Hi, guys! Let's talk about fandom etiquette!
I know a lot of you are young and perhaps have not been part of fandom spaces since the dawn of time (circa fanfiction.net) so let's talk about some dos and don'ts with fandom, so we can keep this a happy place! Please read this and reblog to get this out to people who genuinely may not know!
📕DON'T: Write reviews of fics on Tumblr, Tiktok, or other social media. Fic writers are creating these things for FREE, and did not ask you to review. This often leads to negative discourse and can even cause fic writers to take down their fics.
📗DO: Leave kudos and ONLY POSITIVE comments. Talk about only positive things on social media. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!
📕DON'T: Post fic ideas or headcanons on AO3. AO3 is for posting actual fanfiction or fanart and nothing else. (What I mean by this is, I've seen posts on ao3 like "Just posting an idea that someone should write, here it is!" and that's not what ao3 is for).
📗DO: Post headcanons and ideas on Tumblr, Tiktok, etc!
📕DON'T: Repost entire fanfictions without permission or sell bound fanfiction. Again, this causes writers to take their fics down, and can actually cause issues with fandom because it can cause allegations of copyright infringement.
📗DO: Recommend fics you like to others by talking them up and posting links! Ask permission before you translate!
📕DON'T: Send hate to authors for writing a fic in a way you don't like or not updating enough. Again, authors are doing this for free and sending hate causes serious mental harm to authors because they are people! If you don't like it, don't read it!
📗DO: Send love to authors in forms that they are comfortable with!
📕DON'T: Shame others for their ships/fics/kinks. Fandom is supposed to be a supportive space! Judging people is taking away that safe space!
📗DO: Use the block button! Block or filter out things or people you don't like!
📕DON'T: Use AI to create art or fics. This is detrimental to the creators who work hard to create their work!
📗DO: Try making your own art or fics! Practice makes perfect!
These are just a few of the things that I've seen happening more lately, but keep in mind that if you don't like something, you don't have to interact with it and fanart and fanfiction creators are people who are doing this for free. Please make sure to respect the hard work people put in, or fandom can't exist!
(Feel free to discuss/add things as long as you're being respectful!)
gummygunk
stormborns
pixelskylines
vaporwave
jacobvanloon
