One Has A Right To Bunbury Anywhere One Chooses

Starting my day the SBemail way and never gettin' out of bed

[a-titty-ninja]

[retroactivebakeries]

[k1ntsug1-r0b0t-g1rl]

a surprising number of people see the term "social construct" and think that it means something is not real when it actually means something is so very real because it was created by us and is constantly enforced, often violently

[k1ntsug1-r0b0t-g1rl]

[fuckyeahladybug]

Open Thread: Wattpad Refugees

With the recent rumblings about censorship and work deletions on Wattpad, many users are considering posting to AO3 for the first time. If that describes you, you may have questions.

This post is a collection of resources you can use to start finding the answers to these questions. If you don’t find what you’re looking for at the links below or you have something more specific to ask, please feel welcome to post questions in the reblogs and comments here.

If you’re an AO3 pro answering questions in these notes, be kind. We were all new once, and other fans helped us then. It’s time to pay it forward.

Resources (under the cut)

How does AO3 work? What is and isn’t allowed?

My first recommendation for new users is always to skim the Terms of Service FAQ. It explains what AO3 allows and why in plain, straightforward terms. AO3 does not allow placeholder works, commercial content such as commissions links, or “work search” posts.

How can I change the look of the site?

The appearance of AO3 is very customizable! If you just want a basic dark mode, scroll down to the bottom of any page and click “Reversi” under the Customize menu. For more advanced customizations, I can’t recommend @ao3commentoftheday enough. They have so many gorgeous tutorials for everything from site skins to making the site’s content filters do whatever you want.

Wattpad users may especially appreciate the Floating Comment Box extension, which makes commenting on AO3 work slightly more like Wattpad.

How does AO3 search work?

This handy guide by @backofthebookshelf covers the basics. Here is a cheatsheet with more advanced searching tricks.

I’m ready to post my own works. How do I add [specific thing]?

With a little bit of HTML, you can do some incredibly neat things in an AO3 work. Here’s the website running Doom. Here is a very comprehensive guide to Limited HTML on AO3. It may look intimidating at first, but you can get a lot done by copying and pasting and paying attention to the results. As a fun bonus, check out the rest of the series, which includes step by step instructions for making your fic look like text messages on a phone screen, newspaper articles, sticky notes, and more.

Why is Wattpad doing this now? Have similar things happened before?

Fandom creatives have been outrunning purges and legal threats for a long time. Here is a comprehensive timeline of fandom purges and legal actions taken against fanworks, from 1977 to the present day. Here is another timeline written by @olderthannetfic, with associated commentary from other fans.

Purges on LiveJournal and other sites circa 2007 influenced the founding of AO3. You can read in detail about the circumstances of its founding and the construction of the policies it abides by today here.

If you read this far, I’m proud of you. Migrating to a new site is always hard, and there’s so much grief when archives purge content without warning. Welcome to AO3. We’re glad to have you. 🤝

[olderthannetfic]

It's not the first site to turn on fandom, and it won't be the last.

At least AO3 makes it easy to find things, no matter how old or obscure.

Check out the fandom index by media type and try going directly to your fandom's tag or a ship or another tag and using the sidebar filters. AO3 does have a search box and even an advanced search, but those are less of a default compared to Wattpad and other sites.

[headspace-hotel]

Wtf happening with wattpad?

[madam-melon-meow]

@headspace-hotel they updated their policies and changed what content is permissible. You can find the entire update here:

Wattpad Policies

my friend @orangestorapples made a pretty decent summary, see below

They no longer allow works:

- Created primarily for sexual arousal

- Exploitative or harmful

- Intended to shock, glorify harm, or promote hate

For their updated sexual content policies, they do not allow:

- Pornographic content (created primarily for sexual arousal)

- Any sexual content involving minors.

- Sexual exploitation, coercion, or non-consensual acts that are glorified

- Sexual roleplay, solicitation, or messaging

- Illegal sex acts in violation of applicable local and international laws, including but not limited to, bestiality, necrophilia, incest, or child sexual exploitation and abuse material

For their updated violent content policies, they do not allow:

- Content created primarily to shock or glorify harm

- Gratuitous or prolonged violence that doesn't support the broader narrative

For their updated Self-Harm and Suicide content policies, they allow:

- General, non-graphic references

- Stories that explore self-harm or suicide in a responsible, story-driven way

- Recovery, survival, or awareness-focused narratives

And do not allow:

- Graphic depictions

- Content that encourages, instructs, or glorifies self-harm or suicide

For their updated Real-World Harm and Extremism content policies, they do not allow:

- Glorification or support of real-world violence, hate groups, or extremist ideologies

- Content that promotes or imitates real-world harmful acts or actionable plans/steps on how to commit violent acts, illegal acts, or organize real-world violent crimes

For their updated Self-Expression and Sensitive Topics content policies, they allow:

- Survival stories that offer a sense of hope or support

- Could contain graphic descriptions

- Stories referencing or describing sensitive topics, in a non-glorifying way

And do not allow:

- Content that normalizes or glorifies harmful behavior

- Content where harmful acts are presented as desirable or rewarding

[olderthannetfic]

Sadly, as we all know, these types of rules are very much in the eye of the beholder and tend to get enforced in ways the community finds absurd.

Recovery story but gay? Must be for titillation!

Sexy shifter romance that has an actual plot? Someone was a little too wolf-like one time out of three hundred chapters, so it's nothing but doggy porn!

etc.

I'm sure we can all sympathize with the part of their motivation that was "Stop posting your Nazi shit on our site!", but on a massive site with an unending queue of reported content to deal with, broad "don't post bad stuff" policies just end up causing tons of grudge reporting and auto-moderation by AI and bad judgment calls on all kinds of things the rules theoretically do allow.

I don't know where the people writing dark romance they want to monetize should go. Not Wattpad, clearly, but most of the commercially-focused options are overrun with AI and extra unpleasant commercialization.

If you write fanfic or strictly non-commercial original works you want a non-algorithm-y, non-paying community around, just come to AO3.

[thedorkdionysia]

i think it would do a lot of people good to remember that Mormons are white supremacists, no nuance, no debate, no arguing how they've gotten "more diverse", their whole belief system is fundamentally rooted in white supremacist ideals

[kosmogrl]

[fucking-relax]

this is helpful to getting started on anything regardless of what you call it (from this post)

problem solving steps

IMPROVE distress tolerance skill

[blackbearmagic]

resources

[yume-fanfare]

windows movie maker on the internet archive we are so back

[flipchild]

skull + crossbones on a bottle = pirate medicine

[residentbunburyist]

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

if they're gonna remake The Princess Bride, it should open with a kid sick in bed scrolling on his phone. his grandpa arrives with a gift--it's a DVD player with a disc already inside. grandpa hooks it up to the TV and presses play. and we all just watch the original 1987 film again.

[modern-politics111]

[disregardandfelicity]

sounds very similar to a radio story i heard in 2014 ago about credit card debt. the debt got sold to a collection company and a couple received a court summons. they knew they had taken on debt, but they were confused about who this new company was and where specifically the number they were supposed to owe came from.

they show up in court and just ask the lawyer for the collection company: can you prove where this number comes from? Do you have a contract showing that you purchased our debt? probably luckily for them, a reporter researching a book on the topic showed up and asked the same questions.

10 minutes later they get in front of the judge and the collection company drops the whole case and theyre free to go. story is below, it has a transcript in the link too

Prologue - This American Life

Ira talks to reporter Jake Halpern about a scene he saw take place in a Georgia courtroom where a couple uttered some magic words that seeme

[evolutionsbedingt]

https://twitter.com/BrianManookian/status/1674963884703088642

Link to the twitter thread for accessibility!

[nudesornaw]

if you’re having a bad day, here’s a cute little marching band

this actually made me cry with joy also one of them is eating noodles

[readsquirrel]

It just keeps going and getting better. *^^*

[involuntaryorange]

Me two minutes ago: “cry with joy? an animation of cats playing instruments made someone cry with joy?”

Me now: (sobs into a tissue) “OH MY GOD THAT ONE IS PLAYING TWO RECORDERS AT THE SAME TIME” (blows nose)

[son-of-a-tenth-place]

CAT PARADE IS BACK

[cricketcat9]

ALWAYS reblog Cat Parade! 💕💕💕

And one of them has a little duck on its head 🤣

[grogusmum]

I’ve been blessed with the kitty marching band! I love them 💚🥰

[oonajaeadira]

GIVE YOURSELF A 2 MINUTE PRESENT.

YOU DESERVE TO STOP AND EXPERIENCE A SIMPLE JOY.

[motherfuckingshakespeare]

Hey dont be sad!!! Cat parade!!

[armengoldira]

[bleedthebeat]

Hey. Don’t cry. Baby black-footed cat at the cameron park zoo, okay. his name is maverick he’s about a month old and he just hit one (1) pound

[bitchesgetriches]

Bitches!!! Several co-workers and I all just left a very unhealthy job (at least 5 of us all left lol). I sent your article ‘The Resignation Checklist’ around to everyone before we did. This is a message my co-worker sent me- she went over the checklist and realized she had PTO that wouldn’t have paid out and used it before she left!!! I used the checklist myself and before I left: quit at the beginning of the month to get an extra month of insurance, am going for a physical and dental cleaning, went and got an eye exam and new glasses through my vision insurance, made sure my 401k was vested, and redeemed some company rewards points for a gift card! I especially would never have thought about new glasses without your list and am so excited for them. Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and that your article was a hit with my work friends- thank you!!! <3

OH HONEY!!!! Damn this brings tears to our eyes. We're so thrilled for you and your coworkers!!! It's a huge honor to know that we helped you guys out in your quitting journey.

For everyone who still needs it, here's our resignation checklist:

The Resignation Checklist: 25 Sneaky Ways To Bleed Your Employer Dry Before Quitting

Did we just help you out? Join our Patreon!

[aleshakills]

Is there a word for occupying the space where normies think you're a freak and freaks think you're a normie?

[aleshakills]

I tell a woman with a 9 to 5 office job about the slightly niche speculative fiction novel I just finished and she goes "Oh, that's...interesting. I hadn't heard of that."

I tell a grungy chick I met at a dive bar about the same book and she kinda scoffs and goes "Okay" like I said my favorite show is Sesame Street

[hymneminium]

#oh my god did gallagher just discover the term dank this is so exciting #does he know it's a weed thing?? there's no way right

Of course Peter Gallagher knows that "dank" is a weed thing. He also knows that "in heat" is a sex thing and that when aliens "probe" someone it's in the anus.

These are words, not things. Heathcliff is a comic about symbols.

You're never going to get a comic where an alien actually probes someone any more than you're going to get a comic where the Man-Eating Giant eats a man. You're just going to get a dozen comics where aliens like the word "probe".

Heathcliff wears the ham helmet because it's the helmet you wear when you eat a ham. You can tell it's that helmet because it says "ham" on it. The helmet's function is determined not by its form but by its label.

summer = beach = sand = desert = mummy and thus there is the Summer Mummy. Because of symbolic associations that do not otherwise cohere.

Robots don't wear clothes but the mere act of labeling them "nude" makes them nude. And once a painting is a nude painting there has to be a fig leaf because a "nude" without a "figleaf" is "indecent".

A "ham" is a ham even when it's a car. A yam can be a ham can be a car because "yam" sounds like "ham". Symbols have overtaken things.

[hymneminium]

Jimmy is Heathcliff's attempt to manipulate these symbols.

popularity = billboards, popularity = charity fundraising, popularity = influencers. But standing underneath the word "influencer" has failed to make Jimmy popular. Why is this?

[bransonreese]

Get more from Branson Reese on Patreon

Get more from Branson Reese on Patreon. Join for free or become a member for just $3/month. Hello my beloved fans, it's me: Branson Reese, c

[soyeonkim-doodle]

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