#like how people can get their whole personality across online .. idk how to do that

[davidjrpalos]

I wanna be more active and everything bc I do like the back and forth between me, the artist and anyone’s who’s interested in my art etc (since that’s majorly what I post here) but im not gonna lie I don’t get how people share their every day lives online, especially with photos and things like that like that’s for when I facetime my best friend for four hours and we dump everything that’s passed through our brains over the last 24hrs

#its not an influencer per say but I am not built for that shit just in maybe get to see what im about thru my art or ask box I guess #like how people can get their whole personality across online .. idk how to do that #but also as much as I like talking about my art and ideas etc i still like to be very private tbh #but somehow I still want to be approachable so like … idek LOL

[botanyshitposts]

just wanted to say that some months ago i went on a bit of a "mental illness tangent" and wrote down every single native species to my county, including its light and water needs. may or may not have been spurred on by some topic you mentioned...

one side effect i learned with that is that apparently i live in like. the ONE area of the us that doesn't really use fire much as a part of it's ecosystem, once you're inland beyond the pine barrens on the coast, obvs. kinda funny idk. like you have a whole continent that has large fire use in varying ways, and then in little old new england in the old mountains where apparently fire has not been present in 8000 years from research from sediments.

hi! just want you to know that this is both academic and political direct action in my mind and i think every community should have at least one person who knows what local Guys are supposed to be there and what they need.

next step would be to go see which ones you can actually find in remnant forests and stuff. if any dudes are missing it's an active cause for concern and you can start the process of finding Whoever In Local Government Is In Charge Of That, and you would be surprised to know that usually there is at least one person who's like, kind of supposed to be in charge of it but nobody pays attention to plants so it slipped under the radar, etc. or if you want to do more research first or want to know where to look you can go try to see when it was last actually spotted, because from my experience a lot of old sources from like, 1802 just get grandfathered in to modern records and you realize nobody's actually checked to see if these things are still there lately.

to check your own work against, plants.usda.gov has an online database that in theory is an up-to-date record of all plants in every state in the country-- notice that i say every state, because not all states specify sightings or populations by county, which is unhelpful for actually going out and seeing them near you. on a state-by-state basis, some states have their own databases which narrow it down to county, and then from there you can see which sources they cite and check to see how old they are. note that the usda cites the flora of north america as their primary source for the species ive personally come across, which is good because the flora of north america is crowd-funded, organized, written, and published by actual academics in the botanical community who go searching for these things and they have names and email addresses you can use to contact them, plus the completed families are free to access online on their website. because of the amount of people retiring with no replacement, however, it's still good to follow up.

im...nebulous on my understanding of who is supposed to be checking up on these guys in the government. either the USDA or the fish and wildlife service is the arm that's supposed to be regulating plants listed as endangered in your area, or at least enforcing poaching laws, and if it's something high profile they probably do, but then you look at the endangered species list in your state and see a guy you know hasn't been seen in quite some time and you have to wonder where they're getting their data, if they're doing their own internal surveys, if you can even access that kind of information because of the need to be careful around disclosing the locations of endangered plants, if this local Guy has actually genuinely slipped through the cracks of bureaucracy and has lost whatever fractionally small area of land it used to have in your county/surrounding county/state, if anybody is even paying attention, etc. it seems like your best bet comes down to contacting the one other person whos super into them

and then you go on inaturalist to see if anyone else has seen it and nobody has and anyway thats how you go insane

#asks

[seeminglydark]

Idk if this means anything to you but I'm a comic artist who's had a hard time doing art for a few years. The first four was because of life hardship and lack of time/chronic pain, but now lately I've had time but a mental block. I'm creeping up on 30 and felt bad about myself for "missing out" on my opportunity to be a comic artist. It was really validating to see you post about being 41 (correct me if I'm wrong) especially since you have such wonderful comics that I've been following for a while now. It makes me feel less like I'm wasting my time putting my things in order when I "should" be drawing.

Hopefully this doesn't come across as offensive or anything. It was just comforting and validating. Anyway, big fan! Love your characters a whole lot and hope you have a good day!

Dear Anon

I am 41 years old. I have wanted to make comics my entire life. before my dad got sick, and my childhood kinda fell apart, all i did was draw. after that, i used the stories in my head to cope. life moved on. i was convinced not to accept a partial scholarship to an art school in California. life got hard. i worked at a hotel, and after i escaped an abusive relationship at 22 i hitchhiked/bused far far away to start over. i tried to make comics again, but i had to survive, and so i got another job doing the only thing i knew how to do, hotels. and i worked. and worked. and life got harder and times got heavier and i didn't get time to draw and i worked double hours, 15 to 17 hours a day. and i went four years without drawing a single thing.

i kept working myself into the ground. i was 29 now. i picked up a pen again and drew a red haired boy. he had a hard life and no love and no friends. his problems were on the outside, for everyone to see. he ran away but his problems went with him.

i was 32. surely i was too old now. my time to be an artist was gone. i had no school. no hope. i was so far behind the younger gen i saw online. i cried. all the time. i wrote stories in my email drafts while i worked shifts. i stayed up late trying to learn how to draw again. i cried some more. the boy grew. i called him Fiach. worthy. a raven. later i renamed him Avery. he was like a bird, he had wings, he was my hope. i started writing some friends for him. the people i wished i had around me.

i started finding time and space. i got a new job, something where i was lucky enough to set my own hours. for the first time i had a partner who believed in me. things were hard. but i was drawing now. and that helped.

i went on a road trip and i started drawing pages of an unnamed story on 6 by 8 paper in a sketchbook. i drew 20 of them. 'what could i call this?' i thought. Nothing Seems as Dark...no says my partner. Seemingly Dark. he made me a logo. i was 35. i bought an ipad, i cant do this on paper, its too much story i have too much to say. so i learned how to draw digitally by tracing my own trad art pages.

I spoke to my dad for the last time on June 17th, fathers day that year. he said 'you're good. i'm proud. and you're gonna do amazing things. none of this is your fault. and we will speak again soon.' i didn't know id never hear his voice again. he died a week later.

i turned 36. i kept trying. i'm old, i don't understand the internet. how can i share this?

i stumbled across Lore Olympus. i was introduced to webcomics. id read comics online before but the thought never occurred to me. i opened an account on Tapas. and then i stared at it. what if no one likes it. what if its bad. my art isn't good. i should wait til i'm better. but will i ever really be better? or will i always believe that tomorrow is better? do it now. if even one person gets something out of this story, this story about a boy who is you, a boy who looking for hope, a boy who might make it, then that is enough isn't it.

June 17th 2018 i launched Seemingly Dark.

SD's five year anniversary is in a week. 0ver 700 pages. leaps and bounds in progress with my skills. a printed comic under my belt as of monday. i was always a storyteller. but i was always an artist too.

I am 41 years old, dear anon. I did not truly embark on this journey til i was 35. life got in the way. even now, chronic illness gets in the way. but its worth it. its never ever too late. i believe in you the way my dad believed in me. i reset my life again and again. but I was always an artist. and if thats who you are, and who you want to be, even if things dont go the way you wished they could, you're an artist too.

im 41 years old. i speak about my age, even though i often feel too old to belong in spaces, cuz really, in this case age is just a number. take care of yourself. do what you need to do. and little by little, when your able, carve out your space until it becomes more of a habit. sometimes i think about all the years i lost not drawing or creating. but there's a lot of factors that make me believe had i made my story then, it wouldn't be the story it is now, i needed to live a bit. i needed to find myself. i know this was long, but i just wanted you to see i also had to put my life in order, and getting notes like this reminds me it wasnt at all a waste. im glad i could offer you some comfort. thats honestly the best compliment i could ever receive.

TL;dR I was 35 when i sat down and seriously started making comics, because life always got in the way and so did my confidence. i always feared being too old. im 41 now, still going strong.

#rj rambles #this is really long im sorry anon #i think my late comic blooming story is kinda important for people to hear #thankyou for giving me a reason to tell it

[drdemonprince]

I realize this question is not exactly your demographic, bc it is a joint autism and wlw culture question, but I think I'm mainly struggling with the autistic part. Feel free to ignore if you want.

So I'm a queer woman, and I really struggle with like,, not knowing how I'm perceived? I haven't had a lot of contact with other queer people until recently, especially lesbians/wlw, and trying to exist in social spaces (esp online ones) with a whole new set of gender and role assumptions is driving me up the wall. I have no idea how I'm being seen and I can't figure out how to get people to explain in a way I understand. I know maybe it shouldn't matter, but it makes me feel ignorant and powerless, and I have a really hard time talking or initating/keeping up conversations as a result. I feel bad bc I know my self image isn't supposed to depend on other people this much, and it doesn't when it comes to situations I'm familiar with (het dating), but something about this is just turn my brain worms up to 11 and idk whether thats valid/healthy/what to do about it.

I hope WLW will weigh in, but my gut response is:

stop trying to manage how you are perceived.

Easier said than done, I know. But when you're so fixated on how you come across to other people, you're in your own head rather than in the present, ignoring what feels good to you, what other people are doing, and what you actually desire.

It takes practice, but try turning your focus outward. How do you perceive other people? Who do you like? Who would you like to get to know better? What would you like to learn about? What would you like to try? What would you like to do? Who would you like to do it with?

I think women have been conditioned so so hard to see themselves as romantic objects that they sometimes get stuck, and can't move past operating as one. Women are taught that the way you get what you want is never by going after it, but rather by making yourself so desirable that someone decides to give it to you. But you're not an object. You're an agent. You don't have to make yourself look or seem any particular way to get the life you want. You can just go after it.

I think even the fact that you are fixating on how you are perceived so hard is itself an artifact of the straight world and its messaging. Every person in the world is self-conscious to some extent, we are mostly social beings, but it's especially pronounced in women to think of themselves as the subject of other people's impressions rather than as a person who forms their own opinions about others and goes after what they want. The more you initiate and engage and actively do things, all kinds of things, that you are interested in and enjoy, the less you'll need to worry about what other people make of you, in other words.

but again im not a wlw so this is just my outsider's perspective as a gay who hears about these frustrations from women a lot. I hope the gxrls will weigh in

[sailorgundam308]

okay but you're right about the petite tav thing (also idk if you know but someone's lame ass "callout" post about you being a bully and how you'll never get commissions is circulating)

like in a game where you can create nearly anything with a tav it's boring as fuck to make them look copy pasted of every conventional girl irl. ive always thought that, it's why I can't read certain super popular fics in this fandom because the tav absolutely rips me out of any enjoyment (cough, the arrangement)

but it's not fair for people to be harassing you over your opinion, it's your blog if they don't wanna make themselves upset maybe they shouldn't be lurking on your page

It's what I think. I have no interest, never had, in any media, when a protagonist is the pretty standard petite girl. It doesn't resonate with me at all and, therefore, they come across as very boring to me.

About the post circulating about me, I know about it. It was made by 2 girls who didn't like when I said I don't like pairing Astarion with the aforementioned pretty petite tav type. They then devolved into, apparently, some sort of Alex Jones, calling into question my values as a person, made up what I said and whatnot. They've been flooding me with hate messages for a while, stopping short only of telling me to kill myself. But then, of course, I'm the bully in the story. lol

It's very much their problem. Anyone following me, reading what I say, knows what I stand for - and what I don't, cause I tend to say it pretty clearly.

And I agree with you, too: tumblr is a collection of personal blogs of people with differing opinions. Unless someone is attacking or harming a real person, or being an actual bigot, it's all a matter of thinking differently about things. And that's not an issue.

You'd think people who claim to be so inclusive would understand that not everyone has to agree on things - and that you shouldn't dig the internet for content that will piss you off because you feel like going on a moral rampage for the sake of feeling superior. You WILL find content to make you angry. Thing is, some of that will be justified. Some, apparently, will just be me saying im not into X type of pairing.

Sound's pretty easy to do, but some folks are actually pretty incredible in regards to the amount of effort they'll put to go after someone they (don't know) but decided they dislike.

One of the girls saying she "took a screenshot" of what I said is from a discord I'm also a member of, and I think she got jealous cause I only posted Karlach x Astarion art and they shipped him with a different character. The other one is just a hardcore harasser. I got all their hate messages saved. Maybe one day I'll post it so people can see what kind low level stuff they said to me. It was WILD.

In any case. I never deleted the post where I said I think Astarion doesn't look good with pretty cutesy girly tavs cause I DO think that, and there's nothing wrong with me saying it. I'm not talking about any real person, nor even any tav in particular. But people like to distort shit to make waves then feel morally superior.

Thankfully, my commissions are doing great! I don't beg anyone to hire me, and as with everything else online, no one is forced to anything - commission me or even interact with my blog. There is a block function here and I use it often - it works wonders.

Anyway, thanks for saying that. Truly. This whole thing was pretty upsetting at first, but I soon realized there was no conversation to be had with thesef people - they don't want to talk. They want to tear someone they don't know apart to feel superior and "win".

It's nice to know not everyone bought into the gaslighting shit these two (and probably now more ppl) are spouting.

:)

#ask #anon ask #tumblr drama #bg3 toxic fandom #toxic tumblr users #online harassment #harassment #bg3

[whyyoualwayssoradical]

Idk how much experience you may have with this but lately I've been thinking about how most men I know somehow can't clock transwomen as fast as I can and I'm wondering if male's like don't have as strong of a recognition of sex as women do? And maybe that's part of why a lot of transwomen think they pass when it's very obvious to us 🤔

personally i've been able to clock just about every trans person i've come across, either IRL or online just from something as small as a reddit post. most of them are pretty obvious. there's like probably 30-50 trans people at my work and i can clock all of them at first glance (there's two people I am unsure of) and only one of them knows i'm trans because i told one transman that i trust, when i told him he asked if i was transmale or transfemale.

from what i've experienced, males are atrocious at pattern recognition when it comes to people because they literally just have "man, boy (potential man), woman/girl" is how they categorize people it seems. i've heard radfems talk about how part of the reason males are worse at it might be because they don't need it to survive as much, but girls and women need to be able to accurately ID a male, in any circumstance, to survive in modern society.

for me, again personally, the only people that have really clocked me have been lesbians and gay men. most straight people seem to be completely clueless, more so men than women. i do claim i pass but when i say that i mean like in most everyday situations like going to the grocery store or to get food or something almost everyone will assume i'm a "woman" even though i'm not one. i definitely think there are plenty of women who have clocked me and just not said anything/played nice. i think any woman that spent any amount of time talking with me or hanging out with me would figure it out sooner or later, but i generally tell any close friends if we're actively talking/hanging out that much because i don't want to and don't mean to deceive them.

some anecdotes from personal experience:

i have been targeted by powerful men before because they, for some reason, legitimately thought i was female. a woman who "worked" for them also thought i was. that situation made me legit fear for my life.

the most common question i got asked at whole foods anytime i mentioned i didn't feel well, multiple women would ask if i was on my period, to which i would say just no it's just stomach cramps or w/e was making me feel crappy.

most women that do suspect me to be not what i appear usually think i'm non-binary or a transman if they ever want to ask anything.

i was disallowed from doing something at a different whole foods because they said it couldn't be a woman doing it if the other person was a man (overnights require min 2 people present). this rule miraculously disappeared after the pandemic hit and we didn't have the staff to do otherwise. i had volunteered to be the second person since i already came in early so it was no big deal to come in earlier, but they were like no it cant be a man and a woman if there's only 2 people.

this isn't me trying to say "oh i pass sooo much better" or anything like that, because i doubt i pass that particularly well but also at the same time i often struggle to make sense of what i do experience. i can't imagine this many people doing all of this just to validate me and i don't go around telling people i'm a woman, however my documentation all reflects "F". these experiences are generally why i will say i "pass" and also why i use the term "assimilated transsexual".

i think being bullied so much by boys and men plus getting into radical feminism drastically improved my human sex pattern recognition. i definitely used to not be as good at it as i am now. i can look at myself and pick out my male features fairly easily. i have had more androgynous features most of my life than anything else.

it does blow my mind when i see quite clearly men wearing makeup saying they pass and are hotter/sexier than women, because i feel like any look into the mirror would reveal otherwise... which the same could totally be said about me, maybe i look like a clown too and everyone is just nice to me who knows, but i almost never wear makeup, i've only worn it on special occasions and it's usually just eye makeup, nothing else.

#this got way longer than i expected #sorry

[citylawns]

idk if anyone has ever told you this but the way you conduct your convos give off i’m better than you and i’m smarter than you vibes. and no it’s not the “idc if people think i’m mean on the internet” you were talking about. maybe it’s your upbringing? but you fashion girls talk in an “out of touch” kind of manner. like i noticed it before, but the way you spoke to some people re: 25 teenager was so off putting and somehow condescending too.

So this is what I said and 99% of people who responded have no problem with it. How would you suggest I phrase this differently? When I read it back after taking in your message I have to admit I can’t understand how this comes across as “better than you” especially given the fact you surely see this was posing a question and since then I’ve been conversing with lots of different perspectives and genuinely enjoyed listening to them all, occasionally probing people for further explanations when needed. To me, that sounds like the complete opposite of what you describe. So, please help me understand what you mean. I don’t want to sit here and say I’m in the right I’ve done nothing wrong but I need to understand to accept your POV !!! can you link me to the tweet??

^^^ I definitely will give sass (like being sarcastic) back to people who have been sassy to me but I won’t be changing that ever haha. For example this person was responding to my tweets like they weren’t even reading them and then making personal insults to me for no reason, so I just ended the convo by saying this which makes me giggle. this is the only thing I can imagine you would have an issue with but I don't really see why because I'm just retaliating to someone else's spite. i'm not yet above not reacting to nasty people lol like I'm not perfect

I think most people see it’s clear that I’m just trying to understand and some people have been quite hostile as is the nature of twitter. Luckily most of the time those people have chilled out when I’ve explained I am genuinely asking a question and we have had a pleasant convo after. they have just reacted in the moment and by plainly restating I was just posing a question and want to hear their view they have changed their tune with me! For example the girl below ended up apologising and being sweet after I said this

I truly think people do just project and idea of who I am and what I’m like over the internet because you don’t know me, my tone or personality. I think the fact people can come at me pretty hostile and mostly then apologise and I have a good chat with them indicates I’m not “full of myself”. It is really puzzling to me why anyone would think that about me.

So yeah, I'm again doing my best to be diplomatic with you but it’s hard for me to understand where you’re coming from because I’ve spoken to so many people today and it’s genuinely impossible to guess which interaction you are referring to... I have got pissed off at people being mean to me online and bitten back today as shown here, yeah, I'm not perfect!!! But mostly I’ve had really interesting and insightful convos and I wonder why you don’t notice that? Why don't you look at the 99% of times I've had a really interesting convo with someone and see me as a whole, albeit imperfect person who mostly has nice pleasant interactions and occasionally gets ticked off at people being rude to me?

At the end of the day, I’m not going to please or be able to cater to everyone. I know what I’m about and so do most people I converse with. The people who think I have bad intentions I just don’t sweat about anymore, and honestly I don't think anyone who comes anonymously telling someone their up themselves or refers to them as "fashion girls" (whatever that means) is in a very happy or healthy place themselves. We can all do with some personal reflection, you and me both! Maybe me and you are just not each other’s people. I don’t have to agree with your perception of me and you don’t have to follow me, so we are all good 🤷🏻‍♀️

[topguncortez]

When it comes to comparing yourself to others - comparison really is the thief of joy. Can I just tell you though, you can be intimidating, and potentially that's why you get less interaction. You don't have to post this and I promise you i'm not telling you this to be rude to you. In general, i would be less likely to engage with someone's work that I don't feel I could approach. You don't have to apologize for this at all - you do you! This is not to make you feel bad. However sometimes it's just good to consider how you come across in an online forum like tumblr. You may not mean to be this way and it's perfectly fine to be how you are, but just know that from my perspective (1 single person's opinion of millions), I feel like you aren't as approachable.

i hate the word “intimidating”. like with a burning passion. to me that word means i am this horrible, awful, mean person. and that’s just not true. to me, the word “intimidating” feels like a cop out that people say to stop them from getting to know someone.

i bare my soul on this app. i honestly am more vulnerable on here than i am in my real life. i try my fucking hardest to keep things as open and as honest as possible, and maybe that’s where you’re getting “intimidated”. i’ve seen a lot of the world. i’ve seen good. i’ve seen bad. and i’ve seen ugly. i have made mistakes that i know are preventable, and i won’t to help others not make the same mistakes. i want to help others. that’s the whole point of this blog.

i could give less of a fuck about interaction. does it suck that i pour my heart and soul into pieces and they don’t do well? yes. yes it does. but at the end of the day, that’s not the only thing i do this for. i do this to relieve my stress. i do this to escape my life. i do this because it brings me joy.

anon, idk what more you want from me or how i can be less “intimidating”. i can assure you that the people i talk to on a daily basis will tell you i am the BIGGEST dumbass they have ever met. maybe, try getting to know me first.

#g mail

[polyamorouspunk]

i'm going through somewhat of a questioning period right now after trying to get into the poly scene and discovering that, like, literally everyone i talk to says that poly is "the practice of choosing to date more than one person" and that referring to it as an identity you can have without choosing to date multiple people is offensive. (this isn't just a few people, it's like, the entire scene in my town! at first i thought it was just a few people, but then as i started to going more groups and stuff i realized *everyone* was talking about it like that, and then i hopped on poly Reddit and realized everyone *there* was talking about it like that too??)

they're not like, against identifying as poly if you're single, but the way they talk about that is like, you're single but if you *were* dating you would be open to dating more than one person. or if you're only currently dating one person, you don't plan to stop dating if you meet someone else you like, you just haven't met other people yet.

so here's my thing. i'd really been invested in the queer poly community online for a while, and most of us talk like you, where it's an orientation and we can choose to not act on it if there's other factors influencing our lives. like in my case that i think you relate to somewhat, where i have unprocessed baggage and i need to wait til i'm in a better place and don't have toxic jealous behaviors before i actively date multiple people. for me also there's covid problems because i'm immune disabled and nobody is masking in my town so i *can't* date until people start masking again (if they ever do -__-). still poly, just not acting on it right now. but according to the scene in my city, and apparently commonly across the country according to Reddit, that's offensive and "hijacking the queer community"??? and i DO NOT know how to talk to these people about it without them going off on me about "appropriating struggles" (that i LITERALLY ALSO HAVE, i'm visibly trans and they can see that, lmao). thoughts would be nice!!!

That’s wild. Most people I know talk about polyamory as either “the practice of dating more than one person” or “the inherent desire to date more than one person” where it’s either or, like you said. Like not just a queer identity, but both. There was a booth at Raleigh pride when I went the first year that was literally a polyamory group for… polyamorous people… at pride… so like I *assume* it was there to be a queer identity but I mean idk churches are there and stuff too so maybe not? Unfortunately I live almost 2 hours from Raleigh so I can’t be making meetings there, because I would love to know what that group things. I still have their card in my wallet almost 5 years later. Idk because it’s like. Are you gay if you just “choose to date people of the same sex/gender”? Are you aro if you just “choose not to date anyone”? Like you can’t erase the fact that for some people it is their queer identity, and that it’s tied to their gender and sexuality like gender and sexuality are tied to each other. It’s a third category of “sexuality, gender, and relationship preference” to me. I think I would be offended (and I have been offended!) when people insinuate it’s not queer, because for me it is. I mean you know what else is queer to me? My fashion! Maybe someone else dressing in the same way isn’t queer to them but me dressing the way I dress is queer to me. But I like yeah I know at least one person I came across on tumblr had a whole “polyamory isn’t inherently queer by the way. Neither is being asexual or aromantic.” And when I, I guess, uncovered that, a LOT of people came to me and was like “woah I really liked this blogger I can’t believe they’re aphobic” and that had literally nothing to do with me I was just talking about the polyamory part so to me, also, since polyamory and aromanticism/asexualism is so inherantly linked, sometimes I feel like when people say polyamory isn’t queer they also end up sounding like (or being like) aromanticism and asexualism ALSO isn’t queer which is… bad.

#punk gets mail

[likegemstone]

just me puzzling through some issues there have been re: posting HBM online

So, HBM is posted on 4 different sites: Royal Road, Inkitt, Tapas, and Webnovel.

Episode one has now been up for *checks calendar* 3 months and 10 days. According to the analytics from each of those sites, HBM has been viewed, across all sites: 1,893 times. Now, each new chapter counts as a new view, so it hasn't been 1,893 people, but only Inkitt shows me the views on each chapter (as far as I can tell) so idk exactly how many people just pulled up the first chapter or whatever and then bounced. Royal Road says the average views are 21 (out of the total views on that site of 494) but I don't know enough about math anymore to be able to properly interpret/estimate how many people actually finished all the chapters. Anyway, none of that really matters

What matters is: of all 1,893 views across all four sites, HBM has gotten exactly 7 comments.

6 are from the same person, the fiancee of one of my best friends who read the story as a favor to said best friend. The other comment is from me replying to one of her comments LMAO

Although all four sites allow and encourage reviews of stories, it has gotten no reviews, nor any ratings.

I'm going to assume, if only for my own sanity, that this is very normal. That readers in this day and age on these sites are not inherently inclined to comment/like/review/rate random stories they read, even if they did enjoy them enough to read all the way to the end of Episode One. That if there isn't some other factor (like being my bestie-in-law) to nudge them toward actually engaging with the story, they won't.

Part of it is also an issue of how I posted Ep 1 I think. I, for the most part, just dumped the whole thing on there at once when, from what I've seen, it would have been much smarter to update one chapter per day until the whole episode was out. However that's more factoring in to bringing in new readers, not necessarily getting readers to engage. I think.

(This is all completely new to me and I am just theorizing for like 99% of this)

So what do I do about this? Aside from just post more of the story (which I will be doing soon, hopefully!) and hoping that as people get to know the characters and the story more, they're more inclined to engage?

If I put myself in the mindset of a reader (who is not also a writer and therefore doesn't immediately then put myself in the mindset of the person who wrote what I am reading) then I think I would just not really. Think to interact with the story unless it like REALLY grabbed me and made me Feel a big Feel. I think it wouldn't even occur to me that the writer needs me. I would see myself as just a number to the writer, and I would think "oh they're just going to keep doing what they're doing no matter what I do or say, so why take the time?"

Also there's the fact that HBM is free, right? I want it to always be free if I can afford to do that because I want it to be as accessible as possible. No paywall, and if people want to and are able to support me financially then they can and hopefully will.

Some might think that readers would be like "wow this person is offering something they have sunk years of their life into for free I am so grateful for that, I should do what I can to show that appreciation and let them know I support what they're doing!" but in fact it's the Free element that emphasizes this kinda mentality that it's just. It's just content, right? It's just online content and I am just a number. I don't matter to the writer.

It's weird how that works. But I totally get it because I am totally that way with, for example, video content. Like there's that whole "like comment and subscribe if you like this video!" thing and that always felt so impersonal and like the youtuber or whatever was just saying it because other people always said it and they didn't even actually care about the comments/feedback they were just trying to play to the algorithm so it didn't actually matter if I did those things. I just always saw it as a creator trying to increase their numbers because "bigger number better person" and all that.

Okay so what do I do with all of this that I've just talked through?

Wait I'm going to reblog this with further commentary that is not under the cut and I don't know if it will show up like I think it will but let's give it a try

#personal #writer problems #me post

[sugar-petals]

Hi Caro! How are you? I hope you're good and in a place where it isn't very hot (my friend living in England had a very rough time). I'm just here wondering why my type is cute subby twinks, and why is close to impossible to find them in Argentina (I still remember the day I took one of those online test about the type of men you like and the answer was twinks and I was like WELL DAMN I FEEL ATTACKED). My name is Victoria, idk if I ever told you, but everyone calls me Vik or Vicky (usually the first one, I guess it's more gender neutral so it fits me better). Sorry that I'm ranting, I really enjoy talking to you.

more than glad to answer, vic! 💙 hm... a philosophy on twinks and why they're appealing. time for a little essay.

first off, i wish there was a bi and straight term as well, they're not 100% the same as e.g. pretty boys or femboys — those categories are even more particular to a certain femdom aesthetic. pretty boys are defined by face, femboys by clothes hair and body, twinks by both.

my suggestion for a word would be "prince". it's positive, people get the gist intuitively, and it's derived from the groundbreaking artist who invented this whole game to the fullest after greek culture laid the foundation, shoutout to apollo. before leo (90s) zac efron (00s) and taemin (10s) paved the way, there was prince in crop tops, heavy makeup, heels, and poses few guys dared.

so, a prince, they're usually the anti-jock/bear, right. more petite in frame, often fashionable like an it-boy (see lucky blue smith), frequently gnc, and found in a 20-30 age group with some exceptions. but i think that's why they are appealing to us, it's a generation thing. just like t. chalamet, lil nas x, and troye sivan hit it big among gen z by sheer exposure, or the eboy/softboy fad in hetero media, although that one wasn't really femdom in spirit and just another brand of manipulative nice guy syndrome.

princes don't come across as physically imposing, they're more tongue in cheek and seductive or cute, the link to your zelda. that caters to somebody with a taste for subs/bottoms who'd rather have them sat on their lap than getting choked out by them which is almost treated as a given, same with spanking or rough sex. so, that notion of twinks has opened the door to something less compulsive gladly.

a prince can come with an edge, twinks and brats may have some overlaps depending on the guy, but at the end of the day, they're subs, both hard and soft. jonghyun has set quite the tone for it artistically, major credit due. he's broken the mold to say that it's so boring and restrictive to be a dominant guy and there's more out there than what the societal landscape offers.

thank god taemin has carried that on and continues to inspire others.

in recent times, the word also becomes more and more open to guys who are tall / fit or conventional-looking. i see this in how european football is received on tumblr where calling your favorite club `#twink fc (affectionate)´ is a thing on here 😆 and it's true. you haven't seen more collective prince energy as in the german national team. the gorgeousness is real and the ladies who date them... lucky af.

(^kai havertz - plays for chelsea fc)

(^joshua kimmich / leroy sané - play for bavaria fc. they both have 2+ kids with their gfs lmao you don't have to be a DILF or daddy, twinkness cannot be concealed 🤘)

the whole idea is not to be conflated with power bottoms, see aquaria on drag race who looks like a twink but tops, by the way. which is why taemin generates so much traction, he plays with switching and walks the line but always winds up with a submitting conclusion. ten, or yoongi, they’re mysterious to people in that regard, too. or wonho, who follows a jock aesthetic but offers himself as a fantasy with an 'open mind' and a cute personality in the mix, neither gentle giant, himbo, nor a skinny short king, just doing his own thing.

a twink or prince is easy on the eye for anyone who likes androgyny and is usually in favor of being gnc themselves, or is bored/turned off/disappointed or even frightened by the mainstream. argentina hasn't had that scope of pop culture industry to inspire trends, and prevailing structures of machismo and chivalry prevent androgyny in dress and behavior, especially outside larger cities as is also the case where i live (southern germany where christianity rules — you can imagine, it's not berlin).

where binaries, monosexuality and hypermasculine/homophobic/biphobic conduct is exaggerated, you won't find a twink able to do their thing or getting attention. sure, gnc people are always there and the world is slowly catching up in some places, although it feels like we're going ten steps backwards as a backlash these days which is unacceptable. that's why k-pop is such a refreshing element in the way that male performers present concepts and a female pov is embraced. nobody deems it punishable or strange if you walk up like this, in fact it's celebrated.

it also bursts the bubble of twink/prince = white and goes even further than just one specific aesthetic. it changes constantly and incorporates actual elements of kink culture rather than leaving men's submission unspoken as an ultimate taboo. it may be commercial, but it is also literal and encourages nonconforming styles and body types as the rise of shinee, skz, or nct exemplifies. the next generation prince/twink trailblazer is sure to be found there, my bet is on taeyong or felix, they're really owning the princeliness.

#and to answer the first question yes it's piping hot here nobody has an ac #but i try to stay chill in the shade and drink iced water au masse #kpop #jonghyun #jimin #taemin #felix #taeyong #skz #nct #prince #wonho #yoongi #ten

[bucephaly]

i know blood quantum like isn't a Real Thing but how do you go about feeling hm... feeling valid in your native identity? i'm sure being accepted into the nancy ward descendants (sorry if i misremembered that name!) group was an amazing boost but before that was there certain ways you like encouraged yourself to keep exploring this part of your identity? i've got the whole 9 yards of white person (blonde hair, blue eyes, paper white skin) and even though i do have native ancestry i feel guilty just Thinking about going to a powwow or calling myself two-spirit... but also it's an important part of who i am and i want to honor and acknowledge it i'm hoping this doesn't come across as like 'boohoo i have white guilt pls absolve me' ! i'm just nervous about my standing in the world and thought i might ask a fellow reconnecting person :> thank you!

Hey! So yea I mean, I'm still not super confident in it haha and even though I've known about my documented tsalagi ancestry for nearly a year now I talked myself out of engaging with it until like a month ago

To be honest? The thing that got me thinking of looking into it again was reddit. I had done a lot of 'how native do I have to be to reconnect' type Google searching a year ago and then a month ago I had the idea of doing the same Google search + 'reddit' at the end lmaooo and seeing people actually just talk about it helped, especially specifically cherokee people.

So that's what got me to look into indigenous discord servers [that accepted non-native allies, just in case] and then the cherokee genealogy Facebook. Like I said, once I had my genealogy double checked, I joined the nancy ward group and also the main 'cherokee culture and language' group that's only open to cherokees, documented cherokee descendents, and their spouses.

Really the saying of 'it's not about who you claim, it's about who claims you' is so true. Being accepted into those communities is what gave me the confidence to do things like put tsalagi in my bio and start openly saying that I'm reconnecting. And seeing that the cherokee are really open to mixed people and thinbloods and all. And ofc I'm still working on citizenship

So the biggest thing imo is engaging with actual communities, especially including people that are connected [cuz a bunch of reconnecting people talking to each other kinda aren't gunna go anywhere haha, so ofc don't fully take my word for it]

And obviously I've only been looking into it seriously for like a month so I'm super early in it. Just try to find some communities online, follow some people on here, etc. Facebook is good for this in my experience, idk your tribe tho, just watch out for bullshit open groups.

Also powwows are 100% open to anyone, so definitely go! Idk abt 2s much cuz I don't really feel like I can claim it myself [partially cuz I'd prefer smth specific to my culture but that stuff didn't really survive assimilation] But yea definitely engage in things that are openly shared. Get books, watch YouTube videos, go to events, learn the language.

Good luck !!

#if you wanna chat or smth you could also add my on discord #my discord is in my bio ! #im in like One decent indigenous discord server atm and i like it #all the others ive tried are kinda Weird #asks #anon

[tetsusgoing]

yes that anon who sent

"tag all of your mutuals and put beside it the kind of person they are im really curious :)"

WAS ME AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA 😏😏

anyways im ready for that kiss 😚

I love u for sending in this ask but my stupid self accidentally posted it when I wasn't done so now I'm answering this one instead. Ok where do I start,

@icedhoneyy : my #1 my 4 lifer my online best friend at this point. Isa is such a sweet and bright person it's amazing to be around her, she had a way of reassuring me that things were fine and making me feel better. Her ideas are all so cute and her writing is so so good she's terribly underrated, once she is back from being inactive I will be the happiest woman alive ok.

@boo-kugo : one my early made mutuals, so so nice and I know she will always be reblogging something of mine. Such an interactive mutual I love that you're always in my notifications and that I can feel so easy with you (read: not wonder if you actually like me or not as I usually do with people) and that your themes are always so CUTE

@kurootosis : lem where do I even start. One of my special kuroo made mutuals (read : we bond over our love for the silly guy) I love the ideas you implement into your writing so much and I love how we both write to comfort ourselves like girls who think about their fictional boyfriend to cope relate to each other so hard yk (I have some of ur work in my drafts but forgive me for not having enough time to read and appreciate it I am heart broken </3)

@mushiemin : my FIRST haikyuu mutual, and when you followed me I was jumping up and down and giggling from excitement cause wow your art is so amazing and if someone like that follows me then I must REALLY be something. I hope you're having a wonderful day whenever you're seeing this !!!

@rayesloveletters : my dear friend ray reblogs all the cutest stuff in the world, whenever she's on my dash I just experience visually pleasant thing like God I am SO thankful we are mutuals. Plus you've been so sweet and so nice to me, especially by reaching out first because I'm deathly afraid of rejection so I'm terribly glad you talked to me first otherwise idk where we would be rn (silent mutuals probably)

@sunamour : I can't put into words how much I love your work. I've probably told you before but everytime I feel like hurting my own feelings I go through your masterlist because your writing is THAT good!! I couldn't believe myself when you followed me actually, because wow.. it's like Beyoncé herself acknowledged my existence okay. Definitely check scar out for suna related works she's amazing 10/10

@sookisaurus : risu is one of my early mutuals too and I remember stumbling across your blog and also feeling excited about having a kuroo mutual. When you wrote me that one shot?? My god I died and went to heaven. Risu is so easy to interact with and she is so talented if you ever don't know where to start in the haikyuu fandom she's an amazing person to talk to!!

@tahdashi : I think everytime sayu reblogs something of mine I get more recognition than I've gotten the whole time I had this blog, safe to say I couldn't believe when she followed me because??? The sayu?? Liked my work?? That one winter kuroo piece is my most popular one now. I also love the way your mind works and I associate you with study boyfriend akaashi (rip sunkeiji)

@wakatshi : miss daria... so cool, so amazing, I feel like she's a huge star and I'm this journalist who she will talk to from time to time and I'm actually just her biggest fan. Amazing themes, amazing energy, such a cool person, and no one is more worthy of the mrs ushijima title. Can't picture him without her popping up in my head actually

@miyasann : I remember when you answered my first ask ever and you called me by my name and I was so surprised that you knew my name like it wasn't right in my pinned post... but basically another incident that felt too good to be true because you are so nice to be around and your Journaling will always have a special place in my heart. You remind me of orange blossoms ok I don't know where that came from but it makes sense !!!

@rinoomi : she's inactive as far as I'm aware but GOD I loved her art so much, I remember coming back from school and checking her blog to see if she drew kuroo again and those were the good old days

I feel like I've forgotten some so I will return to edit them in if it's necessary!!!

#oh and here is ur kiss #💏 #i just realized this has turned into a mutual appreciation post ok #but ive already typed it all and i think this is pretty telling of their personalities #— kuroo's answers #god how did i type all of that out #im so tired ok good night #thank u nat for this i think i needed something to positively think about #♡ natasha

[hella1975]

HELAL

I have a lot of stuff running through my mind rn and im in a hurry and idk if its going to make sense but oh well.

(its list anon and I have another thing to add to my 'favorite things about finding myself in Hellas circle of existence list thing)

The thing is how much your personality sinks through into your writing and blog thing.

Let me explain,

I lost internet for a few days and I just got it back and was scrolling through tumblr and noticed one of my mutuals reblog something of yours and I was like 'I havent been on the internet for like four days, I wonder what Hella has been up to.' and so I started stalking you (as one does) and like scrolling through your blog and everything and I came across the post you thinged about your hometown and about how shameful you are about your writing and that sent me into a spiral because I know the feeling and couldnt put it into words and I felt so called out.

Thats besides the point.

I had this thing to add to the list for a while and couldn't figure out how to explain it without seeming weird so Im just doing my best here.

It's like when you post things about the things that go on in your mind. I touched on this in my first list thingy with the whole 'when you post little snippets of whats going on in your mind and turn it into what I can only describe as poetyry' part. It's simular but it's not the same.

It's really easy to see someone and follow someone who is so eloquent and brilliant and hold them close to divinity and think about how untouchable they are, which seems weird because I'm on Tumblr of all places. But like when you follow your favorite authors on twitter or instagram and they seem almost inhuman. And sometimes it feels like being that talented is so unattainable because you're not them, you can't spew out flawless lines of words seemingly effortlessly and you cant come up with a plot that clever and even if you can't you can't give the story justice because you're not that good of a writer.

Even other writers on this site are like this and so...ethereal almost. I've mentioned before how a lot of other writer almost run their blog like a business and everything and you scroll through them and see people constantly sending them asks about their works and sending them fanart and people obsessing over their art and like I said it seems unattainable for your average person. Like I dont get that so maybe I'm not that good.

Then I come to your blog and you talk about situations I relate to and you don't hide your humanity and you talk about your classes in economics of all things and your home town and all your problems (while valid) are normal. You're more relatable than the other writers I follow at least.

I've mentioned in other asks ( I dont think they were list ones but they might have been idk ) that you inspire me a lot. This is why. Also the fact that you're my age (I'm 18) and your not in your 20s and you havent taken a decades worth of writing classes and you dont have a degree in literature. You're literally just person living a normal life. That's not to say other authors and writers arent just normal people but you just show it a lot more, idk.

Like reading things like taob and tbos and then going to your main blog and seeing the way you write your stuff in your mind and then going two posts down and your talking about normal things makes me think that maybe I can write something incredible too one day.

And the reason I have the ability to feel that way in relation to you and your stupid blog (affectionate) is because you let your normal personality show, not some robotic businessy- type personality.

That's not to say that I don't think your just an average person, average people can't describe things so rawly. But, like I said, you're not untouchable.

Based on what I see from you and what you show online, I really think that you have the potential to be great one day. Not that you should hold yourself and force yourself into a life you don't want, like if you don't want to be a famous writer, don't be. But I genuinely just hope that you grow up and find a career you're happy in.

More than anyone I see on the internet, you deserve to live a life that you absolutely love, no matter what that might be.

I said it before that I always feel really obsessive when I send asks like this, and I feel creepy, so if I come off that way I'm sorry. I just try to make it a point to tell people when I enjoy them as a person.

Also I have some songs that kind of remind me of you.

The first one if Vienna by Billy Joel. I think the chances of you not knowing this one is very slim because it's such as popular song right now. But it's my favorite song and it reminds me of you.

The other one is read all about it by Emili Sande (pt 3 is the best) I think this song is also pretty popular, it also might not be, idk. But it's one of those songs that not a lot of people that I show it to like. Idk why. The vocals are weird (in my opinion) but I love the lyrics.

If you already know these songs just ignore this part :)

ME WHEN LIST ANON:

#bestie beloved my best friend my rotten soldier listen let me tell you something listen listen #every time you send an ask like this i read it and then REFUSE to answer it for a while #(sorry about that) #and i just hold onto it sometimes for weeks sometimes for MONTHS #and it sort of feels like it's just you and me and it feels so special and i come back and reread it #because you make me fall a little in love with myself? not in a narcissistic way #but just in such a tender soft 'maybe things are going to be okay' way #because for how dark and messy it feels to BE me i forget that no one else sees that #and the person i fought so hard to be is someone people... like??? and admire??? to THIS extent #even if it's just one person it's such a euphoric feeling i cant explain it #please never stop sending these i mean yes you can i doubt youve got much to say anymore bc bestie youve sent an ESSAY at this point #(<- that feels like it comes across judgey but i am trying v hard to convey the adoration i have for these asks so i promise it's not LMAO) #god i just. yeah. thank you. genuinely from the bottom of my heart thank you #okay tears wiped away hair fixed eyeliner partially smudged SONG RECS #WHO THE FUCK DID YOU REC READ ALL ABOUT IT TO AND THEY DIDNT LIKE IT???? i'll hunt them for sport fr #i was OBSESSED with that song when it came out like even as a kid ive had this audio thing #where i completely hyperfixate on audios and that often includes songs (why did i never clock i had adhd) #like i remember being like 8 years old and putting 'in the ghetto' by elvis presley on loop on my barbie stereo #and my dad was like why the fuck is she listening to THAT of all things on loop SKDJHJSH #but ANYWAY THIS SONG WAS ONE OF THOSE SONGS I TOTALLY LATCHED ONTO #I PLAYED IT HUNDREDS OF TIMES GENUINELY #and omg vienna. beloved beautiful song and you saying it reminded you of me actually made me realise how ur asks make me feel #ur asks make me feel like im a girl in a song and it's just such a <33333 mf u give me butterflies #kisses u kisses u kisses u #ask

[kickassfu]

going through all those trending ao3 posts and something I always notice is how quickly people are to deny they read any problematic or dark content while also being pro ao3 and anti censorship. idek but if you have to put a disclaimer about how gross and repulsive you think that content is while defending it's existence you might just be more on their side than you think

oh sweet, lovely anon have you perhaps infiltrated my brain for a bit? lol

the moment i go into the comments on the posts to see what ppl are saying (and why the fuck do i keep doing that??) i get pissed off :) and not just at the anti's, 'cause that's normal right? but at some of the ppl that are on ao3's side.

because that's literally it!!! they say "yes that is awful and shouldn't exist, but we cannot censor ao3, because censoring is bad. and if they don't post on ao3 where they can tag properly and we can avoid it, they'll just post elsewhere without the proper tags"

AND ITS LIKE?????

i get not liking something and feeling weird about its existence because you relate it to real life? fine. but babes it's not that serious. it's literally fake. fake little people doing fucked up things!!!

you sound like a puritan even as you defend ao3. and if the whole "they come for this first, and then for the queer stuff" argument (because it's true. that's how censorship works, we've seen it happen multiple times) i feel like a lot of these ppl would be on the anti's side real quick.

but i'm gonna draw the line in the sand right quick now. yes censorship is bad. but that's not the whole point. reading/making "problematic", dark, fucked up shit is not a bad thing. it does not make you a bad person, and that content should freely exist online without ppl debasing it, without ppl online just tolerating it because censorship is a bad thing, that will snowball until everything is policed to the extent of nothing being pure enough to read or write.

As long as it's tagged properly idk why they're all bitching about it. They won't come across that shit unless they look for it.

...anon i apologize for the rant but the older i get the more pissed off i get about all this shit. and you literally just dove face first into my brain so LOL

#anon #ask answered #ao3 #seriously #if u dont agree with me thats fine #BLOCK ME PLS #if you think i am a bad person thats fine too <3 i'll see you in hell #i'm kidding btw none of us are going to hell for reading something or writing something lol

[itsclydebitches]

I don't think it's as bad in my rp fandom as what you're describing in OFMD, but only because what you're describing is so extreme it's pretty bonkers. (Also the fandom is 2+ years old so some of the in-you-face hostility died down in favour of people staying in their communities and doing a whole lot of vagueing.)

I think it's something that got worse with time. The fandoms known as toxic during the mid 2010s were so much different than the current fandom culture (or maybe just internet culture) we have now. My experience then (so obviously it could be subjective) was that there were a few toxic elements that got emphasized but were relatively easy to avoid, but now the toxicity seems to be the default.

Idk, it seems to me like with every fandom I get into the last few years it feels more toxic than the last. And maybe it's just recency bias or something but it really doesn't feel that way when every time some new brand of toxicity turns up.

I definitely don't want to be that old man shaking his cane at the sky going, "Back in MY day fandom didn't have drama!" because of course we did, it just took on different shapes. We could write whole histories dictating the changes fandom has undergone through the zine era, early Internet, the turn of the century, and now, but whether each change is better or worse really comes down to what we'll personally tolerate + how much we experience it in our circles + how much the past is colored by our nostalgia. All that being said, it certainly feels like fandom toxicity is worse nowadays, though I wonder how much of that is due simply to the exponential growth of "fandom" as a concept. It used to be that fandom (or rather, transformative fandom. Sports fandom is a whole other conversation) was a pretty niche thing and websites devoted to it were themselves fairly isolated corners of the Internet. Now we've reached an age where the average person can at least give you a basic rundown on fanfic (I can remember a time not too long ago when everyone I met irl needed a definition), where actors and writers are encouraged to directly connect their work to the community's interests ("What's your opinion on x ship??"), and the websites where fans gather double as everyone's social media go-tos: Tik Tok, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, even Facebook. And as we've all probably experienced, the bigger the fandom, the more potential for drama. Now that we've reached a place where everyone is instantly connected and "everyone" is involved in fandom somehow, is it any wonder that the toxicity seems to have exploded? Or, even if it hasn't, we're in an age where it's so much easier to see it. Back in the day, you were kinda forced to better cultivate your online circle simply due to the limitations of technology. Now, alongside a hefty dose of algorithms, we're bombarded with more takes per hour than we ever would come across during the earlier days of social media. The forums of old really can't compete with the posting intensity of twitter, nor even the new-ish trend of creating enough content to keep pace with the canon. With shows dropping all their episodes at once and all but forcing fans to binge lest they encounter the dreaded spoiler, we've got intense responses where everyone is simultaneously voicing opinions about the entirety of the story minutes after cramming it all into their head over 10+ hours. That's one of the (many) reasons why I miss a weekly schedule: it allows fans to slow down, consider the content, discuss next week's potential, and generally not indulge in a crazed desire to say All The Correct™ Things Right Now.

It's a lot and yeah, I'm not easily able to separate my own biased nostalgia from the objective changes that have occurred. Did more people really understand tl;dr better back in the day, or are my memories just highlighting the good times and the way things were structured meant I just never came across others' drama? Are writers and actors getting involved in fandom really the downfall we sometimes paint it to be, or was it inevitable given that so many of us grew up and got involved in these industries precisely because they sparked our passions? I can remember the days when we were begging for a better site than FFN, when the legality of fanworks was a legitimate threat, when celebrities publicly made fun of fans, going so far as to paint them as dangerously obsessed. We imagined a world where we could enjoy our hobby safely and without ridicule... and now we can! For however many problems have popped up alongside the change in fan culture, I do try to step back on occasion and go, "Look at how much better other things are too. You're not getting cease and desist letters in the mail. No one can erase all your hard work overnight. The actor you respect is celebrating you, not laughing at you on SNL." Objectively speaking, fandom may indeed have gotten more toxic and I definitely will never stop pushing the old courtesies in the hope that things will get better, but if any of that is a result of fandom going mainstream enough to secure these benefits... then fuck, I'll take the tradeoff. Especially because at the end of the day, tools remain in place to cultivate our own community. Yeah, it's frustrating when it feels like there's nothing but drama going on and getting anon hate always sucks, but provided there are filters and a block button, we can personally tackle toxicity in ways we couldn't personally fix a lot of the shit fandom was dealing with in the past.

#fandom #mymetas