Please don’t appropriate uwu culture if you can’t even “h-hewwo…? is anybody thewe? I’m…scawwed…OwO” properly, it’s really insensitive and we’re already experiencing enough intolerance and oppression as it is
i see posts sometimes that say things like “wouldn’t it be cool if ao3 would recommend you fics similar to the one you just read?” or “wouldn’t it be cool if ao3 had a function similar to spotify wrapped that showed you your fic reading habits over the year?” etc. and while on one hand, yes, i can see how these functions might be neat & fun & helpful, i think the fact that ao3 *doesn’t* do any of these typical media website things is actually utterly spectacular
like, i enjoy looking at my spotify wrapped as much as the next person, but when you start to think about that, it is honestly pretty horrifying that spotify collects & stores all this data about its users & can produce it at a moment’s notice. and netflix is not recommending you shows because it actually cares that you watch something you enjoy. it’s recommending them because in the digital age, attention is money & every website is fighting for as much of yours as it can get.
the fact that a website hosting as much media as ao3 doesn’t try to analyze or predict or manipulate your content consumption in any way is truly an oasis in a landscape where user data is the most valuable commodity around. ao3 gives all of the agency to its users & i don’t think we realize just how rare that is. you go looking for the content you want. you sort and filter based on your preferences. you subscribe to the story or author updates you’d like to see. so on and so forth. nothing is recommended for you. no algorithm is trying to maximize the time you spend on the website. you engage with it completely on your own terms. and given the way most media websites choose to operate, that is nothing short of a miracle.
We love films because they makes us feel something. They speak to our desires, which are never small. They allow us to escape and to dream and to gaze into the eyes that are impossibly beautiful and huge. They fill us with longing.
But also, they tell us to remember; they remind us of life.
hey so protip if you have abusive parents and need to get around the house as quietly as possible, stay close to furniture and other heavy stuff because the floor is settled there and it’s less likely to creak