Older Than Netfic

hell with both "respecting community labor" and "but legal defense of fanfic" as explanations of why no monetizing AO3, tbh. the first one is important to get across for unrelated reasons, but clearly not making headway wrt this specific issue, and the latter often involves misunderstanding the legal situation.

(it's not that fanfic is only legal if it's free. it's that one of several factors for whether something is fair use under US copyright law is whether it makes money, another is whether it's transformative and OTW's stance is that all fanworks are inherently transformative. and many people are allergic to nuance, and nobody on any side wants to be the test case drawing black and white lines in this legal gray zone.)

they're a nonprofit. nobody gets to profit. people who benefit from the nonprofit's services especially do not get to profit from the nonprofit's services. users of AO3 are by definition people who benefit from the services of this nonprofit. or so @copperbadge says, at least, and he's been both working for a nonprofit and part of fandom long enough I trust him as a subject matter expert here.

I feel like we aren't talking enough about how creepy it is for some antis to push the idea that it's "immoral" for minors to crush on fictional characters that are around their own age.

I'm so tired of people putting things in the Extremely Underage tag at are 13-15 years old, especially when the person they're with is that age. Two 13 year olds isn't extreme and two 15 year olds is very normal and happens much more IRL than the former example (though that happens sometimes too), and it implies to me that the author thinks there's something weird about teenagers having sex with other teenagers. There isn't. There just simply isn't. And it bothers me that people have convinced themselves of that, because so long as everyone is consenting, teen/teen is incredibly vanilla and often wholesome as fuck.

If I click on a tag with 'extreme' in it, I don't want wholesome. But I also don't want to see people refer to wholesomeness as if it's extreme. That's depressing, and I'm not in the tag for depressing, I'm in the tag for porn, damnit.

What do you need to sign up for an account on AO3?

Just a rant. In a yaoi subreddit, a person posted noncon. Person A simply ask if it contains mpreg because they don't want to see it. Some fucking dingbat who we shall call Person B responds with, "Love how you excuse rape but draw the line at mpreg."

I was a little baffled by the responses so I simply responded with "Maybe it triggers their dysphoria. There are many reasons why they might not feel uncomfortable with something but not another. Also how fucked are you to think any person here is actually excusing SA."

Person B responds with, "Literally look at the post. It's a rape yaoi story. If you're beating off to rape porn then I don't want to hear how icky mpreg is."

I respond with, "In context of kink, there are certain shit people might not be comfortable with. I'm not sure why that is to understand. If they are okay with non-con fictional work (not rape porn) but uncomfortable with mpreg, it is fine."

Person B responds with,"I mean I was just pointing out how silly it was to be okay with something extreme but not with something pretty mundane comparatively. But rape porn fetishizes a traumatic event and if you're gonna get turned on by it then keep it to yourself and don't complain about it having a kink you don't like in it. Rape isn't a fucking kink. Kindly don't respond to my message"

It's interesting that said person willingly went onto to the post. They then mocked someone trying to establish a boundary (who wanted to know if it contain mpreg) thus by extension violating it. Excusing those who consume it of excusing SA. Shipping Stolas and Blitzo while forgetting how racism and classicism plays a role in the systemic SA.

I'm a huge fan of "[character] is their own warning" and "[character] does what [character] wants" type tags or fandom nicknames for characters. If they get used enough, they become searchable.

the one tag feature I think should be implemented is a “please tag me” (yes I’m borrowing from Rule 34.) readers would be able to recommend tags and the author approve them.

Only problem is fandoms would use the feature to stake out divisions or devolve into blorbo fanon speak. So make it from pre-approved tags.

Whenever I've see the phrase "his omega" my first instinct has been read it as like "his spouse" rather than "his [inner] wolf". I always have a fun little double take moment where I think the omega has another omega as a side piece, and I've gotten pretty close to accidentally inventing new characters out of thin air.

I quite enjoy 'inner demons' or 'personality animals' being characters themselves in original fiction so I'd probably enjoy it more in a/b/o if it wasn't just a way to separate the Horny from the Person without angst. Give me characters getting into heated arguments with their Inner Omega while some innocent bystander is like "wtf did I just witness?" XD

I found discussions about top/bottom tagging practice facsinating. In russian speaking fandom I saw tags like this only in my early days, like, 2005-2007 years I think, and only in western or asian fandoms (probably people bring it from english speaking part of fandom). I'm in fandom for russian media for past five-six years and I remembler like two examples of people tagging for "top/bottom" and it was in collection of drabbles where summary for every one was like "A tops + B bottoms + B had balls shaven + something else worth mention". Big russian fic archives don't even have a way for tagging top/bottom dinamics I think. And while I tend overtag a little there wasn't a moment where I thought to tag who tops and who bottoms for any of my fics and we talks about like 100 fic a year there. I think it's might be because of when there's a 100-200 fic for your otp at all (and it's considered as decent sized fandom) you just too eager to think like this? Or some other reason for this to not be a thing. Not shaming there btw just found this interesting

I don't get this "they discussed nsfw themes with minors they are totally a predator" thing I see even on proship side of fandom. Don't get me wrong, if it was a random adult getting random minor roped into discuss fetish stuff with them, it's could be red flag (still — when I was a minor I was deeply interested in some s/m practics and spent a lot of time in bdsm circles reading, asking and talking about this stuff completely on my own will so it depends). For example, I have one friend whom I know since they were sixteen. We started from them making a nsfw art for my fic and immediatly developed into talking in details what other kinky stuff they can draw. Predatory? God forbid, just pure entusiasm about more art for rarepair! Recently — and it was hillarious and awkward — I joined a fandom chat with people I don't know. We talked for a couple of days, about nsfw topics too, then one of people there told that they tried to audition as main kid character in our show when there still was casting. I was like "wait, it was less then two years ago and they specifically asked for preteens, 13 yo max?" and they was like "lol yeah, I turned fifteen like month ago". I asked them privately if they are good with nsfw stuff I bring into chat and they were like "yeah?? or we won't ask you to join?? duh". Which is fair, since, again, they already read and commented a lot at my nsfw fics and I did the same for them and we had little chat about there at twitter before I joined the group chat. So like... it's fandom, it's the place where people under 17 regulary read, write and draw stuff they shouldn't see without parental approval untill they turn 17, and like how it should work? You shouldn't comment a fic if you don't know if author minor or not? Or like you can gush about how this and this is sooo hot in their fic but you can't talk about this in private? Minor can like all your nsfw stuff and tell you how good it is but if you link them to other creators with same themes suddenly you're a predator who sends porn to minors and worth a callout? I don't want to be like "back in my days" but I was hanging with fandom adults since I was 13 yo and nsfw stuff was discussed freely around me and I just haven't joined until I was interested in topic, which was probably around 15, and no one thought it was somehow unsafe or damaging for me, myself included, but like maybe I'm missing something...

One thing I've never understood about anti's version of activism is why do they tend to go after fanworks made by random individuals instead of actual mainstream media? The most dead dove thing I've ever read wasn't on AO3, it was A Little Life, lol. Surely a novel like that has way more of a widespread reach than fanfiction.

I use “u” and “ur” when I’m texting one handed on my phone. Started when I had a phone with harder to press keys (pre-smart phone era) and when it was part of texting culture to use that and “brb”. (You know, back when people actually took breaks from their phones) Anywhere else using u or ur doesn’t fit. Unless you are roleplaying as a baby or a can i haz cheezburger cat.

i write my fics in lowercase because it reminds me of poetry idk 🙈

Derogatory lapselock is a thing. Calling someone u instead of you specifically as an insult telling them they're not worth the full word. Often the point isn't to convey a casual tone, but rather a flippant/dismissive tone.

I always was mostly squicked by preganancy when it's detailed and bored with stories about it when it's big part of plot (I'm still baffled by a number of people who want's roleplay as "preganant character A" from my current fandom — there's a lot of them and they just have a preganancy as a plot starter?? not even like conflict in relationship just "we waited for this, hurray!" stuff. Anyway I get sidetracked). But recently there was a prequel for canon I'm currently obsessing with, and there was a side plot with character being preganant and then lost this child after a killing attempt. At first I was like "blaaagh I HATE THIS and I will ignore this stuff" but I also hate when my hc's contradicting canon (I'm picky like this) so I started to rotate this in my mind and... I suddenly... get invested? Like yesterday I made myself sob while writing fic about dealing with aftermath of miscarriage and all my freinds still processing the fact that I'm willing to touch the preganancy storyline without being held at gunpoint lol. Also that's probably the fisrt time I felt the power of fiction tm in the sence of representation. Things like gender, orintation, disability etc were instinctively clear for me even as a teen, but I'm wholeass adult and only through this characters I get like HOW people can be invested in preganancy and how devastating could be this loss. So the more you live the more you know (still don't get appeal of "A preganant and B feeds him strawberries" plots tho but I guess fluff just isn't for me)

Plant tentacle author wasn’t exactly wrong (not right either but not wrong).

The majority of the clitoris is internal! It’s worth researching as unsurprisingly enough the bulk of the research into the shape of the clit is less than 20 years old and only now starting to be incorporated into anatomy courses.

Also the only organ in either reproductive system which has only one purpose - pleasure

in response to the anon using AI to write, everything they wrote makes my blood boil. "My AI assistant is smart enough to 'read' the scene I'm working on and tailor its suggestions to the mood, style and context of what I'm writing. But it's still my story. The AI doesn't write it for me. I'm the one who sifts through those suggestions, takes the bits that work, and shapes them into useful text. Sometimes the AI comes up with amazing things. I wasn't kidding when I said it's improved my writing - and my rewriting." I'm sorry to break it to you, but this is not writing. Writing is a craft, it's not easy, and you need to work hard at it in order to improve. Getting "suggestions" and "editing" them into a patchwork story that you claim it's still yours is just appalling. the suggestions that the AI is regurgitating don't come out of nowhere, you know. It was trained on other people's works, and I think for art and creative writing this kind of approach to AI writing is just vile. Let's even give it the benefit of the doubt and say the AI was not trained on stolen works, I promise you that it's not going to make you into a better writer. A better editor, at most. It's only slightly better than claiming something you didn't write as your own. Because you "edit" it first, or whatever you tell yourself to justify it. Is it easier? Sure. Faster? No doubt. Is it your own writing, something that you can be proud of? Nah.

https://www.tumblr.com/beatrice-otter/717236469408858112/why-ao3-needs-to-be-accountable-for-reducing?source=share

The "noted racist banned from events" they're talking about in this post is you, right? What is your side of the story?

In response to the AI author person - I’m glad these tools are helping you, but, with all due respect, I’m still scared shitless that companies are going to replace actual writers with people like you, or, once technologies like chat GPT improve, AI itself. And this angers me because it shows that corporations (who already control many avenues of entertainment) don’t value the arts. In fact, there’s been a mysterious increase in slashing funds for art and writing programs in schools across the country, so it isn’t just corporations - it’s everyone in power these days.

It’s turning art even more into an industry about money, rather than creativity. The Entertainment and writing industries already discourage invention in creative works in favor of generating profit through repeating things that have already sold. And I’m so, so scared I’m going to see that mentality spread to FanFiction. Because even though it doesn’t sell, per se, certain tropes already gain more views than others - and that’s a currency in itself.

And Art isn’t just something to create or consume - it’s a catharsis. A release. A way to teach people important lessons through metaphor and narrative - especially in works that are genre-defying (or even genre-defining.) Bur the rise of ChatGPT and AI shows that the people championing and promoting this technology don’t want us to truly learn from writing and art anymore. They might not realize this, but they’re letting people in power incentivize us to blindly believe whatever BS they’re selling us - which generally serves to line their pockets and make everyone else poorer - in exchange for further convenience.

And don’t get me started on the ethics of data scraping. Really. Don’t. But even if AI has helped you, it’s hurting more people than it helps overall, and I think that’s what matters.