#i could have a 5:1 reblog to like ratio but if all those reblogs are blank or just filled with ppl's organizational tags i get discouraged

[thcbolter]

(No "see results" option because I find that more non-gifmakers than actual gifmakers will engage with the poll if there's an option like that. If you aren't a gifmaker, this poll is not for you.)

#angel.txt #commentary on creation #polls #making this poll bc im genuinely curious about the mindset regarding the frustration over lack of reblogs and poor ''ratios'' #cause the vibe i genuinely get from some ppl is that they would rather have people not engage with their set at all #than have somebody engage by only liking it #ik the engagement stuff effects all artists but the reason this is for gifmakers only is bc 1) thats what this blog is for #and 2) people who create with other mediums have plenty of other sites to post to and curate engagement #but gifmakers really only have tumblr. so if their engagement desires aren't being met here they have no other options #of these my personal answer is somewhere between reblogs with comments and total note count #i could have a 5:1 reblog to like ratio but if all those reblogs are blank or just filled with ppl's organizational tags i get discouraged

[handwrittenhello]

i think its kind of ridiculous to think that homestucks are seriously using bots in this poll because why the hell would they bot this poll instead of the tumblrwoman poll which was the poll EVERYBODY in the hs fandom was actually making a big deal out of . also because im going to be real but i dont think anyone cares about polls enough to rig one? even the bayonetta/miku poll turned out to actually not be vriska voter fraud (most people in the homestuck fandom voted miku anyway) i think people are just unable to comprehend that a lot of people are still dormantly into homestuck & probably just saw vriska serket at the front of the trending disco elysium tag and thought it was funny. like oh my godddd no one cares enough about the outcome of this poll to bot it . somebody with a lot of followers probably just posted about it on twitter or something mundane like that its not that deep . a lot of people on tumblr have read homestuck its not extraordinary that a lot of vriska voters exist. disco elysium fans im sorry your blorbo is losing you’ll probably be back in the lead in a couple hours anyway all of you need to chill out‼️‼️‼️

answering only this ask about the cheating/botting, and no others, because i'm getting a lot of asks about it. congratulations, this contest has officially had all the fun sucked out of it.

here's data i've been collecting for every poll i've run. it's organized by votes the character received per round, then the total number of votes on that poll, for all five rounds. then there are two columns for totals.

the next five columns, Notes 1-5, are the number of notes on each poll. i've highlighted two posts that were circulated with a greater-than-average frequency even after the poll ended (the loki/JC one because people were memeing on JC, and then HDB/Howl one because it gained popularity following a popular blogger reblogging it.)

V/N is the votes to notes ratio for each poll. it was taken by dividing the number of votes when the poll ended by the number of notes on each post. one limitation is that this was not taken at the same time each day, and so older posts will have slightly higher notes. however, i believe this uncertainty isn't enough to discount the conclusions i'll come to.

i've highlighted vriska's V:N ratio in red at the top. as you can see, round vriska's V:N ratio wasn't even the highest; she beat kaeya alberich easily, and the comments in the notes reflected that.

in round 2, things started to get interesting. this is where i and other people noticed a sudden flip, but i didn't think much of it. she was up against izzy hands. izzy was leading all day, and when i queued the next day's poll and went to bed, izzy was leading by 60%. when i woke up, it had flipped to 53/47 in vriska's favor. it's not a HUGEamount, but it is a NOTICEABLE amount.

keep in mind that every single day, there have been other, closer polls, that hovered around 49-50-51 all day, and which also flipped at the end of the day, or remained 50/50 and could only be determined by tumblr. in these cases, the notes also reflect the split. these polls also never swayed more than one or two percent.

in round 3, when vriska faced zuko, there was a clear and immediate lead for zuko, with him leading by 80%. keep in mind that by this point, all 28 other polls i ran, besides vriska's the day before, never swayed more than 1 or 2% once a clear lead had been established.

this poll went from 80/20 zuko to 59/41 vriska. that's RIDICULOUS. the only way that's possible is if an OVERWHELMING amount of people voted vriska and NO people voted zuko. for such a thing to happen, this post would need to spread really rapidly, right? surely this post had tens of thousands of notes and comments!

the V:N ratio for round 3 is TWENTY-SEVEN to one. that's the most out of any poll. the standard deviation for the round 3 polls is 9.0, compared to 4.8 and 4.9 the days before. not to mention reading those notes also does not get us an overwhelming amount of comments rooting for vriska.

today has also been highly suspicious. it started out with an 85/15 lead for harry. i wouldn't necessarily expect it to hold exactly at that percentage, but the flip was immediate and drastic. you can see the trend being tracked on this post. not at all suspicious, right? also note that the comments all day have been 95% rooting for harry and maybe 5% for vriska.

please also look at the GRAND TOTAL column, which has reliably predicted the winners of future polls each day. vriska has received 49,064 votes over the course of the whole contest. harry has received 64,644. that's 24% more votes. and yet the poll is locked at 50/50?

and if this isn't enough evidence for you, then remember the tumblr sexywoman poll. it is a FLAT FUCKING FACT that those polls were spammed by bots. out of respect for their privacy i won't go into detail, but they outright admitted it.

TO CONCLUDE,

it's pretty fucking obvious that something is up, and although i admit that there's simply no concrete way of proving it, there would have to be a really standout explanation for this.

and besides this being super lame, it's also removed all the fun from this contest. it's a stupid tumblr poll that wins literally nothing, congratulations!

also, to everyone making death threats in the notes, BOTH SIDES, you've failed my secret challenge of not being rude which means i'm judging you personally. be fucking nice.

#tumblr's plmm contest #to people campaigning lightheartedly: this post isn't about you you're great and fun #to people actually fighting and taking this way too seriously: what positive impact did you have? #and to people spamming bot votes: get fucked and get a life you're not funny #director's commentary #anon #yeah now i'm fucking mad #long post

[goldenhypen]

y’all i don’t wanna have to make a post like this but after today, it feels a little bit necessary,,,

i opened this app a few hours after posting my new mlists to maybe 4x the amount of notifs than normal (bc of the new mlists)?? and all of them, except for maybe 5 (rbs/comments etc) were likes. and i appreciate the likes, i do! however, it still saddened me to see that the ratio of likes to feedback (comments, reblogs including feedback, asks, etc) was about 1 piece of feedback to 300 likes… y’all this is just insane. like i’m still grateful for the likes, but if you put yourself in writers’ shoes, receiving nice feedback from readers is far more encouraging.

and this might just be tumblr culture, but tbh it’s actually kind of discouraging to see so many likes without a single comment or reblog in sight,,, like if i’m being completely honest, seeing this kind of thing makes me start to think thoughts like is my writing rlly not good enough to receive compliments? (and i’m not disregarding any of the incredibly kind words y’all have given me in the past. y’all rock. this post is for the ghost readers.)

anyone can just simply drop a like, but when someone takes the time and thought to let us know that they liked, it means the world to us writers.

like yes, we do this for free, but bc we do, it would be nice if you could even just take 5 seconds to drop a simple “this was so cute!” us writers loveeee those types of comments and it encourages and keeps us motivated to create even more content for you guys. like i’m glad y’all are probably enjoying my work, but it would nice to actually hear that from you and maybe what you liked about it :)

so pls pls pls take just a few seconds out of your day to show your favourite writers some love <3

#you might be thinking ‘omg another one of these posts 🙄’ #yes !!! yes another one! #and there’s a reason why #it’s bc of the lack of response we get to trying solve this problem #so i hope you guys can understand how important it is to show love to your friendly neighbourhood writers through words #and not just simple likes #and to those of you who do take the time to leave nice comments i appreciate you sm and you never fail to make my day!! <3333 #em speaks #queued up! #enhypen fluff #enhypen x reader #enhypen reactions #enhypen imagines

[cattimeswithjellie]

I posted 1,653 times in 2022

That's 1,653 more posts than 2021!

218 posts created (13%)

1,435 posts reblogged (87%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@theminecraftbee

@eyes-inthe-skies

@raisans-art

@made-nondescript

@elytrans

I tagged 1,455 of my posts in 2022

Only 12% of my posts had no tags

#hermitcraft - 117 posts

#goodtimeswithscar - 91 posts

#double life smp - 69 posts

#grian - 66 posts

#double life spoilers - 58 posts

#lmao - 33 posts

#eggies! - 33 posts

#desert duo - 30 posts

#hermitblr - 21 posts

#third life - 17 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#when this is over somebody needs to make a too many cooks style theme song for it where every verse is the genre for that week of the game

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Honestly now that I think about it, the part that's the most striking about the scene where Grian finally tells Scar they're soulmates is the fact that Scar goes along with it at all.

Scar can see the dripstone and he knows what it does. Grian has led him into this exact position before with glib promises of safety on his lips and then killed him. The first thing Grian did to him in the last game was steal a life from him. As far as Scar knows, Grian is his opponent in this game and he has no qualms about killing people with traps long before his red life.

And yet Scar follows Grian willingly onto the target and does not try to get away, apparently content to let Grian hurt him if that's what Grian really wants to do. But of course he looks away at the pivotal moment, focusing instead on something soft and comforting. Who would want to look their best friend in the eye at a moment like that?

2,423 notes - Posted June 18, 2022

#4

Hermitcraft's Season Nine combination of "creeping eldritch horror" and "Looney Tunes shenanigans" actually blends in an oddly pleasing way. Like, yes you could see a rock with a bloody flesh-geode inside, or a machine that eats worlds, or a library build on nothing inside an endless void, but you could also watch a guy splat himself like a bug against a bank vault door for ten minutes or watch someone drop an anvil from the sky onto their rival's sandcastle. What could be next?

2,722 notes - Posted May 16, 2022

#3

Can't stop laughing at how smoothly and instantly Scar pivots from "my cookies are all natural and not those nasty processed Giga-Pies" to "my cookies are SO processed you would not even BELIEVE how mechanized and automated these cookies are" as soon as he gauges his audience. What a sales-elf!

3,426 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

#2

Being on Twitter long enough to understand concepts like "brutal ratio" probably makes me a worse person overall, but on the other hand this is very funny.

3,885 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Cleo's stream today is very funny, she has pointed out the obvious fact that she and Bdubs have had conversations about Twitter and Tumblr as far back as the trouble she had on Tumblr back in 2020 or so, and that Bdubs is very aware of the existence of internet content beyond what is tagged to his attention. She agreed wholeheartedly that him pretending he doesn't is very funny, though.

Now I've got the image in my head of Bdubs trolling Hermittwt the way a dad plays hide and seek with a little kid. "Oh NO! Is there something hiding BEHIND THE DOOR? Maybe I'll go over there and TAKE A LOOK! Or... is there something IN THE CUPBOARD?" and meanwhile the fandom is standing behind the curtains, making a visible fandom-shaped lump in the fabric and giggling loudly.

4,941 notes - Posted August 29, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #nice to know i have been entirely on brand to myself throughout the year #which is to say ridiculous fanpersoning

[gh0stgr1nder]

I posted 8,703 times in 2022

That's 8,703 more posts than 2021! (Me here, its bc I didn't have a tumblr last yr)

2,205 posts created (25%)

6,498 posts reblogged (75%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@redwoomy

@cuttletavioshipper

@fryes-mango-chutney

@xx-sushi-xx

@averagemafuyukinnie

I tagged 3,657 of my posts in 2022

#/pos - 53 posts

#spotify - 53 posts

#set it off band - 52 posts

#set it off - 47 posts

#prev - 44 posts

#assassination classroom - 34 posts

#splatoon 3 spoilers - 33 posts

#splatoon - 31 posts

#yes - 25 posts

#/lyrics - 23 posts

Longest Tag: 80 characters

#😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Hes an octopus,,, he's genuinely kinda stupid,, his found family named him,,,, we call him scary smile veemo,,, he's bisexual,,,, he's transgender,,,,, he'd kill for his found family,,,, he's in love with a p.e teacher,,, he has multiple teenagers and the government trying to kill him at all times,,,, he can change colors depending on his mood like a mood ring,,,,, and he's my babygirl,,,,

121 notes - Posted September 29, 2022

#4

ITS WHAT THE FUCK FRIDAY!!!

163 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

#3

L + ratio + My heart was stolen by a blind pickpocket + In the deep city streets in the summer of 2012 + And I never even saw her face + My dreams were shattered like a stained glass window + Jesus in Pieces! I believe I threw a brick right through Him + But my memory could not be saved + It just seems unlikely that it's me who was to blame + So I bookmark my DSM + cause I need to remember my place

278 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

#2

Somebody needs to make a comic or animation where Marie insults octavio or sum in the splatoon 2 boss fight and he just says "nice opinion. One small issue. I fucked ur grandpa." Or sum like that and Marie just stares at him and he says " whyd ya think u had those eyelashes" [Or whatever they're called idk the thing that octolings have around their eyes]

"IM RELATED TO UR ASS????"

"Hahh yeah"

Then Marie does that thing where an image just fades away and it ends

404 notes - Posted August 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Ive seen ppl do this so screw it if this gets 20k notes I'll read homestuck, the whole thing

2,439 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#OF FUCKING COURSE MY 2ND MOST POPULAR POST IS THE DUMBASS COMIC THING. PLEASE. LET IT DIE

[grippingbeskar]

thanks for the tag!!! i luv talking about myself HAHAH @sturkillerbase

1) How many complete fics/one shots do you have that you have not published (yet)?

I have like 5 fics I could post if i edited them i just havent had time fml but I would call them finished

2) How many WIPS do you have right now?

Seven fml HAHAHAH

3) Do you take writing requests or write original ideas, or both?

Both! I have a lot of ideas but theres a couple of fics that have been inspired by requests, they usually take a little longer for me to write though bc i have no idea where to take them hahahah

4) If you do take requests, how many do you currently have?

I think I have two?? 

5) How many fandoms do you write for?

Marvel and Star wars r what I know best so 2? tons of charatcers in those worlds i feel like its enough

6) Are there any fandoms you wrote for in the past that you no longer write for?

I was a massive one direction fan, but I wouldnt call what I posted actual writing HAHHA thank fuck its all deleted now

7) Do you write for ships, reader inserts or other?

reader inserts mostly, maybe i should expand idk

8) Niche fandoms/characters you write for?

I do have a draft for Javi from Narcos is that counts?

9) Do you read fics as well as write them?

omg of course

10) What is your favorite genre to write for?

i want them to fuck. but with proper build up HAHHAH

11) What is your favorite trope (to read/write)?

hurt/comfort always omfg.

12) What do you do to get motivated to write?

I have no idea, it literally will come to me at random times when im day dreaming and ill just be like holy shit write this down 

13) Is there a trope/genre you like to read, but not write?

i cant think of any rn, anything i dont write is usually also things i dont read

14) Any characters/fandoms you want to write for that are never requested?

hmmm maybe more mcu characters??? 

15) How long have you been writing fanfiction?

nothing serious before a few months ago

16) Did you read fanfiction before you started writing?

omg i literally did nothing else HAHAHA

17) Do you only post on Tumblr, or any other sites as well?

yep just here! i might post on ao3 at some point but so far just here

18) What do you personally consider the word counts of “Drabble”, “One shots” and “fics”?

i feel like my standard for myself is different, but for a drabble anything like 500-700 words, one shot would be over 1k and then fic like anything over 5k??? mine are always longer tho idk i cant shut up 

19) Which do you prefer to write more? HC, drabbles, oneshots/fics, multi chapter stories, other?

one shots i think

20) Are there any stories you have discontinued? If so, why?

nope! my only series is on a lil hiatus but only bc i have no idea what to do next hahah

21) What is one of your main “pet-peeves” as a writer on Tumblr?

hmmmm i feel like the whole reblog/like ratio maybe?? i dont write anything for the likes or reblogs, but fics can reach a ton more people who might like it/give feedback if you reblog instead!!! support ur fave writers!!!

22) Do you write at a particular time of day?

usually at night/late afternoon

23) Do you listen to music, ambiance/noise, etc. to write or do you need silence?

i legit have tv shows on in the background. my mind can never concentrate unless i have like a thousand things happening at once hhaha

24) Do you outline your fics at all before writing?

nope we wing it out here

25) Do you post your writing as soon as you finish it, or do you schedule it to come out at a specific time/day?

usually i post right before i go to sleep because thats when i finish, but i dont really keep to a schedule or anything

tagging anyone who wants to do it!!!! tag me in urs i wanna read about all u beautiful ppl <3

[its-captain-sir]

BATTALION BREAKDOWN

Alright y'all, here it is, my breakdown of what I think a GAR battalion SHOULD look like. Full disclaimer before we get into it: I tried to research this stuff on wookiepedia as best I could but 1. there wasn't a ton of information out there on some of the things I had questions about and 2. some of it just makes No Sense when you put it together, so a lot of these numbers were made up by me and what I thought made sense based on what we see in the show and just simple logic. Feel free to accept/ignore parts as you please! Also, I'm gonna try to explain the rationale behind certain things as I go along but if you have any questions about this, you can send an ask/reply/reblog this post with your question and I'll do my best to answer it :)

Now that all that's out of the way, here's all the actual info beneath the cut.

Basic Organization

Essentially, the GAR breaks down into four tiers at this level: battalions, companies, platoons, and squads.

Battalions are the largest groups with 576* members and are all numbered, such as the 501st, 212th, 104th, etc. The only exceptions to the numbering convention are the Rancor Battalion that guards Kamino and the Coruscant Guard. Personally I believe that both of these should be double, if not triple, the size of a regular battalion, which could potentially explain the difference in names. Battalions are led by a clone commander and Jedi general + a padawan commander if the Jedi has one. 4 companies make a battalion.

Companies consist of 144 members and are all named. Using the 501st for example, this would be Torrent, Tide, Wave, and Typhoon. Note: Torrent, Tide, and Wave are canon/widely accepted fanon, but Typhoon is something me and my friends came up with. You're welcome to use the name as the fourth 501st company in your wips if you want! The names don't have to be related, but my guess would be that they often are. Companies are led by a captain.** 4 platoons make a company.

Platoons consist of 36 members and are simply referred to as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th platoon under their company. Platoons are led by a Lieutenant. 4 squads make a platoon.

Squads consist of 9 members and are named. I don't have names for any 501st squads unfortunately, which is why those spaces are left blank in the picture. As a content creator, you'd have a LOT of freedom when it comes to these because there's so many within a battalion and it seems like they can be named just about anything. Squads are led by a sergeant.

*Numbers for this and subsequent numbers in this section were taken directly from wookiepedia

**One problem people tend to have with this is that Rex is a captain, and yet he seems to be in command of all of the 501st. I think most people have figured this out already but the clone wars writers really just threw names around willy-nilly when it came to all the military stuff. Rex should by all intents and purposes be a commander, and my personal in-universe explanation for this is that while he was skilled enough to go through ARC/command track training, he wasn't originally meant to be a commander and his CT number is what barred him from the title initially. Keeli would be another example of this.

A few comparisons just to illustrate it a bit better:

1 battalion = 4 companies = 16 platoons = 64 squads = 576 members

1 company = 4 platoons = 16 squads = 144 members

1 platoon = 4 squads = 36 members

1 squad = 9 members

Please note that these numbers do not include the officers. There would be 64 sergeants, 16 lieutenants, 4 captains, and a commander added to this number to make a total of 661 clones in any given battalion.

Now I could have just stopped here but I have a tendency to want to get way too specific in my wips so I went a little further:

Internal Battalion Assignments

To make the numbers a bit easier, this just looks at what would be found in one company, you can do the extra math if you want to know the full battalion numbers.

I tried my best to remember what kind of specialized troops showed up in the show since wookiepedia wasn't much help, and I ended up breaking these assignments down into medics, heavy gunners, ARF and tank operators, scouts, tech specialists, and standard infantry.

Medics total 16* within a company, one for each squad. Within the medical corps, they're further broken down into junior medical officers (JMO), medical officers (MO), senior medical officers (SMO), and the chief medical officer of the battalion (CMO). Any internal promotions would probably come from the CMO, maybe a SMO on occasion. When pertaining to medical issues, they do often outrank any other officer, but in combat, JMOs and MOs only hold the rank of private (underneath sergeant) and SMOs and the CMO hold the rank of major (between sergeant and lieutenant).

Heavy gunners total 16 within a company, again one for each squad. These are the clones who have been trained to use the Z-6 rotary blaster, like Hardcase and Hevy.

ARFs and other tank operators total one platoons-worth spread throughout a company, or 36 members. ARF troopers are the ones who drive the AT-RTs (the really bouncy walkers you can see used on Ryloth and Umbara) and other tank operators encompass, well, the operators of all the other ground vehicles we see used. The ratio of each of these seems like it could be fluid based on the needs of the battalion and their mission, so I didn't go too much further into this.

Scouts total two squads-worth spread throughout a company, or 16 members. To me it makes sense that one of the lieutenants within their company would specifically deal with their recon reports, simply because it's more organized and practical.

Tech specialists total one squads-worth spread throughout a company, or 9 members. Honestly this is where I grouped anything else left over, like the bomb squad members we see in the blue shadow virus episode, any slicers, etc.

Standard infantry totals the remaining 49 members in a battalion. They're strictly the fighting force on the ground. This doesn't mean that they're the only ones who do the actual fighting, just that they aren't specifically trained for any other specialization.

*These numbers and the subsequent numbers in this section were not taken from any canon source. They were calculated simply by what I thought would make sense to have.

LAAT/is and Starfighters

Again, I tend to be way too specific in my wips so not only did I go through all of the ground fighting force, but I started figuring out the some of the space forces attached to a battalion as well. This doesn't go into a ton about the Republic Navy because frankly, as soon as I read "7400 crew members on a star destroyer" I exited out of that tab cause that's a little Too Much to try to figure out, but I will cover how I think the gunships and fighter squadrons should work.

LAAT/is (gunships) total 48 per battalion, or 12 per company. However, two per company are usually held in reserve to make sure there's always something available for easy transport to/from the ground. This brings down the number to 40 per battalion, or 10 per company. Gunships take two people to man, so the total number of those pilots for a battalion is 96, or 24 for a company. There's also room for two gunners, which would bring the battalion total to 192, but from what I remember in the show the side guns rarely have someone in them, so I don't think the full 96 LAAT/i gunner positions would be filled. I also think the LAAT/i gunners could be temporarily reassigned from the main star destroyer crew (because 7400 is a LOT, they can spare 96). Wookiepedia said that the gunships could hold 30 troops for transport, but that seems like it'd be really cramped quarters. My guess is that each one would hold somewhere between 14-17 comfortably depending on how many people need transport and how many gunships are in use, which is what I kept in mind to come up with the original number of 48 for a battalion.

The Starfighter Corps consist of 5 separate squadrons, the standard* being two squadrons of Y-wings, one squadron of V-19 Torrents, one squadron of Z-95 Headhunters, and one squadron of ARC-170s. There are 12 in a squadron, plus a squad leader and two usually in reserve, so that's 15 total ships in a squadron and 75 total ships overall. Y-wings require a pilot and a gunner, so the total number of members in a battalion's starfighter corps equals 105. However, I believe some battalions could have up to double** these numbers if they're frequently in space battles, like Anakin and the 501st, or if they have a name that suggests it, like the 327th Star Corps. Squadrons seem to often be named after colors, but that isn't always the case, ie. Shadow Squadron.

*This standard isn't canon, it's just what I believe makes sense based on the number of ships types available and how frequently they are seen used in the show. The Y-wing bombers seem to be used a bit more than the rest, which is why I think there would be two squadrons of them.

**While double the number of ships is certainly possible, I figure it's more common to have three more squadrons instead of the full five so there would be two squadrons of each type of ship.

~~~

That's all I got! Like I said earlier, use whatever you like, ignore the parts you don't, it doesn't really matter to me. This system is definitely what I'm going to follow in my wips if anyone is ever curious about what's going on with those.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone out there! And if you made it this far, thanks for reading! :)

#star wars refs #god this got so long HAJDHSKFHSKFHDK #I really hope all my math is right hsjskdhskfhslfj #i only caught one screw up while typing all this out so I'm pretty sure it's okay #but i apologize in advance if something isn't #ALSO sorry for the shaky lines in the visuals my hands started shaking really bad while making them hskdhskfhskfj #clones #oh look another clone wars post

[panlyv]

hiii dawnie 🥰💙 for the creators ask game: 1, 5, 22, 37, 48 !!! ily!!

nico 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 thank u ilysm!!!

1. what’s your favourite creation of yours? and why?

i just answered 1 here but another creation i really like is the trans 101 set i made for u and rahul 👉👈 vlad and gsp in general have a v v special place in my heart and i love u and rahul soso much i was so happy i could make this little something for us 🥺

5.  a creation you enjoyed making a lot!

my aoki and hashimoto set was so wholesome to make!! i have to finish kiekoi still but their friendship is so cute i love themmmm

22.  a creation that was difficult to make (but worthwhile!)

def sam’s pokemon gifted santa/birthday gif set! it’s probably the most difficult thing ive made so far and it was a Long and Arduous Process that prob spanned almost a week but i do really like the end result and i pat myself in the back bc it’s a pretty good n creative idea hehe

37.  is there anything you would like to improve from your editing?

for sure! there’s still so many things i don’t know and many types of edit i wish to learn in the future. i still dont quite know my way around ps but i do want to learn how to make those beautiful transitions and texts and all the pizzazz some of the most beautiful set ive seen around here have! there’s always room for more knowledge and improvement!

48. what inspired you to start creating at first?

as an ex avid kpoppie, ive always admired gifmakers and my dream for a handful of years was to learn how to make gifs myself, but i didn’t have a device of my own where i could do that. when i got my laptop for uni, first thing i did was harass my friends to teach me how to gif 😭 jo is still my gif mentor and i always go to her whenever i cant figure smth out. also bc as annoying as ps and like/reblog ratios can be, giffing is something i enjoy doing and sometimes its even therapeutic, especially bc 90% of all sets i do are for myself first and foremost. whenever i couldn’t find a specific set i had in mind i was always “damn i wish i could gif to make that” and now i can!!!!! a win for dawns everywhere 💪

creator ask game!

#ty for playing with me nico 👉👈👉👈 #dawn.odt #nico #creator game

[allisonirish]

I posted 105 times in 2021

16 posts created (15%)

89 posts reblogged (85%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 5.6 posts.

I added 59 tags in 2021

#crosshair - 14 posts

#tbb - 11 posts

#the bad batch - 6 posts

#wrecker - 5 posts

#clone force 99 - 4 posts

#omega bad batch - 4 posts

#bad batch - 4 posts

#tech - 4 posts

#sergeant hunter - 4 posts

#omega - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 108 characters

#if you could marry anything hunters hair tech's datapad 773 firepuncher mantrell mix mom echo

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

The Bad Batch Insomnia Day 9

Hunter

Hunter: *Stands up. Sits down. Sips caf. Stands up. Walks over to where Crosshair is cleaning his rifle. Sips Caf. Sits down. Stands up. Sits down. Crosses legs. Sips caf. Stands up.*

Crosshair: *Doesn't look up* Quit jumping around, you're making me dizzy.

---------

Tech

Omega: Runs and jumps into Crosshair's arms.

Crosshair: What the.....

Omega: I'm scared

Crosshair: *Sets Omega down* Of what?

Tech: *Mad scientist cackle.*

Crosshair: *Picks Omega back up and whispers* I'm scared too.

---------

Wrecker: Echo, I need something to do! I'm bored out of my mind!

Echo: *glances up from book* I could always give you some chores to do.

Wrecker: I'm not bored, I have great, fun things to be doing! Productive fun things! *Scoots out the door* Bye.

-----------

Echo: So Hunter, what are your thoughts on Chapter 2?

Hunter: There wasn't as much action as Chapter 1, but I think that there is a lot of potential opportunities for the main character to show her military expertise and defeat, I don't know, the dark elf maybe.

Echo:

Echo: Uhhh, ok, Wrecker?

Wrecker: I agree with Hunter, not enough action.

Echo: Crosshair?

Crosshair: *Rolls toothpick* The setting is impressively described, especially the waterfall caverns. The author makes it feel like you're really there.

Echo: *Shocked expression*

Crosshair: *Blushes*

-------------

Crosshair

Echo: What is the most important thing in the world to you guys? And it can't be a person

Hunter: Caf

See the full post

19 notes • Posted 2021-08-14 03:53:54 GMT

#4

Crosshair: Pull the lever Wrecker!

Wrecker pulls lever opening trapdoor to alligator trap

Crosshair Falling: Wrong Lever!

Climbs Out, dragging alligator

Crosshair: Why do we even have that lever?

I could also see Hunter, Tech, and Echo going to Cross's and Wrecker's hideout and Tech says something like:

Mathematically I can assume that the correct lever is the one on the right.

Pulls lever, dropping Hunter into alligator pit.

Echo: SMH

Hunter Climbing out, dragging Alligator: Why do they even have that lever?

24 notes • Posted 2021-07-25 01:12:05 GMT

#3

Can I just take a moment to talk about this man right here? Warning: I am a Crosshair Stans so get ready for a bunch of love for my favorite sniper.

1. the first thing that comes to my attention here is what his hands are doing here. He's throwing down a toothpick, a little severely yes, but can I just say how gorgeous his hands are here? Just look at those gloved babies with those long fingers, man, I am a simp for Crosshair's hands.

2. He is so gorgeous here. Look at that lil shoulder roll and that sway, man I'm such a simp for this guy.

3. The obvious height advantage over Jesse and Kix right here, yes please!

4. Everyone loves to talk about Hunter's shoulders to hips ratio and while I have all love and respect for Sergeant Dorito, man I love this guy's physique. Thin, but still with the broad shoulders and them long legs. wow.

Apologies if this got a little weird, my Crosshair love is through the roof rn.

35 notes • Posted 2021-09-03 19:37:30 GMT

#2

You wanna know what the difference between Anakin Skywalker and every other Jedi is?

Other Jedi: Breaks the Rules, but covertly.

Anakin: Breaks the rules and posts a video of him doing it that goes viral.

Anakin: *Force Choking Separatist officer* Are you getting this Snips?

Ahsoka: Yep we're live! And the council is watching! Say hi!

Anakin: Hi everybody!

---------------------------

*Back at the temple*

*Council watching live video*

Anakin on screen: Hi everybody!

Yoda:

Mace: *glares at Obi-Wan*

Obi-Wan: *smh*

Plo: *Waves* Hi!

-------------------

Plo Koon re-watching Anakin's viral video: *Clicks like*

Mace: Did you just like his video!?

Plo Koon: Yes, didn't you?

Mace: Yes, but we're not talking about me, we're talking about how you are encouraging this recklessness and disrespect of the Jedi code!

Plo: Didn't you also subscribe to his channel?

Mace: Stop changing the subject!

----------------------------------------

Ahsoka videoing Anakin: So what are you calling your channel, Master?

Anakin: I'm calling it "Breaking the Jedi Code 101!" For my first video, we'll start with me calling Senator Amidala and seeing where she wants to eat for our romantic anniversary dinner! All anniversary gifts from our friends are welcome!

161 notes • Posted 2021-08-19 21:12:08 GMT

#1

See the full post

190 notes • Posted 2021-08-04 20:31:25 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[stvlti]

2020 Creator Wrap

I was tagged by @irolltwenties to do the 2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works tag! Thank you, lovely (*˘ ε ˘*)

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Before I begin, let me just tag some friends:

@reaperlight @3dnygma @drowthelynes @transdankovsky @fantomn @lawliyeeeet @dressed-to-keehl @setfa @0akdown @reidsnor @clubolive @mermaides

No pressure, but it would be fun if you guys share some of your works this year ( ˘︶˘ ) let’s see those fics and edits and artworks!! Get the clicks and views y’all deserve 💕 💕

And now, onwards to my 2020 Favorite Works List!

I didn’t write nearly as much as some of you guys did. And though I did exceed my goal of putting out 1 fic per month, I don’t have 5 solid ones I’m proud of. So I’ll just list 4 fics here:

01 // Growing Pains

I’ve always been very nervous about reccing this one, because it broaches a topic that I don’t really have a right to claim? I’m not transgender myself, but I simply adore the trans Dick Grayson headcanon so much it singlehandedly brought me back to the DC fandom and restarted my fanfic-writing habit for 2020 😂😂 plus the writing quality isn’t half bad, and I still really like the idea/metaphor this little story started with and grew from. 

Fave moment (besides the obvious):

"Ka-Pow!!" The boy ventriloquised. Lego Robin sailed through the air in his fingers. One stubby, outstretched leg made contact with a Lego henchman, knocking all the surrounding baddies over like bowling pins. "Sorry Mr. Bad Guys, guess it's way past your bedtime too!"

"Good job, Robin." The boy lowered his prepubescent voice and tried to affect Batman's gravelly timbre as much as possible. In his other hand, he walked Lego Batman across the floor of the crime scene. "How about we round them up and leave it for the Commish? It's getting quite late."

"Oh oh! Can I have cookies on the ride back?"

The boy swivelled Lego Batman's grinning face around. "I don't see why not."

Another night out in Lego Gotham City, another day saved by the Dynamic Duo. This called for a celebration indeed. The boy set the pair of heroes down by the Lego Batmobile and reached over to his own plate of Alfred's after-school chocolate chip cookies. He took his sweet time with the last piece, savouring each bite, sighing at the way it melted on his tongue.

02 // Transference 

This is my best-performing fic in terms of the kudos to hits ratio, so I feel validated in being proud of this one :’) It’s a pretty good marker of the distances I’ve covered since getting serious about reading the comic source material end of 2019, as you can see from the much broader and varied cast of characters I focused on for this story. It also definitely cemented - to me, at least - the fact that I can write action scenes. When I went into “Second Chances” (a fem Jay fic) earlier this year, I was so nervous about writing the action sequence there, because I’ve never written a serious action scene up until that point! To me, this fic definitely showcases the growth I’ve experienced as a writer this year ^_^

Fave moment: (CONTAINS SPOILERS, PLEASE READ THE FIC FIRST IF YOU HAVEN’T!)

When the trio return, Ivy takes her place at the meeting table with a severe expression on her face. She chooses her words carefully, when she speaks. "The odds aren't pretty. We just accepted 100 refugees over the weekend, and the Green is still repairing itself after last week's attack."

Rose exchanges a glance with Jason. He gives her hand a reassuring squeeze, though he's not looking any better than she feels.

"But, each and everyone of us stayed behind to defend the Garden, because we all believed in giving a sanctuary for the civilian survivors out there.

"So bring them here. I'll take them in."

No sooner has Ivy finished the sentence, than Zatanna and Constantine have fired up their teleportation portal, and Harley's cheerful "Good luck!" is lost to the mad dash off to the rescue mission. The rest of the Shadowpact scramble after Rose as she launches herself through the portal—

—and slams into Arsenal, pushing him out of the way seconds before a meteoric explosion of green fire incinerates the very spot he'd been standing in.

03 // Paying It Forward

This one is important to me if only for the reason that it’s the first time I’ve written character dialogues that flowed. And I didn’t even need to plan them out meticulously beforehand! Do you know how rare that is for me as an ESL writer? Dialogues have been the bane of my existence since I started writing as a wee teen. Luckily, the Titans TV show has some solid character dynamics for me to fall back on. And from there I started reading NTT era Dick & Donna, and I just fell in love with their friendship. And now, I can turn to this fic as proof I still got it whenever I doubt my abilities as a writer c:

Fave moment:

Dick glanced at her, eyebrows raised. "She ran out on you?"

"No, no, we never really... I don't think it counts as running away if it never led to anything more."

"But you wanted it to be more." Dick paused, taking in Donna's silence, which would've fooled anyone else but him. "You still want it."

"I-- yeah." Donna sighed and held her hands up as if to say you caught me. "I'm... Sorry? For stealing your girl?"

Dick laughed, bemused. "She was never mine. She knew what she wanted, what she needed - and I wasn't in the right place to give her that."

"And you? You think I'm what she needs?"

"Better you than me. You're Donna Troy. Older, smarter, prettier..."

Donna gave him a deadpan stare.

"... And you know who you want to be. She likes that in a partner. I'm still figuring that one out for myself." Dick stretched his arms up and then leaned back into his seat, lacing his fingers behind his head as he stared up into the ceiling.

04 // When I'm down on my knees, you're how I pray

I’m including this one just to showcase I got the range, babey. And honestly, the fact that I was able to write this fic and actually receive positive reviews for it was a surprise to me too!! This was the first time I ever attempted to write a real darkfic with dead dove subject matters, and I managed to nail the emotional manipulation, somehow ;__; It was a real learning experience too, learnt so much about Catholicism just to write about Dick’s guilt issues in an AU setting nobody asked for 🤡

Fave moment: (dead dove warnings apply)

"Not at all, Richard," Roman said. The boy would come to him, eventually. "Now, it's getting late. If that's all, I'll have Jason fetch your room keys. Seven Hail Mary's before bed, and think about everything we've just discussed. Tomorrow we'll do a proper debriefing."

"I... Okay." For a moment, Dick sounded like he had more to say. Instead, Roman heard a muffled sniffle, one that Dick likely tried to disguise with a hand over his mouth. Silly boy.

"Thank you again, Father," Dick said, after a beat.

"All in a day's work, my child." Roman unlatched the door and stepped out of the booth. He nodded at Dick as the younger man ambled out of the booth after him. "Goodnight now, Richard."

As he set off for the living quarters, Dick called out. "Wait!"

Roman turned around, inclining his head.

"Will you stay?" The candlelight chased shadows away from Dick's face, and for one glorious moment, Roman could see the depth of the desperation shining in Dick's blue eyes.

"Guide me through my prayers. Please."

Roman smiled.

-

Oh did you think I was done? 😂 It did say Favourite Works and not just Favourite Fics, so I gotta include this one on the list too:

05 // 2020 Jason Todd Birthday edit

I said Robin Jason deserves better and I meant it! 👏👏 This edit took me 12 hours and 67 layers ‘cause I made a mistake on like my 8th hour into the editing process o__o but it ended up being my most popular serious graphic edit, so it was worth it. I guess! 

I mean the likes to reblog ratio is still fucked but hey, I broke 1k, which is more than I can say for any of my other edits

#tag meme #writerly things #long post #writerly tag

[thejudgingtrash]

Now hold up I would personally love to hear a full rant on this supposed adaptation I have never heard of until now. Like, legitimately, I wanna know what you have to say about this cause you seem to be one of the most valid PJO blogs

Uhhh what??? Me one of the most valid PJO blogs??? What kinda crack have you been smoking WHAT afahsgjskdh.

But still thank you 😊🥺🙈

Alright, you wanted a rant. You got a rant. Fuck the positives let’s just straight up jump into my aggression.

WARNING: Massive rant with a lot of swear words. If you can’t handle the heat, feel free to ignore this. I personally haven’t worked in Hollyweird, but I had some behind the scenes stuff here in Europe going on for a short period and also the trusty words of my college professors. So here will be a lot of prediction and speculation involved. Yes, I know that I’m a huge hypocrite for voicing my opinions based on stuff that hasn’t been pushed through in months and that I could be easily proven wrong in a few weeks/months. Still thank you should you actually take the time to read through this tomfuckery.

If things are wrong, please DO correct me!

Links to further reads will be included partially.

TL;DR: Keep your hopes to a low, stop harassing people online and mAnAgE yOuR eXpEcTaTiOnS!!111!!

Okay. First things first:

DISNEY

DOESN’T

GIVE

A

SINGLE

FUCK

ABOUT

YOU

Disney is a fucking multi-billion dollar corporation with many, many, many studios, stations, brands and franchises worldwide. The Percy Jackson franchise is a dime in a dozen. Disney doesn’t give a single fuck about the PJO fandom in general.

Disney doesn’t give a fuck about you 20-something year old with your 9 year old blog discussing which toilet paper brand Percy uses. And Disney also doesn’t give a fuck about you 16 year old, writing the worst fucking Solangelo fanfic I’ve read so far on this hellsite. Like goddamn.

Trust me, they know you are interested. They know they got you hooked. They see the numbers, they see the like/reblog ratio, they see the Twitter engagement. They see you with #disneyadaptpercyjackson. They see the petitions, they see how excited you were for the musical. You don’t get to be a gigantic conglomerate like Disney with playing stupid.

Also to you fuckfarts saying oH nO I wOn’T wAtCh It I dOn’T cArE aBoUt NeW sTuFf. Congrats dipshit. You are STILL alerting followers and people about what’s happening and creating more buzz, giving more awareness and adding to the transaction costs. You really cheated the system, you little edgelord. Again:

You are nothing but a number. You are a fucking walking dollar bill. You are a consumer waiting for a new shiny product to fill the void in your life for 45 minutes weekly or by two hours at some point.

The PJO movies 1. & 2 happened for a reason. Because Fox saw a popular book series á la Harry Potter, Twilight (and The Hunger Games) and wanted a piece of that action. They wanted your fucking money. Them entirely fucking up and ignoring Riordan’s advice is on them of course. But still. The movies happened. (And also saw people saying they were flops. Reception wise: hell yes. They are awful adaptations (not per se awful movies, there’s a difference). But money wise?? They made together over 245 million dollars in profit. Of course, that isn’t today’s Marvel level but it’s still fairly decent. Also don’t forget that the second movie still got greenlit. Interest was still there despite part one. You disliking something doesn’t turn it into a flop)).

Again, Disney doesn’t care about you. THIS is what Disney cares about:

1. MONEY

2. PROFIT

3. ENGAGEMENT

4. TOTAL GROSS

5. CONVERSION RATES

11. …. “Artistry“

So in terms of money, we gotta speak about the on-going woke culture. You know, lgbtqia+ stuff, poc representation and all the good shit we want and need in our life, right?

Well, I got bad news for ya. Disney being money hungry has its massive downsides. Because where is the money? In the east. Well and what happens if we include the woke stuff? Possible censorships (even retroactively! You know Gravity Falls went through that), bans, etc.

So all of you talking about representation and artistic vision and being bold and brave and blablabla… Throw that into the fucking trash. We can probably be glad if we get Grover back as the token black kid and a few other minorities sprinkled here and there. Open gay Nico? Doubt it. Your afro-latino Percy head canon? Definitely keep that but unlikely to be realized. And also, if you think that Annabeth wouldn’t get turned into the blandest whitest “I dOn’T nEeD nO mAn“ radfem, I got some bad news for ya…

The likelihood of everything being dumbed down, toned down with the exception of a few adult jokes or being even partially censored (depending on certain regions) is very, very high.

Also what makes you think we’re even getting close to the Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo saga? I doubt you will see The Seven for a long time unless Riordan really says fuck it and throws his final ace card into Disney’s filthy greedy mouth.

So if Disney doesn’t have the fandom’s interest at heart, what are they interested in? Well… MONEY. Also NEW engagement. They know your funky ass is going to tune in. They know people will pirate the shit (Me waving like a maniac), they all KNOW that. Again, they aren’t stupid.

So: MORE engagement. MORE money. How do we get even more engagement? By luring new people into the fandom. Who is most likely going to get lured into a family friendly show/movie series because let’s not forget that we’re talking about Disney+? The targeted audience of the books. Who is the targeted audience of the books? MIDDLE SCHOOLERS. 11 to 14 year olds. Disney wants those kids’ (well their parents’ hard earned) money. They want to sell products, in that case books + Disney Plus subscriptions + possible merch. There you also have the likely future rating for the fucking show. Sorry to disappoint everyone that was hoping for gritty Game of Thrones filled with 12 year olds (like seriously wtf?).

Now that that’s settled, let’s talk about the outlook on the show/movie and Riordan’s influence that you people clearly overestimate.

How much power or say does Rick Riordan actually have?

ZERO. ABSOLUTELY NONE.

He’s in the worst fucking lose-lose-situation you could imagine.

Disney owns the books and Fox owns the movie rights. Wait. Fox got bought. By whom you ask? DISNEY, what a coincidence! In Rick Riordan’s own words:

Disney has him by his fucking balls and could crush them at any minute. And if you think, that Disney is letting go of that sweet sweet intellectual property you are fucking mistaken. Riordan isn’t a J.K. Rowling who OWNS the Wizarding World. You have no idea what Disney are capable of with massive lobbying that goes so far to influence copyright laws in the States (LINK)

So you can stop harassing him about a fucking Netflix adaptation as well! Or petitions that do nothing but annoy people.

These negotiations take up YEARS to get the simplest stuff done. No need to shit your pants whenever Riordan’s tweeting stuff.

Still: would Disney be fucking mad to do this without him? Absolutely!

Should Disney involve him to prevent a PJO movie 2.0 scenario?

Yes, they definitely should!

But CAN Disney do this without him?

OF COURSE THEY CAN! THEY OWN EVERYTHING.

In Riordan’s own words:

Read carefully what he has written. He doesn’t say he’s going to halter productions, he’s saying HE WON’T BE A PART OF IT. This also makes me curious about WHO approached WHO in the first place (my guess Disney tried to make some amendments because Fox ain’t shit and trying to alienate the author again would be a goddamn stupid move). Disney has the fucking film rights. Of course they can pump out shit without involving him. They could pull a Fantastic Four (the awful 2015 version) just to keep the rights and for the fuck of it.

There are the following possibilities with Riordan’s involvement:

1. Riordan as a producer: Dude’s gotta be loaded. We know that. But backing the production costs many, many, many millions and I don’t know if he’s THAT loaded. Also film producing isn’t his forte.

2. Riordan as a screenplay writer: Now we’re getting closer to something. Yes, many productions these days have authors directly involved which is great! But also can go the other way around (J.K. Rowling and her Grindelwald fiasco. Author’s do NEED to learn when to stop intermeddling with their franchises, just saying) Book writing and screenplay writing are two very DIFFERENT disciplines. You don’t have the liberties of book writing when it comes to film. The screenplay is the guide for the entire production, the visuals, the set design, the whole atmosphere of the product, the very first thing that needs to be done so that directors, designers and lastly the casted actors know what they have to do. Everything has to come to a point in a very short time and there are many, many, many versions of a screenplay before a final raw draft gets handed out. If that isn’t in Riordan’s interest (which I can completely understand) then that’s simply not happening

3. Riordan as a guide: Directors, screenplay writers, etc. sit down with Riordan on a regular basis to show him the written screenplay, which actors they have in mind, the whole vision and he has a mini veto right.

If you ask me, a mix of scenario 2 and 3 is the most likely to be the most successful. That means, that Riordan needs to have a good faithful team, that sticks closely to the source material. That isn’t guaranteed! Again: look at the PJO movies. But of course, we don’t know the internals of these meetings.

So… now the final part. The whole fucking “Animation vs. Live action“ debate. Well, both sides have their pro’s and con’s. And both sides are filled with a bunch of fucking morons. I won’t try to get you to either side.

But to those that want are begging for a live action version with age-appropriate actors I have the following to say:

FUCK

YOU

IN

PARTICULAR!

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU WANT CHILDREN TO GO THROUGH THE HELL THAT IS DISNEY AND THE SHADY SHIT GOING ON THERE SO THAT YOU CAN BE ENTERTAINED FOR SOME MERE MINUTES?!

Oh my god…. You people REALLY really want a fourth wave Me Too movement in 15-20 years. Not every Hollyweird kid has a helicopter parent hovering around them on set and many do get abused/robbed by their parents. And the people involved in the production! Of course, animation has still a chance of this happening but the risk is somewhat lower when it just comes to voice acting.

Tbh, I actually wouldn’t mind an aged-up cast again just to prevent this as best as possible. Unfortunately, child actors will always be needed.

I have nothing much to add to this, I’ll just drop a link to an old small post from me about that right here (LINK)

Personally I lean more towards animation but in the big picture I won’t care. (Also the whole animation is for kids and dumbs down the whole narrative for PJO is fucking stupid, boo boo the fool. You being in your late teens/twenties and grown out of the targeted audience is the cause of nature. Animation can be mature or would you show Attack on Titan or South Park to your 8 year old cousin?)

I’ll be just tuning in to see if this is as messy as I’d expect it to be or to be pleasantly surprised.

Also again: this process is a long one. It’s going to be exhausting, depressing, demanding, pushing.

From the meetings now that will take a very long time, to a screenplay, which can take YEARS in finalizing, to hiring staff, location hunting and set design (should they go the live action route), to casting, to costume design, to rehearsing/production, to filming, to dispersing, to editing, to fx, to finishing, to marketing, to publishing, NOTHING IS SET IN STONE! This is a very, very, very, wanky process despite contracts and everything on paper. Let’s not forget, Disney can afford some good lawyers.

And even if everything goes as smoothly as possible. Higher up people could see the final edit of everything with editors having scenes close to the books in an a/b/c/d cut and some producer says NO! I want an c/a/b/d version that again fucks up the dynamics of the books. Or something terrible: everything is shot and done and THEN it get’s postponed. Or even fucking worse: SHELVED to be NEVER RELEASED. Aka Henry Selick’s career after Coraline (Coraline from 2009 is STILL his latest release because of his fucked up Disney contract and them cancelling his shit). Millions of dollars wasted and we won’t get to see ANYTHING. This is all very possible and happens constantly in the film business AND at Disney. This is nothing new.

And there’s nothing we can do about it. No one cares about Riordan, no one cares about the books, no one cares about the fandom.

DISNEY holds the cards. DISNEY gets to decide. Neither Riordan, nor you nor me hold ANY power in this.

So kids… what have we learned today? In conclusion:

Keep your hopes to a low, stop harassing people online and mAnAgE yOuR eXpEcTaTiOnS!!111!!

That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say.

WHEW.

#percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #percy jackson movie #percy jackson #percy jackson adaptation #disney #disney adapt percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #nico di angelo #rick riordan #riordanverse #my rants

[lixis-sin-cauldron]

My 2020 Fics In Review

As a new smut fanfic writer who started posting Oct 2020, I was curious what type of results my various fics got and what certain things can do for a fic’s results. I post to both Ao3 and Tumblr at the exact same time as so I’ll be using data from both. 

I’m sure a lot of people don’t care about this but I did it for fun and to see if I could learn anything to improve myself. It will be a mess.

I’ll keep everything under a Keep Reading since it can be a bit long and also has my commentary on the results. Results will come first with my thoughts on the bottom. 

Note: I checked all these stats right before 2020 turned to 2021 in my time zone.

Fic Stats:

You can find all the fics listed on my Master List here ☚

I wrote and posted a total of TEN fics between October and December. NINE if you consider two of those posts were part one and part two of the same story. 

Total Word Count for all those combined (according to Ao3): 48,264 words.

Tumblr Results

Most Popular Fic for 2020: The Perfect Gift [Hawks | Keigo Takami]

I’m not surprised by this while also being surprised. 

Being my last fic of the year, my own following I had more to build on than my other fics. I also had a TON of reblogs for this by other fic authors with a following of their own and I posted on Hawk’s birthday. So, results occurred.

However, the fact that it blew up that much in fives days shocked me.  

Interesting note Second place goes to my one and only dark fic: Father Figure: Punishment [Eraserhead | Shouta Aizawa] 

This fic is my entry into the darker content scene and it takes second place for popularity!!! Goes to show... dark content is both enjoyed and supported by many people. So, all ya keep at it. I plan to.

Least Popular Fic for 2020: Oh Raven (Sing Me A Happy Song)  [Present Mic | Hizashi Yamada]

Sadly, I’m not surprised by this result. Not only was it my first fic into the scene it is also a OC story rather than reader. 

Total Results for Each Fic:

1st: The Perfect Gift         279 Likes, 27 Reblogs, 0 Commenters 2nd: Father Figure: Punishment         204 Likes, 15 Reblogs, 2 Commenters 3rd: Shouta’s Present         146 Likes, 12 Reblogs,  0 Commenters 4th: My Favorite Listener         110 Likes, 10 Reblogs, 0 Commenters 5th: The Princess and The Hawk: Part One          97 Likes, 11 Reblogs, 1 Commenter  6th: The Princess and The Hawk: Part Two            71 Likes, 9 Reblogs, 1 Commenter 7th: Trapped          42 Likes, 3 Reblogs, 0 Commenters 8th: All Grown Up          41 Likes, 8 Reblogs, 0 Commenters 9th: Taking Care of Number One          32 Likes, 5 Reblogs, 0 Commenters 10th: Oh Raven (Sing Me a Happy Song)          26 Likes, 3 Reblogs, 0 Commenters 

Note: I list commenters instead of comments because some people make several comments. I also remove counts for reblogs I did for myself and comments asking for tag list.

Archive of Our Own Results

Most Popular Fic for 2020 by Kudos(Likes): The Princess and The Hawk  [Hawks | Keigo Takami]

I was so shocked by the amount of love this got on BOTH platforms. I’m not even a big Hawks fan but I’m glad it came out so well and made so many people happy. Wish I hadn’t had as much trouble getting part two done as I did though.

Most Popular Fic for 2020 by Hits(Views): Father Figure: Punishment [Eraserhead | Shouta Aizawa]

Y’all nasty.❤ Keep going.

Total Results for Each Fic (By Kudos):

1st: The Princess and The Hawk (One and Two)        203 Kudos, 1707 Hits, 25 Comments, 32 Bookmarks 2nd: Shouta’s Present         125 Kudos, 1429 Hits, 7 Comments, 23 Bookmarks   3rd: Father Figure: Punishment         114 Kudos, 2675 Hits, 7 Comments, 32 Bookmarks 4th: The Perfect Gift          82 Kudos, 832 Hits, 5 Comments, 27 Bookmarks 5th: Taking Care of Number One         68 Kudos, 833 Hits, 3 Comments, 10 Bookmarks    6th: My Favorite Listener         44 Kudos, 374 Hits, 6 Comments, 8 Bookmarks     7th: All Grown Up         39 Kudos, 311 Hits, 3 Comments, 10 Bookmarks     8th: Trapped          33 Kudos, 514 Hits, 3 Comments, 6 Bookmarks     9th: Oh Raven (Sing Me a Happy Song)          11 Kudos, 134 Hits, 2 Comments, 5 Bookmarks 

Note: Comments are ‘comment threads’ started by a single person. There are a lot more individual comments since I try and reply to comments when I can.

My Thoughts

Let’s start with Tumblr.

My first take away is, sadly, OCs get a lot less love than Readers. I understand that it can make it easy to insert yourself into the story mentally but I’ve always preferred a good OC story. 

There is just some stuff that a reader fic can’t cover. I have stories with OCs because they need personal names or physical descriptions for the plot of the story. I wish OC had more love like it did when I was younger.

However, I am also very willing to do Reader stuff - as you can see - and will do so. I just hope that when I do another OC story it will get more love. 

I’m so sad about how little love ‘All Grown Up’ got, it’s personally my favorite fic from the year. I could probably remake it as Reader and 2nd person, I just made it OC/3rd because it felt like a better choice for the plot at the time.

My next notice is, and this one is well known, REBLOGS matter. All my top ranking fics also had a ton of reblogs. I love seeing a like, knowing someone enjoyed the story, but a reblog can make such a difference in getting noticed.

Timing Matters. My top fic got a lot of notice because it was reblogged but also because it was posted on Hawks bday. Same goes for Shouta’s Present. Use special days to your advantage.

Lastly, no one comments. Please, please feel free to talk more. Just a little <3 in the comments area can make an author smile. Or a keyboard smash or a *scream* or anything. Personally, I LOVE hearing what your favorite line or scene was. I know these are often sent via asks as well, but I love seeing them in the fic’s comments as well.

Next, Ao3.

First, I was surprised at the ranking differences between the sites. I think this is due to how much easier it is to find a fic on ao3 with their searches. This isn’t a huge surprise, it is a site made for fanfics so of course it’s easier to find something than tumblr but I still expected a similar result.

Next, People don’t like as much compared to viewing the fic itself. I tend to see a 1:10 ratio for kudos to hits. Some people don’t like looking at hits due to this, thinking people don’t enjoy the fic after reading. 

However, my take is that I like hits as well as kudos since I’ve been told by a few of my readers that they come BACK to read stuff so kudos doesn’t always show the real love. 

There are plenty of re-reads but I also think some people just don’t hit kudos because of their own reasons. I see the hits number as what it is, someone read the fic and that makes me happy.

Again with comments, it’s better but I think that is only due to the fact I have a big chuck at the bottom of each fic asking the reader to comment. LLF Comment Project to thank for that. 

In the end though

I’m just overwhelmed and happy that ANYONE paid attention to me among all the other amazing authors that transverse both sites.

#lixi speaks #no real point #just interesting data and my thoughts on it. #I wont be doing this next year cause i had to go through each fic and tally stuff #not easy #2021 will be better #2020 in review #worst and best fics of 2020 for me

[twigstarpikachutroll22]

I see a lot of people do this so here we go, 2020 top 10 original posts from this blog

1) 289 notes, April 1st 2020

The post where I congratulated people on having survived the first three months of 2020, and threw in some celebratory gifs. I added onto it every month, congratulating people on surviving the first 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I have another reblog of this queued for midnight tonight to celebrate having survived ALL of 2020! Gotta say, I am REALLY glad this one got to the top spot. I think having survived this much insanity is definitely something to acknowledge and celebrate, and y’know, always important to think positive. :-)

2) 232 notes, October 20th 2020

“Guys what if werewolves refer to the full moon as ‘that time of month’ like it’s their menstrual cycle?” Definitely proud of this one too. XD XD XD

3) 148 notes, January 12th 2020

The post where I just shared the full Autodale series for the heck of it. Mixed feelings about this getting third place. I mean, it’s not any original content that I’VE made, but, the Autodale videos are amazing and I’m glad to help spread recognition of them.

4) 135 notes, July 31st 2020

In this post I gave some weird out-of-context descriptions of things that happened in Epithet Erased. Inspired by a friend’s sort similar post for Fresh Precure. I am proud of this one and I hope it gets some more people to watch Epithet Erased because this web series is GOLD.

5) 123 notes, May 3rd 2020

I made this post to share my thoughts on why I don’t want Poppy and Branch to get married and have kids just yet, how I really want to just keep taking things slow and just savor every stage of their relationship for a good long while. Also made this to see if anycreature else in the fandom agreed with me on this, seeing as I’d seen some people just be like “NSJLDFSDK; I WANNA SEE THEM GET MARRIED AND HAVE A BUNCH OF BABIES NOW NOW NOW” and I did not like that. Somehow it started whole fandom-wide discussion threads and as it turned out plenty of people felt the same as me, so, that was cool. 

6) 92 notes, November 17th 2020

In which I summed up in a few gifs the different attitudes that Trolls, Trolls: The Beat Goes On, and Trolls World Tour had towards making broppy fully and explicitly canon. Kinda glad this one blew up as I think the gifs I found for this summed it up pretty well. 

7) 77 notes, August 8th 2020

I’d seen people make content headcanoning that Branch would move into Poppy’s pod with her at some point, and I’d seen people make content headcanoning that Poppy would move into Branch’s bunker with him at some point, and I wasn’t sure what the ratio was there of how many people preferred each of those. I also shared my own preferred headcanon, which I hadn’t seen anycreature else talk about: That neither of them would ever move into the other’s space, each of them would keep their own space, but they’d also grow almost as comfortable in each other’s spaces, so that they could happily move back and forth between the two whenever they felt like it and neither would feel the need to just pick one.  Honestly, I’m a little iffy on the fact that this one made it into the top 10 because I didn’t really see anycreature saying that they’d also prefer this. Mostly I just saw people talking about Poppy and Branch moving into some third living space together as a compromise. Most of the reblogs that didn’t add something were reblogging the folks talking about that, and I can’t tell whether most of the likes were for those or for the original post. And I do like the third living space idea better than Poppy moving into the bunker or Branch moving into Poppy’s pod, but I also like my own idea better than any of that and I can’t tell how many of the people giving it notes actually did like what I was saying and how many just liked the third living space idea that everycreature else was talking about. It seemed like it kinda got derailed a little. And I’d really like some more validation on this.

8) 62 notes, September 23rd 2020

Just an incorrect Owl House quote from King. Not the MOST proud of this out of all the original posts I’ve made, but like, it’s a fitting quote.

9) 62 notes, May 10th 2020

Well, technically this would be tied for 8th place. Anyway, this was a Trolls incorrect quote that I really do enjoy very much.

10) 59 notes, May 31st 2020

In which I complain and vent a little about how as an aromantic, that thing where a kid complains about romance being gross or boring and some adult in the room goes like “oh, you’ll fall in love one day and then you’ll understand :-)” is just SO invalidating and makes me so mad, especially if the adult ends up being right. At some point I also reblogged this and added that it’d be cool to see this classic exchange happen in a story but THEN have an older adult jump in and validate the romance-hating kid. Definitely glad to see this got in the top 10. Hope it ends up higher in the top 10 by some point next year, actually.

So yeaaaahhhh, that’s my top 10 posts this year. Most of them are posts I’m proud of and quite glad to see in my top 10, so, yeah! I like this. :-)

#tumblr top 10

[kashimos-hajime]

Hi! So I have a question, I’m a new writer to some fandoms and I was wondering if you had any advice on how to become a more well known writer / achieve more notes on works as a new writer in fandoms. I love writing and I really don’t put my stuff out solely for notes but, when I put effort into fics I just wish more people would reblog or comment, and I just wish I knew a better way to make my blog “bigger” or more well known :/

hi!!! welcome to writing for fandoms. it ain’t much but it’s fun. here’s some advice i can give to you below the cut :) this is all my opinion/my experience so keep that in your mind when you read.

1. tags are your best friend: exploit every tag relating to your content as possible. only the first 20 show up in the tags when people search them up so use those wisely. after you post, it’s also a good idea to just check that it showed up in the tags. most of the time, they do but it’s just good to double check.

2. links kill your posts: unless you’re certain that your stuff will show up, more often than not, links to other posts/websites will cause your post not to show up. it’s stupid but it’s how tumblr works now which is really annoying.

3. participate in writing challenges: a good way to get your name spread is by participating in a lot of writing challenges and to keep track of which ones youve entered. besides being an incredibly nice way to get feedback, more people see it. it’s also really fun to write with a specific prompt or song in mind.

4. interact with your community: if you have time, read some fics and reblog them, follow some other writing blogs. i have mutuals that i don’t talk to but i greatly enjoy seeing their blog on my dash and i tag them in things im tagged in for games. i try to respond to most of the reblogs/comments i get and all the asks i receive. if you think you can handle doing requests, inform your followers that they’re open and have them send stuff in or reblog prompt lists. don’t be afraid to be who you are on your blog bc most of the time, people follow you for the writing but there are a few who follow you for who you are as a blog owner as well. it’s about the personality too. sometimes, you can remind them at the end of the fic to leave a reblog/comment just to remind them after they’re done reading :)

5. keep an updated masterlist or a place where someone can find all your stuff easily: this is including drabbles, headcanons, etc. someone is more likely to follow if they know they can find your masterlist post that could be linked in your bio or a certain tag they can search up to find all of your stuff. it’s just easier to navigate. make it easily accessible!

6. timezone reblogs: SUPER helpful because when you post, only a certain amount of people will see it due to timezones. i normally reblog every 4 hours and schedule them onto my blog to be posted while i sleep as well. this is super helpful for keeping your work rotating through different tumblr user’s blogs and reach more people who might not have seen it otherwise bc they were busy, asleep, etc. also helps keep your work in the tags bc it boosts your notes. (i have examples of how i do timezone reblogs. you can search it up)

7. it’s your blog: write for whoever you feel like, in whatever genre, and do whatever you want. don’t be afraid to be multifandom and don’t think you have to write for a certain character or under a certain word limit for it to be successful. although there are certain popular characters that people are more likely to read and readers often like shorter fics full of fluff and smut and such, you can write whatever you want. i write angst A LOT even though my fluffier fics have done better. and that’s what i think is my trademark: super long fics and a lot of angst. it’s up to you to do what you want which leads to my next point.

7.5. remember that you can curate your own style and niche for your blog. if readers know you write for these characters, know your interests, they’ll be more likely to follow you. for example, i’ve gained more harry potter-related blogs as followers even though i have never posted hp writing on here that was like a one-shot or anything. i’ve just started reblogging hp content recently. some of my followers reblog the witcher posts that i reblog as well. some followers dont even follow me for my writing.

8. on a more aesthetic note/relating to 5: keep your posts tidy. make sure they’re fomatted correctly bc pasting from your writing app to tumblr is sometimes hell, and just make sure you always doublecheck your work. no one wants to read a big chunk of text or paragraphs that are single-spaced. there’s the trend where writers often add gifs/pictures to their posts which catches a reader’s eye and helps with the visual.

9. it takes time: don’t keep your expectations too high. sometimes, the thing you work for months on won’t do well and other things you worked on for like 20 mins will do extremely well. that’s just how life works sometimes. lately, tumblr has sucked at keeping likes/reblog ratio even at all and mostly, you’ll get more likes than reblogs/comments. it’ll suck, but at the end of the day, they’re the consumers. they respond to your fic how they see fit. but you’ll grow. sometimes you’ll have bursts of followers, sometimes they trickle in. mostly, once you get rolling, you sometimes get those bursts after you post a fic and people begin t o see it. lately, i’ve been getting a few followers a day and it slowly builds up. seriously, don’t worry about the “followers” number even though sometimes it’s all you can think about. one day, you’ll check and be pleasantly surprised by how many people follow you.

10. it’s mostly how much you write sometimes: i’m sure if i posted more i’d gain more followers but as it is, i write like one fic a month bc they’re normally on the longer side and burn me out pretty easily since i work on other writing projects beside the stuff i post on here and i am a senior in high school who is just tryna graduate at this point. potential followers like a blog that puts out work. however, this doesn’t mean force yourself to write. if you wanna get big, you also wanna present quality work that you’re proud of.

11. i’d say lastly, though this is not so important and therefore the last but not least platitude falls flat here, is that keep your blog active. i do this by keeping a queue running from 2am to 12pm aka from night to day. it’s just nice to be a presence on your followers dashes which keeps you present in their minds.

this is all i could think of but i hope this helps!! if you have any more questions, need any clarification, or anything of the sort, please don’t hesitate to send another ask or pm me.

#willowansweringasks #anon #writing #anyway this was a lot #head is empty so if anything sounds messy and or doesnt make sense you know why

[alatar-and-pallando]

How to make an neural network draw your pets

Has science gone too far? Inspired by Janelle Shane (aka @lewisandquark​), I’ve taught a neural network how to draw my cat Mulder. The results are ... delightfully off-kilter.

Here’s what the process started with:

Here’s the ALARMING midpoint:

And here, after 3,000 iterations, is the rather impressive result!

The process is actually easy enough a non-computer-geek like me could figure it out — there’s no coding involved, nor do you need a ton of computing power. All you need is a video of your pet (or whatever you want to see AI try to recreate), and two pieces of free software: VLC Media Player and RunwayML.

DETAILED TUTORIAL BELOW THE CUT... If you use it, please reblog this post with your results -- I’d love to see ‘em! Note: I’m a Windows user; the process for Mac might be slightly different at some steps.

Step One: Gather your dataset

In order to train an AI, you’ll need to feed it a sampling of 500-5,000 relevant images. Rather than take all those pictures individually, we’re going to use VLC Media Player to extract the frames from a video you take.

1. Record a roughly two-minute video of your subject (eg., your own cat, a mushroom, your mug collection, your own face if you’re really brave, whatever). The subject should be centered in the frame. For the best (most coherent) results, you’ll want good lighting and contrast, for your subject to remain relatively stationary.

2. Download the video onto your computer from Google Photos or whatever cloud service your phone backs up onto.

3. Download and install VLC Media Player. If you already have VLC Media Player, ensure you’re running the most recent version by clicking “Help” and then “Check for updates.”

4. Run VLC Media Player as administrator. (Right-click the shortcut on your desktop or in the start menu and select “Run as administrator.”)

5. Hit ctrl+P in VLC to open your preferences menu. In the bottom lefthand corner of the menu, you’ll see the words “Show Settings” and the options “Simple” and “All.” Select the “all” option. You should see this:

6. In the menu on the left, scroll down to the bottom and click on “Filters” (not the “>” sign next to Filters, but the word itself.) Find “Scene video filter” and tick the box, as shown:

7. On your computer, prepare the file where you want those frames to go once VLC extracts them. I just created a new file on my desktop named “Mulder frames.” Double-click the file to open it, then in the navigation bar, click the dropdown to show the whole file path. It’ll be something like C:\Users\elven\Desktop\Mulder frames. Ctrl+C it.

8. Back in VLC, in the menu on the left, expand the Video>Filters submenu by clicking the > button next to Filters. Scroll down til you see “Scene filter” and click that to open its settings. In the “image format” field, input “jpg” or “png”.

9. In the “directory path prefix” field, paste in the file path from above.

10. Then, choose your “recording ratio.” If you put in 1, VLC will extract every single frame from the video. If you input 3, it’ll be 1 in 3, and so on. If your video’s on the short side, you’ll probably want to grab every frame. I went with 1 in 3.

11. DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE in this menu. You’ll especially want to avoid ticking the “always write to the same file” box -- that’ll just overwrite the same frame over and over again. (Yeah, I did that to myself.) Your settings should end up looking like this:

12. HIT SAVE.

13. Hit Ctrl+O and select your video. VLC will extract the frames automatically as it plays. Open the destination file you set up earlier -- it should be filled with hundreds of pictures. (Once that’s done, if you intend to continue using VLC, make sure to open settings again and UNTICK the “Scene video filter” box you ticked in #6. Otherwise, VLC will continue extracting frames from every single video you watch.)

Step 2: Set up your experiment

1. Download and install RunwayML.

2. Launch RunwayML. Create your account, then dismiss whatever “welcome to the program”-type popup it gives you.

3. In the lefthand column, click the button that looks like a lil wiggle. That should open this page:

4. Click “Train a new image model,” name your experiment, and click “Create.”

5. It’ll prompt you to select a dataset. Click the first box, with the + symbol, and navigate to the file of frames you made earlier. Select it and wait for it to upload. (If your file is larger than 5GB, you’ll have to delete some of the images.)

6. Click next. That’ll take you to “Setup.” This is where you choose a model someone else has trained as a starting point for your own model -- it’s faster to teach a Neural Network how to turn, say, human faces into cats than it is to teach it to make cats from scratch. I suggest just leaving the settings as-is, though if you want you can click “change” and browse other models.

7. Click “start training.”

Step 3: Enjoy what thou hath wrought

1. Be patient while RunwayML runs the experiment. It took about 3 hours for mine to wrap up. While you wait, you can watch the progress in Runway. Don’t worry about missing something -- you’ll be able to go back to this experiment and review the whole training process whenever you want. The FID score on the right should slowly count down -- the closer it gets to 0, the closer the AI’s generated results are to the dataset you gave it.

2. Once your experiment is complete, you can use the slider to move back and forth through the training steps. Click the “save sample image” button to save steps you find particularly entertaining, or hit the “create progress video” button and Runway will generate a video of the whole process.

3. Click “Next.” That’ll take you to this screen, with a gif of the final product and a few other options.

4. Click “save video” so you can look back at your freaky AI-rendered pet whenever you want. (That’s mine at the top of the page.) From here, you can also generate more sample images using the model you’ve just trained.

Congrats! You did it! Now try not to see the results in your nightmares!

#gancats #neural networks #ai weirdness #cats #computer tutorial #vlc media #runwayml #tutorial #y'all better reblog this it was so much work #and if anything's unclear lmk and i can update it

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia! I sometimes notice you reflecting on how well-received (or not) a new chapter of yours was and, as a fellow writer, I was wondering - How do you determine the success of a new chapter? Since Ao3 doesn't let you see how many people have viewed a new chapter, but only how many views your story has gotten as a whole, how do you usually gauge that? Keep up the amazing work, by the way!!

Hi anon!

Actually I don’t pay attention to hits at all, ever. That’s the least important metric to me, and I couldn’t tell you how many hits any of my fics have at any time, even as an average. It’s the easiest to falsely inflate, and it includes everyone who has ever hated or been bored by the fic, as well as bots, so it’s like...meaningless to me I guess.

As always, engagement is always subjective and personally negotiated when it comes to this stuff. I have a ‘general average of comments per chapter’ that changes on whether it’s fanfiction, the Fae Tales main story, and like, small oneshots and side things and AUs. Generally in terms of popularity:

1. Fanfiction - nearly always. Unless it’s for a niche fandom 2. Fae Tales main story3. side things and AUs (these are always the least popular)

For each, I sort of have my own internal metric of engagement that seems like ‘okay this is doing well’ or ‘shit this is doing poorly’ (which could be because of external factors - holidays, exams, etc. or story factors - the story is boring as shit or...it’s a sex scene).

And then on top of that, for me, I gauge it almost always on the number of comments received within the first 12 chapters. That’s the reason why you’ll almost always see me comment on whether a chapter was well-received when I do my reblog of the chapter announcement post on Tumblr (it’s pretty much only ever there, and only in the tags). Because that’s the 12 hour mark. If a side story gets 6 comments in 12 hours, I think of it as successful, and I’m really happy. If The Ice Plague gets 6 comments in 12 hours, and it’s not an explicit sex scene, I generally think I’ve done something wrong (or the US is having exams and I didn’t realise). On top of that, the tone of the comments can be really influential, but frankly, most people who take the time to comment on my stuff are amazing people.

There’s also another general rule where certain chapters I expect to get more comments (cliffhangers) and certain chapters I expect to get less (sex scenes, the last 3-5 chapters before the end of a serial, which is always saddening, but fairly normal and not something to generally be worried about even though I still worry about it).

I will also gauge interest/engagement on other factors: did the chapter inspire any Tumblr engagement? (This one has sadly dropped off a bit since the Tumblr Purge). And kudos I don’t often pay a huge amount of attention to after the first two chapters. I mean I always like notice it when I get the AO3 kudos digest, and I really like kudos, but tbh in a serial, most of the people who are enjoying it the most kudos’ed it during the first two-three chapters, and nothing will change much after that (unless it gets recced somewhere later, and that usually happens once it’s finished). 

I also really pay attention to my bookmarks-to-kudos ratio? Like, Stuck on the Puzzle is one of the most bookmarked things I’ve ever written in proportion to kudos, it’s incredible. On the other hand, The Ice Plague is one of the least bookmarked, this is partly because it’s a series, and people have probably bookmarked earlier stories, but...it’s just also really low on that metric.

Anyway! It’s like, a personal thing. Every AO3 author judges engagement differently. Some people actually do pay attention to hits (which is wild to me), some don’t give a shit about bookmarks, some care most about kudos, for me it’s comments. I suppose I care most about those because I enjoy those the most, and getting comments and responding to them is really motivational and inspiring to me as an author. 

And when you’ve been posting chapters almost every week for the past six years, you start to get a sense when something landed well, and when something didn’t?

In retrospect, I don’t even think some of those chapters are bad per se, they’re just sometimes not as interesting as other chapters, or they’re transitional etc. Or they’re a side story lmao.

#asks and answers #personal #pia on fanfiction #it is *very* personal #and like #even if a chapter lands badly and i'm a bit sad #i still cherish the comments i get #even if there's less of them #it's hard to explain #TIP suffered from like 7 chapters in a row #earlier this year #that just ALL performed badly #along with everything else #but things seem to have stabilised a bit? #i've met authors who like #write down the number of hits before they post a chapter #and then the number of hits after #but god no i couldn't do that #Anonymous