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ghostradiodylan · 4 months

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I subscribed to a Russian dataminer for cut content from The Quarry. You’re not supposed to share and I understand why and support paying people for their work! Buuuut I also understand why people might be hesitant to pay someone in Russia on a poorly translated website to access this stuff, so I’m gonna take my chances with potentially being banned because a couple of these things the Quarry fandom at large needs to see! Screenshots and discussion under the cut.

[you can subscribe or send tips here if you’re interested, they do have more SMG stuff including cut DPA content]

Thank you @insertlovelyperson for this!

These are somewhat Ryan and/or Dylan centric because I find them the most interesting, but they also had the most story-impacting cut content IMO.

RYAN WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO WARN DYLAN ABOUT THE WEREWOLF OUTSIDE THE RADIO HUT.

I know I’ve talked to a bunch of people about this. I know @andromaqves was one and I can’t remember who else but omfg, justice for Ryan!! I think they cut this because they made the werewolf more obvious than Justice's performance indicated but THAT MAKES IT WORSE. DO YOU NOT SEE HOW THAT MAKES IT WORSE YOU GUYS?!

Ryan also could have had the chance to actually get a shot off against Silas in the version of the radio hut scene where Dylan isn't bitten, and he'd think he had killed the werewolf.

Then as he's heading back to the radio hut, Dylan warns him that it's coming back and we get the rest of the scene as it plays out in the game.

I get why they cut this, because if they established for certain that regular bullets can't actually harm the werewolves, there's no stakes to Abi potentially shooting Nick, but it's a cool sequence, it's always good to see the boys work together, and it would have been AWESOME if Ryan could have been infected here instead of Dylan!

This exchange just made me laugh:

Kaitlyn to Ryan: you really look up to Mr. Hackett.

Ryan: Yeah, he’s always been nice to me.

Kaitlyn: Well, so have I!

Ryan: A few days ago I slipped on wet grass and ate shit and you laughed and shouted ‘Nice Walkin Christopher Walken' and everyone called me that for the rest of the day.

Kaitlyn: See, you get my best bits! 😂😂😂

Dylan reads Ryan the synopsis of a romance novel they find in Mr. H’s office that appears to be a thinly veiled reference to the bonfire love triangle. 😂

Ryan and Kaitlyn: actually showing care and concern for Dylan post-amputation instead of pretending it didn't happen.

Dylan, in shock but still an asshole: I'm fine, I’m doing better than Kaylee Hackett. 💀

Again, this is just funny and a great question from Emma.

Abi can not be into the kiss with Nick, presumably due to the no-longer-in-place relationship system. I'm betting if you didn't get their relationship stats up you would get this result.

Laura claims to Ryan that Chris Hackett drunkenly admitted that his family was KILLING PEOPLE who were investigating them, but there's nothing else to back that up in the datamine that I've found so far (not that I think she made it up lol, just that it would have been interesting if the Chris scene was cut to remove that too).

And the one my heart can't fucking take, Kaitlyn and Dylan on the way to the scrapyard variant where Ryan has kissed Kaitlyn at the bonfire and they actually talk about it because she asks Dylan if he's jealous of Laura getting to go off with Ryan. He says he's jealous but not of Laura...

"You're pretty awesome and I'm... just Dylan" 😭 😭 😭

And, "you guys seem like you've got a connection"?? Kaitlyn as Rylan shipper, confirmed. 💖

More details and discussion on the Discord @itscomingupaces made us: https://discord.com/invite/RHgdqBBXh7

#the quarry #the quarry cut content #the quarry datamine #ryan erzahler #dylan lenivy #kaitlyn ka #nick furcillo #abi blyg #emma mountebank #rylan propaganda #rylan #radioheads #furblyg #or not #you're pretty awesome and I'm just 75% of the fandom's favorite character #get a grip Dylan #I love him so fuckin much though #let him be the king of your garden Ryan #you've got a ✨connection✨

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mid-nighttiger · 9 months

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since i was looking at codywan ao3 stats over the years, i thought it'd be interesting to compare with the three other biggest pt-era ships. at the time of posting (2023/08/01), the largest pt-era ship on ao3 is anakin/padme, followed by anakin/obi-wan, then cody/obi-wan, then obi-wan/qui-gon

[Image ID: Graph of total works on AO3 by ship. Quiobi is shown as a blue line, Obikin as red, Anidala as yellow, and Codywan as green. The horizontal axis shows the years from 1997 to 2023, and the vertical axis shows the number of total works from 0 to 9000. /End ID]

quiobi starts increasing moderately but steadily from 1999 to about 4000 works in 2023. there are under 100 anidala and obikin works dated 1999-2009, then both ships start to increase slowly, then faster from 2015-2019, and even faster from 2019-2023 (anidala faster than obikin). anidala overtakes quiobi at about 2500 works in 2019 to reach nearly 9000 in 2023. obikin overtakes quiobi at about 2750 works in 2020 to reach about 8000 in 2023. there are no codywan works until 2009, then it increases slowly from 2015-2019 and grows rapidly from 2019-2023. codywan overtakes quiobi at 3500 works in 2022 to hit nearly 6000 works in 2023

[Image ID: Graph of works posted per year by ship. Quiobi is shown as a blue line, Obikin as red, Anidala as yellow, and Codywan as green. The horizontal axis shows the years from 1997 to 2023, and the vertical axis shows the number of works posted from 0 to 2500. /End ID]

these two graphs confirm my feeling based on my experiences* in sw fandom that quiobi is an old, steadily growing ship. the phantom menace in 1999 sparked the ship, and there has been a moderate but steady 50-100 works per year since then til 2014, when it starts to grow. after 2016 and 2020, there are some moderate step-ups in the number of works posted per year (200-300 and 300-500, respectively), but not the huge spikes of the other ships

anidala and obikin share pretty similar growth patterns, with the number of works per year being pretty low until 2016, when it jumps to 500-600 (overtaking the number of quiobi works posted per year), then jumps again in 2020 to over 1000 and has been growing ever since. i already discussed codywan in my previous post, but in brief, there is a low growth from 2015-2019 of about 100 works per year, before it spikes in 2020 and catches up with the number of anidala and obikin works posted yearly

*when i got into star wars fandom, quiobi was the pt-era largest ship. i never felt that it was losing popularity, just that other ships were growing faster

[Image ID: Graph of year over year growth by ship. Quiobi is shown as a blue line, Obikin as red, Anidala as yellow, and Codywan as green. The horizontal axis shows the years from 2000 to 2023, and the vertical axis shows the percent growth from -100 to 1100. /End ID]

what's interesting here that all of the ships had spike in growth in 2016, most likely from the force awakens being released in december 2015 and sparking new interest in star wars, and 2020, possibly from folks quarantining at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and spending more time writing. season 7 of the clone wars being released in 2020 could have also been a factor. it would be interesting to see if other fandoms also had a spike in new works in 2020. anidala had a spike in 2005, when revenge of the sith was released. there are no obikin works dated 2004 on ao3, which is why there is a gap in the graph from 2004-2006 (percents don't play nicely with zeroes). not shown on this graph is the jump from 1 quiobi work dated 1998 to 104 works dated 1999, because that is a 10,000% increase that completely destroys the vertical range

notes:

largest ships were determined from the relationship tags in the "Star Wars - All Media Types" tag on ao3

works from each ship tag on ao3 were filtered by date. no other filters were used. some works may have been tagged with multiple ships (e.g., codywan and anidala) and/or with a 3-way ship (e.g., obianidala)

each year shows the number of works at the end of that year (i.e., 2022/12/31, 2021/12/31, etc)

data for works posted by year and for % growth for 2023 was extrapolated from the number of fics posted in 2023 so far. at the time of making these graphs (2023/08/01), there have been 191 quiobi, 1391 obikin, 2205 anidala, and 1179 codywan works posted in 2023

technically, the graphs show the number of works updated, not posted, as i could not find any option to filter works on ao3 by date posted

since quiobi, obikin, and anidala are all significantly older than ao3 itself, these graphs are of limited scope pre-2009. pre-2009 data is affected by which works were imported from older archives and/or backdated by their creators moving to ao3

deleted works were not accounted for

#midtalks #star wars #quiobi #obikin #anidala #codywan #long post #ao3 #ship statistics

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centrumlumina · 1 year

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Did your ship make the top 10?

The top 100 AO3 ships of 2022 are now available to view on my AO3.

#ao3 ship stats #ao3 statistics #fandom stats #archive of our own #ao3 #fandom #fandom statistics #fandom stats discussion #slash fandom #femslash fandom

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gaywarcriminals · 22 days

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How much lesbingqiu is there?

Since exactly One (1) person asked for the femslash slash stats on my post about the proportion of hetswap in the bingqiu AO3 tag, I have obliged.

I used the bingqiu tag and filtered by F/F. Obviously many of these results are F/F side pairings with M/M bingqiu, so from there, I counted them by hand.

I excluded crossovers from my search criteria, but I did a separate search to include the fics tagged with both SVSSS and Scumbag System. At time of writing there were 257 and 18 fics respectively, or 275 total.

I have included fics with multiple pairings and polyships. Iirc this was only relevant to Bingliushen.

I counted collection fics that had at least one fembingqiu ficlet/chapter.

I included art posted to the archive.

I included podfics posted to the archive, and counted them and the fics they were based on as two separate works.

I am excluding fics where male characters' bodys or genitals are temporarily changed for a plot device but the characters maintained their original gender identity.

By these criteria, I counted 140 lesbingqiu fics on AO3. At time of data collection there are 7005 total fics in the bingqiu tag, meaning lesbingqiu makes up 0.01999% of the bingqiu tag

For funsies, I have also noted instances of trans bingqiu!

I am including fics where amab Shen Yuan Transmigrates into a cis woman and decides they're okay with this body in the trans category.

If gender was not mentioned in a fic I defaulted to cis.

I am lumping all iterations non-binary bingqiu into the trans category, including afab non-binary bingqiu.

Not all fics with trans characters are tagged as such, so I skimmed any fics I was unsure of, but I'm sure I inevitably missed some.

Cis bingqiu - 118 Trans SQQ x cis Binghe - 8 Trans Binghe x cis SQQ - 6 T4T bingqiu - 4 Monsterfucking body weirdness, gender fucky omegaverse, or high tier SQQ gender shenanigans that I didn't know how to categorize - 4

Reflections

WAY LESS THAN I THOUGHT??? I think my perception has been skewed by what a high proportion of my fandom friends are lesbians, and how often femslash AUs feature in our discussion.

Similarly, the fact that there are only four T4T fics was genuinely shocking to me-- I forget sometimes what a bubble I'm in lmao. I also noted that trans bingqiu was a more recent development, at least on AO3; the first fic I found to feature trans girl SQQ was from January of 2022.

I don't have exact numbers because I didn't think of it until halfway through, I noticed that in almost all the NSFW fics where just one of bingqiu was trans, the trans girl topped. This was an interesting mirror to the trend I've noticed where, in cases where just character is a trans man, he almost always bottoms. I'll shelve speculation about that for another post tho.

#This is the adult equivalent of counting my favorite rocks #some times you just want to count and/or sort things (normal neurotypical sentence)#svsss #luo binghe #shen qingqiu #genderswap #genderbend #lesbingqiu #bingqiu #fandom meta #fish.txt

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drosselmeyerwrites · 3 months

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SessKag Fandom Chat

Before I write more, I want to first say that this is not a warm and fuzzy Tumblr post. There has been a lot going on in the SessKag fandom over the past couple years, and this post is going to be discussing what has happened and what is still happening behind the scenes there. If you are not in the mental or heart space to invest time in fandom drama, this post is not what you are looking for right now. If you want to preserve your peace or do not want to be made aware of the unsavory details of what has occurred, now would be the time to scroll.

If you are still here…

I want to start by saying that this post was not approached lightly. Myself and others have watched for a long time now (mostly) quietly as certain creators and participants in the SessKag fandom have incited discontentment and exclusivity under the pretense of “support” and “inclusion.”

At best, they have spread individual perspectives that they falsely attribute to the masses; at worst, they have been outright bullying.

I am going to attempt to be as non-confrontational as possible. What has been going on, however, makes this effort intrinsically limited. But due to the harm that has occurred, negative things will be discussed. It’s the nature of the beast. I’m not going to say the names of those involved in this negative behavior. Fandom being what it is, many have already noticed who’s doing what and have spoken of it in their own circles. So, while I am not saying names, many of you reading this will regardless know. I cannot help that.

To those who have been doing this, my first instinct was to show fandom in no uncertain terms what you have said and been orchestrating behind the scenes. There is plenty of screenshot evidence showing how you talk about creators, their works, and even your own supposed friends when you think no one is looking. But, as others in this fandom far wiser than me pointed out, too many would be unnecessarily hurt by this because they don’t know what you’re saying behind their backs while you smile to their faces and put up a false pretense of support. So, for the time being at least, those will not be shared.

It is hard to know what to share about everything that has happened, but a bit back, this post popped up on Tumblr, and the hashtags pretty much hit the nail on the head and described this situation within SessKag perfectly. So, I am going to piggyback off these hashtags to talk about the garbage this select group of people has been inciting. Hashtags are taken directly from the post previously linked.

#fandom is supposed to be a community#fandom is not a competition or popularity contest

Communities evolve, and fandom is no exception to this. What matters about fandom is that a group of people have come together to share a common interest. Sometimes, that interest leads to closer friendships that are long-lasting, and that’s part of the magic of fandom. But in the last couple of years, for some reason some of you have taken the focus off the relationships and what brought everyone together to begin with. Instead, a higher value has been placed on “stats,” whose work is being talked about, shared, who’s winning fandom awards, etc. And when it wasn’t what you wanted to see, for some asinine reason, you took it personally and made it your mission to try and change it to what you wanted by tearing others down.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to promote works that may be falling under the radar; there is something wrong with the way you’ve gone about it.

There have been a few different distasteful tactics involved, which are discussed below. What I speak of here is stuff there is screenshot evidence for or other virtual evidence:

“Squash” posting, where you intentionally try to push the content of others down feeds

Event mimicry

Post mimicry

Collection theft

Server poaching (There is nothing wrong with inviting people to Discord servers you create. There is, however, something wrong with staying in servers you bash behind the scenes for the sole purpose of trying to pad your own member list. This is especially true when you send “recruitment” messages that in any way disparage the efforts of the servers in which you disingenuously stay.)

Performance expectations (Behind the scenes, you have been hypercritical of people who are not as active in fandom as you deem required to be considered “valid.”)

Bashing authors behind the scenes (You can critique works you read; there is nothing wrong with that. But there is a difference between critique and bashing. And while no one can control what you choose to say and do, bashing is not okay. Making assumptions about authors’ personal lives and character based on their work is not okay.)

On the matter of mimicry, the behavior has been particularly appalling. SessKag does have some established fandom events and spaces that have been around for years. Certain people, who are sometimes also creators, are a part of keeping these things together. And they have done so consistently for years. This doesn’t mean that other people can’t make their own spaces or events—they absolutely can and should. But trying to reinvent the wheel and “takeover” what exists, is a different matter. Why do I say “takeover” in particular? Well, the server poaching mentioned above is one reason. But there has also been:

Name-calling and insults

Outright admissions that you are attempting to usurp these established efforts because yours are, quote, “better”

Expressions of violence when those running these established SessKag events and spaces say or do something you don’t like

It should go without saying, but none of this is okay or appropriate. At all.

To the one spearheading this effort, I’m going to speak to you as a writer for a moment. There is this well-established fact in writing that it’s all been said and done, but it hasn’t necessarily been said and done by you before. So, if you have a creative idea, giving that an outlet is something you should do. But remember also that writers are warned that things can become predictable, redundant, or boring if all we do is approach it the same way. In the most extreme cases, it results in plagiarism and copyright violations. IP theft. Bringing something new to the table within a genre, subverting tropes—all this is important to making creations that share inherent characteristics with others unique. It also serves to avoid outright copying.

Oscar Wilde said it best: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

There is no room for copying and takeover attempts in any space. This does nothing more than destroy communities. If there is something more to add, add it. But adding to fandom means doing just that. It does not require the attempts there have been (and there absolutely have been) to destroy existing spaces and take someone’s idea and “do it better,” especially when your reasons to do so are nothing more than personal or straight up contrived.

#and no one is ‘higher’ than another because they write or draw or have a lot of followers #abolish this idea of hierarchy#we’re all here together and we’re equals

This one is especially interesting. Somewhere along the squall line of this drama, the concept of “pillars” came out. That is, this group of people inciting disquiet decided that certain authors were SessKag “pillars” because their work was popular, and these works were recognizable to a broad audience within our fandom. Others deemed “pillars” were involved in helping run different fandom circles they volunteer their time for. But for some reason, you all decided to paint these people as diabolical. As terrible people. As awful people. Other things I won’t waste time saying here.

And you do not know them.

I’m going to speak personally for a moment because I do know a lot of the “pillars” you’ve talked about and spread rumors about this way. They’re friends of mine, and they are some of the sweetest, most caring, honest, and heartfelt people out there. They do not call themselves “pillars” nor view themselves as such. And you’ve taken a steaming digital dump on them because, for some reason, them participating in fandom in the same manner that anyone else does has made you angry.

This is a you problem. And it is a big you problem.

“Pillars” do not control fandom audiences, and fandom audiences are allowed to consume whatever stories and art they wish. Just as we’ve seen within any genre of fictional works, some stories garner more attention and are more broadly read and discussed. That is literature. That is life.

No creator has done you wrong by writing/ drawing a well-loved work.

No member of the fandom audience has done you wrong liking any popular work.

For that matter, no one has done you wrong not consuming or commenting on your works. That is not owed—to any of us. Of course, we love feedback. But it is not required for anyone to leave feedback to be a good fandom member or a part of fandom.

There was no concept of hierarchy in SessKag until you all started this nonsense. You attributed a label, intent, and attitude to people you do not know that doesn’t even exist within them. But you committed to this garbage based on nothing but your own perceptions and false assumptions. This is not okay, and singling out people like this accomplishes the opposite of what community is supposed to do.

The only time there is a “hierarchical” structure, so to speak, is perhaps in fandom events or projects. And that’s because the whole world of fandom can’t manage a single event. It would be chaos. So, there’s an event runner who orchestrates things and sets up the rules, and if one chooses to participate in that event? Yes, there is a reasonable expectation that you go along with what the event coordinator has set up.

Fandom spaces like Discord servers, blogs, events, etc. are never without a need for help. Help has been asked for repeatedly in the past in SessKag spaces. What that help requirement is will vary by situation. But it’s not like there has never been an opportunity to step up and help in these roles. There has been. So we also cannot fairly say that certain people are just trying to control things in Sesskag, as you have also done. Participating in these broad fandom spaces has always been welcomed.

#and fic and art are not ‘content’#content just means stuff#what writers and artists make is more than just stuff

I touched on this briefly earlier, but we’re going to loop around back to it. Somewhere in the past couple of years, you’ve decided that people must actively create to “matter” in fandom. This is ludicrous. Fandom is a place to come as you are when you can come. Everything in fandom is done on a voluntary basis and is a labor of love. People have lives that take priority over fandom—as they should. Expecting that people constantly churn out fanworks to be considered relevant is unreasonable, and there's no place for this mentality in fandom.

There is also plenty of screenshot evidence showing where you criticize what creators choose to produce, complaining about their works’ genres, tropes, etc. To add to the list, you are complaining behind the scenes about specific creators never reading nor commenting on your works or other works you think they should be doing so on.

So, to that, several things need to be said:

The only requirement in fandom is not being a jerk to others.

No creator owes a fandom stories.

No creator owes a fandom fanart.

No creator owes you fanworks that meet your preferred tropes, genres, categories, etc. rather than what they want to produce.

No creator/ reader owes you comments on your fics.

No creator/ reader is required to read your or any other creator’s fanworks.

No one is doing you or anyone else wrong by not doing these things.

Everything I said up above is true. 100%. Non-negotiable. Yes, it’s nice when we get comments or find works that fit our preferences. And, yes, creators and readers can have very valid frustrations on these matters. But you still don’t call the shots on what others do for fandom or what they consume.

Fandom is no one’s personal playground where everyone must cater to your whims. You curate your own experience, and that’s it. But that’s not how you’ve chosen to act. Of course, you aren’t physically there to breathe down fandom members’ necks and try to make them do what you want. But when they don’t do these things that you’ve arbitrarily set up as “rules,” they are suddenly doing something wrong, and you put them on blast behind the scenes.

This is where things begin to take a devious turn. In public fandom spaces, and we’ll include closed servers in this, you give lip service to the opposite. You express for people to do as they want when they can. But in the private conversations, you’re speaking out the other side of your mouth. You’re trashing people for violating your personal expectations on these matters.

Again, that is neither appropriate nor okay.

It also contributes to ableism in the fandom. That’s another topic in and of itself, but the bottom line is that not everyone can consume or produce content the way that your expectations demand–all for different and valid reasons. Whether or not that is understood by you doesn’t matter. It also doesn’t negate that it is ableist.

Following this, there has been this new idea perpetuated that “old works” or creators are out of touch or don’t matter anymore, but that is not how art nor literature works. Never has been. And significance and impact are not limited by a timeline that a handful of people arbitrarily decide. On top of this, it’s a massive lack of respect for the fans and creators that helped to build this fandom well before you ever dipped your toes into it. Disparaging old works in the manner you have does nothing more than poison the well, so to speak, because those works are either the whole reason people have a fandom to enjoy to begin with. Or, in the case of works created only a handful of years back, they’re a part of fond, meaningful fandom memories for SessKag fans.

Works stick in people’s minds based on that work’s own merit. This is why you have people who love maybe a single book by an author, but they don’t like any of their other stuff. It’s why you might enjoy one song by an artist and then none of their other music. You can’t make something suddenly more significant to people by telling them that something is more relevant or better just because it’s newer. That’s a single criterion in a long list of reasons on why works become loved by individuals, and the consumption of any art form is subjective to begin with. Trying to police how people perceive these fandom writings and artworks is an inappropriate and misplaced effort.

You have the same opportunity any other fandom creator does to create a fanwork with a long-lasting impact on the fandom. At the end of the day, it's the luck of the draw. Creators don't know what is going to stick with readers and become a broadly-loved fanwork. It just happens when it does.

The works and fandom members make that decision for all of us.

#let’s make fandom more of a community again and lift each other up and support each other and make friends again

Many of you have been in the SessKag fandom for a long time. Some of us have participated for a little bit now, and others are very new. No matter where you sit in terms of fandom longevity or how you contribute, you are a part of this fandom. You matter. Your thoughts, feelings, and opinions—as far as they do not harm nor attempt to control others—are valid. It doesn’t matter if your most recent fanwork share was yesterday or ten years ago. It doesn’t matter if you do nothing but lurk. There is no requirement to be a part of fandom except that you’re here for the subject matter and aren’t a jerk to others.

Fair is fair. As much as everything here in this post addresses a distasteful lack of judgment, humans are going to human. We all have moments where our asses show, and we all have moments we need to learn from. What we do when we realize that is what really matters because none of us are perfect. No one should expect perfection. Everyone, even friends we love and hold dear, will screw up at one time or another, and this is one reason why relationships take work.

I don’t want to step away from this without acknowledging positives to those people this post addresses. None of this means that, if you have been hurt by anyone in fandom, that you suddenly have to make nice and be buddy-buddy with them. No. You’re allowed to set and keep boundaries. But life is nuanced, so in light of that I do think it’s important to recognize more than just the bad that’s been thrown in our faces lately.

To those of you participating in everything discussed in this post, you guys are parents, spouses, friends—just like all of us. I know you have been there to support each other when that has been needed, and you all also contribute a whole lot of joy to fandom. People love the work you all put out there. Why? Because you are a talented group of people. I have seen art and moments in fanfiction you all have created that resonate with me and make me feel things. There is so much beauty in what you all contribute and can contribute to fandom. And really, moving forward, I hope that is what stands out and shines. Because that is the part of you people look at and are inspired by. These are the kinds of things that make fandom a better place and fosters an environment of friendship and a shared love for a niche thing that not everyone out there gets. But we do. We share that.

All this other stuff? It’s unnecessary. It doesn’t support fandom. It doesn’t support the people in it. It kills the spirit of fandom that has always made it the special thing it is. But it’s also something that can be left in the past. It doesn’t have to be how you choose to move forward.

All these people you have been talking about in the dark corners of Discord and the like? They’re people just like your friends. They’re people just like you. And again, I hope you take a moment to reflect on how you really do not know them well enough to be making the character accusations you have. A lot of assertions have been made in a way that acts like you know them better than you do. That is deeply inaccurate, and unfortunately because people’s names have been dragged through the mud, we have to point that out. Because at the end of the day, there are people you’ve said these falsehoods to who, until now, have heard nothing but your opinions on people you largely do not know.

As previously stated, humans will human. We will all mess up. But it’s how we choose to move forward after we’re aware of it that truly matters.

Here’s to choosing to do what is right. And here’s to SessKag reclaiming what it once was.

#sesskag #sesskag fandom #be kind to fanwork creators

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bunabi · 2 months

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Hey Erika -- sorry to send this via the askbox but it looks like messages are turned off.

I had read one of your posts (742591910198345728) and misinterpreted it to be about the Wyll Twitter/bug report campaign, and reblogged it with incendiary commentary disagreeing. Someone reached out to me to let me know that that was not what you were referring to && that you yourself are a black artist.

With this added context, they are correct -- it was not an apt response to the post. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions, for posting my comments and for any harm my comments may have caused.

I've deleted the blog & am making a post on it to clarify, but please let me know if there's anything else I can do to make the situation right.

At least your anger was rational 😭 better than the usual 'fuck you fuck this' messages I get

But we've gotta start treating strangers better overall and ask for context. Tryna put in the work myself. My ask box is always open for clarification. If something I say is unclear or doesn't feel quite right I don't mind elaborating!

When I say 'don't heckle random studio employees' I do not mean creators are always above reproach, or that demanding equity is harassment. I mean 'not everything needs creator approval, participation, or validation'.

Character interpretation argument: settle it in the fandom, would love to see the discussion. No specific option for your specific character in one specific circumstance: write on it, would love to read the story. The loudest players think so-and-so origin is canon and keep yapping about how no one else matters: this always happens, the global player stats always say differently.

Also bothering Chris Thee Community Manager for dialogue changes when he should be busy preparing for Summer Games Fest should earn jail time.

#replies #your heart was in the right place dont worry none about it

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ultfreakme · 2 months

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idk of it's just me but i don't understand, the atla fandom, from all ships existing would just slander zukka out of nowhere. like mf i just want to see my boys being silly and in love in fanwork, why they need to be so mean lmao

I think it's because for close to 20 years, Kataang and Zutara were reining supreme in ship wars and fandom space. Jetko was the main mlm ship before but it didn't have nearly the same popularity. No other ship could even touch those two and those two continued arguing about what's best for canon.

Now though? Zukka's the second most popular ship on ao3- all of those fics and content showed up in 3 years. And suddenly the Netflix actors are pushing for Zukka practically every interview while actively dissuading Zutara(and hinting strongly at Kataang- thanks Gordon & Kiawentiio going "he/she's my.....family, yeah let's say family *wink* *wink*"). They're getting extremely popular and now fucking Netflix, Entertainment Weekly and Deadline are tagging #zukka in the year of our lord 2024(thank you for your service Dallas Liu, braver than the marines). Popular ships unfortunately get hate, especially queer ships, like just as a baseline regardless of if it's a canonically supported or unsupported ship, if it's "morally correct or incorrect".

This 'crackship' that no one took seriously suddenly feels...like a threat to these people??? Like we can joke about hahaha zukka gayyyy but we all know that's just silly gobbledygook right? (Not saying Zukka should or could be canon, but just the fact that people are seriously considering it as a ship option in fandom makes people act weird)

A lot of the the points made for "why Zukka is bad actually" are so funny though, that my initial irritation is fading and I'm just laughing at it. Some highlights that made me actually lose it:

Zukka is misogynist to Katara because, and I shit you not, they think that we think Katara is homophobic sdjfhbbgvh. I was shook when I discovered this was a thing.

Zukka bad because Klance bad (war flashbacks to Voltron)

"Everyone just wants a gay ship smh the chronically ONLINE FANDOM BRAIN HAS ROTTED THE SANCTITY OF HETEROSEXUAL-[EXPLODES]"

Zuko is a colonizer who's oppressing Sokka by dating him (i have no stats but this sounds like a white person trying very hard to sound like they're super inclusive and understand the plights of the colonized and oppressed. and the best way to do it is shit on a fake ship about lines on a page)

Zukka bad because it makes no canon sense

I think people who are Big Mad don't get that we're genuinely just chilling and making silly stuff without thinking too much about what SHOULD happen in canon. Everyone in ATLA fandom takes the show and the fandom far too seriously, like losing a fan discussion is somehow a slight upon their personal morals.

We coasted along without much hate for a good while but the increasing popularity means Zukka as a ship is going to get bashed ;_; I think the best we can do is block and ignore instead of engaging(very hypocritcal of me rn tbh, I'll try to stop).

I don't think you expected this....giant wall of text but thanks for sending me the ask and I totally get your frustration" Just let us enjoy our silly hcs and content!!!

#riki asks #zukka #ship discourse #anti zutara #a little bit

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cfiesler · 1 year

Video

I recently made a couple of videos about an interesting group project in my Online Fandom class a few years ago, so I thought I would share here, too!

TL;DR A group of students who knew nothing about fanfiction before this class really wanted to study sports fandom, so they did a study about sports RPF. Their research question was: What factors contribute to which athletes are most commonly written about? In case you don’t want to watch the video, answer below the cut...

(1) They compared metadata from AO3 to sports stats - winning teams, individual performance, etc. - as well as net worth of players. What they found was... none of those things seemed to matter. (But one of the other students in the class said, “Well did you measure hotness?”)

(2) In the second half of the class I distributed a survey here (some of you might have taken it, this was in 2018!) based on questions that the student groups composed. They had a multiple choice question about which factors people cared about when writing and reading sports RPF and the two most popular answers were “physical attractiveness” and “personality.” But they also analyzed open answers, and the two other common themes were friendships or rivalries with other players, and the writer/reader feeling a personal connection to that player.

This ended up being one of my favorite projects in the class because it sparked a really interesting discussions about methods and measurement and knowing the right questions to ask and how to ask them!

Also! I mentioned a scrape of AO3 data in the video. FYI this was only metadata, and it was also de-identified - basically just numerical data (date posted, word counts, hits, number of comments, etc.) and tags like fandom and characters. No story names, authors, etc. If you’re interested in thinking through research ethics for using fandom data, I co-authored a paper about that!

(Also I just realized that despite filming these videos two weeks apart I am wearing the same shirt, haha!)

#fanfiction #fan studies #ao3 #sports rpf #fandom research

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olderthannetfic · 4 months

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https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/739335177994747904/httpswwwtumblrcomolderthannetfic739061849135#notes

I'm the anon on this post. I fully get the point here in this person's reblog and your addition, and I can see how my ask came across as gatekeeping, but I think what I meant more was in response to the previous anon (that Il inked) seeming to think that a LOT of hetero men needed to enter fandom for F/F to become more popular. As I said, there is some good F/F content written by men; I encountered that even in the brony fandom. (That said, that was a fandom where I very strongly was NOT interested in smut, which is not the case with most of my other F/F fandoms, so that's probably part of what influenced my preferences there.) Like, there was a lot of garbage, but there was so much content that there happened to be a decent amount of good stuff as well even following Sturgeon's Law.

I think what I meant more was disagreeing with the idea that the "solution" to lack of F/F is to have fanfiction become a *much* dudier space. I was trying to give my experience of having been in a fandom like that to suggest that it's a very fundamentally different experience than the generally less-dudey places that fanfiction fandom is in most fandoms, and I don't know that that's necessarily better just because we get more F/F, because in effect it still ends up marginalizing lesbian and bi women F/F fans because so much of the content is not only not for us, but often even hostile to us. (In a very different way from the arguments that are made about women writing M/M, where a lot of it is just stuff that isn't what gay/bi men are looking for. I'm sure any lesbian or bi woman who has had to deal with the kind of men who have lesbian fetishes irl, on dating sites, etc. can relate, but I really hate when people compare those things because it is truly apples and oranges.)

I hope I'm being clear, but I just think there's a distinction to be made between "I do not want F/F fanfiction fandom to become a *primarily* male space, and I think there are some big downsides that people who've never been in a fandom like that haven't seen" vs. "We need to gatekeep F/F so it's exclusively queer women writing it." I'm fine with some guys doing it, of course, but I don't think the fact that fanfiction is a primarily female and queer and nonbinary space is a "problem" to be "fixed" even if it means less F/F. I think that's a big part of the draw, in fact. That's what I was trying to say, but maybe not very well.

I think the point of the other comment isn't so much that anyone wants fic fandom to become dude-y... It's that for f/f numbers to look like m/m numbers, you'd have to have the reverse situation.

Whether that's desirable is another question, but it puts the endless focus on stats and numbers into perspective.

I don't think we really disagree all that much. They were just putting it provocatively to get people to think about why they waste their time yelling about AO3's overall stats "looking bad" and what the so-called solution to that would be.

It's pretty much bait is what I'm saying.

Obviously, as a woman, I only rarely encounter women who are mega annoying about gay men and reasonably often encounter those pestilential men in bars who think "bisexual" means "porn star who wants a threesome". I certainly think they're more of an actual problem IRL... but I'm still not convinced it is entirely apples to oranges when we're discussing online fanfic spaces or... like... stories with plots more complex than "I'm here to fix your plumbing".

Ranma fandom was full of dudes writing f/f that was a little anatomically suspect but reasonably in-character and that sounded like other fanfic with the usual "I like this blorbo and want more content about them" motivations. I haven't seen many fandoms like this, but I run across one now and then. (I agree MLP is fairly distinctive even out of these.)

I think the basic thing here is that a lot of (hostile, loud) people do see the absolute f/f numbers as the problem to be fixed.

And you are right and they are wrong.

There is no real fix if people keep looking at it from this "Winning at AO3 numbers" perspective. The cure would be worse than the disease for many of the people complaining.

Better to focus on the usual "How do I get my specific blorbo to have more content by encouraging authors and writing it myself?" strategies and let someone else worry about the global AO3 numbers.

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