Not to be that person but like. With the fandom picking up with S3 (yes! love the excitement!), I've noticed a bit of a concerning trend. In the past couple days I have gotten over 250 kudos across my fics (which is wild!)
And 6 comments.
250 kudos and 6 comments.
You've gotta support content creators more than that, you can't treat them like Kudo/Like Goes In, Content Comes Out. Artists, gif-makers, writers spend hours working on content and then, because we're nice, we share it with all of you. If you enjoyed it? Let us know! Yeah, a kudo is nice, a like is nice, but it's the bare minimum. Let us know what you liked! Doesn't have to be anything big - just a comment that you liked it! Maybe there was a line you liked. Maybe you felt some emotion. Maybe the coloring or the shading or the composition is really great. Let the artist know that!
And then? Reblog it! If you liked it, odds are there are people that follow you that will also like it. If you want, put those comments in the tags of the art or gif so the artist gets to see them. And don't worry if it's an old fic/gifset/drawing! The creator spent hours on it, I guarantee they are keeping tabs on it and will LOVE knowing people are still enjoying it. It's not weird or taboo.
This is a community, and it's more fun for everyone if we share and talk, rather than like and hoard.
I'm really lucky that I have established myself as a fic writer enough that this is an irritation rather than demoralizing. But to a new fic writer? This could be devastating. Comments are like fucking heroin. They're amazing, they motivate like nothing else. I reread them constantly. To not get any makes it easy to spiral with doubt that actually nobody liked it and then what's the point in sharing any future projects?
Creating content is a labor of love, but do your part so it's not thankless labor - it's how you keep creators motivated to keep creating things we all enjoy. We're a community, let's talk and hang out like one.
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Tumblr tip sheet for twitter refugees
i’ve seen a lot of different advice posts but none that had what i consider all the key advice in one spot, so here we are. long post ahead.
-
1. your dash can be put into reverse chronological order and it is a BETTER experience if you do that
Go to your settings -> Dashboard -> Preference
Turn “Best Stuff First” OFF
2. you can (and likely should!) turn off algorithmic content
Under the same menu. Settings -> Dashboard -> Preferences
There are two algorithms on tumblr.
One is “In your orbit” and I fucking hate it. i want to see the content that I like, not that some random person i follow likes. if i wanted to see that content on my dash, i’d follow the people who put it there.
The other is “based on your likes” and it is hilariously bad because if you like a post for something you don’t normally like or follow (e.g., when I watched a new movie and liked one post about it), you’ll suddenly get a dozen posts about that thing and only that thing.
I keep it on because it’s hilariously bad, but i honestly recommend turning it off. it routinely recommends shit to me that i hate and i have to keep telling it that i am “not interested in this post” for things tagged with my nOTP, but until / unless i filter that ship tag out entirely, i will keep being serviced those
3. filtering / blacklisting is your friend
this is true on every platform, not just tumblr. i’m sure veteran twitter users are well-versed in it, but just as a reminder. you will be expected to filter your own content/dash here on tumblr, and if you complain about seeing something that was properly tagged, you will be rightly mocked as a clown.
Settings -> Account -> Content You See
you can filter both tags and post content. There’s a completely innocuous post i absolutely hate that does rounds and is never tagged, and i almost unfollowed a mutual for how much i hate that post and them reblogging it so much. but i typed a specific sentence from that post into the “filtered post content” options and BOOM - haven’t seen it since. glorious.
4. content controls are your friend
under the same “Content You See” menu. You are automatically opted OUT of seeing this stuff, so you MUST opt in to see mature content.
you’ll want to determine your own preferences, but i prefer to see all of the mature content types that may be hit with a community label.
5. long posts are (probably) your friend
tumblr cuts posts over a few lines if you have this turned off, and it’s really annoying and really truncates your experience of the website. THIS is itself a long post!
part of the quintessential tumblr experience is being annoyed by the “do you love the color of the sky” post.
seriously, this isn’t twitter. we aren’t here for 280 character bite-sized posts. i 10/10 recommend keeping long posts on.
Settings -> Dashboard -> Interface
6. blog-specific settings
there is also a menu for additional settings (including updating the appearance etc) for each blog you have (your main, and any sideblogs).
this is near the end of your options under Settings -> Blog Settings (click the individual blog to update)
under your blog settings you can...
- enable your custom theme (which you should! this is turned off for new users but personalizing your page is part of the experience)
- decide if you want people to know what posts you’re liking and who you’re following. i do NOT, so these are off. internet privacy is allowed on tumblr, and don’t let anyone bully you into thinking you need to make everything public for their supervision. consume all the problematic content your little gremlin content desires and tell people to fuck off if they take issue with that.
- determine if and how others can interact with your blog!! there some settings about asks, messaging, tipping (if you’re here to make $$), whether people can even SEE your blog, if it’s searchable, etc. tumblr gives power and control back to the users! use that power!
here, you can specifically set your “Ask” preferences to on or off, and to accept or NOT accept asks from anonymous users / logged out users.
if you’re here to interact with friends or just vibe, or don’t reblog a lot of asks games or encourage anon inbox messages, and/or especially if you’re getting harasment and don’t want to deal with shitty users, it is okay to turn off anons, and i ENCOURAGE you to do so.
i keep it on for my fandom sideblogs and off for my main and this makes me happy. do what makes you happy.
7. etiquette and interface
- change your icon so no one thinks you’re a bot
- reblog posts so your account isn’t empty. also, with algorithmic content turned off by most users, YOU are the algorithm, and interaction on this website is strongly encouraged. making or reblogging posts part of the experience and sort of the whole point
- reblog tagging: individual preferences apply. instead of adding a comment on a reblog, users will often add their thoughts in a tag, if they aren’t specifically looking to engage in a dialogue or add on to the post itself. other users can then decide to copy their tags (often with “prev” for “previous” appended) or even copy/paste them into a comment on their reblog, which is your tags “passing peer review”. people also tag to index posts so their blog is more searchable, and to include trigger warnings and content warnings related to a post. you can also choose to not tag anything. it’s your blog, do what you want.
- tags are how people find new content. if you make a new post and want people to find it, they will be searching the tag related to that content, so tag it accordingly. people can also follow tags and get notifications when new posts are made into that tag.
- do not censor words! this isn’t tiktok or twitter. we say ‘fuck’ and ‘kill’ here. if you write “unalive” or censor swears or triggers, people’s content filters do not work, and you will have undermined their ability to curate their content, moderate their experience, and avoid triggers. don’t do that. just spell out the whole goddamn word, please.
- you can make sideblogs under a single account! this means you have your main, which you interact (like, reply, and follow) from, but which can be used to have a space for all your posts and reblogs on a given topic (fandom, hobby, fixation, whatever). you can also direct message to/from a sideblog and accept asks etc.
- if you use tumblr in your browser, there is an add-on called XKIT. this used to be a tumblr user staple and allowed for a lot of functionality that tumblr didn’t used to have. tumblr has since very much upped their game, but it can still be worth using XKIT if you’re regularly in a browser and not on the app. for example, it includes some ad-blocking capabilities. I use “New Xkit” and have a few personalized settings with it.
- posts go around forever on this site and new memes crop up every day, retreat, and then resurge out of the blue randomly. this makes for tumblr-wide in-jokes that circulate for years, like “do you love the color of the sky” and the “color theory children’s hospital” post. if you don’t get these, you can ask and i’m sure tumblr will deliver, but you can also wait around and follow more people and these will turn up eventually.
- your dash is what you make it. your interaction is what you make it. you have control, you are not at the mercy of algorithms and advertisers if you don’t want to be. paying for ad-free browsing is an option. they even give you the option to toggled your ad settings within ad-free browsing. seriously - you. have. the. control.
this is something that we love about tumblr and one of the things that makes it our hellsite (affectionate) instead of our hellsite (derogatory). if you’re finding your experience to be negative but still want to stick around, i encourage you to block accounts or content that makes you unhappy or anxious, to follow the accounts that bring you joy, and to adjust your settings into whatever makes you happiest and least stressed out.
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The art is lovely and now I'm gonna ramble because that's what I do when I care about something.
For the love of women, please PLEASE can fan artists remember to add muscle to their Shadowhunter ladies? I'll commend Bowater for cleverly giving James that sculpted and lean look without making him a beefcake (nothing against beefcakes, I'd love to hug them), but Cordelia is once again suffering from Arms And Shoulders Too Slender It's Hard To Even Imagine Her Picking Up A Sword. There is some there, yes, but artists shouldn't be afraid of giving particularly Female Main Characters weight and toned muscle. Cordelia is supposed to be nearly the same height as James as far as I can remember, and she's curvy, and full, and she wields a sword like it's second nature to her. Please explain why she looks so tiny in James' lap.
Also I'm pretty sure marriage runes are supposed to go over the heart whenever possible (thinking about Will's parabatai rune being over his heart instead -- he didn't get Tessa to draw over the scar, did he??) and... either I'm looking at the picture wrong or James' rune is not over where his heart should be.
For the matter, where are their other runes and scars?? James' Voyance rune isn't even on his hand. And I'm pretty sure he's right handed. I could have that wrong though.
Another thing: no one can ever decide what Cordelia's hair looks like and it's the funniest thing to me. This is what happens when all you do is vaguely say the colour is like fire but also like rose petals but also a flowing river of those things but also is Red (probably for redhead, but then from there I never understand where the rose petal analogy comes from considering the typical rose is a deep bloody colour -- I do acknowledge the existence of those light orange varieties though which might more closely resemble red hair). In the end, I'm glad readers can infer what they want and imagine the characters how they like.
Anyone else think James looks like he's built like a tennis player? Oddly specific, maybe, but it was a thought I had. Mostly the arms and somewhat narrow body.
James' hair is nice, his eyes are an interesting take on gold in the shadows. Bowater managed to also make him look closely related to his father, so bravo for that.
In the end, the focus is obviously on the marriage runes and not other physical aspects outside of it being clear that this is James and Cordelia. Bowater's style is very beautiful and elegant. Love the way fabric and lighting is done too. I'll add also that it is possible to be a smaller person who is slender but still strong so I mean Cordelia's not necessarily done wrong, I just interpret her appearance differently. Obviously, they're both hot and they're both attractive and I have my qualms with the series, chronicles, and author -- the fandom I am so-so on, though I'm still here, aren't I? And I'm taking the time to ramble about my thoughts on a piece of fanart -- but this is good. Gorgeous, even. Both James and Cordelia are beautiful.
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so you're new to ao3
and want to learn how to find and filter fics. then boy oh boy is this post for you
(this is going to be a Long post so I'm adding a read more break now)
but where to begin? i personally like to search by fandom or by ship. there are two ways to go about this:
search the fandom, then click on the first link for the fandom you find:
2. click on fandoms in the upper left corner and find your fandom in the giant list of fandoms
(Same concept applies for searching for a specific ship)
Great! now you're in the search results of all the works in that fandom! I'm now going to introduce you to your new favorite button: Filters
When you click on the filters button, the filters menu pops up. There are two main ways to filter works: including tags and excluding tags.
the Include Filter
before we begin: keep in mind that ao3 shows you the most popular tags under each filter. if what you're looking for isn't listed, you can use the search boxes under each filter category to find what you want
Ratings and Warnings
If you want to read a fic with a specific rating or a specific warning, this is where you select that. I personally prefer to use the exclude filter to filter out the ratings/warnings I don't want, but that's up to you. (Notice how you can only pick one rating: if you want to only read one rating, this is great for you. if you want to read anything except a certain rating, that's when exclude is your friend)
Categories and Fandoms
This is great if you want to read a specific slash or a crossover with a specific fandom. (I personally don't use these filters)
Characters and Relationships
this is the good stuff. here is where you can pick the relationship(s) you want to see. If you select more than one, you will only see results that include all of the selected options. The relationships filter is my favorite include filter--utilize it!!
Additional Tags and Other tags to include
want to read fluff? hurt/comfort? this is where you go. If the tag you're looking for isn't on the list under Additional Tags, you can search for the tag you want. ao3 will start to suggest tags, so you can select what you want from that list.
we have now reached my favorite part of the ao3 filtering system:
the Exclude Filter
ao3 operates on a don't like, don't read principle. the exclude filters exist for a reason: USE THEM!!!! i love the exclude filters and use them for every single search
Ratings, Warnings, Categories, and Fandoms
This seems pretty self-explanatory. Let's say you don't want to read fics that are not rated and fics that are tagged as major character death, but every other rating or warning is fair game. Boom, you've excluded them from the search results.
Characters and Relationships
Don't want to read a fic with a certain character or ship? You can get rid of all of them from the search results. For example, if you don't want to read any /Reader fics, you can filter those out here
Additional Tags and Other tags to exclude
Anything else you don't want to read about? maybe it's something that is a trigger for you, or something you just aren't into. Maybe there are specific relationships not listed under the relationship filter that you want to exclude. you can exclude those tags here. The exclude tag search feature is great for this.
More Options
there are some more ways to filter fics, including crossover status, completion status, word count, date updated, and language. Let's say you don't want any crossovers and you want to read a work in progress. you would select Exclude crossovers and Works in progress only here.
One last thing before you hit sort and filter!
You can sort the results by a variety of different features, like date updated, hits, and kudos. Be careful tho--sometimes some of the best fics you'll read will be the ones that don't have the same number of hits and kudos as the "popular fics" so don't judge a fic by it's numbers
That's it!! Now you're ready to sort and filter the results to your heart's content! This button is at the top and bottom of the filter tab for your convenience :)
Based on the filtering, your new search results will appear. Now you can read what you want and ignore the rest!
In summary:
Including: will show you only the results that have ALL of the included tags
Excluding: will show you results that have NONE of the excluded tags
Don't like, don't read! ao3 is an archive, not an algorithm--you have to search out the content you want yourself. hit the back tab if you don't like the fic you're reading
Remember to leave comments and kudos to make an author's day!!
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Dream’s dnf fanart likes
August 21st
two versions of itt!dnf holding hands
itt!George holding the match gun and itt!Dream holding his sap gun
itt!Dream with his nails and itt!George with his hammer weapon
George and Dream in Breaking Bad outfits
itt!dnf holding onto a dandelion, floating in the air (+gif)
itt!Dream standing behind itt!George, arm around his shoulders
George asleep against Dream's chest, blue butterflies around Dream's head
itt!dnf back-to-back, tied to chairs
Dream and George walking together, arms around each other, Dream holding a bag of groceries, George holding a drink
George and Dream saying their tweets about playing It Takes Two directly to each other
Dream and George reaching out to each other, their other hands connected by a red string
Dream making a heart with his fingers, George making the 👌 sign
Dream, wearing a party hat, with George beside him, various animals Dream has been in George's 'Minecraft but my friend is' series around them
Dream sitting, George standing next to him, looking at each other, from the Everest MV bts
Dream in an art gallery looking at a painting of c!George
biologist!George and merman!Dream looking at each other in surprise
George, in a white tshirt, and Dream, in the green minecraft end poem hoodie, holding hands and staring at each other
dogboy!Dream with his arm around catboy!George's shoulder
itt!George elbowing itt!Dream in the chest playfully
Dream and George wearing cat ear beanies themed after their It Takes Two characters
itt!Dream leaning into itt!George's personal space, both of them staring at each other and blushing
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