#help steph learn things

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I love your papa Lestrade list. I have noticed that there are a lot of fics where Lestrade calls Sherlock “sunshine”. I think it is really sweet, but I can’t find an explanation as to why. It isn’t canon, I know that…

Hey Nonny!

Oh gosh you know what, I don't RECALL it actually being a canon thing, but, like, I hear it SO CLEARLY in my head being said in Rupert's voice that I really HONESTLY cannot say if it happened or not! I haven't watched the series in forever so my memory is a bit spotty.

But yeah, I don't know where it started or why, but yeah, it is kind of cute, LOL.

Anyone know where this pet name came from? Sorry I'm not much help, Nonny!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph! Since bidding will start soon for FTH 2025, I was wondering if you know anything about the Google doc that was posted last year where you can keep track of all the auctions you're interested in and what current bids are, rather than having to always go to each separate auction page to monitor the bids? I have to work an excessive amount of days (and some nights) this year while the auction is going and I know I will be sleeping at the end of the auctions and won't be able to hopefully put in a last minute bid on any of my favorite auctions. I've had to miss out on so many of them in the past and I have seen that there are a huge amount of auctions listed this year, so I hope my chances are better! And I'd hate to even miss the opportunity to bid on even one while I catch up on sleep. If you know where it's located, or how to find it, or even someone who is willing to create one for this year, I'd be so much in your debt!!

Hi Lovely!

Ah, I wasn't aware that that was a thing? Did I post something about it last year??? Oooof your memory is better than mine if this is the case LOL.

The way I was personally keeping track of my auctions was I had a separate window with ALL the tabs open of the bidding sheets I bid on, and if I wanted to bid higher, I went to the Dreamwidth page and clicked on the bidding link. It's inefficient and if I knew about a way to keep track of them on one sheet it would have been handy, but checking that one Window I saved as a Tab Group each night wasn't too strenuous. And I think because they're google sheets, they save on your google drive automatically if you're logged in, so you can keep track of things just by visiting your Google Spreadsheets app I suppose.

If anyone knows something more efficient, let us know! <3

Sorry I'm not much help otherwise, Nonny. I am a Tab Queen™ and I will have 300 tabs open because in my brain it's just easier, LOL.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello Steph!! Hope you’re having a lovely day!

I have kind of an odd question-

I am rather new to AO3 and was wondering if there is a way to organize fics I’ve bookmarked into categories somehow? Like a hurt/comfort category, a fluff category, etc.?

Thank you so much!

Hey Lovely!

Ahhhh not as far as I know without creating Collections, but I don't believe that's the "correct" way to do it since it CAN pull stories into private collections unintentionally that the author never agreed to.

For myself I just add my own tags to the "bookmarker tag" section so that they show up in the search results when I search my bookmarks, and also keep a meticulous offline sorted list, LOL, but I know most everyone don't do that insanity, hahah.

Honestly though, I'm not sure myself, short of offline organization. I'm gonna say create your own tags in the bookmarker's field, then when you click on that tag, they will show all the fics in your bookmarks with that tag :)

I know, you'd think someone who "professionally" recommends bookmarks would know better, but seriously I don't since everything is done with my non-sensical system that I've streamlined over 5+ years, LOL.

Anyone able to give a more definitive answer?

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Sooooo…..where does a person find a beta reader? I saw on the You go to my Head and Performance fics they had…beta readers?

Hey Nonny!

Ah, usually authors put a call out for them, or their friends offer, or they commission people to help beta stories for them :) I'm not sure if there's a big list or anything, since I've never had a beta, but I now that there are betas in the fandom that are actively looking for stories to beta.

Can any author or beta offer a bit more info that I obviously don't have???

That said, Nonny, if you're looking for a beta and you make a post, please don't hesitate to send the post to me and I'll boost the post for you :)

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph. So I have some meta thoughts. 1) In TGG both Lucy's brother and the tv lady call their sibling "love". I wonder if this has any mirror significance, to link the character or cases together? 2) In T6T, Sherlock texts "the fingerprints on your brother's neck are your own". I know people have talked about this in relation to M-Theory, but it reminds me of Sherlock talking about strangling Mycroft in TSO3 and miming it. It could be foreshadowing for TFP, but why invoke strangulation again?

Hi Lovely!!

Ooof, I'm a bit rusty on my Sherlock episodes (it's been a long timne since I've watched the whole series), but I'll try my best:

Honestly, I don't think so. Love is a common pet name used in the UK, if I understand correctly, just like North Americans use "pal", "dude", "buddy", "dear", and "honey" or "hun" for literally any relationship (my sis is "dude" lol). I think "love" is used for closer relationships, but again, I am Canadian and I don't want to speak for UK English even if we use most of their English, LOL.

Honestly, no idea. S4 makes no sense to me no matter how I look at it, but there was a time that many of us theorized that Mycroft was actually dying ([this post], [this post] & [this post]) and given many of us believe that S4 IS either John's Unreliable Narrator/Alibi or John's TAB, it's plausible that it could be another edit slipped into John's story. Or it's just weird writing. Either way, S3 makes no sense LOL.

Sorry I'm not much help other than that!

Anyone who wants to add their own suggestion, please do! Especially in correcting my most-definitely-wrong chatter about the British usage of "love".

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph! My question is not about fanfiction but it's been living in my head since I joined the fandom and as I couldn't find any answer on internet I thought maybe you would be able to enlighten me 😄

Anyway it's about setlock (but it applies to any other movie set really). How do fans manage to know the dates and places where to gather and attend the filming of a series/film? I can't really see any production team announcing shooting days on social media.

I hope my ask won't be too much of a bother to reply to😅

I wish you a lovely day☀️❤

Hey Lovely!

Ah, as far as I know, as someone who works by a place that regularly features in Hallmark Christmas Movies, USUALLY we receive a "notice of filming" email from my work since they're legally obligated to send us "notice of permit" emails because of where we are, so that's how I find out about them, but I know that's not the case with everyone, hahah. For some, they live near places that regularly has filming locations so I imagine that there are boards and blogs for those, and I believe that once people find out a show is filming, "set hunters" are very active in searching for casting calls, street closures, and filming locations, which are all public record and have to have permits filed with the local government before the day.

BUT AGAIN. I have NO idea 100%, so I do want to actually know how they find them with regularity! If anyone has been to them, and you're alright just telling us the point forms of how you find film sets, I think it would be super interesting to know! <3

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Question for you, lovely lady. What is the etiquette when an author deletes all their works? A favourite author of mine just deleted or is in the process of deleting all their fics. Because I'm scared of losing my comfort stories I save the ones I love and want to read again for this very reason. But if someone is looking for a fic by that author, can I privately say I have a copy and send it to them? I know they are well-loved in the community and I know someone will be very sad to not have access to their fics anymore. I'd like to help, theoretically, but I don't know if that's a faux pas.

Hey Nonny!

Well, I think most people expect their stories to be saved (I have actually recently started saving all of my bookmarks too), given that it is an option – a full button even – on AO3. There's nothing wrong with keeping stories for yourself – sort of the new way of "printing out your favourite stories and putting them in a binder" like I used to do as a kid, hahah.

A lot of people remove stories simply because they're publishing the fics as a paid story, and it's against AO3 TOS to make money off of your on-site works, so they HAVE to be removed. Other times, authors just want nothing to do with fandom anymore and remove their stories. Others orphan their works. Either way, I think if people put stories on AO3, you do so with the expectation that people may save your stories for personal use.

So PERSONALLY, I don't think there's anything wrong with sharing a story with someone else, so long as you aren't making a profit off of that work, NOR posting it elsewhere without the author's consent or knowledge. But I could also be totally off base... I'm just speaking as someone who has been lucky enough to receive stories in private that I missed out on, and am grateful for it. I'm happy to listen to all views on this from other people.

Sorry I took so long to answer this, Nonny. I've been a bit out of it for awhile.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hii sorry to annoy u but like. how do i find a certain fic?? I've tried the old "site:[site] [keyword(s)]" but I cant find anything :(

if you're ever looking for a fic (especially one on a site with a bad search function like ff.net) what do u do???

I have been trying to find this one fic for LITERAL MONTHS (it's not a sherlock fic - it's a diff fandom btw) and ufjfhfhhfhdhdjdj

do u have any tips?

thanks :) hope u have a good day <3

Hey Lovely!

AHHHH HONESTLY?? It's been an AGE since I've done a search for certain fics; most of the stuff I want to read are on Ao3 these days, and are recced to me, so I guess the benefit to running your own fic rec blog is that people just... hand me stuff to read, hahahhaa! The only "search" I use these days are the AO3 filters, that's it. On FFnet it's literally just stuff I've read before I joined AO3. I'm terrible a figuring out stuff like that, hah.

Anyone have suggestions? I know that there was a post going around a bit ago with searching tips.