heya

It’s so fucking infuriatingly frustrating that so many of ao3′s userbase is so adamant that ao3 is nonprofit even though it’s owned by a corporation so that shit is a fucking lie in of itself, like. They invest in stocks and constantly people try and push this stupid as fuck idea that there’s no ads!! :)) it’s free!! when it’s been in beta for literal fucking years with one of the worst filtration and blocking systems I’ve seen to date and rampant disgusting nsfw that’s unregulated and crops up to previews for themes anyways so why do we constantly have to have mile long posts defending such a fundamentally bad website from it’s core instead of actually thinking critically for once I fucking hate all of you.

Normally I ignore this stuff, but the insinuation that AO3 is secretly some manipulative scheme to enrich people is just blatantly false.

Yeah because it is. Look up the Organization for Transformative Works in the IRS database of tax exempt organizations, or GuideStar’s non-profit report listing. EIN 38-3765024, BRIDGE Number 5584273916.

Let’s check out their Form 990 and see how much they paid their staffers:

And it’s a whooping $0.00.

Oh heaven forbid. It’s pretty standard for any moderately-sized nonprofit to make conservative investments, so that their reserves do more than simply accrue interest in a bank account. Nobody is taking a vacation to Comoros on that money.

“Once nonprofits get larger, however, some are able to start thinking for the future. Taking money and putting it toward longer-term goals like capital spending or a permanent endowment requires prudent investment. In order to take initial seed money and grow it into a substantial nest egg for use toward those longer-term charitable purposes, nonprofits are allowed to invest in stocks, bonds, funds, and other typical investments.”

https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/can-a-nonprofit-organization-invest-in-stock.aspx

Yes, AO3 is part of the Organization for Transformative Works, which is indeed incorporated. Again, pretty standard for a charity. Let’s review the OTW’s Certificate of Incorporation:

Finally… who cares? Gmail was in beta for five years, and that was with all the resources of Google behind it and 100 million people already using it.

“the label is just a way for Google to signal users that they’re still tweaking the e-mail service and adding new features”

Same thing for AO3. The reason AO3 is in beta is because it doesn’t have a finalized codebase and it’s too unstable to make an API out of. They could put out a post tomorrow saying ‘we’re out of beta’ and nobody would bat an eye. The website isn’t perfect, but it’s more than functional. And yes, there are a lot of features that can’t be added without overtaxing the existing hardware resources, so why not try a GreasyFork userscript?

tl;dr - I have to write this every year, but AO3 is still not a scam. It is a non-profit. None of the staffers even get paid. It exists solely for a charitable purpose, a purpose which has been acknowledged and validated by the Internal Revenue Service.

I’m sorry but OP’s “one of the worst filtration and blocking systems“ has me in stitches as if the tagging system on Ao3 wasn’t the envy of libraries, school and universities WORLD-WIDE just because OP has to select the tags to exclude THEMSELF oh no, the horror

sluttiest thing a man can do is know how to cook delicious meals

so glad i did

couldn't sleep

Wild Dogs see a Domesticated Dog

African wild dogs are one of my favorite animals. Those huge round circle ears and tricolored coats. I love you African wild dogs

HEY. HEY. HOW DID YOU GET OUT??? HEY-

Who wants to see my cat totally brave and not at all scared at the vet

Excellent. Here she is, being super brave:

This is Nicole. She is an amazing Canadian wood-splitting machine.

I have a huge pet peeve about people swinging axes and sledgehammers without using the kinetic chain. You have to use your entire body to get real power in your swing. And in so many movies you see actors just trying to chop things with only their arms. But Nicole has perfect form. And cute pajamas.

I'm not sure if she is technically a lumberjill. I think she just refers to herself as a wood splitter. Either way, she is badass.

I am astonished to see that people are enjoying this post for other reasons than perfect axe-swinging form using the kinetic chain.

Ya'll thristy as heck.

i dont think the sages are distinctly aware of everything their avatars are doing, but i imagine some things probably bleed through

Unmute !

man, humans fuckin love drums

i’m actually pretty decent on that last one, the doumbek. i can play one of those reasonably well

this is absolutely fucking pathetic now every single fucking streaming service is gonna start doing this shit. all y'all had to do was not watch Netflix and let it flop for a few months and they would have given up

Y'all still actually watch netflix?

i know it's easier to see a headline and get angry about it online than it is to look into the source, but if we all did a little digging, it's evident that this is misinformation. the source is a blog post from a tech startup that is advertising their data analysis services to other streaming companies. the spike in subscribers (which lasted for two days) occurred over a four day period, of which, only the 26th and 27th of may had above average signups, the previous two days were under 50k signups per day.

what their data (purposely) fails to show is the sharp decline in signups between the 27th of may and the first of june, the day that these features rolled out, because their chart cuts off before the password sharing crackdown even went into effect. their data also does not count the number of cancelled subscriptions, and does not distinguish between free trial sign ups and paid subscription sign ups.

they are trying to make netflix look good to advertise their services. this is marketing, not actual data analysis.

I realize it’s just because they’re trying to introduce the audience to the concept of Pokemon and everything but nothing will ever be funnier to me than prof oak being like “these are creatures called Pokemon, they live in all sorts of environments!” like imagine if you met a biology professor and they were like ‘I’ve been studying these intriguing creatures called “animals’

I maintain that Pokemon starts to make a lot more sense when you stop thinking of the Professors as biologists and start thinking of them as children’s science communicators, which, in a world where children as young as 10 are expected to make their way in a world populated by superpowered fauna almost entirely alone, stands as an important and laudable career. “There are 150 animals” becomes the in-universe equivalent of “There are three states of matter.” There’s too much information in this field to dump on a grade-schooler all at once, so Professor Oak is here to mete out animal facts as they become relevant in an easy-to-understand way.

That being said, I would love to see what kind of shit the real Pokemon biologists are on. I’m just imagining some disheveled, overcaffienated researcher writing a grant proposal for their study on why certain wingull seem to evolve into pelipper faster when they hatched in the winter or something. There’s bird shit on their glasses. They haven’t left the lighthouse in months. This is their life’s work. Ash Ketchum doesn’t need to know about real Pokémon biology.

When you finally hit the trick after countless tries

Found this reddit post. This kinda makes me feel better. And it’s something I think about sometimes because I always feel like regardless of how hard I work on something I don’t get anywhere.

Nice summary. If you’re curious, the anon here is referring to studies over the last decade that have pointed to major impacts on pattern separation with depression, and how depression can have major impacts on nonsynaptic plasticity. 

Psychology is amazing folks and more of it needs to be common knowledge

Good for my own information…

This really explains 1) some of the gaps in my childhood and 2) my steadily worsening ability to remember shit and actually take in new experiences as anything other than an inconvenience keeping me from sitting at home sleeping or staring at the tv for hours not taking anything in

booty shorts that say “PEOPLE LIKE CERTAINTY MORE THAN THEY LIKE HOPE; THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT PESSIMISM IS WISE” on the ass

Saint is the funniest bitch in the universe. But then also the most gentle and emotionally intelligent too. The duality of man:

Just read a perfectly fine fanfiction that took place in Germany but something that stood out to me was a chapter where the characters walk across a field and is approached by the farmer yelling at them to get off his land.

I’ve come across this plot point a few times and I feel like it’s worth telling writers that most of Europe has some version of Right To Roam. The laws aren’t the same in every country but generally you’re allowed to walk and rest on private property like fields and forests so long as you don’t destroy anything or leave trash, but not gardens or fenced in areas. The owner of the land might put up a sign asking you to follow certain guidelines like no horses or keeping your dog on a leash but but there’s no real repercussions to not following the rules besides the owner eventually fencing the area off so people can’t enjoy it anymore.

I’ve personally walked around on a field while the farmer was harvesting potatoes with his big ass machine and collected the leftovers while my dog was trotting calmly besides me and he looked straight at me and didn’t care one bit because Denmark also has an old tradition of letting people collect what’s left as a form of charity (for my fellow Danes, that’s what “rev vi marken let, det er gammel ret, fuglen og den fattige skal også være mæt” means in the song Marken Er Mejet) This is just a tradition and not a law however so it depends on the farmer.

The very north of Europe like Norway and Sweden even give people the right to put up tents and camp on other people’s private land (except gardens and such). Again, the laws vary from country to country but as a rule of thumb you have more right to roam the further north you go and less the further south but if you want to write in a specific country look up the laws there.

Wow. Yall are really just allowed to exist in public huh?

Neitokainen is a body of water in Finland, which is shaped like Finland

In high school one of the common fund raisers was carnation flowers for a dollar during prom season and valentines and a couple other times of year. And you could “order” flowers to be delivered to kids during their homeroom times so it was always a big deal to get flowers and it was super fun

But one of these fundraisers I had a guy friend who commented he never got any because he was always single or his girlfriend always expected flowers but never gave him any

So my senior year valentines I decided I was going to buy all the guys in my homeroom (which he was in) a carnation and said they were from “Anonymous Girl in your homeroom”

So the day came and all the guys started getting flowers and they all realized they were from the same one girl and all got super excited and giddy and protective of their flowers and all day long I saw the guys in my homeroom wear flowers behind their ears or stuffed in their notebooks and they flaunted them around to other guys that didn’t get flowers. One guy tried to see if it would make his girlfriend jealous. A couple of them tried to play detective to figure it out who it was.

Then the next day apparently they all (or at least most of them) got together and bought all the girls in homeroom a carnation as a thank you to whoever it was so every girl in my homeroom got a bouquet of one from every guy (so it was a bouquet of about a dozen) and every single girl was smiling and happy and bouncy as the guys were the day before

And no one ever knew it was me but I was always super proud of that

One simple act can have a ripple effect of kindness that grows as it spreads