn off the AI "correct misspelled words"

and most importantly: turn off Typing Insights.

[ID: a screenshot of the above mentioned Windows 11 settings, showing that Typing Insights is now turned off, with the following description from Microsoft: "Windows is using artificial intelligence to help you type To help you save time and type efficiently, Windows can learn to suggest words, autocorrect spelling mistakes, and interpret swiped typing. Take a look at the insights below to see up-to-the-minute stats on how Windows has learned to improve typing for you. These stats are stored only on this device and Microsoft does not collect the typing insights data." End ID]

"But Mx. November, it says right there Microsoft doesn't collect the typing insights data!"

I mean, yeah, it says that..... for *now.*

It also only specifies that Microsoft themselves don't collect it, and they wouldn't have made this something that I was automatically, secretly opted in for without my knowledge if they didn't have something to be gained by me not knowing it exists!

I only found this because a cat walked on the keyboard and turned on Filter Keys and while trying to figure out why my keyboard was just making chirping noises instead of typing, I happened to click on "typing insights" by accident.

Generative AI, and especially AI that is used to "personalize" and track your activity across the web and on your computer are never going to be in your best interest, it is always going to serve these companies in whatever way will line their pockets the most, and all it takes is updating their terms of service once, and then all of that data they promised they weren't collecting suddenly all belongs to them.

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Dear Microsoft,

I spent 13 years in school learning how to spell in not just one, but four languages. I have further spent over two decades perfecting and streamlining my workflow to make it as efficient as it can be. The parts that are still what you would consider “inefficient” are inefficient on purpose, because these are the parts where I want to use my brain or have a reason to go stop up and, for example, re-read what I wrote.

That includes going back for spelling errors. No, that’s not inefficiency, although you may see it that way. It’s a purposefully implemented stop sign in my workflow to ensure that I re-read what I wrote, so I remember to attach that attachment, so I answer all five questions the other person has asked me and not just four, so I check again whether the way I expressed myself is appropriate for the situation and the person I am corresponding with.

I’m not saying these features are useless by default. I’m saying that they’re useless for me, and it’d be really grand if you would at the very least ask me if I want to turn them on instead of fucking with my workflow without telling me.

Signed,

I wish I didn’t have to use Windows at work.

[smoreofbabylon]

this is not a comprehensive tutorial, but it is an intro to some things that have made my life so much better. you may have already heard of these! but every time I talk about them in a group-chat or whatever, someone learns of one of these for the first time, and I want to share the good news. so here are

the Four Simple Tools Which Have Most Improved My AO3 Experience (on the computer, at least):

FIRST, for writers: the AO3 posting script google doc.

if you take nothing else from this post, let it be this. let the blessed light of the ao3 posting doc shine upon you.

okay so you know how if you copy your doc into the rich text editor on AO3, it will fuck up your formatting? just a little. like, if a word is italicized at the end of a sentence, but the full stop isn't italicized, there'll be a space between them and it looks weird? or it'll insert extra line breaks between paragraphs?

that's because the rich text editor takes what's copied into it and converts it to HTML, and I guess weird stuff can happen in that process, e.g. the rich text editor interpreting every line break as a new paragraph, including blank ones, thus the weird extra line breaks.

thankfully, there's a way to convert your doc directly to HTML that doesn't run into all those problems! it's the AO3 posting script. you make a copy of that google doc for yourself, so you have editing privileges. then you copy your fic into it, hit "post to AO3" -> "prepare for pasting into HTML editor" and boom, it will do the damn thing for you. it has saved me so much time and energy and annoyance. lots of people know about this, but every time I bring it up I find someone I know has not yet heard the good news, so: now you know!

okay, for the rest of these you need a userscript manager for your browser, like greasemonkey or tampermonkey. a userscript manager is a browser extension that lets you run a userscript (a little program, usually written in JavaScript) to modify particular webpages. I use firefox, so I use the greasemonkey browser extension linked above, but there are others out there! they should have their own installation instructions.

SECOND, for readers: the floating comment box.

wish you could write up comments while you read instead of waiting until you get to the end of the fic/chapter? this script creates a way a, well, floating comment box that you can access while you read! you access it by clicking this little "O" button in the upper left-hand corner of the brower.

when you do that, a floating box pops up, into which you can type your thoughts in as you read! you can also highlight text and click "insert selection," and that text will show up in the box, italicized, for you to tell the author what your favorite lines were!

hitting "add to comment box" will make the contents of the comment box at the bottom of the page match the contents of the floating box.

THIRD, for readers: ao3 savior and ao3 savior config.

is there shit you just never want to see again? say, for instance, you'd love to never see a harry potter fanfiction again. ao3 savior can help!

the way this one works is that you install the 'ao3 savior' script and the 'ao3 savior config' script separately. then when you want to add something to your blocklist, you go to your userscript manager extension (e.g. greasemonkey), go to the ao3 savior config script, and hit edit.

there are some default/example tags included to show the various ways to blacklist or whitelist works, but, for instance, here I've added "Harry Potter*" to the list of tags to exclude. (the * is a wildcard, so it will include "Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling" AND "Harry Potter - Fandom" AND any other tags that start with "Harry Potter".)

now, if I'm looking through fics and there's a Harry Potter crossover in the list, it will be hidden, and I'll be able to see why! and if I look at the tag itself...

ah! what bliss.

and FOURTH, for readers: ao3 tweak formatting.

finally: say there's a fic posted by someone who has not yet seen the blessed light of the ao3 posting script doc, and you want to read it, but the extra paragraph breaks really annoy you. or they learned to type in 1931 and so they double-space between sentences. or... various other common typing quirks! this script creates a handly little dropdown that will remove those quirks, just after the notes, after the beginning notes and before the chapter title.

click on "remove line breaks" or whatever, and poof! the extra line breaks are gone.

it's like magic.

I know installing scripts might seem a little daunting if you've never done it before! but it's actually really easy and handy. I know there are other, more in-depth tutorials for installing/using these scripts out there, too, if this is confusing. and probably there are other great tools out there that I don't even know about! I'm just writing this up quickly while I was thinking about it, so I can go to dinner.

I hope at least some of this is useful to you. happy writing, reading, and commenting!

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Or, if you’re willing to make the switch, for the first one you could move to an editor that exports directly into HTML or allows copying over RTF, see the ones I’ve listed here: https://www.tumblr.com/minimalsizeconspiracy/775494333585555456/no-google-fanfic-writing?source=share

Explanations on how to export into HTML are in the respective blog posts for each editor.

With regard to some people asking about “magic quotes” (i.e. quotes that can automatically be turned from " to ' or „“ to “” or something along those lines), that tends to be a fairly difficult process. One way I know of how to do it is to use the csquotes LaTeχ package which, however, also requires you to switch to LaTeχ or at least to a Markdown editor like for example Zettlr that will let you use LaTeχ code for more advanced stuff.

The one single editor that I know can do this out-of-the-box is LyX (https://www.lyx.org/), because LyX uses LaTeχ in the background and thus gives you the option of switching the quotation marks also in the interface as long as you remember to enable “dynamic quotation marks” in the document settings. Other than that, it’s probably search & replace.

[osheamobile]

As someone who switched to Linux over a year ago and never looked back, stop telling people who are complaining about Windows bullshit that they need to go to Linux.

At this point, they know. They know Linux exists. They very likely know that these days it's pretty much as much like Windows as they prefer. They know which distros you've already recommended to them for that purpose.

The point is that they shouldn't have to. Let people complain about the bullshit being heaped upon them without their consent or approval, because they shouldn't have to feel like they need to upend their entire setup (which is, do not lie to them, a fucking hassle the first time you do it even if you do it because you want to.)

Despite how much I'm loving it myself, it's all that bullshit that stopped me from being interested in it. Stop it.

[osheamobile]

This is why you're part of the problem

[osheamobile]

Reading comprehension quiz!

Which operating system does the original poster use? How do they feel about it for their own purposes?

Is the implication that offering unsolicited advice on personal venting posts is a good thing? In your own words, why or why not?

The final paragraph of the original post says "it's all that bullshit that stopped me from being interested in it." However, the sentence begins with the statement "Despite how much I'm loving it myself" - provide possible reasons the original poster may have had for the contradiction within the same sentence.

When saying that Taylor Swift is not included amongst a list of queer women, is the original poster saying that she is bisexual? Provide examples.

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

Reading comprehension quiz replies:

Your opinion is duly noted and appreciated, from someone who uses Windows and Linux both.

Return question: has, and if so, how has the poster stated that no advice is being solicited? People are on the internet. Anything and everything anyone says and does is public unless specifically made private, and that means that people will read posts, have opinions and voice those opinions. However, the internet is also a place where very many people from very many cultures and backgrounds interact, and there are cultures where venting is an open invitation to provide solutions. I can understand the annoyance, and as someone who comes from a culture where venting is, in fact, an unspoken signal that one wants outside input, it’s extremely difficult for me to tell when someone just wants to vent and when they want genuine feedback and perhaps advice.

You were likely feeling overwhelmed, getting tired of reading the same piece of advice so often and potentially also annoyed because it seemed to be all the new rage. Possibly in the same way some people (me) refuse to get into a new series/franchise because it suddenly seems to be everywhere and I feel forced into it.

I don’t know, are you? How would I know without you specifying what you are attempting to express by that observation?

Jokes aside, yes, I understand your frustration. I also agree that people shouldn’t have to switch operating systems because a company is messing up big time. And of course they’re allowed to complain about it, also publicly, but communication and clashing expectations are a bitch, even more so in written communication, please see point 2.

Having said that, I still disagree strongly with your premise that people know about Linux, and I will give you examples.

I teach at uni. In a course of 25 students, only one was aware that Linux existed and was free and open source.

My colleague at work, who is otherwise pretty tech-savvy, was surprised when I told her that I’d installed Linux Mint on my partner’s laptop, without him knowing the first thing about Linux. Because the last time she tried Linux, some 15 years ago, she couldn’t get it to work for her.

Also at work, I mentioned that my private computers run on Linux, while my work PC runs Windows. The IT guy (!) I said this to was genuinely confused as to how I could handle Linux when I don’t have a background in programming myself. He followed this up by telling me that if I wanted Linux on my work PC, I’d be on my own, because my employer doesn’t offer any support whatsoever for it. Despite Linux being one of the available systems offered by the same employer.

These all happened in the last six months, and I’m almost certain that is every single time I talked about Linux in the last six months, because it isn’t a topic that comes up often in the conversations I have.

I understand where you’re coming from, because every single time this happens, I’m confused as well as to how people can still not know about Linux. But other than me, most people, including my students and colleagues, are not interested in alternatives. If they have heard about Linux, they are genuinely not aware of how much has changed since the last time they took a look at it. They have neither the interest, time or resources to look into alternatives, and especially in the case of my students, they were taught Windows at school and do not even think there *are* alternatives other than Mac.

So, returning to your original complaint, that the people recommending Linux to you stopped you from taking an interest, my return question to you would be, how would someone like me, whose experience is that people around me do not know about Linux, be able to intuit that you’ve heard about it and are getting tired of being told it exists?

Your experience is not the experience of everyone else.